Mini-daffodil and Vertigo II

I used Coyote Crazed Coyote glaze on top of Black/Brown Duncan Covercoat. It's interesting that it turned out navy and kind of ran. This is the good side, since there is an area on the other side where the glaze didn't cover--either too much glaze or not enough.

Overland Park Arboretum

Easter '09

Here's a quick glimpse of last Sunday--an Easter bunny and candy, etc.(thanks, Kansas Mom!), 2-1/2 church services including the sunrise service, Easter hat, bells and trumpets and choir, nephews, old friends, pancakes, boy scouts, wearing new Easter jeans instead of dress, rain, baptisms, more food including steak and Thai food, more rain, etc.

Oh yeah, and a long afternoon nap!

Photoshop effects

Yes, it's been over a week since I posted. This is what I've been doing. Aren't these cousins cute?!!!

They are my friends' lovely children and their cousins.

Recent creations

A few weeks ago, I made a few sprigs or stamps out of clay and made a couple of mugs using them. The first one is definitely my mug, and I'm not giving it away. Why? It has my name on it. That's the Chinese symbol for "Kim". A Korean lady in my pottery class showed me how to make it. The second symbol is something I revised from the book Ceramics from Islamic Lands from the library.












And this is a luminary with a large tealight.
















This is a photo from last summer that I revised in photoshop, making the background black and white. That's my husband's finger. Am still deciding if I like this look.











Click here if you're new to my blog and don't know about my "Butterfly Rescue Mission".

One week ago...

Am also taking a Photoshop class to help get me more familiar with my PS Elements software. I usually only use it to crop and tweak the colors.

Here is my before and after picture using a technique reminiscent of something called the Orton Effect (originally with film). It's supposed to give it a dreamy effect. Can you tell the difference?


Am also traveling vicariously through my friend, Kelly, who is in Germany right now. You can go to her blog here.

Happy April Fool's Day (the Beanboozled post)!!!

Have you been Beanboozled yet? Check out the link and then come back. You will understand all the weird faces. These are available at Super Target in case you want to get in on the fun.

Buz didn't much like the baby wipes flavor!



Chanda ate four assorted beans for $5.

Ty also had a little trouble with the baby wipes flavor.

And the champion is....JASON!!! He tried ALL OF THEM!!!

If you ask him, the worst one was the rotten egg flavor.

The box says this is the first edition. I have a good idea for second edition--chicken fat.

Pictures of spring

Have been practicing with the tripod and my macro lens lately. This first picture has my grandma's china in it. I think it's so pretty.




My birthday flowers are still looking good--the Peruvian lilies. Also picked some flowers from my yard--daffodils and muscari or grape hyacinths.















And here are the miniature daffodils.

















Then I had to look up again how to do this feathering technique (the black foggish look) that I just learned a month ago . We had four rabbits in our backyard the other morning.





It sure felt like spring until the freezing rain came.

It's bursting forth!

Two more chim-chimeneas

These are the last of this size of chimeneas. I thought they'd like cute on my porch. I have another candleholder in the works, so watch for that one in a couple weeks.

Garden show 2009

Here are some pictures from the garden show last week. The first picture shows what it would look like if the trees were upside-down.





Some things I learned this year from a pest control company booth:

--Termites are white.
--A Brown Recluse Spider can go months without eating and prefers dead insects.
--Brown Recluse Spiders are commonly found in the sink or bathtub because they can't grab smooth surfaces to get out.
--Brown Recluse Spiders do make webs, for nesting and not for catching prey.


I also bought this book about birds. The authors were there to autograph copies.

You could get your teeth whitened! How weird is that?

Flower Pot Mound/Lake Coldwater

There is a legend of a man hearing a ghost on Flower Pot Mound in 1854 as told in this book, but luckily it didn't visit me.

Can you see the gypsum?

Mini chimeneas, orb, and mugs

I forgot how big a tealight candle is, and had to squish the candle in one of them. Oops. Clay shrinks 11-14% when from start to finish, so I did take that into account. There are a couple more of these chimeneas (or should I say chimenei) to come and hopefully I made the openings big enough. I still think they're cute and love the SB Red clay when it's high-fired without any glaze on it.

Then this round orb thing was going to be a salt pig, but it dried too fast. I didn't want to throw it away, so carved holes in it, thinking maybe it could be some type of frog for fake flowers? One lady in pottery class said I could use it as an incense holder, but because of allergies I tend to stay away from smelly stuff. Any ideas other than a paper weight? Would anyone be able to use it somehow (Hopefully locally, since shipping pottery is pricey now days)?


The next four mugs were glazed with Coyote glazes. The Expresso Bean was an alternate I picked out for the communion set.

This set of six were thrown using one pound of clay each, dried with a fan, trimmed and handled all in one day (5-1/2 hours). This is a big accomplishment since one usually has to wait until the clay gets to the leather-hard stage (one day) for one to be able to trim a foot on the bottom.

I think the cows are thinking...

Dude, look at that weird lady over there!

Enjoy, Hannah!





p.s. Yes, Jackie, I might even take some cow portraits when I come visit in July.

Best pics from yesterday

Here's a peek at some photos from my road trip to Gypsum Hills.