Bowl Full'a Crazy

This week has been crazy!  Actually, the past few months have been crazy...but this one has been a bit a little crazier.  So, I've been working hard today to find a little bit of normal...uh...or less crazy!  One of the things I did was to stop at the ceramics studio to see if any of my bowls were out of the kiln.  I found three and a saucer.  Yay!

I like this little bowl.  It's so cute!  The small size and the frilly edge make me smile.

I've got to try some other way to glaze my pieces though.  I've been using some special tongs to hold them and dip into the glaze.  But, they leave little spots where they grab onto the bowl that I have to touch up with little finger dabs of glaze.  Sometimes it doesn't show.  But, other times...like on this bowl...it does.  See those dots on the inside bottom of the picture...

I know, it's not horrible.  But, it would look a lot better without those spots.

I made a little saucer too.  I glazed it in Winnokur Yellow to match so many of the things I've made and use in my kitchen.  I think it was a failed bowl that I tried to save and turned into a saucer.  Yay...it worked!  It even looks cute with this little bowl.

This bowl was an attempt to make a wide, shallow bowl.  It's 7 1/2" wide x 2 1/4" tall.

I had a wider, bigger one in mind but didn't use a big enough ball of clay.  I like it though.

I used Tea Dust glaze on this one.  I like how the green dots look like lichen.

It's a pretty reliable glaze.  I like that too.

Woo hoo!  Another success at a larger bowl.  It seems like if you can throw a small bowl,
a bigger bowl would be no big deal.  That's so not true.  They're very challenging.

This one is just over 8" wide and 3 1/2" tall.  I'm still aiming for bigger.

I have some more bowls waiting to go into the kiln that are deeper.

This one is glazed with Stoneware Blue.  It's one of my favorites.  Although, it's a bit unreliable
in that  I usually get a fairly solid blue but this one came out with lots of brown spots.
I think that means the clay has more iron in it...I think.  It's pretty though.

The semester has gone by fast and I only have one more week to make things.  Then, we only have time to glaze and fire.  I've missed some days due to all the things that have come up the past few months.  And, the stress has been a bit tough on my creativity and ability.  It feels good though to see these few successes.

I struggle with whether or not to mention any of what's been going on.  It might be pretty boring.  But, I realize that I may be  leaving readers wondering.  So, if you're interested... my daughter's first year away at college has been intense. The school part of it would have been ok.  But, the living situation turned out to be horrible.  I knew that roommate situations aren't always fabulous.  But, now, I know they can be awful.  And, now, I know this, sadly, is very common as I've been hearing soooo many similar stories.  I hate that my daughter was on the hurtful end of it.  But, I'm so proud that she's not a bully and mean like the other girls she lived with.  She called me on Wednesday morning and things had gotten so bad that we quickly had to make arrangements to move her out that day.  We did it!  Whew!  She has a couple of months to try to find a much better place to live before the new semester starts at the end of January.   Luckily, she has a wonderful friend that offered to let her stay at her place for the last couple weeks of this semester.  That's so sweet and we are so grateful!

The other stuff?  My dad has been going through some health stuff and I had to take him to emergency a few weeks ago.  It turned out to be a reaction to his flu shot but he has a bad heart so they wanted to check him out to be sure he was ok.  It was a long night and I didn't get home until 3:30 in the morning...25 minutes drive to their house, an hour drive to the hospital, hours at the hospital and the long drives back.  So glad it was nothing serious.  But, he had surgery last week for something else.  So, it was another day spent at the hospital and taking him to the doctor a few days later.  He's at home and doing very well.  I talked with him today and he shared with me his worry and need of support with my mom as she is having memory problems and has started to break down and cry over her frustration.  I'm hoping to talk with my brother about it later and try to figure out how to handle it.  It's a delicate situation to figure out how to approach someone about seeing a doctor for such a thing.  I can only begin to imagine how scary and frustrating it would be to be told that others are noticing you're having problems like that.

And, last but not least, I finally got around to going to a dermatologist to have a spot checked out on my cheek.  The good news is that it's not cancer but it's pre-cancer and had to be treated.  So, the teenie, tiny spot that I went in with became a big spot I walked out with.  I try to not think about it when I talk with people and imagine that they don't see it.  Ugh!  It's supposed to clear up in a couple of weeks.  Oh...and two more months of hormones and I'll be done with that treatment.  Then, it'll be time for another uterine biopsy.  Fun!  NOT!

Now, back to some of the "normal" not so fun stuff...house cleaning, laundry, cooking.  But, I'll be happy to take that over crazy, any day!  I guess a little crazy once in a while just helps us appreciate the "normal" that much more.

Have a wonderful...non crazy...weekend!  :-)