for Kate and Jim's nephew!

(pots by Gary Rith)
Kate and Jim are smart, they think and order ahead, they fill boxes, they support my clay habit. Good idea, Kate, the cow spoon rest!

day 2 of Missus Potsblog's recovery and the beagle cure

So, she fell on the ice Saturday and rested all weekend. She's doing OK.

March 31, 2006

Two years and 3 months ago we put our New Hampshire house on the market, two years and 2 months ago we got an offer and two years and one month ago we got the check and MOVED, singing the Steve Miller song 'ooh take the money and run, oo lord!'. We stayed with my parents for March of 2006 in their BARN, then on March 31, 2006, on a 70 degree day, we bought this house and moved in (see picture of purple house!) We were so lucky with how the sale worked in New Hampshire and this great house here coming our way. We love this place and we love Ithaca. Seems like a blink of an eye since it all began.
At that time we had 3 dogs and two cats, but a different three dogs and two cats moved with us. My old bachelor cat Sammy died last April, but here you can see our 19 year old dog Petey, our first dog. That night he moved in gave a happy look around and fell asleep on some bags. He died a few weeks later, but I am so glad he had a chance to help us move, he was such a great dog.

Epica -Never Enough

You never know what might come along when you are browsing symphonic goth metal videos, and this turned up, Dutch band Epica, sounds quite good. The candles, the long hair, the black outfits..

3 little______________

(pottery by Gary Rith)
As I say below, I am in a 'Wing Thing' show opening this week, with a party and who knows what all fun. Naturally, I have submitted some flying pigs.
AND, here is a rather absurd sugar bowl, with 3 pigs and all the trimmings.

Missus Pottersblog takes a spill!

I have hit the ice a few times this year and have a sore wrist still. Winter is a b!tch alright. You have to be careful, and even when you are you can still fall on ice. Mystery ice crept up on the wife yesterday and she took a horrifying fall, but hopefully with the beagle cure, her knee will be OK.

bunny hunting?

My old pal Carl, whom I was hanging out with yesterday, makes, among other things, airplane sculptures. (we are both going to be in a wing show next week, see above). I spent most of last night dreaming that he and I were going to take hounds out hunting for rabbits which we would actually never do.

Bell X1

Irish band Bell X1 with an odd video.

(pottery by Ellen) My old pal Ellen checks in with an update on a glaze we had discussed (lookit that pot up there, yeow!)

"Gary,

I just wanted to thank you for your help in my getting a raspberry glaze to work. Here are a few pictures of the first pieces I used it on. It worked better than I had hoped. The way it breaks over the edges works very well with my flowers. Thanks again!


Ellen"

and later:

"You should see the ones I pulled out of the kiln this afternoon. Oh, my goodness they are gorgeous. This glaze is incredible over the flowers. It just is perfect. I have one with daisies that I might not be able to part with."

down for the count!

The wife and the camera got together and....well, I told you I was tired on Friday. Fresh as a daisy today!

hot stuff

(sugar bowl by Gary Rith)
Told you I need hot pieces for an exhibition. This might be one of the choices.

in like a lion, out like a lion

(our elderly black lab Jack in back of the house, the front of the purple house, and Jack, Penny and Buster in the side yard)
At least my dogs LOVE snow. My wife says "isn't it pretty?" and I say "yeah, on December 23!".
OK, enough with the complaining, my parent's little hilltop got more than twice as much.

sleepless in Etna

Elderly dog sometimes equals a night of that dog pacing, wandering, wanting to go out, etc. Your blog host takes care of him, Jack, but oh lord, I am a tired wreck AND it is absolutely snowy out there dammitall. One of the heaviest storms of the winter, which has been mild for us so far, but that doesn't mean I want to make up for it now! Despite the fact that March and April snows are common and expected, doesn't mean you like them. Last year, 8 inches on April 16, in 2002 I remember May 12, Mother's Day, 12 inches of snow, but, hell, where is the sun? Where are the birds? I want BASEBALL AND FLOWERS!!!!

special

(variety of pots by Gary Rith)
A lot to explain here. I am in a gallery show in May, and I need some HOT pieces to go into it. The purple teapot with the dog on it is MY personal teapot, kept because I love it plus it had cracked in the firing when I made it 3 years ago. (CM has been to this house and she has had her Earl Grey in this teapot) So I wanted to make a new teapot with a looped handle on top, purple glazed, with that same little dog on top.
Kete and Jim asked for a cow spoon rest. I hadn't made one like this before, but you see 2 being glazed in the bottom picture. I realized I could make a little udder on the bottom. I think I need one to give my mom for Mother's day....

Kasabian

Somtimes your wife is out for the evening and you just sit there playing Kasabian videos one after the other. The first is my favorite, musically and visually, a women's prison breakout.
LSF


LSF live


Club Foot


Club Foot live

FACT: Democrats have more fun!

In this somewhat racy and amusing video, we see why Obama will roll into the White House next year.
Obama Girl and 'Hillary! Stop the Obama attacks!'

le petite chien Penny, por moi!

Mon dieu! C'est cute!

le public service announcement:

Knowing less French than my retriever has never stopped me from speaking French. You just toss in some 'Le' this or 'c'est fou!' that and maybe a few 'escargot con quesos'! Its easy!
Check this out: you can draw Pepe LePew yourself!

en fin

(Le zebra pot by Gary Rith)

voulez vous cuchon? mais oui petit chat!

Dreamt I was taking French because I wanted to be a French teacher. An ambition I didn't know I had!

Spike and Emily, per usual

the vast left-wing conspiracy

Stephanie Miller is a left-wing comic and radio show host and this is not musical but it is FUNNY.

this and that

(pots and pencils by Gary Rith)
NO, not every pot I make has a pig on it and people who have ordered from me usually find a gift in there, like one of these pencils.

RAT!

Some lowlife rat bastard nearly got me with a phish scam, dangit. NEARLY!!!! Tried to log in to_________ and it looks legit of course but then it started asking me for _________________. The appropriate agency was contacted and jumped on it, my acct. was not hacked, nothing lost apparently, and I am changing all my accts and passw*rds. Gord warns of this stuff every day.....
I am furious and I hate Bulgarians.

le studio

Looking at the top picture, it sure looks like a cluttered mess in my studio. And I cropped out all the laundry!
Mission control, the wheel and table, on the right is where most of my work gets done. Glazingand the kilns, and laundry, is at the far end of the room. There is also a lot of storage for pottery and household junk. It is a great studio with a great view of woods and river out the big window to the right.
As for the entrance, the studio is part of the house but seperate with seperate outside entrances. In the pic of my house on the right, the right half of the house is studio, and you can't see the door around the corner, so here it is in the lower photo.
If you find yourself wandering down the street of tiny Etna, NY you can look for the purple house and bang on the door and say hello!

Penny shows how it is done

Three stages of cuteness.

'Bodies'--NOT FOR EVERYBODY

By Drowning Pool. I was listening to a report on the radio saying that 'Drowning Pool' is one of the most popular bands with our troops overseas. If you have listened to Korn or Godsmack, then you know what alternative metal or power metal is: pretty heavy and pumped up.
I was considering posting videos of a band named Saving Abel and their tune 'Addicted', which has 3 videos of the same song: the first shows a lot of skin and more, and the second is the same song but then you realize how upset your parents would be at the lyrics, and the third, totally sanitized version, is kinda bland. Anyway....

Tink checks in: I AM AWESOME

(elephant teaset by Gary Rith, sent to Tink)

"After traveling 11 hours yesterday, it was a really nice surprise to find a box on my front step. The tea set is as beautiful as it looked in the picture, and I was absolutely tickled with the dog mug. I couldn't stop smiling. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are awesome, Gary.

-Tink"

I am awesome! I hope Santa remembers that in December!

trash and treasure for the weekly photo challenge

(treasure: elephant teapot by Gary Rith, trash: tiki cup from a garage sale)
There is no question that tiki has its appeal, and longtime readers remember that I made a bunch of tiki last spring. Then it was out of my system. But basically, we're talking trash. This teapot came out of the kiln last month and I havn't put it up for sale yet, it is just too cute, I like to have it sitting there in the studio.
So, Tink's weekly photo challenge was for treasure and trash. Let me tell you, I wander around and look at other people's submissions and realize how impressive theirs are, and how terrible mine is. People take her challenge seriously! So, thanks for the visits and nice comments, but lord, it is a talented field.

post 2500!?

Yes, post 2500 since pottersblog began August of 2006. In that time, dare I say it, the blog has been responisble for selling over 300 items I made (what's the PT Barnum quote? 'a fool and his money are soon parted' or was he the one who said 'there's a sucker born every minute'?---that is a potsblog staple: teasing and abusing customers, which seems to be good for business). Actually, I must say I am of course grateful for everybody's support and help in buying food for my cats and beers for my fridge.
Big reflections on post 2500? Hmmmmm.....not going to get it. This blog is a piece of innocent fluff with very little substance and a whole lot of 80s music.

The shoes up there? Dreamt I was in a wheelchair but being dragged around by my wife as she shopped for women's clothes...I have had dreams like this before. I have nightmares about being forced to shop with my wife?

witch bottles for Grego

(witch bottles by Gary Rith)
Greg couldn't make it last Friday because of the whole dog thing, so he didn't pick up his witch bottles and he won't be making spells quite yet.

echo and the BUNNYMEN!!!!!!!!

OK, after this a break, this one is 'The Cutter', uber Echo, uber 80s....

Easter with mamasita and papa-san

(February 2007 and July 2007 at the parents farm--yes, they have their own grgeous little pond for swimming and boating)
Went 44 miles east to surprise mom and dad for Easter, chocolate cupcakes in hand. They live on a farm in the woods on a hillside in the middle of NOWHERE, which is a little nerve wracking in a snowy climate, but the rugged and woodsy life keeps them young.

4000

Actually, over 4000.

overdone sugar bowls

(in process and finished, pots by Gary Rith) Sometimes you just keep making the pots sillier and sillier.

thanks for the tip, Kate and Jim and Mary Lee!
Gas in Tompkins county is 3.39-3.45, what are you paying?

a rare thing!

I got an Easter shot of all our pets together, which is a first. They were all sleeping in the living room sunshine. Jack is the lab standing in front, Spike the grey tiger sleeping on the floor in the sun, then Penny beagle, Buster the lab and Emily the not-very-bright cat at the right on the couch.

echo and the BUNNYMEN!!!!!!!!

It is like M and Ms or doritos, you can't just have one Echo and the Bunnymen song, you want to just eat handfuls of their tunes. Gorge on the tunes as it were, so here's 'The Back of Love'. LOVE THE HAIR!

the Easter Beagle

Yes, I got a jump on it, because who plans to be blogging early Easter morning?
Happy Easter!

bunny bowl

(by Gary Rith)

echo and the BUNNYMEN

Lips like sugar!!! I am posting for Sunday morning, happy Easter!

Your life in 6 words

I was reading a New Yorker article from last month, about summing up your life in six words.
Hemingway famously was asked to write a six word story and:
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn." was the result.
The article suggests not thinking too hard, just rolling it out. And as a matter of fact, 'Smith' magazine has just published a book of six word memoirs, and is already collecting more submissions for another book! (hit that link, and yours could be added!)
I wrote mine, without thinking, and came up with:
"Pottery every day, wife all night."

W. and Veep don't want to be liked!

The Associated Press reports that White House press secretary Dana Perino explains that the two guys at the top don't want to be liked:

".....not to chase popularity polls but to hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them," she said.

But, but, what if you do like them? Is that unpatriotic???

evil ninja Easter Bunny!

NOT FOR EVERYBODY!!!! MUST HAVE HUGE SENSE OF HUMOR!!! Suggested by Tink.

Kelli!

My old pal Greg's dog Kelli disappeared for two days but is home and safe.

teaset

(by Gary Rith)

March Hares and Easter

Dreamt it was Christmastime and I was in northern Iceland working. It was very dark and cold. Why do my dreams take me there rather than, say, Hawaii?
It is a lot to swallow, think about and consider: Easter week. Night time betrayal and arrest, condemnation, mocking, torture, death, resurrection. Not sure how bunnies fit in there.

Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson "Candy"

Sometimes you're in the mood for Iggy Pop and here he is with Kate Pierson of the B52s!

pets!

(Spike the grey tiger, Penny the beagle and Emily the not-very-bright-but-very-sweet kitten in back)
People here know I adore my pets, large and small. This morning Penny here tried to run out the front gate and in front of a dump truck (caught her!), Jack (not pictured) had some kind of seizure overnight, and Spike here has been throwing things off of high perches. FULL MOON indeed.
Sad news though: pottersblog friend Greg's superdog Kelli ran off last night and it is cold...so all our best wishes to Greg and Kelli.