Author: mud&string

Mother, daughter, wife, grandma, friend, animal lover, potter, knitter, Catholic and finally, retiree. Will work for yarn and/or clay and tend to geek out on any and all the above at the drop of a hat, provoking glazed expressions from polite company and eyerolls and heavy sighs from not so polite company (read family).
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This Wasn’t In the Plan

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How is everyone holding up while sheltering in place or self quarantining or social distancing or whatever it’s being called where you are? Casa Coleman was doing pretty well up until midnight Thursday. That’s when I fell down on my way to the bathroom and broke my right arm. In doctor speak that would be a fracture of the distal radius with some telescoping into the joint. We went to the ER around 5 a.m. where they x-rayed my arm and casted it.  Yesterday I saw an orthopedic surgeon and got set up for surgery to repair the break with a plate and screws this coming Tuesday.  😑 The worst thing, though, is that I’m right handed and can’t knit, can’t throw pots, can’t do anything myself except sleep. (and complain)🙁🙁🙁🙁

Monday Night

Tomorrow’s the big day, the day I actually can start healing.  I miss being busy and today has been especially long and hard.  On top of being bored, this cast is starting to be less than fresh. Yuck.

Tuesday Afternoon

It’s over and done with and I’m told it all went very well – The last thing I remember is the big lights in the OR and being moved from the gurney to the OR table. Nine hours post op fracture fix and no pain (so far) thanks to the nerve block. 😁😁😁 Nothing lasts forever though so there are pain meds at the ready. 💊

My Bangkok grands, left to right, Annabelle, Emma and Susannah. My Bangkok beauties and their precious faith keep me going!

We walk by faith, not by sight. The Holy Bible

 

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Cooler Heads

mud&string

Thank heaven for cooler heads!!! I took ya’lls advice and put Gray Days in timeout for about a week, during which I calmed down a bit, enough for an attitude adjustment. . I picked it up again Monday morning and Gray Days is knitting up well and once again, all is well at Casa Coleman. 🙂 Here’s a look at my new, improved Gray Days Gansey:

Things are also going well in the pottery studio also.  I’ve had a couple of kiln unloads that I’m  very pleased with and want to share with you all.  Both pieces are made of the same clay, Speckled Brownstone.

 

Thanks to all who sent me good advice when I was ready to relegate Gray Days to my personal limbo — the back of my closet.

Oh, and don’t forget to visit my etsy shop for more pottery love!

And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.

William Blake

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Bummed

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So for the second time, I frogged the cable section on Gray Day and tried to fix a mistake.  Made a bigger mistake that just got worse and worse.  I’m fighting the temptation to relegate it to the WIP basket that resides in the deepest, darkest part of my closet, never to be seen again.  Should I give it another chance??  What would you do?

 

One fails forward toward success. Charles Kettering

 

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A Real Post As Promised

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I finally got my Etsy update finished and posted. If you haven’t visited my shop, consider this your invitation. I had a pretty good pull out of my kiln yesterday so another update is in the works so BOLO!

Here’s what’s happening here at Casa Coleman –

The Gray Days sweater has undergone a radical amputation and is about half the size it was when last shared. 😩 One of the cables went rogue necessitating a radical frogging. In my world, it’s more efficient to place a lifeline, take the needles out and just unravel. Tinking cables…..well, we just won’t go there. 😉

Here’s a look at some of yesterday’s firing –

The cookies are glaze tests; the green is Amaco’s Potter’s Choice Wasabi celadon and the blue is also an Amaco PC glaze, Downpour celadon. The large piece is wearing Downpour also.

Grandgirl #2, Harper has had the flu, but is on the mend fortunately. Now praying that the other two avoid it. 🙏🙏🙏

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. Christopher McCandless

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Surprise!

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Ever glazed a bowl or knitted/sewn a project that you had such high hopes for that, on completion, was so ugly it was a real challenge to NOT throw it in the trash or banish it to the recesses of
of your darkest closet?  Let me tell you about my latest bowl of shame………

There was nothing wrong with the naked bowl, one of my better ones IMO.  Sorry guys, I took no photos of the first glazing. Too painful. 😜

The first glaze consisted of Toasted Sage poured into the bowl and swirled to cover, followed  by Oatmeal brushed on the rim x3.  I laid a band of Textured Turquoise below the Oatmeal rim inside.  I then brushed the outside with Spectrum Cinnamon Ripple x3.  When the glaze was dry, I fired this bad boy to cone 5. All I can say about the final result was YUCK and double YUCK.  I tried to console myself by saying we can’t all be beautiful and made up my mind to keep it around for a little while; sometimes a glaze combination will grow on me. Not this time.

I decided to refire it, using a new glaze I got for Christmas, a Hot Pink by Spectrum.  So, I just sort of slapped a few coats of this pink on it all over and fired it again.  BTW – all glazes are Amaco Potter’s Choice unless specified otherwise.  This glaze was a cone 9/10 and since I like to live dangerously, I fired to cone 10. 🥵

Here’s the surprise:

 

 

Love this!!

I’m so glad I gave this pot a second chance!  Forrest Gump’s mama was right:

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

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Random

I’m Not Bragging, But…..

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So I’ve been coat shopping for a while but had trouble aligning what I wanted and what I wanted to pay.  Yesterday I made a run to Clothes Mentor, a consignment store close to Casa Coleman and lo and behold I found the Perfect with a capital P coat! Black, with a hood, a bit longer (think knee length), barely worn as best I can tell and the thing I wanted above all things in a new coat – down.  I always lusted after a down coat but never got one—mostly because of price,  rationalizing not getting one because I had a perfectly good wool coat. Never mind that it was 15 years old and I needed a change.  Best thing about this new coat – price.  I got a great down coat for -are you ready for this? – $25.00.🧥🌬🌨☔️

A penny saved is a penny earned. Benjamin Franklin

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