A Quiet Day

I was minion-less today, so I head out to The Cottage. It was a quiet day. Just me and Tallulah. But for all that, it was full.

I started another clock. I have a better idea how to make the back, so I'm experimenting with that. I played with more textures and made more gnomes, some ornaments and another bear. I'll confess, I will never be a production potter. I really enjoy working on different things.

I worked in the quiet of the studio and thought a lot about John Lewis's passing. He was a great man who stood for what was right. Losing him diminishes the country.  He said, "We must continue to go forward as one people, as brothers and sisters."  That is my hope. That we put away the divisions and remember the things that bind us as a people.  I talk about the fact that we're all more alike than different in so many of my books. I hope we all find a way to remember that.

Tallulah the Coon Hound

I walked up to the cottage for lunch and brought a plastic container back down to the studio. Uh, Tallulah stole it. I remained stern, but on the inside I was laughing. She was so pleased with her prize. LOL I wasn't laughing later, when we were sitting on the studio's back porch and she spotted a mama raccoon with three babies. She was off like a shot and treed the entire family. Yes, my sheepdog things she's a coonhound. On a happy note, it took a few very stern, "Come," and "Leave Off," but she finally did both and we went to back to work.

I'm still working on tiles. All the experiments are going to become the backsplash in my studio. So today I picked some Queen Anne's Lace and other roadside wildflowers and tried them out as tiles. I feel like I'm getting better at transferring and carving them, but I'm still working out how to glaze them. I want enough color to show off the flowers and leaves, but not too much. LOL

Finally, I brought a few more pictures out to the studio and hung them. Someday in the not so distant future, there won't be much wall-space left. LOL One is by PA artist Jonas Bradford...I love it. I'm still watching for a Clementine Hunter. It'll be a print...I can't afford an original. LOL

My views in the studio and outside the studio are lovely and so inspiring!

I beat Himself home. It's so nice that The Cottage is just a bit more than a half hour from home. The drive gives me a bit of time to listen to a podcast. Today I was listening to Chuck Rosenberg's The Oath. He was interviewing Fiona Hill. She's led such an interesting life.

That's my day! Creative, inspiring, funny and quiet.

If you missed my latest Studio Tour, I'm reposting it here! And if you've missed any of my Hometown Hearts books, I hope you'll check them out!  ~Holly

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

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PREORDER  Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Available in September

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I'm planning to fail a bit!

I fired my first bisque kiln this weekend. For those who don't play with clay, it means I took my greenware and fired it in the kiln...now they're ready to glaze and then I'll fire it again.

I lost two pieces. And that's sad, but to be honest, I thought I'd lose more. I moved a bunch of greenware from school, to our house, then out to the barn (on bumpy dirt roads). Greenware is fragile. So, losing two didn't seem so bad.

We'll see how the glazing goes. Some of the pieces I already glazed in school, intending to fire them in a gas kiln. That is very different than an electric (which is what I have), so I suspect some of my glazed-for-gas pieces are going to be disappointing. And I experimented with some more new glazes...who knows what those will look like. Basically, I'm prepared to lose half the firing.

I know. I'm planning to fail. On purpose. And I'm totally gleeful about it! 

I'm still a ceramic novice, but even the most experienced potter occasionally has a piece fail. It is not an avocation for protectionists.

In Just One Thing, I mentioned that every Amish quilt has one intentional flaw, because only God should be perfect. (I'm not sure if that's just folklore but I love it, true or not.) As a writer, my books have (hopefully) gotten better. But I still love those early stories. I'm hoping my pottery continues to improve, but I'll always love some of my early pieces. I keep improving. I hope to spend the rest of my life improving my writing and my pottery.

Setting up the studio has made my appreciate Professor H. I've thanked him for everything he taught me, but I don't think I ever thanked him for everything we had at the school's studio. Glazes, underglazes. I sat my greenware on a shelf and amazingly it came back bisqued. I sat that on a shelf once I'd glazed it, and soon it was back on my shelf finished! LOL It was like magic!

I'm having fun making my own glazes, but I really am appreciating everything at the school.  I loved that it was five minutes from the house. I could pop up for a few minutes here and there. We went round and round about where to build my studio—at home or at the cottage.  The cottage won. But it's a forty minute drive (okay 41 minutes is my best time). I can't just pop in whenever. BUT today as I worked, I heard my Cooper's Hawk...its been very vocal. I saw a bunch of squirrels (Tallulah watched them from the studio's screen door).  Plus, I got this pic last week. My neighbors in town are lovely, but they're not foxes. LOL

Yes, I think I made the best decision. I'll have to be more disciplined and plan out my work. But I do love a good plan!

I'm heading back out tomorrow. I'm hoping to fire my glazed pieces next week. Keep your fingers crossed! I'll keep you posted!

Holly

PS. You can find my backlist at your favorite bookstore's online site. And I hope you'll check out my Hometown Hearts series:

Crib Notes: Hometown Hearts #1

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBook

A Special Kind of Different: Hometown Hearts #2

Kindle, iBook, Kobo, Nook

Homecoming: Hometown Hearts #3

Kindle, Kobo, IBooks, Nook

PREORDER  Suddenly a Father: Hometown Hearts #4

Available in September

Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks: 

Obstacles

I know many things about myself.
I love my family and Himself.
I treasure my friends.
I have Medusa hair.
I do not truly wake up until I have hot, strong black coffee in my hand.
I love to read, play with ceramics, learn new things...
I feel most at home out in the middle of the woods at the cottage.
I am a busy sort of person.
I am not a patient patient...

Oh, that last one.
I've been having some ongoing issues since summer with my bad leg. It has put a bit of a hitch in my giddiup this summer and fall. Well, last week, they took out my decades-old hardware and we're hoping this last surgery is the LAST surgery. Yes, my bionic leg is screw and plateless. It's a regular old leg. And I'm on crutches for a bit while those screw holes in the femur heal.

Uh, remember that not patient patient Holly fact? It's coming into play. But I'm being very well behaved even if I'm not patient. I'm resting a lot and slowly rebuilding my strength. All my wood-splitting means my arms aren't doing too bad with the crutches. So I'm moving more slowly than usual, but I'm moving.

I'm setting small goals for myself. For instance, yesterday I made the bed and made the morning coffee. Poor Himself did pretty much of the rest of my daily routine, but darn that bed looked nice and the coffee was just the way I like it, hot, strong black coffee. Today, I've already made the coffee, I'm making that darn bed, and I'm going to find one more new thing to throw in the mix. Maybe unload a dishwasher. Anyway, that's how I'm going to measure my recovery...one new (regular) thing at a time.

My ultimate goal is to be back in the studio by the end of January. I've always been someone who likes to work with goals. I try to have realistic goals. It's almost time to pick my word for 2020. And I'm not going to wait until the new year to pick it. I'm going to pick it now. Patience.

I've always found it easier to be patient with others than patient with myself. There's so much in the world I want to learn and do. So many new things to explore. That hitch in my giddiup is slowing it all up. But slow doesn't mean stopped. So I'm being patient. Or at least trying to.

Here's the thing, goals are great. They give us something to move towards. But I think we have to be kind to ourselves and be patient with ourselves. Sometimes life happens. And our goals have to change. I might not be hosting my big Christmas Eve bash this year (thanks to my marvelous sister-in-law for taking that on), but darn the bed is made. LOL And I've read 600 pages in that 1,000 page book my son has been telling me to read (Brandon Sanderson is an amazing author) and I truly binge-watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's new season. Yeah, most of the time I don't have the time to binge watch. My leg has derailed my plans, but it's also given me time to do things I wouldn't normally have time to do. Every obstacle comes with gifts in its hands!

So Ella and I are going to sit on this couch under my buffalo plaid blanket and read the paper today. (Well, she doesn't do much of the reading.) Then I'm going to make that darned bed and find a way to do one more thing from my normal routine today.

And by the end of January, I'm going back to the studio. In the meantime, I'm going to look for all the gifts this particular obstacle has in its hands! And I'm going to patiently celebrate and embrace each of those gifts!

Holly

PS. I have two Christmas books on sale, and the first two Hometown Hearts books are available for preorder!! I hope you'll check them both out. And check our the Dear Reader Letter on A Special Kind of Different's Amazon page. Celebrating our differences gives me glee!!

Christmas in Cupid Falls

Everything But a Christmas Eve

Crib Notes HH #1

Amazon, iBook, Nook, Kobo

A Special Kind of Different HH#2

Quiet

Quiet.

There are different types of quiet.

There’s the quiet all mothers know…the kind that tells you the kids are up to something.

There’s also the quiet in town. I don’t always notice it, but even at its most quiet, the city has noise. Cars on the road. Music. Trains. Sirens. A dog barking. Something. There’s always something. I tune it out most of the time, but it's always there.

I notice the lack out here in the country. It's a quiet that is deeper and softer. Oh, there are still background noises. Birds—specifically my Cooper’s Hawks. The rustle of leaves as the neighborhood squirrels run through the woods. The neighbor-down-the-road’s dog. And occasionally, a car. We’re set back quite a way from the road, but I still can hear a car now and then.

 

That country quiet is balm. It soothes me.

I came out this morning and started the fire. While the cottage warmed up, I split more kindling for my next visit and brought in more wood. Then I took a long walk down our dirt road. I normally walk through my woods, but during hunting season I take walks through my “neighborhood.” You get a different feeling walking down the road than driving down it.  Someone threw an empty can out. I grumbled as I picked it up. But then I got back to enjoying the scenery. Up the road a bit, there were a bunch of deer tracks. They obviously went from the woods across the road to my woods. I heard my hawks from the treetops. I wondered if they’re staying the winter or migrating farther south. Now that it's fall, the quiet is...quieter. The frogs aren't making any noise down at the pond. It feels as if a lot of the birds and animals have started to huddle down as the weather cools.

When I went back to the cottage, I got to work in front of the woodstove and the only sound I heard was the occasional pop of the wood. It was a lovely day.  

I shot a quick tour of the downstairs for you. The stonewall if finished. Every stone came from our property. I love that. Just like all the tongue-and-groove on the wall came from the mill down the road. We're taking buying local seriously. LOL

Hope you find a moment of quiet soon!

Holly

PS I started that new bio of Louise Dickinson Rich today. I was happy to have my "lunch buddy" back.