Ava is 5!!

A Potter (not like the wizard)

I took wheel I this semester. I loved it. Below are a few pics of some of my work from the class. Yeah, thats right- only SOME. I've already given away several pieces and I didn't include for these photos some of my earliest (crooked and wobbly) pots. I'm definitely going to go on in pottery. I love the idea of making functional art. I love that people who have no interest in "art" are, without even knowing, pottery connoisseurs and critics. You are even if you've never thought about it. You have a favorite cup. A handle that feels just right in your hands. A bowl that holds the right amount of cereal for you that can be eaten in just enough time not to get soggy. I love that this art is used and considered every day.




This is my self portrait in the bottom of a bowl.

For my final in this class I made a set of desert plates and cups to go with it. I drew birds eating different confections on each of 4 plates. The cupcake is my favorite.
My class thought I made the most interesting handles. But really its just because I get bored making the exact same thing over and over. It inspires a lot creativity trying to make every coffee mug unique. It shouldn't surprise you that made ALOT of coffee mugs :)

We converted our formal dinning room into a pottery studio when my Dad got me awheel. Thanks Dad!

Hey blog readers- Remember back last summer we did a post about adopting some kids? Well, we just had our home study today and passed it. So now it looks like the home study people have to give some paper work to DHS and then our family is open to some children. We don't know how long that will take or what will happen next or even if there are children that needs us right now. But I just wanted to give you all the update: making progress.

Milk and Ice Cream

When I was a kid we ate a lot of ice cream for desert. My dad really likes ice cream and he has this great sweat shirt that says "I get cranky with out my Blue Bell" that had a picture of a tub of ice cream on it. I don't know where or when he got this shirt but I don't remember a time before it. My Dad always poured milk on his ice cream sort of like you would over cereal so my sisters and I did too. We always put milk on our ice cream. We didn't know there might be another way to eat ice cream. One time when I was maybe 8 or 10 or so (old enough to sleep over at a friends house) Alice and I were spending the night with a girl and the parents served us ice cream for desert. I remember sitting there waiting patiently for them to get the milk out for our ice cream but they just started eating it WITH OUT milk. I wasn't sure what to do next. Alice just went along with it since she must have seen that this was "normal" here and at that age was more attentive to how to be "normal" but I couldn't let it go. I asked them for some milk for my ice cream. They were confused but agreed that it was ok I guess and then a conversation followed about how interesting and strange it was that we ate milk on our ice cream at home. That was the first time I suspected that our family might do things that no one else I knew did. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I certainly never asked for milk on my ice cream again when I was at a friends house.

I am an artist (I really feel like I'm ready to own that now) and sometimes the art making process is strange and we have somethings at our house that lots of other kids probably don't have at their houses. For example, theres a statue of my head in my bathroom (right now it has a bottle of nasal spray on its head because I have a cold). We have 3 wax waffles placed around the house, a bronze cup cake on the mantel next to a hotel made of legos and in my "work room" a sewing machine shares bench space with 3 hammers, corner clamps, wood glue, tons of paint and a paper pulp nose. oh, and a large jar of jelly beans... Last week when Anabelle came home from school I was smashing paper pulp into a waffle iron. she barely noticed. I suspect that someday Anabelle and Ava will have a friend over and their friend might notice somethings here are strange. My best friend here in NWA is also an artist. Naturally our kids have to spend a lot of time together (fortunately they seem to really like each other). My friend also has artist stuff around the house (she has her own head statue too). This week she served them popcorn for a snack in bowls she made herself- they're fantastic by the way. So the house that the girls spend the most time at besides ours is my friends with the same kinds of unusual stuff. Anabelle and Ava might be teenagers for before they find out about how we're "different."

I hope after they find out they realize its a good thing.
I think we'll have ice cream for desert tonight. With milk of course.

What we did today

Well, the above pic was actually yesterday. We estimate that we got about an inch of ice and close to 8 inches of snow.



Yes, it is wearing a tutu.

Before the crying because they're too cold.



We made snow cream after the outside fun. This was my first time ever to have some and it was really good. Like home made ice cream.



snow cream being served.

When your kitchen is also your studio

I've been thinking about making paper for a few weeks now and yesterday I did my first experiments with paper pulp. It was fun and messy as a good art project should be. There is alot of potential with this material and I am very excited about the possibilities.



I got this great pattern and texture on the paper by smashing a really old wooden meat mallet into the wet paper- I've since painted on it a little and its just great.

I work better 3 dimensionally so my first idea with paper making was to make it not flat. I like to start most projects with new material with a coffee cup so there it is- a paper coffee cup. Not terribly practical but kind of funny.

I've got a ton of ideas that need molds made before I can start but I do have a waffle iron. This turned out really good its just the begining. stay tuned- I've got some big wheels turning in my head :)

Sunday School Review

for celebrating

For my final project in sculpture last semester we did cast bronze. The pouring processes is intense but very fun. To make this cupcake I first carved a block of plaster into this shape. Then made a 2 part sand mold and poured molten bronze in it. The final product weighs about 10 lbs. which I think is only right for a cupcake.

Bronze is a nearly indestructible material. Cupcakes on the other hand need only a willing a child to find their end. I can't remember the last kids birthday party that didn't have a cupcake. Birthdays signify the end of a year and the beginning of another. It's the celebration of something passing. By making this bronze cupcake I preserve an event about change and impermanence in a permanent material.

I also made these other cupcakes for my final presentation. They were pretty yummy.

The best day of the year

When I was a kid my sisters and I looked forward to Christmas cookie decorating day almost as much as Christmas day itself. I have tried to carry on with this tradition with my 2 girls. Decorating christmas cookies takes a certain amount mental preparation as a parent that it didn't require when I was child. Now, I'm the supervising adult, that is, the person who cleans up the rainbow frosting with sprinkles explosion that is left behind at the end. I never understood before as a kid why my Mom wasn't more excited about christmas cookies or why she aways seemed a little tired when it was over- I get it now, Mom. This was a really fun year. I only had to remind Ava once not to lick the frosting knife between cookies and I'm getting better at planning ways to minimize the amount of frosting that has to be scraped off the table and floor at the end too. It was a really fun cookie day- Anabelle said it was the best day of the year.


Ava tries to put all the different kinds of sprinkles on the same cookies every time. You can tell who made which cookie.

Anabelle very carefully spreading her frosting.
I don't know what Ava is doing here. I feel this way alot about Ava: "What is she doing?"



Heath usually decorates one cookie. It kind of looks like an alien or a fly this year- I got to eat it.






I usually do 3 or 4 really pretty ones and then start making them in mass so that the pile will get smaller faster so we can eat some.




This year I put the finished christmas cookies in the tin my Nana used. This tin is so loaded with memories for me of Nana bringing pie to Thanksgiving and cookies at Christmas. I think she would be really glad we're using it. It feels right- she spent alot of time baking and cooking for us. I tried to tell Anabelle and Ava about how she would decorate her cookies exactly the same every year for as long as I can remember. All the bells were exactly the same, the trees, the stars, the giant snowman, the camel (yeah, I have no idea where she found a camel cookie cutter). Nana helped me love baking, my Mom showed me how to not get crazy when process makes a colossal mess- I hope I can pass those on to my girls.

happy memory lane

Heath and I were just reading through some old blog posts and I cried my eyes out laughing so hard at this one. I decided to re-post it originally written by Heath 2 years ago. Ava was 2 and a half Anabelle was 4. You're going to love it!! :)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Like a Chicken with Its Head Cut Off

On Tuesday afternoons Andrea goes to Dallas to tutor some Thai refugee children, and I get in some special "daddy and daughter" time. Our usual routine is to go to the park, the library, and then come home to eat eggs and biscuits. But, we have been eating eggs and biscuits every Tuesday for a while now, and a new Chick-fil-A opened up nearby with a killer playplace inside, so we went there today. It was interesting.

The place is packed because it is the new cool thing in town. We order our food, I get the drinks, and go get the girls seated at a table, and then go back to wait for the food. I order 12 nuggets and a regular chicken sandwich- fairly standard items- and it took almost 10 minutes. This is a long time when you have two precious sweeties at a table unsupervised and hungry.

I get the food and distribute it to the kids, settle in to my chair, and take a bite of my sandwich, where upon Anabelle informs me that she needs to "go tee-tee." So, we all go to the bathroom, she does her thing, and then we go back to our table. After about 5 minutes of peaceful eating, Anabelle knocks her drink over, spilling water all over the table. Fortunately, the lid did not come all the way off, so I managed to clean it up with only about 50 napkins. I was a little troubled by this, because this is the third time in the past two days Anabelle has knocked a full glass over. I took a deep breath and started to eat again. Anabelle said, "Daddy, thank you so much for cleaning up my spot." That made me really happy and warm inside, and I felt like the evening was taking a turn for the better. Feelings, however, are not always reliable.

After about 5 more minutes of eating, Ava knocked her drink off the table. I ordered small waters for the girls, but they were out of small cups, so this was a medium cup full of water. It hit the ground with such force that not only did the lid come off completely, but the bottom of the cup blew out as well, and 22 oz. of water and ice were all over the floor. Napkins would stand no chance facing this giant. So I went and asked a nice young guy who worked there if he would clean it up. He was very courteous, but I am not sure he had ever held a mop before. So he came over and sloshed it around and smeared it everywhere. I am pretty sure someone had just mopped around the fry vats with this mop, because the floor all around our table became very greasy and slick. Every time someone would walk by they would almost slip, and then glance over at me with a look that I interpreted as saying, "thanks alot buddy, because you can't keep your kids in line I almost broke my neck."

So we ate some more, and as we were finishing I thought to myself, "Heath, you need a challenge." So, I got the girls an ice cream cone. This was Ava's first ice cream cone ever. Anabelle methodically licked around the edges, making sure none dripped. Ave dispensed with such formalites, and after I handed it to her the first thing she did was smash it into her face, as if she were trying to get the whole cone in her mouth. She ate the rest of the cone like this, trying to smash it all into her mouth. It was so much fun to watch.

We finished our meal and headed into the play area. We got the shoes off, put away in the little secure cubby holes, and they started to play. Then Anabelle said, "Daddy, I need to go do gross." So, we got the shoes back on, and went back to the bathroom. Anabelle did her business, I did the closing paperwork, and we started to leave our stall. I was surprised to see a little boy (like 3 or 4 years old) waiting to come in the stall. He was by himself. Ava got in his face and, using her intimidating voice (the one she uses with Silas), said, "Hey, what are you doing in here?!" She proceeded to follow him back in the stall, and I had to go back and forcible remove her so this little guy could do his thing.

So , we went back to the play area and played happily for about 20 minutes, and then came home.

Several of you who read this blog from time to time have kids. Sometimes it is therapeutic to here about things like this, so hopefully this story will be of some benefit to someone. I hope to God that there is some redeeming value to this unfortunate series of events.

December week 1

This has been a christmas of several firsts for us. This was Heaths first year to ring the bell by hte red Salvation Army bucket out side our local Wal-Mart- also, our first year to put money in the bucket. It was about 34 degrees out that day :)



This was Ava's first year to not cry in her Christmas program. She was SO cute. I could hear her singing four or five rows back. So talented.


This is Anabelle's first year to play tic-tac-toe. She played about 30 games with Heath before Ava's christmas program.



This is actually the second attempt at putting the star on the tree. The first time the tree fell over. I'm sorry to say that it was not our first time to have our tree fall over...

I'm thankful for...