Gingerbread House Competition

Jerry, Cousin Erin, Friend Amanda, and I went to the Gingerbread House Competition that they held at George Washington's Birth Place, Ferry Farm. This is something that we love to do every year.

The theme this year was historic houses.

People have amazing imaginations!

Christmas Windows

At Christmas time, Jerry and I love to visit Old Down Town Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is near our home. Here we peek in the windows of historic shops. The charm really shines out at night when the tree lined streets are lit up with Christmas lights. These are the streets that Washington and his family members walked. In fact, Georg Washington was born on the other side of the river, at Ferry Farm. His mother and sister lived in Fredericksburg. President James Monroe had his law practice here. Also, President Lincoln visited here to give a speech to soldiers after they had battled on the streets of Fredericksburg during the Civil War. At that time, Clara Barton had been nursing troupes in this city.

We love to look into the decorated store windows of Fredericksburg.

I love the mouse scenes put on every year in this set of windows.

Hair Cut

Jerry and I have been growing our hair so that we can donate it to Locks of Love. Soon I will post pictures of our hair after it has been cut.

New pots

Here are some of my new pots. You can see how small they are when you look at them next to a regular object - like a pencil. So small!! So Cute.

Here is a picture of me working on one of the pots. You can see my reflection in the mirror that I use to help me see the side of my pot as I work.

Christmas time in Bluefield!

I love it when it snows in Bluefield! It is so beautiful! The snow kept falling for several hours and I don't know how much we got, but it sure was a lot! And it was the good kind too! :)

This is the "pizza-oven" kiln, hehe, I call it that because it looks like a pizza oven! :) It takes a lot of pots to fill this bad boy up!

Professor Walter Shroyer and I worked together on some firings.

After filling up the big "pizza-oven" on Saturday we came back on Sunday, after Church, to do a raku firing! The little pots are so small! Oh dear! I'm always afraid of them breaking...:/

After we fire them in the lil'raku oven we put them in trash-cans filled with sawdust and paper to burn over night.


Oh, and this is inside of the lil'guy! Hehe!!! :)

Well that's it for now! I'll show you all more in the morning when I get up! Time for bed!

Sleep, sleep, I got to go to sleep!

The LATEST!!!

So what's new with the Chocolate Box Painting? A lot! As my husband walked in the door tonight the first thing he noticed was how the candy with the bite in it looks like it is popping out from the surface. Whew! That's a good sign! Here's a close up of it and you can see the close ups of the different textures!



Just as with the baseball player and all of my paintings I'm using the blow up photo for scale, the smaller photograph for reference and the actual object for greater accuracy.

And of course! The Guinea Pig Pattie is with me! LOL! However the only advice she has for me: "get me a carrot"! LOL!

As soon as I can get all of these pieces 'lifted up' in a three dimensional look then I'll add in the black background and the contrast will make these pieces just pop-OUT!!! :)!

Heading into the LAST WEEK OF CLASSES!!! AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So it's the last week of classes coming up and you can bet that we'll be in the art building for a very long period of time each day!

Before you ask, no we DO NOT awake at 4AM! That's the time we got home from the art building two nights ago! LOL!


Here are some of my new Ceramic pieces:

Carousel Box that when put together will go around in a circular shape!!!! :)

SEE!!! :)

And of course, we don't just work at the art building we eat, sleep and practically live there!