Caterpillars/My science project

On July 22nd, I found these little caterpillars on my parsley and fennel and put them in jars so the wasps wouldn't eat them. Thought they would be good photo fodder.

Here's a picture of one yesterday---

And here's one of them pupating today.

How many people do you know my age that get excited about caterpillars? Told you I was weird. Let's see if I can get a better picture than last year (link) of the butterflies.

Cloud Rorshcach test

What do you see?







This?

Or this?

I will so graciously analyze your answer for a $50 fee, but you may not analyze my drawings...okay, I might do it for free if the answer is funny enough.

Sky for Saturday

Does anyone remember when I did Photo Friday (link)and took a picture based on their subject? Yes, it was a long time ago. I'm toying with the idea of "Sky for Saturday" or "Sepia Sunday" as picture subjects for blog posts to get me posting more. I love taking pictures of clouds and the sky, so guess I'll try it for awhile. Do you see anything in the clouds here? Maybe meringue or caterpillars?

The Welcome Prayer

Here's a prayer that Goteeman (link) shared on his blog this week:

The Welcome Prayer, by Father Thomas Keating:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment
because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings,
emotions, persons,
situations and conclusions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any situation,
condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God
and to the healing action and grace within.

AMEN

I can speak the words, but not mean it yet...Too many things happening with two important people in my life to welcome any other relationship to be changed. I do know this should make me closer to God and trust he can use the situations for good...just not ready to welcome anything else right now. Am not looking for sympathy, just telling the truth.

More red, kind of...

Unbenounced to me, the high-fire clear glaze turns green when put on clay with iron oxide, so I was expecting all these to be red. Luckily, I only put glaze on the inside of the vase to seal it. The next piece is a tumbler.

Here are two pictures of a three-handled vessel. Would like to do more in the future.

Please vote now

Have you ever visited the
Bartlett Arboretum? It has suffered from flooding in the recent years and has been nominated for a grant. Please click here and vote for Robin Macy and the Arb' to get a grant from said wine company. Did you know she was the founding member of the Dixie Chicks?

On a somewhat-related topic (in my mind at least), these were the best pictures I could get of a tree hopper that I found in my yard about a week ago. I think it's so cute!!! Do you see how in my mind this can be somehow related to the arboretum, as it hops on trees? Just a little peek of how my mind works.

Thank you for you support (I by no means just subliminally suggested that you should drink wine or listen to the Dixie Chicks (even though I like both) by voting, but you may do so at your discretion (or even drink Bartles and James for that matter in case anyone remembers those commercials using said phrase)).

Have I used enough parentheses in this post? Maybe this would make a good "mind teaser" quiz--How many parentheses do you see in this post and did I even spell parentheses right?

Another plug...this time for a very cute blog!

Did I say I was going to post pictures of Independence day? Well why don't you just gohere (click right here for Cloud1000) and see some for yourself.

Also took some very weird pictures I might post later, but I took 91 pictures and have to narrow them down a bit.

Plug for Greta

Remember this post (click here) from October when I talked about Greta letting me take pictures of her sketchbook?

Well, she's having an art show!!! I finally get to see some of her paintings and ogle over them. (BTW, why don't they spell ogle with two o's?) She will have her ceramics as well. I'm going, even if I have to by myself (hint,hint)!

Here's a preview of an unfinished piece of hers using the masking technique.

Love ya, Greta; bye!

Finally...

If you've looked at my hands in the last month, I've probably had to explain to you that I've been using red clay and haven't had a self-tanning disaster. Finally got some finished pieces. The clay is called SB red, and it stains hands and gets stuck between fingernails and cuticles.
There are a few more pieces that need to be bisque-fired, are drying on the shelf, or almost done in this clay. These are tumblers with the sgraffito technique with black covercoat.
This pot is my ode to fennel. The glaze didn't turn out like I expected, so of course I'm not too excited about it.


A couple more tumblers.


What else is in the works? I'm out of the vase phase and want to do pitchers for some reason...and have been kicking around ideas for the class project and bowl assignment and maybe even the communion set I keep putting off.

Will post some Independence Day pics when I get around to it.

Out of the kiln

The following tumblers were made with this tool, the Ultimate Edger, which I got when I was in Lawrence in May. There's a lot of grog in this clay, so you can also file your nails on the bottom ridge of these cups--double purpose!




This lidded piece was done in May as are most of these pieces and is finally finished.

And a mug.

Pictures long overdue but will post anyway

This was a couple Saturdays ago...the chalk festival, dinner at Lara's and Paul's including margharitas, and the
Mentos/Diet Coke fountain trick--all in one exciting day!

BTW, have you seen the Weezer video featuring Experiment #711? I don't know half the things they are referring to. Guess I better watch more YouTube.

Macro milkweed

Have been practicing with my new camera lately. The first picture is butterfly milkweed with the macro setting on the camera.
This second picture is using an extension tube and magnifying filter (not very good, but just to show as an example).
On this last one, I cropped and tweaked it in photoshop.

After about 20 minutes of shooting, was kind of tired of closing one eye and squinting the other while looking through the viewfinder. Will have to get used to that.

Have more "bug" pictures on my flickr account if you care to look.

So that's what I've been up to and more.



p.s. Will have some pictures of my pottery to post soon, as there are 9 pieces in the kiln.

What made me laugh today

Thought this was funny after seeing Pat Robert's new commercial.

Juicy airmass

The following is a statement from our local paper weather section for watches, warnings, and advisories:

THUNDERSTORMS WILL BECOME MORE NUMEROUS THIS MORNING AND TRACK SLOWLY SOUTHEAST ACROSS EASTERN KANSAS TODAY. HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE DUE TO THE SLOW STORM MOVEMENT...AND JUICY AIRMASS YIELDING HIGH RAINFALL RATES.

No, not another juicy airmass!!!

Cruet and new glazes

The cruet is with Coyote Pistachio Shino glaze. Am really pleased with it and actually knew what glaze I was going to use while making it. It's really exciting when I decide what glaze I'm going to use while making the pot, as sometimes I spend a lot of time deciding which glaze to use on already bisque-fired pieces. Decisions, decisions.

The vase has Highland Tweed glaze and came out a little bit lighter on the picture than it actually is. If you do pottery, you can probably guess that I didn't plan on the faceted bottom third. It flew off the wheel while not properly secured while trimming and got dented..thus I proceeded to creatively mask the dent with a cheese cutter.

These bowls have Copper Wash on the inside and Black Licorice on the outside.

Lilies, the photographic triangle, and b&w TV

The first asiatic lilies are blooming in my yard.

Am also learning about the photo-graphic triangle and will be able to take better pictures of the lilies now that I have finally figured out how to set the metering mode on my new camera.

Also figured out how to revert your color TV to black and white...view it through your camera set on monochromatic. Yes, that's Merrill and our forecast.

The birds and the bees, etc.

Shot some photos of random "wildlife" with my new camera on my yard this past week. Below includes the annual shot of the dragon plant/voodoo lily.














Also stumbled upon a rather unusual set of short films by Isabella Rossellini regarding "the birds and the bees", actually bees and praying mantis and spiders, etc. If you're interested, click on the red www site below in the picture...But warn you not to let your kids watch. They are very informative. I would personally recommend "The Bee".

Photoshop disasters

Click here for an article on digital forensics and how to spot photo editing.

I also found this video from the photoshop disasters blog.
Caution: It almost shows "someone's bosom", or at least I think it does since I don't speak German and can't be sure.


The basketball picture was in Sports Illustrated. Oops!

Wordless Wednesday

Long weekend recap

Finish worked....napped...pulled pork salad (which was really good, and no, I'm not on Atkin's or South Beach)...Borders...BOGO cherry cheesecake single-dip ice cream cone from Baskins-Robbins (remember the coupon--we used it)...bed... some reading...sleep in until time to go to first graduation open house...cake with blue frosting that makes BLUE TONGUES (Cool!)...stopping by second open house before church....go back to second open house for a Brazilian Churrasco (or BBQ) (Machine with virgin margharitas) ;o)....Steak, Couve (greens with garlic?), rice, WONDERFUL FRU FRU BRAZILIAN drink with FRESH strawberries, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, vodka, etc....Did I mention SAUSAGE? I LOVE sausage!!!

Oh yeah, our own personal YO-YO SHOW!!!

Sleeping in...More Reading/different book...getting up to make waffles........overdoing it on the treadmill so I need to take ANOTHER NAP! Spending quality time with my compost bin and worms......

Getting CHIGGERS!!! The ants come back!!! But then going to awesome Mem. Day Cookout and seeing the Cadillac of GRILLS in action!!! Rain....hail....rain again...whatever.

p.s. I used different tenses on purpose and know this all isn't proper English, but it was a long weekend, and I'm still relaxed!!!