Winners, Inspiration, and General Freebieness

The winner of the ornament yesterday is Mel from worldofmoments.etsy.com. Her shop is full of lovely photos, aceo's, cards and general visual goodness. Check it out!

And a big shout out to Mrs.B, who got me thinking about giveaways. If you haven't seen her blog, Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, you need to get right over there! She did an amazing giveaway for October, and I am just in awe of her blogging skills.

So, I am thinking that, for a while at least, I will do a giveaway every Saturday. I definitely have enough to give! My pots runneth over!

What do you think?

Post a Joke to win a Witchy Ornament

Wanna have a chance to win this ornament? It is made from porcelain, and is about 2 inches tall, and 2 inches wide at the brim. It is strung with natural hemp cord.

Want it?
Well, read on dear ones, read on!
******

I just love silly things. I love dumb jokes, knock knocks and puns! I just came across this joke and had to share: A rabbi, a UU minister, and a Wiccan priestess decide to go on a fishing trip together. They go down to their local lake, rent a boat, and go out on to the lake for a day of fishing. As the afternoon approached, the trio became hungry - and realized that they had left their lunches on the shore of the lake. The UU minister got out of the boat, walked across the lake, got his lunch, walked back, and sat down and began to eat his lunch. "You should have gotten all of our lunches!" scolds the priestess. She then gets up, walks across the lake, picks up her lunch as well as the Rabbi's, walks back across the lake, and sits down, handing the rabbi his afternoon meal. The rabbi at this point is almost out of his mind, his eyes wide with shock. Finally, he manages to sputter.. "Wha.. what... how did you...?" The UU minister grins at the priestess, nudges her, and asks "Do you think we should tell him about the rocks?" The priestess looks at the minister, raises an eyebrow, and replies "... what rocks?"

Anyhow, if you would like a chance to win this nifty, witchy ornament, just leave me a joke, pun, riddle, or pithy statement and I will choose a commenter at random to send this to. After I choose I will need your address to mail it off, so leave your email address or some way to contact you (Etsy name will work too, and I can convo you there, if you have an account) if you don't have a blog associated with your username. The contest is over tonight at midnight, central time.

Yay for silliness and free things!

Miniature Mondays

I am not good at self motivation sometimes. Just look at my blog! I went almost five months without blogging. FIVE! And why? I just love writing, I love to tell others about my family, I love to talk pottery. I should be addicted to blogging! Yet, without outside motivation, I don't do it!
Weird, eh?

Miniatures are another thing I just really enjoy. I enjoy making them, I enjoy photoing them, and I really, really enjoy writing the listings about them for my Etsy shop. But how long has it been since I listed any new ones? Far, far too long.

So, while I was writing this listing, I was thinking, "What can I do to create outside motivation for me to blog, on a regular basis, AND to get me to list my miniatures?"

Well, here is my Big Idea!

Miniature Mondays! I will list a miniature, and then blog about it. And if I commit, in writing (here) to my hordes (three) faithful blog followers, then I am sure to do it.

Yeah, yeah, I know today is Friday, not Monday. But the mini I listed is too great to wait the weekend. So this one is for priming the pump, and a new one will be on Monday.
Here goes! You will find this listing in my Etsy shop, here. And on Monday will be the next Chapter in the Doll family story! Brilliant, huh?


Green Spiral Dish Miniature

Grandpa just admitted that for a long time now, he has had a dish on the side.

Grandma had been cleaning out the closet in the bedroom when she came across a box that was marked "Private, Do Not Open". So, of course she opened it, and inside was a low, porcelain bowl or deep plate, glazed jade green and high fired. There was a pretty spiral in the middle and some lovely red flashing along one side. It was about 1.25 inches wide. She didn't remember ever seeing it before. Along with the bowl were letters, tied with a ribbon. The letters were in Grandpa's handwriting, and they were full of intimate side dish recipes, written with obvious passion.

Grandma was understandably upset. For years she had served meals, warm and willing, right there in her kitchen, so what was this all about??

When confronted, Grandpa admitted that, while he still loved Grandma's cooking, lately he had found her meals boring. "Just main course, potatoes and a microwaved veg every day! Meal after meal after meal. I need some spice. I need adventure. I need creative side dishes!"

Grandpa said he would be willing to sell his dish on the side if Grandma was willing to spice up her side dishes some. He even offered to let her read the intimate recipes he had written for his side dish, but Grandma refused. She said that she would get out her old Joy of Cooking book and figure out things on her own, but she refused to try the sordid ideas he had fantasized with his "porcelain hussy".

So the dish on the side is up for sale, and Grandma is trying to add some spice to her life. What will happen next?

Gracie's First Play

Grace is growing up so quickly! She started high school this year, and though she doesn't look it, she is 15! We were thrilled to find the high school has a community training program where the kids volunteer for the first two hours of the day at various stores and organizations around town. Then the store or organization supplies a treat of some kind for the kids. So far the class has taken paper out of new shoes at Target (and gotten pop and a bagel in return), cleaned the parking lot at a bowling alley and then bowled for free, cleaned tables at Chuck E. Cheese and gotten tokens for the play area (She came home with 15 photos of herself from the photo booth.) She just applied to be a volunteer at the a children's petting park, and got accepted, so now that will be one of the places she goes to work.

This high school encourages the kids in Special Ed to try out for sports, clubs and plays. So Grace did try out for the play and she got a part! The play was A Taste of Sunrise, and her line was "That poor unfortunate boy." She also played a student in a deaf school, and a member of the town, so she was on stage quite a bit.

The play was quite good, and Grace stole the show, at least in my eyes. Congratulations Gracie!

Samhain ....must wait!

Normally Halloween is a very big deal here at the Barry house. But this year we are going to have to delay it! I have a huge order to finish this weekend, Gracie has a play, Jens and Tasha have plans...So it looks like Samhain is going to be celebrated on Sunday for us this year.

So sad, but ...oh well!

Pots destined for the Smashing Bin!

Pots destined for the Smashing Bin!, originally uploaded by antfiresbetter.

Since this week had Friday the 13th in it, I decided to clean my studio and list all the pots that I felt were just cluttering up the shelves. Some are a bit heavy, some have small flaws, and some I just haven't gotten around to photographing yet!

Anyway, all these pots are getting listed this weekend in my shop, (antb.etsy.com) for only the materials cost of each one. I am not charging for my labor or time on any of them. Then, on Monday morning, all the ones that haven't sold I will unlist and put into a bin for breaking and sending to mosaic artists!

Here is my shop announcement for this weekend:

And to celebrate Unlucky Friday, I am going to be listing Unlucky Pots all weekend. Some will be PIF's (they will cost only the listing fee plus shipping) and some will be for only the cost of my materials (clay, glaze, firing, but no charge for my time, labor, or skill) and shipping. Some will be seconds also priced only for my materials cost.

All of this weekend's listings will be at incredibly low prices. I want these poor unlucky pots to find good homes. After this weekend- bright and early Monday morning- any Unlucky Pots that are left will go into the Smashing Bin, get broken into pieces and then be sold to mosaic artists.

Please, rescue these poor Unlucky Pots from my Evil Smashing Bin! Buy them today and then they will be Lucky Pots! (They are all on the first page of my shop.)
Have a lucky day!
-Ant

****Update!
Due to storms taking my power out, I am behind with my listings today, and won't get them all listed. So I will keep going tonight and tomorrow until they are done. BUT Monday, they all still go into The Smashing Bin!

No more Mrs. Nice Potter!

:D

Gracie Makes Contact

IMG_0085, originally uploaded by antfiresbetter.

Jens and Tasha are house sitting in Chicago, so for Mother's Day, they invited Grace and I for a weekend of sight seeing. The highlight for me was an amazing vegan restaurant on Broadway called "Alice and Friends". I have never had such wonderful food ! I had the "Runaway Potato" and would highly recommend it!!

The high point for Gracie was a full day at the zoo. She took her Playschool Digital Camera and snapped it full of photos!

In the Primate House, there is a fake log, that goes into one of the cages. A child can sit in the log. There is plexiglass, and a gorilla can sit in the other half.
When Gracie climbed into the log, a baby gorrilla ambled over and sat and looked at her. We got a photo on Gracie's camera for her.

I don't know who enjoyed the encounter more, Grace, or the baby gorilla!