I had been wanting to visit Old Salem since moving south. It seems it always takes out of town visitors for me to take a day off and explore my new home state.

 Technology meets the past. An Old Salem employee, dressed in period clothing, looking at his smartphone during his lunch break. I snapped this photo while waiting for a table at the Old Tavern.

Saturday was “take your daughter to work day”. I had a some orders that needed to be finished so Danielle came to the studio and tried her hands at the wheel. She was a little frustrated because she is a perfectionist. She really did a good job for her first try and with some practice I think she has some potential.

Sunday was the day we had to say good bye. Jeff took us to the airport. Danielle flew off to New York and I got on a plane to Boston. I was able to find a flight that left fifteen minutes after her. We flew the same airline and our gates were next to each other, giving us a little more time together. I arrived in Boston to rain and a very chilly 52 degrees. From there I hopped on a bus to Dover, NH, where my sister’s car was waiting for me. She and my niece had taken a bus to Boston a few days earlier and were now in Alaska. I located her car in the lot, found the hidden key, and drove to her home in Wolfeboro. It all felt like a covert operation! The next morning I went straight to the rehab nursing home to visit my Dad. It’s great to spend time with him and despite being very thin, he is looking pretty good.

The other bonus of being here is spending some time with this little cutie. It had warmed up enough by early afternoon to join my niece Kayla, and great niece Arianna, for a lake front lunch on the deck at Wolfe Trap Raw Bar & Grill. Arianna and I both had the clam roll… you can’t beat fried clams in New England!!
Today I spring my Dad from the nursing home for a couple of hours and take him to an appointment with his orthopedic surgeon. It looks like it will be a perfect day to stop for ice cream afterwards. I don’t think they will miss him at the nursing home if I keep him out tad bit longer.

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Today’s selection is a sweet little bowl made by Kari Therrien. I met Kari in NH when she was a BFA student at the NH Institute of Art. The mug is a NEW acquisition. It is a collaborative mug from the “250 Mugs on the Wall” exhibition at the NC Pottery Center. Hitomi Shibata did the deco work, Josh Floyd added the handle… I have no clue who threw the body of the mug. It is my new favorite.

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We have been eating out of the same few plates and bowls for weeks now. As I unpack boxes we are reconnecting with pots that haven’t been used for some time, many haven’t graced the dining table in years. The bowl in the photo is from Cornish Hill Pottery in Wolfeboro, NH. It was my go-to cereal bowl for years. Unpacking it inspired me to buy some Cheerios for breakfast! The mug is a long standing favorite made by Jeff Dean, here in Seagrove.

While in the midst of this move, I have decided to head to New Hampshire at the end of the month and help out with my Dad. My sister made plans months ago to visit my brother and his wife in Alaska. I don’t want her to cancel this trip. Dad will still be in a rehab facility but we both will feel more comfortable if someone can visit with him everyday. Last year she had scheduled a trip to Ireland and had to cancel because of my mother’s illness and subsequent passing. My sister deserves a vacation! It’s not a great time for me to pack up and leave, but family is important. It will all work out in the end.

Next post should be photos of our completed kitchen… we are so excited!

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Well, sort of. We are mostly in our new house. All the big stuff was moved on Friday. There are still some odds and ends that need to travel up the road, and still lots to do at the house. We realized it would be easier to move in and finish it while living there. Too many nights have been spent working until after 11pm, then going back to the log cabin, cooking dinner and falling into bed exhausted. Now we can tackle the house in the evening and have dinner cooking while we work.

The living room is the only room in the house that isn’t filled with boxes! Sophie cat is adjusting quite well to the move. I am sure she misses playing on the spiral staircase at the cabin, but this house has so many more rooms for her to explore and hide in. Centurylink really dropped the ball with our telephone and internet move. We kept internet only at the studio until our move is complete and for some reason that made the switch over very complicated. Are we the first people to ever move phone and internet to a new location and keep internet only at the old one for an additional 30 days? They acted like we were. I spent over four hours on the phone talking to different departments and waiting on hold. Today I finally spoke to a reasonable and polite woman at our local office. It took her only an hour to get a tech out to the house and hook us up. I finally feel like we are connected to the world again. How did we ever survive back in the day?
Today we are firing the kiln. Jeff got up early and lit the first burner. He came home and we switched places so he could do some plumbing work. It’s a beautiful evening to sit on the porch and wait on the kiln to climb to 1650 degrees. At that point I will put her into reduction and Jeff should arrive to finish off the firing. I am still not sure when we had time to make the pots that are in this firing.
Perhaps it was the elves.

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The framing is now replaced and last night Jeff hung the sheetrock.

We hope to be in the house by this weekend. Everything won’t be done, but the icky stuff will be gone!

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 Jeff and I took a much needed break on Sunday and went over to Bulldog Pottery’s “Cousins in Clay”. This is an annual event that they host at the end of May. Along with Samantha and Bruce Henneke’s stunning work, there are guest potters from various parts of the country. A special treat this year was Henry Crissman’s mobile anagama kiln. Many potters from the Seagrove area had a few pots in the kiln. Each of us donated one pot to help raise money for the Dwight Holland Scholarship Fund. The scholarship gives assistance for ceramic students to be able to attend the North Carolina Pottery Conference.

 The firing is quite short. I think it was about 8 hours and reached cone 11.

The day was gorgeous and sunny, which also meant it was really hard to take photos with a phone. I was sort of shooting blindly! I was happy with all three of my pots, but this is the only one I got a photo of.
Tomorrow I should have some house makeover pics. Things are coming along nicely. I also have good news about my Dad! He was moved to the intensive rehab facility and is doing much better. His brain is pretty much cleared up… no more hallucinations. This place is keeping him busy. Therapy three times a day and they take him to the dining room to eat meals. He can now stand with a walker to move from the bed to a wheelchair. I hope that he will regain his mobility eventually.
That’s it for now, check back tomorrow for more house blogging. Happy Monday!

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I have been thinking about making luminaries for quite some time. About two years ago I made a small one, but didn’t do a good job sanding the edges of the cut outs. They were much to sharp so it got the hammer. How about that crawly shino on the left? Rather scary! We aren’t sure why, but we had a few pots in this firing with the creepy crawly shino.

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It felt more like Labor Day than Memorial Day. Yesterday we got almost all the cabinets primed. Today we will rip off the countertop on the outside wall to make priming the interior of those cabinets easier. We are leaving the interior of the cabinet over the wall oven green! It was the only one that was green, and it looks like the cabinet was never used. We will put the doors back on that cabinet. It will be a good one for storing baking pans. All of the lower cabinets are getting their doors back on. Some of the uppers we will leave off so that we can show off our handmade dishes.

Today we will unload the kiln and ship pots. Then it’s back to the house to put a coat of real paint on the cabinets. No funky colors. We are playing it safe with “Churchill Hotel Vanilla”. I can’t wait for this project to be done so we can move in! Sunday night we slept in the guest bedroom. It’s the only room with some furniture right now. It felt so good to wake up in our own home and enjoy coffee on the patio.

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