A Color Palette for Spring

What with the warming weather and all its enticements I have been neglecting the blog lately in favor of more sunshiny pursuits, but let me share with you at least a few snapshots of the spring projects that are cropping up around here.

Porcelain buttons with impressed antique lace (or stamps). Pretty much all I've made in the ceramics studio apart from a bazillion bowls for an upcoming charity event.

Fabric pieced shower curtain. Idea blatantly poached from a notoriously overpriced and trendy catalog ahem, anthropologie. Made a couple months ago for a fraction of the cost--just forgot to blog about it, but still really liking it. It feels so springy! It is also Cash's new fave place to hang out--maybe he likes the way the colors compliment his golden tan.

Some new duds for Sadie--pants and shirt from Sewing for Boys (yes, I know my kid is a girl, but these are comfortable, kid-friendly patterns that let my busy girl move and climb and dance and play the way kids are meant to.) Also, some new tactile experiences.  Sadie is now allowed some limited visitation hours with the button jar, or the marble collection she inherited from her Great Grandma Louise. It is nice that she seems to have finally outgrown the need to put everything in her mouth...mostly.

And lastly, Loren's amazing caribou pho.  Over the last few weeks our family slogged through the epic springtime flu that seems to be making its way around the state. During the course, we ate a lot of soup. Not much good to say about the flu, but this soup deserves to have a blog post all to itself, it's that good. 

That's kind of it.  I guess until the dirty snow and mud give way to some beautiful tundra spring colors I will just have to enjoy these lime greens, vivid blues, and the satisfying rainbow of colors that spills out of the button jar without fail--all with a healthy measure of sunshine added in, of course.  Happy almost May!

WINNERS!

The winners of the pottery giveaway are as follows:

Vase: Laura

Buttons: Mom

Since one of you lives here in Nome and the other one is my mom--I will get to work on delivering your winnings ASAP.  Thanks everyone for sharing what you have been celebrating in your lives.  Stay tuned for another giveaway sometime in September.  It will probably be a cozy kid's hat, since I am working on inventing a pattern right now:)

Happy week to you all.

-Tara

celebratory pottery give away

Just got a nice batch of new pots out of the kiln this week and 

1. The glazes looked great

and

2. None of them stuck to the shelf. 

I thought I would celebrate by having a little blog give away. 

I am feeling so celebratory, in fact, that I am giving away two things:)

Up First: This sweet little vase.  It stands about 5" high and you can use it for flowers, or get yourself a stopper and keep your olive (or seal) oil in it:)  Food safe, made with love.

And for those of you who may be hankering for some quirky buttons: A collection of 10 one-of-a-kind hand-carved, black and white porcelain buttons.  They may not be the exact ones shown in this picture, but they will be similar in size and design. Guaranteed to clink together satisfyingly in either hand or pocket.

Giveaway will be open until August 20th.  To enter, just leave a comment below with your name or your blog, and tell me what you are celebrating this week. 

(Also, tell me what you would like to win--vase or buttons.)

Make sure to check back on August 21st to see if you won!

sometimes you need to put a bird on it.

Okay. I am just going to go ahead and pretend it's spring.  So what if it the temperature is still barely above zero and there are multiple feet of snow on the ground that haven't yet begun to melt.  The sun is shining, the days are LONG, and my little garden starts are starting to grow, so yeah, spring.

One of the coolest things about spring on the Seward Peninsula is the return of all the migratory birds  (Which hasn't quite happened yet). It is so amazing when it does happen though... to see, and hear, flocks of thousands of Sandhill cranes flying overhead is so welcome after the long winter its like Christmas, and Easter and the last day of school all rolled into one.  When I was teaching the kids would hear them flying over the school (they make a really distinctive call) and they would all rush to the windows, noses pressed up against the glass because it really is the difinitive sign of spring. I would usually take a 10 minute break and let my class go out and watch them. Place-based education right?  Not only are there cranes, there are swans, a plethora of duck and eider species and countless other shore birds.  Wanna know what the cutest chicks are?  Shorebird chicks.  They look like puffballs on stilts.  See:

Cute, huh?  Thanks Susan Stevenson, for the great image on google searches.  Your photos are amazing...and your blog looks pretty cool too.  Hopefully its okay that I am borrowing this photo for illustrative purposes.

Since I have been hoping, waiting, and wishing to see some birds but haven't, I have been making my own spring happen in the pottery studio--part of which involves birds.  Here is some of the stuff I have been dreaming up lately:

The "Bluebird of Happiness" Sugar bowl

 

Sunshine & Roses Platter

(if you look close, you can see that some dark glaze from another pot spattered onto this one in the kiln. Arg!  I hate that--but I guess it cant all be sunshine and roses, right?)

Some Sourdough crocks...  still in the green, not yet glazed, or named, but I am liking them so far!

And... no birds on this one, but a nice springy texture and form.  It is a cake-stand, I guess (thanks Erin F. for asking me about them and inspiring me to make one! My pottery students are so rad!)

The design on top is made by rolling a doily into the clay and then adding slip-trailed dots for flair.  I am really liking the whole adding fabric textures to clay forms concept right now--fun stuff.  Hope your week is going well, and that you are enjoying spring (or at least the idea of it) wherever you are.

Pottery give-away winner

The winner for the Iditarod pottery give away is......(drum roll please).......

M.I.Y Monday: Pottery Giveaway

There is a lot going on this week besides Make it Yourself Monday. There is Iditarod, St. Patrick's Day, and the Ides of March, among other things.  Me thinks this calls for a celebration, don't you?  I am celebrating by doing a pottery giveaway. There is nothing I like better to make myself than a fun ceramic form.  Last week we made colanders in my "Jazz up the Kitchen" class, so I am going to offer this lovely blue one for one lucky winner.

make-it-yourself MONDAYS

I have decided to declare Mondays here on my blog as a day to compile cool DIY craft ideas, recipes, or anything else along those same lines that I stumble over during the week and seems worth sharing.  As some of these projects get made I am going to start a blog give-away... but give me a few more weeks to get that up and running! 

If you have a blog and care to jump on the M-I-Y Monday bandwagon, leave me a message below, with your blogaddress or link to whatever project you are into, and I will link to your blogs/ideas in next Monday's post.  I figure this is a good way to get the creative wheels a spinnin' and share some great ideas! 

So here we go... 4 Awesome make-it-yourself projects....

1. 

I love this Vintage Pillowcase Apron idea!  I am always looking for make-over inspiration for worn and well loved items around the house that are not being used, but are too sentimental to get rid of. Look at the the little bar-towel that is buttoned on--SUPER CUTE!

2.   These Stoneware measuring spoons.  Please indulge me that my next three ideas are pottery.... I will be back in the studio at the end of the month, and I am bouncing out of my chair cant sit still super DUPER excited to play in the clay again. My friend Lindsay had these bright multi-colored ones, and a quick internet search revealed that they are from Anthropologie. No wonder I loved them.  I swear I am on the same pottery wavelength as Anthropologie,  its creepy. Sometimes I make stuff and a friend will be ask if I got it at said over-priced, whimsical retailer, and a quick look on their website will show that they are up to the same thing.  I should probably ask them for a job. I especially love the little shell ones...very sweet.

3. Speaking of spoons, I am also loving this spoon rest idea. I will definitely be playing around with this form in the "Jazz up Your Kitchen"  class I will be teaching.  I love the simplicity of this one.  Also from Anthropologie.

4. This magnetic fabric alphabet.  Awesome idea!  My wee kitchen helper will definitely be getting one of these when she is a little older... so much better than the plastic ones, and more kid-friendly imo.  And two thumbs up for hiding the magnets inside the letters so little fingers can't pry them off and make them a choking/swallowing hazard.

 

Happy creating to all you crazy crafters out there! 

xxoo Tara