It’s been a rip roarin’ start for this New Year of 2013. We here at Terra Cottage Ceramics have been sick. Really. Our daughter, Xan, came home from Rhode Island for Christmas with a cold. I have dubbed it ‘The Rhode Island Death Cold’ because one or the other of us has been sick ever since. But we persevere…Things are rolling right along in the studio. The month of January is all about ‘The Empty Bowls Project of Paducah‘. This is a fundraiser that raises money for a local charity that deals with local hunger. Michael’s Empty Bowls Project raises money for our local ‘Communtiy Kitchen’. Last year we raised $21,200.00. I know, pretty amazing huh?! The deal is: potters make bowls and  restaurants donate food. On the day of the event you get to purchase a ticket (we charge $15), pick out a handmade bowl and walk around the room and have food put in your bowl. You then get to keep your handmade bowl. It’s pretty cool. You can watch videos from years past here on our website.

At the moment we are jamming and getting ready for the yearly wholesale show that we do: The Buyers Market of American Craft. And so, our year of  traveling and selling Michael’s artwork begins. Michael has 5 new products that he is bringing to show. All of them are very exciting. One of them that we are particularly excited about is our Many Gifts Menorah! The Menorah is made by Michael and the concept is ours. We’ve been using this idea for about 20 years now and talking about marketing it for about 8 so it’s a long time coming. I just hope that everyone likes it as much as we do. Somehow I can’t link from this blog without you ended up in the admin side of the website so you can go look for yourself.

But enough about business stuff. That’s not the purpose of this blog. Seriously. I’ve decided that this year I will blog more (I really, really will!) and not to just limit my blogs to be about our adventures at shows. I think it’s high time you heard some adventures about our home and studio. Like….we’ve got a new Studio Assisant! His name is Shiloh and he is from Stockton, CA. AND, he found us. I know, it’s all pretty wonderful. He graduated from The University of the Pacific and is going to go on to grad school. He was specifically looking for an assistantship, was googling around and found our website.  He arrived the first week of January and is a truly nice, gentle, hard-working, human. It’s been a great help to have him around. He loves our pets so I’m a happy camper.

Here are our New Year Highlights. Since January 1st we have:

*Given our family car to our daughter, Xan, who is in college in Rhode Island.

*Been looking for a new family car. UGH! I miss the old one.

*Our trusty van, Molly,  is getting old and needs more repairs than we want to pay for.

*We’re looking for a used Sprinter Van. Kinda on the same time line as the family car and ‘OUCH’ says our wee little bank account.

*Haven’t sent out Holiday Presents yet to friends and loved ones. That Rhode Island Death Cold has put us waaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy behind.  I’m thinkin’ May Day Gifts.

*Have had a game night with our usual group of dear friends!!!! Something that we love to do and don’t get to do nearly enough!

*We are already having meetings for the Lower Town Arts and Music Festival. Michael & I are the co-directors. I am the newbie and there is a huge learning curve.

* I have spent way too many hours on the phone with Microsoft & Applecare trying to figure out why Microsoft Office 11 for MAC just won’t work on my iMac. After hours of letting the help desk guys take over my monitor, I discover that I can use the Apple version of everything Microsoft and make all the spreadsheets I want and convert them to Microsoft equivalents and share them. I am now importing and exporting to my hearts contents. I heart you Apple! Keynote, Pages, and Numbers….I highly recommend them.

*Everything is in full swing for the Empty Bowls Project. I think we’ll exceed our goal of 1500 bowls. We’ll see.

*The Paducah School of Art (in our neighborhood!) has opened their new ceramics and jewelry making building. It is ‘OH MY GOD’ amazing.

*We are in contract to sell our house in Saratoga Springs, NY. We are pleased (ya think!) and we’re thinking about using the profit to build Michael a bigger taller studio. Michael wants to get into making public art pieces. WATCH OUT WORLD!

I think that about sums it up. Tomorrow we leave for Philadelphia. Actually, we’re leaving a day early and doing the marathon drive to Long Beach Island, NJ so that we can spend the day with some extended family members. By the way, would someone out there please convince Michael that it would be in our best interest to make a short detour out of Lexington, KY so that I can go and look at a car. I think it’s a really good deal and I don’t want to miss out. Just put a bug in his ear….

Everytime someone asks us a business card Michael will hand our postcard to them and say, “This is the address that you can send the cookies to.” I know, he’s a goof ball and he’s all mine. So a woman came into our booth that had seen us up in Milwaukee at Morning Glory and she brought us some cookies. Can you believe it!? Ask and you shall receive.

How sweet is that?!

Now at this show there was a school. The school was being used to host a breakfast for the artists every morning and a place where we could use an indoor bathroom. Check out these pictures:

Aren’t these pictures amazing? Imagine what it would be like to go to a school that had so much public art?

At this show the promoter took a block and a landscaping company come in a do this:

There was a big chess board, sandboxes, and all this greenery. And it was all just set up for the weekend.

Great cookies, inspiring art in the school, greenery on the street, and beautiful weather all added up to another wonderful weekend!

After every meal, Zee roasts coffee on the stove and makes a wicked brew for Michael. She laughs at me because I turn my nose up at it. I sipped it once and made a face that had her laughing for a long time. Michael has wanted to make her cups for her coffee for a while. He finally had an opportunity and the last time we were down in Nashville and we were having dinner at Awash, he gave them to Zee. Oh how happy she was! She got her daughter on the phone and had Michael talk to her because when Michael told her that he wanted to make her coffee cups she told her daughter. And when it really happened she couldn’t contain herself.

This is Zee with her new cups….

And here is a picture of the cups…

Zee gave Michael an Ethiopian coffee pot and she gave a couple of bags of different Ethiopian spices to me.

I think that Zee and Michael see a kindred spirit in each other and it’s nice that they both had an opportunity to reach through cultural barriers and notice each other for the really good humans that they are. It makes my heart swell.

Cheese.

Glorious Cheese.

I love cheese. So why not finally book some shows in Wisconsin so I can get me some? Morning Glory is a lovely show in a lovely setting right along the river in Milwaukee. Did I mention that I also like beer? Anyway, we went up to Milwaukee and had a lovely weekend. Besides being in a nice show we got to eat by the river. We had chicken wings and BEER.

Good beer.

Made in Wisconsin beer.

And we played Bananagrams. We love Bananagrams!

There was a lovely fountain on the grounds…

So after a weekend of selling we got drive home in this:

And we got to stop at Mars’ Cheese Castle. Seriously. Mars’ Cheese Castle where you get to buy CHEESE!

Made in Wisconsin cheese!

I like cheese.

And beer.

And I look forward to another show in Wisconsin soon.