Of apple pie and new things...

I, for some reason, have suddenly jumped into a few shows coming up in the next month. Which gives me very little time to get ready. Good thing I was already making things for Christmas, because I'm now deep in a festival of painting. Lots of painting. Tiny painting. Hee hee! So, whoever lives nearby or will be in NC can check me out at the Matthews Art Fest on the 26th and 27th of this month. I will be right beside the gazebo alongside my very dearest friend, photographer extraordinaire Sharon Augustyniak.

All these preparations and custom orders have put me on a fast schedule of firing, the latest of which finished last night. I put myself to the test of getting the latest mud team challenge entry finished and barely made it. I was taking pictures at eleven thirty last night and sweating bullets trying to think of something clever to say about a sake set. Clever doesn't come easily at certain times of day. Clever was woefully absent last night. I really liked how the set came out, though!

I had a few other things come out that were new and turned out well. I had done a treasury for etsy awhile back that featured yunomis, little drinking cups, and got inspired. Also, I have been doing large wide bowls with elaborately tall and sweeping bases. Put the two together, and this is what you get:

I also did a tiny tea set, inspired by Wren always wanting "Wren-sized things". She gets so excited about finding things that fit her perfectly, so I think she'll be getting a tea set this Christmas. Of course, I asked her which pattern she liked best, and she chose the night garden. Figures!

Speaking of the night garden, I managed to finish a ridiculously time consuming plate in that pattern to put in this firing and was so proud when I opened the kiln and saw how it came out.

Until I looked at it from the side and saw the warping. Oops.

Oh well. And finally, this week I made my first apple pie. You may be looking at me askance and thinking, why did it take you thirty-four years to bake an apple pie, but I do not come from an apple pie family. I came from a pecan pie family. Or strawberry in the summer. Wren and I went apple picking at a local farm and had a lot of questionable apples. Questionable because she picked all of them in about five minutes with me running after her with a camera. It was a photographable moment, but we didn't get the nicest apples. And, ever since we had a peach tree in our yard that I decided to sample from, I have a fear of nature in my fruit. Never again will I bite directly into a piece of fruit not from the grocery store. Ugh. Cutting first, please. Which led me to the idea of a pie. However, another reason I have never made an apple pie is, I don't really like them. Well, I do now. I did the whole thing, from the crust to the apples and it was delicious. In case you are mentally accusing me of type-A-ism, I was going to use a store bought crust, but they are full of lard and that freaks me out. And, I found, pie crusts are no harder to make than biscuits are and so much more delicious than the things from the frozen depths of the store. Behold the beautiful results. Yum!