Thank You for Supporting Your Local Artist! (Me)

Wow. Thank you all. I am grateful.
What a wonderful turnout for the Herb Festival in Brookside. Thank you for loving my Hawaiian pots and buying them. I saw so many of my regular customers accumulated after 16 years of being in OK and many new people as well. Thank you for not only liking but actually buying so many of my pots. It was fun to share my Hawaiian experiences with so many people and to have such a great response.
Thank you all for caring and helping me stay in the art world by buying my pottery.
Sincerely, Linda
Photos of the event coming soon.

Come to the Herb Festivals

Hi Everybody!
Just a reminder that the shop is closed today, Saturday and we are doing two herb festivals instead.
I will be at the corner of 41st and Peoria at the Brookside Herb Festival. My Hawaiian pots will be there as well as several pots too. I will also have some of Jamie's bottles from Hawaii. You can tell my pots made in Hawaii because they will have round red price tags and there is a palm tree top symbol on the bottom as well. Come take a peek and help support your local potter.
Ian, my son, is at the Tulsa Garden Center with his pottery. It is bright, he hates brown pottery and is very contemporary. He has very unusual garden planters, masks and more.
So, if you have time come and see us both.
Normal shop hours resume next week and classes will start the following week. Call if you have not reserved a space and want one. Originally, classes were to start next week but Rachel won another photo award and we are going to Gutherie to her awards ceremony on Tues night.

Aloha. First come, first serve on my brightly colored Hawaiian pottery!

I'm not coming out yet

Ok! I gotta get with it, starting today. It is Tuesday and the shop opens at 12 and I'll be there, sort of.
I have lots of good ideas and feel inspired but my arm still hurts. Yuck I'll work gently today
I took my daughter Rachel and her friend Parker to the Nasher Sculpture Museum in Dallas for an orientation/reception for Art Institute of Chicago in Dallas. It was one of those marathon trips in one day 6:30 am till midnight. The new museum is worth the trip as well. I will post more pictures of the art visit soon.

Going Bananas in my Dreams

Abundant Bananas in the yard in Hawaii

I wake up and wonder where I am. No kidding. Reversing the sleeping time, jet lag, and overwhelmed by my dear friends with their welcome homes.
I actually did not hear a firetruck in the drive up in front of the neighbors house for a potential gas leak and thought I was still in Hawaii. I focused on my unfamiliar bedroom windows and wondered where I was. Another time I heard my son come in at his typical 4am and thought I was in my childhood home in Indiana. Later, I was asleep and I said "Jamie?"
I start to reach for the drinkable water faucet instead of the ever so safe water faucet in my own sink. I don't know where anything is in my shop. I forgot I never have a car if I leave last and I am again enjoying my alternative way of getting to work on my recumbent bicycle.
I am amazed at the piles of necessary (?) objects in my house with still no time to "sort."
I am glad to be home and I think I feel like nesting and building my home again. I gotta make some serious changes around here. I want to build little Hawaii complete with lots of banana plants in my back yard even though there will never be bananas. Guess I can always glue some on the plants later!
I guess I am landing now, trying not to recreate old habits. I may ditch my black and brown clothing and may eventually wear clothes that really fit.
I remember Adrienne Rich's poem I wrote early in my blog. "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"
And as Ian said looking up in the sky at 4 years old and I hurried him to the pre-school bus in a real hustle, "Mom did you see the birds on the line today?" We should all see the world through childhood eyes occasionally.

Show Pots Left in Hawaii

land and sea 1

land and sea 2

land and sea 3

palm pot 1

palm pot 2

lily pot 1

lily pot 2

being there 1

What?

gold impressions

kava gold

journey woman 1

new flight

journey 3 In the air

journey woman arrival

suggested arrangement of journey women

These are the "Show Pots" I left in Hawaii for a show. I have 3 big boxes of additional pots coming home within 10 days (so Fed X says) and I hope they get here in one piece after paying $158 plus $58 in bubble wrap to get them here! I will post it on my blog when they arrive.
So enjoy these photos. They were taken in a hurry on the last day of the trip so I apologize for the quality of the photos. I hope to have better later.

I'm Home, It's cold after Hawaii!

I made it and I am back in Tulsa.
First Aloha went out of biz then continental thought I was standby (NOT!) and reassigned me a seat and I found a man sitting in that seat with the same seat assignment. I could not see sitting on his lap or visa versa (he was a small man) and they gave me another seat next to a female Walmart executive buyer. The good news after all the hassle, I made it safe and sound after many hours on the plane.
It has taken me more time to adjust to coming home that I expected. It is my second day home and I don't quite feel here yet and I am tired.
I had a great trip and feel inspired to get back to work.
I attended the OVAC studio tour open house tonight at the circle theatre. That happens soon. More about that on this blog soon. Saw lots of friends.
I hear my block is selling at the end of the month and then reality will set in with what happens next. They say they want us here. At what price?
More soon. Glad to be back home.

Aloha Airlines, My plane declares bankruptcy

Queen of "Too much Stuff" should mend her ways

APRIL FOOL NOT
It is not an April fools trick. I found out late this morning my connecting flight to Continental is out of business. Today was there last day! I also found out my flight insurance does not cover that airline! They did not mention that before while I was paying.

PROBLEM SOLVING
Creative problem solving in action. After much run around on all their parts, insurance, 3 airlines and more it was suggested I try a smaller airline used in the islands to get to Honolulu.
Score. So now I can still make my connection. I have been very isolated from news and newspapers so I am lucky Steve knew and I did not show up at the airport tomorrow afternoon with an empty airline counter! The airlines did not notify me even though I had reservations. So, travelers beware!

TOO MUCH STUFF
I spent the whole morning and early afternoon figuring out how to make airline connections and not be on stand by and the rest of the day packing. As usual, I , Ms Pack Rat, brings to much stuff makes too much and has to pack like a maniac. I have three large boxes of pots to Fed Ex and three priority mail and 3 suitcases! Let this be a reminder to you all, don't do this to yourselves and remind me not too again.

SIX WEEKS IS A LONG TIME
And let me tell you 6 weeks is too long to stay with others and not be working. (Actually I stayed 4 weeks with others, traveled 2 weeks, and worked most of the time.)
If things had gone as planned I would have needed that long to create a show but we ended up with a new plan for sanity reasons. My show pots are staying here and will be in a show probably in June or July. Then we may show in Tulsa if we can pull it off or at least my pots will if not sold. Jamie's pots may be to fragile. She is sending me some of her bottles to put in my shop and sell at the herb fairs. It will be fun for you all to see them.

LIVING WITH OTHERS
Jamie is a sweetheart. It has been so great to be with her and work with her after so many years. I feel very close to her and admire her personal strength both physical and emotional. She works hard and fast. Youth is on her side and she strives to do her best. She is cute as a button and reminds me of Ian in many ways. It has given me a lot of insight about her generation by spending so much time together. She is like another daughter and dear friend at the same time. Steve has been very patient having me it seems "always here" and I have enjoyed getting to know him. He is very generous with his pottery information and we have had many interesting art discussions. His daughter Bella is fun to be around and has taught me to sit down and play board games. I played scrabble for the first time the other night. I was probably the only person in the world who had never played it.
I think we all did very well and all learned a lot about each other and how the world works.

BUGS!
I have never seen so many bugs. They are everywhere in Hawaii. If you think the insect world dominates the tropics, you are correct. I am constantly being bitten by something. The mosquitoes are obnoxious and hard to trick. I took vitamin B 12 100 grams and that was no help. We burned a ton of incense, not much help. I put dryer sheets in my pockets, helped a little. Sometimes even Off did not help. Perfumes, oils, different soaps, arnica, different shampoos and more.
I was eaten alive by either something in the rental car or in the hotel Manago. I looked up bed bugs on line and did a thorough search in my mattress with no results. Everyday I had a few welts. First on the bra line, then the sock line, then the waist line. It seemed like it was after riding in the car. Who knows how long it takes welts to happen. There are roaches everywhere. You just slap them and keep moving. Fleas are on my socks every now and then. Gnats, mosquitoes, fleas, roaches, moths, centipedes, and more. Phew! And I am great bait and allergic to almost every one.
The other problem for everyone here is rats. They are everywhere. They need more cats around.

FAR FROM HOME, LOOKING FOR A PADDLE
The big island is a long way from Tulsa. It scared me to think coming home could be difficult. I even imagined paddling the canoe at one point but found it a bit impractical. My left arm is still sore and that could slow me down.
I really want to get home and hope the journey home is not to difficult and is another interesting adventure.

BE HOME SOON I HOPE
If all goes well, I will be home April 2nd late in the morning. I don't know how quickly I will adjust to the time frame. If I am lucky I will just sleep and rest on the plane and then hit the ground running.

CONTINUE THE BLOGGING
I plan to continue my blog with art and pottery ideas and more of my book info. And of course, I will post any info about my block selling. Nothing has happened yet, thank goodness. I will be cleaning and sorting and selling all kinds of cool stuff I have collected over the years. It is time to share the cool stuff and let someone else have it for a while.
Thanks for all the emails while I have been here. It is fun to see who is reading this thing. If you have enjoyed it, drop me a line and let me know at Claylady00@aol.com. Remember the 00's are numbers not letters. I'll use this blog like a web site soon until I can figure out how to make a web page.

Thank you all!