Water Works, to go with Electric Company

See what I meant about the color of the doors making a huge difference?

And the shower has been installed…

Practice!, or, follow your husband…

David played Carnegie Hall this evening with the NYC Big Apple Corps symphonic band.  It was a great concert.

This week’s home game!

Starting with these two vase bases…

And these two neck flutes…

And these funky extruded pieces I formed last week…

What would YOU come up with?

I had no idea.  But then, playing around with the pieces, first I made my first piece which doesn’t have the handles exclusively in a single plane…

And then there’s the piece I made which according to my fellow potters is a “Creation of Man/God reaches for Adam” vase…

Some shots of the girls…

I stopped by to visit Steph and Mia to drop off all the stuffed animals I had made her these past few months.  Not many shots of the knitting, but what’s important here is the now ambulatory Mia-zilla!  With her new baby eggplant!

Nap time  over!  Grab your kiwi and look adorable…

And then we’re off for our walk!

Color and light!

Well, it’s true.  Color changes everything.  The wall color we chose ties the room together, but look at the difference between where we have the brown trim finished and where we don’t yet…

And we had the doors up for a bit, though they are down now, and when painted, they make a HUGE difference…

Here’s a shot of the hallway, without the painted doors, but with the mission-style light we have now installed (all the remaining lights are black-trimmed dimming 4″ high hats.

For details, the kitchen faucet is in, though the matching soap dish will have to wait until the marble can be drilled one last time…

And let’s take another look at the progress in the bathroom.  The blue paint is up, as are the black-trimmed medicine cabinet and the vanity light…

We’re getting there!  We designed the stained glass doors for the bar area overhead cabinets this weekend.  I think the only thing we’ll have to choose from here on out is the bilco door hatch that will cover the front external entrance!

Another kiwi… meet PARKER!

The first kiwi was such a success, it seemed to beg for a sequel.  And much thanks to Parker’s new owner, Jim, for all the help this weekend.  I may be able to do all the household chores expected of a good housekeeper in the 18th century, but soon I’ll be able to listen to music like a member of the 21st.

A difficult step well-taken

Just an attempt at documentation.  Before and after photos.  Things were well-prepared before the movers came, and so things went smoothly.  And well.  It has been a tough weekend, but not a terrible one.

Before…

After…

Before…

And after…

Bafore…

And after…

Well, I never saw these coming…

What am I making with these composite vases?  This is an entirely new direction for me, and I am loving it.  I started these last week, and I threw the four separate pieces…

Which I then trimmed this week, and paired together…

and joined (here’s the shorter bulb, taller necked piece)…

Now, last week, I also went a bit crazy with the clay extruder, and I formed these handles, which have been setting up over the week so I could work with them…

I had no idea what I would do with them, and didn’t know the lengths of the pieces, or how they would work together.  But, well, here’s what I put together tonight…

Here are those handles again.  Maybe this can be like those pictures in Highlights For Children… can you spot all of these handle pieces in the final vases (and, yes, I wound up using all of the pieces.  I hadn’t planned on it, but I really liked how they developed)?

I will take any advice on how to glaze.  Any at all.

Not to forget there’s another house to take care of as well…

 

Still working on taking care of my mother’s estate.  I spent Saturday taking apart all of the furniture and grouping it in three rooms (for ease) because our good friend Bonnie, who suffered a house fire this year and lost all of her furniture, will be making good use of it all.  Above is the living room, filled chock-a-block with the dining room table, the three hutches, taken apart, the two couches, two bookshelves and a chest of drawers.  In the bedroom, we have the bed, taken apart, the two chests of drawers, and the wall mirror…

And down in the family room, we have the tables, the end table, the dining room chairs, etc.  Basically, everything I felt comfortable taking down the stairs myself.

Poor quality photos taken in bright afternoon light with my cellphone.  I just needed to do as much physical work yesterday as possible.

The bathroom is coming together nicely…

A few more shots of the tile, now that the charcoal grout is in place.   Not much development from last time, but I definitely wanted to get a good shot before the shower itself is installed and I can’t get a clean shot…

A reminder that all of the pieces in the bath will be black (sink, medicine cabinet, toilet) and the walls will be Canyon Blue (Ralph Lauren VM139).  We even have a beautiful black marble saddle, up against the red clay tile which also has the charcoal grouting…

 

There’s a good chance that the rest of the apartment’s tile flooring will be grouted tomorrow (with a nutmeg grout), and then the walls will be painted.  We’re getting there!