December

I havn't felt much like blogging for some time, the month has been a whirlwind of ups and downs. I feel lucky to just be hanging out at home with Millie on my knee and the fire on.

we got the fairy lights on and i found a miniature silver tree and I finally painted this wall blue, I love it, and then we got the new pew too, still more to do, but I'll get to that later

T Bone loves the cushions, I wish I could get more of these, I've had these a long time, made by an old friend in London, Dawn Dupree

Really liking getting into my cactus gardens too, and looking forward to making more with new shapes and glazes after the holidays have passed and I get back into my normal routine

Bird Nerds all Round

We have the Craftidote @ Antidote happening tomorrow, it might be cold, but lots of handmade items from 20 or so vendors, so if you're in Houston, come on down

( sean - my husband designed and then screen printed this fab poster)

I've made a load of new mugs and they're fresh out of the kiln, lots of different 'birdie' ones

and some espresso mug sets , inspired by my parents collections of pottery shards they collect form the beach

Road Trip to Marfa

Sean and i just did a 1300 mile round trip to Marfa, Texas for the weekend, home to the Chinati Foundation ( Donald Judd)

these are his concrete sculptures out in the desert

we saw amazing open landscapes, and so many stars, and the mysterious Marfa lights

we saw these two stags, a family of wild boar, a road runner and a massive tarantula looking furry spider

we were warmly greeted by an interesting artist and craftswoman (Catherine) and got shown round her shop - Wool and Hoop and next door, Fancy Pony Land ( I want one of their skirts)

we ate some delicious food at Cochineal - this is their lovely red tree in the courtyard

saw proper autumnal colours

got stopped by Border Patrol ( we were very close to mexico) and I was given a warning for not carrying my residents card ( woops),

it was like a scene from Thelma and Louise out in the desert, except it was me driving with Sean and we weren't running from the law

we saw some fantastic art - Donald Judd and Dan Flavin

we had a hilarious ride on george and lisa's yellow tandem bike, video to follow soon

All in all it was a really good trip and will have to go back again

Cactus Gardens

I've had a good time filling my newly cast and glazed bowls with cactus gardens, I got some rainbow gravel too which is quite colourful close up , and I'm happy with my new grey glaze, soft and matt

I need to keep most of them out of my shop for a while until the little plants 'take' before I can ship them anywhere, but I'll be selling them at the Craft Sale @ G Gallery next weekend.


The other exciting thing that happened this week was that I found several mentions about McCheek's Mayhem on different blogs - so I'm tooting my own trumpet - if thats an expression! and letting you know, they're all good names, but the one i like the most for its originality is called Far Out Brussel Sprout, by a girl called Siobhan from Sydney and seeing as I want to go there next year, I was even more into it.

you can see them here (Love Natalie) and here ( Sweet Sweet Life) and here (crystaloicle)

Its your turn- tea towels

well, it was me and Sean in the studio today, he was helping me to print the new Its Your Turn tea towels. each tea towel is a different size, so the registration was way harder than we expected, and we'll never divide the image onto two screens again, but you learn a new lesson each time, don't you?

So the next one which is in mid design stage, will be sooo much easier.

But it was good to get them done, and I even did some printing myself, which i hardly ever do.

They're hand dyed before and then screen printed with water based inks for softness

new work fresh out of the kiln

I've got a load of new work out of the kiln, i had a good day doing all the decals last week, they're now in my shop

Not All Glam

Its not all glamour at McCheek's Mayhem.

To get more decals made by Sean, I had to don a serious vapour mask as the stuff is very toxic, but we got them printed, and today I have made lots of new mugs and bowls, covered in decals, now waiting to be fired on Sunday, hopefully in the shop on Monday!

WOOO HOOO

New fancy font alphabet decals

Swedish Inspiration

I don't know how I came across this blog all about the Dos Family and the things they make and their house , but I like their style and their house, simple, and filled with light, very inspirational .

Check out this fantastic kitchen cupboard, what a simple idea, but not one I 'd thought of , well, i'd considered spraying ours myself, but thought better of it and now I'm just trying to figure out how I can get our three kitchen lockers into the back of my VW golf to get them spray painted fancy colours too.

Anyone have a truck I can borrow?

Photo collages of the interior of their house

If you ' Dos Family ' ever want to swop your house and have a holiday in Houston , Texas, come on down, I'm up for a trip to Sweden

Roadside Distractions

Sean ( my husband) and Gabby ( my step daughter) are curating their first show together, it opens this Saturday in our new Gallery 619. It features new work by Give Up, Dual , Eyesore and Trash and Garnish.

Robert Ellis and Fat Tony are playing on the opening night.

Autumn Colour Week - Red

Its friday, and its 'red' day, and the first thing I saw this morning was a humming bird right outside my window, i thought they'd already left on their warm winter holidays to Mexico, i took this photo above a few weeks ago, and the photo I got this morning is not red, but as they're attracted to red, I thought i'd add it anyway

I love those birds, they are so fast and determined

I also have a few red pieces in my shop including the Miniature Cactus Garden with a juicy red glaze and some red flower decals on my Love Cup tea set

I still want to be in Austin, after our trip last weekend, this Motel is fab, with the best kidney shaped swimming pool

I also got a few red things for my birthday last week, this beautiful Red Spider Lily from Kerry from her garden

Does anyone remember Smash Hits? well I now have the first 40 issues, and I never had the first one until Sarah and Jarvis got me a copy for my birthday present.! I was so excited. I was 12 when that came out, and that was my bible for quite some time .

November 1978 - 25p.

I also got this fantastic book - An Alphabet by Peter Blake from my Mum and Dad, very inspiring, as I'm so into fonts and lettering

and this is the last of the autumn colour week, I'll miss it, I need a new challenge for next week, any ideas?

Autumn Color Week- Brown

Not my favourite colour at all! But I had to cheat and borrow a photo from flickr( thank you ) of this brown Ford Cortina, we had one when I was growing up, but an estate version, and I would happily have this car in brown again. I couldn't find any brown photos of my own, but this car is fantastic and brings back memories of the 70's in scotland

O is for Orange

this is my first orange offering, its my birthday week, and one of my many things to do is to sew this patch on my jean back pocket

I think i'm a bit obsessed with this colour week, a task set by Poppytalk , its certainly a fun thing for me to do, and i'm thoroughly enjoying it, especially today, i love orange.

I think the rest of the week will be harder, but we'll see, I'm up for the challenge

My orange cat - T Bone, looking very happy - he's a big softie

my tiles in our bathroom

I just painted a wall in our house orange a couple of weeks ago, so its a good excuse to photograph it

and last but not least Dran gave me this fantastic orange mirror last week for my birthday