Additional News

I was hoping to be able to post a picture of my embroidery Dr Suess baby quilt that I made, but due to a mistake on my part in allowing someone else to help in the edging, I have to redo that. The quilt was done, but I washed it and when it came out of the dryer 3/4 of the edging that someone else did had come out, fraying a lot of the backing material. I am in the process of trying to get it back to completion but you will have to be patient seeing as I have a few other things on my plate right now.

I start my new job on Monday, and I have quite a few codes and things to memorize. I also had a dental appointment today, and I am proud to announce that even after 25 years of horrible eating and drinking habits, I am still cavity and filling free.
I also received a steroid injection on Monday into my elbow. Apparently I have Tennis Elbow- despite never playing tennis or doing anything that resembles that type of movement. My pinky and ring finger on my left hand have been tingly/numb since my dad's 50th Birthday Party and this shot should help relieve the inflammation that is pressing on my ulnar nerve. If this doesn't help, I will receive a referral to an Orthopedist, and then possibly surgery.

Third Times a Charm or Three Strikes you're Out?

For my littlest niece I stove to build her a toadstool bank. Attempt number 1 was adorable. It had a butterfly and a caterpillar. However, the base was not even (it curled a little) so it was only sitting on 3 of the 5 feet and where the top of the mushroom met with the underside didn't seal properly. I attempted to fix these. The seam by wetting and adding more clay, the base by sanding it down. Looking back, I should have waited until the piece was bisque so it was stronger, but I am forever impatient and decided to sand it anyway- with my dad's belt sander. To be perfectly honest- It worked GREAT. except I put too much downward pressure at the front, under the caterpillar and rock and snapped that part off. But the other legs were golden! However because of that break, I couldn't get it to reconnect and the crack just spread.  So I smashed the whole thing and recycled the clay. 

Strike 1

Attempt number 2 came the same day that I trashed Strike 1. I used the same basic design, but instead of letting this one dry as quickly, which is why the seam never would seal properly, I would make sure it was given plenty of time to dry slowly.  Same basic design, but I made the base bigger and made sure that it was flat when I connected the pieces together. This did great for 3 days, until I came out on Sunday morning and saw a HUGE crack up the shaft of the toadstool, on both sides. I think maybe the weight of the mushroom top was too much and it just buckled under the pressure. I was so upset, I loved the little mushrooms at its base and the little snail! Luckily my class is Monday and Wednesday nights so I was able to ask my instructor for her opinion.

Strike 2

 Her opinion was that my clay was too weak and that I should add some paper to it to stiffen it up. Great idea, but because I really didn't feel like doing anything else Monday night, I decided to play with the potter's wheel, where I tried my hand at making a ball. Well, needless to say, my ball was no where near round, but it was enclosed. So I decided to make this my mushroom top. I made a base/bowl as well on the wheel, then Wednesday I worked to put them together. Since I am still very green when it comes to using the wheel, both pieces were way too thick, an inch thick rather than 1/4-1/2 inch thick, I spent a majority of my Wednesday night thinning them down. Tonight I finished what I hope will by my Third Times a Charm rather than my third strike on this bank style. I added circles to the top, which will be a different color than the rest of the head, a snail climbing it, a lady bug on the base, and a butterfly. Also, even though I have it blurred for privacy reasons, Frog's name is etched into it. There is a rubber stopper in the bottom to allow an easy release of money when needed, and the coin slot is on the other side of the bank.

Strike or Charm?

Keep your fingers crossed that this bank actually makes it to the kiln to be fired to bisque. If it fails, I guess I will have to think of another design for poor little Frog. Am I out? or Charmed?

Dear Fashion Designers

Dear Fashion Designers,
I am your average client. I am a woman in my middle twenties who has self image issues and wants clothing to flatter the parts I like and hide the parts I don't. I am not your 5'10" 100lbs girl who has no more hips than she does doctorates or your 5'4" 130 lbs girl with boobs bigger than her hips, that you apparently design all of your clothing for. I am pear shaped, I have a relatively standard waist and rather large hips and ass.

 


I do not dislike my hips or ass in the least bit, in fact, they are one of my favorite physical aspects. BUT, you and your design skills make me loathe them every time I try to buy clothing. From dresses, to skirts, to jeans, and especially shorts, my hips and butt eliminate me from wearing the cutest of items. I love your flowy little skirts that were inspired by the 70s, but why can you only create them in the micro, micro minis that are of a reasonable length in the front, but do not cover my panties in the back, or the ankle length skirts that because of my height only reach the bottom of my calf?

I love the look of pencil skirts, but unless I buy 2 sizes or more bigger than I really need and have someone basically remake it for me, I cannot wear them. You design for women without hips, without a butt, truly without curves. I HAVE CURVES (at least to my lower body). Even if I wear Spanx, I cannot reduce enough of that tush to wear that classic skirt. Do I even want to reduce the size of my derriere?  Quite honestly no. I love that part of my body that screams, "I am a woman, here are my curve! If you can't handle it, walk away!" Especially since due to my lack of a chest, I have always felt that I had a very boyish figure. I've even been called a "9 year old boy" while we were overseas in 2009, repeatedly. Did this bother me? No, for 2 reasons, the person who initially said it was joking and I knew he was joking, but mostly because in my uniforms (thankfully) there was so much bulk material that any shape was camouflaged. I didn't want them to notice me, I would rather be a little boy to them, but I'm not in the military anymore and damnit I want to be able to dress like a woman!

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I enjoy my little butt, and I'm sure when the time comes for me to have my children, I will appreciate my wide hips even more than I already do. But right now, simply because of clothing designers, I am frustrated with my shape. I want to feel pretty in clothing and not have to buy everything in the largest size possible and have it remade. I tried on the cutest dress today at Kohls, which I cannot find on their website, but they had only a medium and extra large. I'm sure a large would've fit nearly perfectly since the medium fit my top half, and the extra large fit my hips.

Also, why are all shirts so low cut? I am not well endowed by anyone's standard when it comes to a chest but I do like shirts with an interesting neckline, rather than tee shirt style necks. But at the same time, I don't want to have to pull my shirt up every 5 minutes because my bra is showing- yesterday is a perfect example because that's what I did ALL DAY, and I had an undershirt on as well. I wear undershirts every day now, unless I'm wearing a tee shirt. I shouldn't have to, but I do because all of the shirts that are large enough for my arms- which are not fat by any means, and long enough to cover the tops of my pants, have such deep necks that you could see my entire bra, or are such a thin material that you can tell exactly what shapes and colors are on my bra (including and bow or design in the center of the chest piece).
Please, please, please! Clothing designers! Please make clothing that fits the average woman!! I do not think that my body type is so entirely different than a lot of other women. 33, 31, 41.5- besides maybe a larger chest, I think I'm pretty normal. Design things for my body type!!

For the Love of Ceramics

I am feeling very accomplished lately. I was able to bring home 3 completed ceramic pieces tonight- only 1 of which went directly in the trash. I like the other 2. 

My birdhouse, I love in its entirety. I love the color of the body. Even though the bees didn't come out exactly as I originally intended, I do believe that it turned out very good! I love that it looks weathered and rain stained. I am just very pleased with it.

Piece numbero two, I love the flowers, but the bowl and leaves did not turn out the way I wanted. None of the glaze on the body held so I broke off all the leaves and will grind down what is left. But I really do LOVE the color on the lilies, especially the center one. I think it turned out the best.

I also turned in my frog, books, and abstract banks to be fired to bisque. Yay. Hopefully I will be able to glaze those on Wednesday. I also hope to get to work on the toadstool bank on Wednesday. I have a few methods I will try. My instructor told me to add toilet paper to the clay and let that break down, this will strengthen the clay and help it bind together. I am also attempting to make the toadstool out of thrown clay (on the wheel). I have two pieces that I did tonight, I just hope that I can marry them Wednesday.

Additionally I have 2 chickens, a tree/clubhouse, a UT longhorn, and something brightly colored to do- all in the next 3 weeks since that is when all wet clay has to be turned in so it can be finished by the end of the semester. So what does this mean for me? I have to have something ready to turn in each class period, so I will be working on weekends. The something brightly colored I already have an idea, and am pretty sure I can knock that out this weekend. I have it all figured out in my head and I think it will fit the person very nicely. 

The longhorn and one of the chickens will start with the same basic body, then will be adapted to fit the respective animal. The house... I need my dad to draw me blueprints. Yes- I want legitimate blueprints since I do tend to approach this more from a mechanical aspect than a creative one. Lastly, will be the second chicken. Why is this one last and different than the other? This is for my sister in law, who has requested a large one, and because it is really going to be a prototype for a planter I will try and create this summer for her.

I am not worried if this does not get finished in the 3 weeks I have for this semester since I have no idea when I will be able to get to Ohio to give it to her. Sadly with A gone, it is too long of a drive for me to do alone, and with me starting my job on Monday, I don't know how long I have to be there before I get any vacation time. I am hoping that I can get at least some time off when A is home on his midtour leave, but we already discussed what we will do if I am unable to take time off. I will only work 8 hours a day, and I do get a weekend, plus since I am staying with my dad, we would be getting a hotel room anyways- 2 people do not fit in a twin bed, so we would just pick a place close to the airport so that there won't be much of a commute to and from work.

I must go to bed now though, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get a needle in my elbow. I'll explain that later.

Goodnight

I make Bank

So I have come to the point in my ceramics class that I am now working on making piggy banks for my friends and family- since I have already accomplished all of the required assignments we were given at the beginning of the semester.
I have already made 4 banks, which included the original Pig Bank that started this joyful project. My first little bank is a true to form piggy, about the size of a grapefruit. I love, love, love it. Cute little pointy ears and a curly tail.

Bank number 2 (attempt 1 and 2) is for my niece Z, she is a very spirited little girl who, like her mother, has an affinity for nature. I made her a toadstool bank. The first attempt dried to fast so one of the seams held a crack. No matter what I did,  I couldn't get those to heal. So I made a second one, this time I got it to dry slower and so hopefully I wont have that problem again. I am going to add a butterfly today, and I already have a cute little snail at the base. To make it more whimsical, the glazing is going to play the major role. Bright, playful colors to highlight nature. ***Edit: A third attempt will be made on this bank. I woke up this morning to find the entire base cracked- from the floor to the mushroom top. Hopefully third time's a charm***
Bank 3 was for my other niece M. 6th grade going on college graduate. M is a very outgoing, youthful girl with a very quirky attitude. She is also a bookworm, so for her, a stack of books. Each book's title is all about her, nicknames, personality, etc...
Finally Bank 4 is for a my friend N, I've known her for like 7 years. I actually dated her brother in high school, although I think the best thing I got out of that relationship was meeting N and becoming friends. She is a very artsy person; painting, jewelry, ceramics, you name it she can do it. Her choice of style for her bank was something modern or abstract. I love art, but I am not really sure about styles or names of styles of art, so I had to do a google image of both and neither really seemed to give me shapes that would work as a bank, so I made up something. I sent N a picture and she said it looked like a balloon, I thought it looked like a geometry light bulb. I guess we'll see when I glaze it if it really fits the abstract motif that I attempted.

So I am less than halfway through my list of requested banks. I have 2 chickens, 1 frog, 1 club/tree house, 1 brightly colored of my choice, and then 1 Celtic inspired one. I think perhaps today I will work on either the chicken or the frog. My two chickens are going to be completely different sizes. One the size of a gallon of ice cream, the other the size of a grapefruit.
Its been a very crafty semester- I am loving it. Maybe A should deploy more often so  I can spend all my time making things...

Riddle Me This President Batman

Our country is in debt. A TON of debt. So how is it that people who owe the government a TON of money are able to get away with only paying a fraction of that money? Why do we seem to reward individuals and companies who over extend themselves to such an extent that it seems they owe more than most of us make in a 2-10 year period of time?
I see all of the commercials online about how if you owe >$10,000 in credit card debt, we can help you reduce that an only pay 10% of that amount. If you owe the IRS >$20,000 we'll help you settle that and pay only a fraction of that amount. "We owed the government $5million, but we only had to pay $1.2 million"
Anybody really wonder why we are going broke?  How is it fair that I pay the correct amount of taxes in my paychecks, my husband pays enough in his paychecks, we pay our credit card bills, and we deal with not getting to take vacations to make sure our financial responsibilities are taken care of, but if we owed the government $1000, we would owe $1000, no if, ands, or butts about it.
Why are deals made only when you owe a huge amount of money? Wouldn't it benefit the government greatly to call in those debts? And why is it that a person who owes $5million to the IRS in taxes, who makes obviously a great deal more than that, is able to reduce that bill to a relatively paltry amount compared to their annual income? If you owe the IRS $5million, and estimate that 1/3 of your income is owed in taxes, you make $15million a year. Reduce the payment to 1.2 million and you are only paying 8% in taxes. Now imagine the same situation for a family who only makes $40,000 a year. Given the current tax brackets, instead of paying the 33% of the rich, us "poor" middle class families owe 15% in taxes. This would be $6000 annually. Although to the rich who has to pay $1.2 million, that seems to be such a lowly, insignificant number, to us- that is 2 months pay. An amount that can sink us if any emergency happens. So even without using current tax brackets, those who are more capable of paying into the government, who have disposable income and view our annual income as a vacation payment, pay less into the government than we do. Nearly half of our income percentage. Does anyone see this as fair?
I owe 15% of my income, why are those who make millions more than me able to pay half of that? Oh, thats right, the law makers and officials who make it possible for these actions are those who make that type of money. Our lawmakers and government officials make more than double to national average for the "average" worker. The President makes $450,000 annually, with a $50,000 expense account (in addition to 7 other expense accounts for other things including $1million for miscellaneous expenses) and he will continue to receive a paycheck for the rest of his life as well as personal security for him and his family. And before you ask- this has nothing to do with the current President since this was established in 1982.
The typical congressman makes $174,000 annually, 8x the amount that a Sergeant in the military makes. People have argued that the President's job is so stressful and that he is in danger for the rest of his life from assassination that he deserves such a high pay. I have to disagree to the fullest extent. A fire fighter who runs into a burning building every day and makes $41,000 a year. He risks his life every day he goes to work, wears his body down physically, potentially damages his lungs from the smoke, eyes from the heat and light of the fire, and the mental abuse he endures when he can't get everyone out of the building. The average military man makes less than $50,000 a year despite years in service.
Police Officers who risk their lives every day, who patrols you neighborhood to ensure your safety, who drives and walks around 10 hours a day to provide our country with security make on average $50,000. In any rational capacity can anyone explain to me how a man who only has to do a job for 4 years, constantly surrounded by security, and realistically has advisers and council members who come up with every action he needs to decide upon, is in more danger and deserves 11x that of our bravest men and women in our country?