Skating in the New Year!

On New Year's Eve, Sadie, Heather and I hit the rink at the Civic Center, and most graciously, it did not hit back!

Sadie & Heather, queens of the ice!

I went for a brief skate the week before with roomie Libby and her family, and was quite proud for not falling down after getting on skates for the first time in ... years. This week it was for about an hour, and all three of us stayed skating upright the entire time (and didn't kill ourselves, not even once!). And I'm even more impressed with the lack of sore muscles, which considering how much time I spend hunkered over a wheel, I can only attribute to my personal trainer Lissa and her daily hiking sessions.

To see action footage, check out heater's blog. Anyone in the Asheville area, the skating continues throughout January, and I highly recommend it!

Today, I'm catching up on emails and starting to get things in order for what I hope to be the last move for a while. It has been a blissfully relaxing month at Libby & Julie's 'retreat', and I am so grateful to have had that after the excitement and turmoil of the months that led up to it. I'm really looking forward to this move, to getting to know my new roommate, to being walking distance to the studio and to unpacking! And after that, I'm most anxious to get back to work in the studio!!

Another note for anyone in the AVL area - I'll be having a CraigsList and/or actual yard sale in the coming week or so, as I know there is much in storage that will not find space in the new home.

There still seems to be a nice, holiday laziness about the town, and I hope everyone has been enjoying a peaceful holiday surrounded by love. Happy New Year!

work is good

It has been a rather frantic time in Lori-land of late. Rushing to get a kiln fired for the Studio Stroll exhibit with the other Odyssey Residents, losing a good portion of the load to a very silly glaze mixing oversight (but still gleaning some good stuff from it even so), working feverishly to get the studio up on its feet in spite of a lot of financial clenching from clients and students (understandably, but if one more person says to me 'wow you picked quite a time to start a new business!'), and also trying to find a place to live. The last two weeks have been full of it all, and the next couple of weeks include finding the perfect home for me & the wonder dog, filling yet another kiln, getting the studio on stronger ground in its new open studio format, planning the workshops that are gonna rock in the new year and getting more work out so I can have work to show/sell/represent, and of course the much anticipated East West Asheville Holiday Art Walk.

So today it's a quiet day in the studio as far as member activity, and I just realized I must have left my phone at home, which adds to the peace. This morning I did some work on the marketing, did some new home searching and communicating with potential roommates, did some work on new show/grant/client submissions. good. But for the past few hours, I've just been working. Cleaning up the mugs I put handles on yesterday, trimming the platters that finally dried enough (using my new 'WCT' tool and loving it!), finishing up an order for ornaments and getting things ready to load into the bisque. This is the good work that makes everything else worthwhile. Got my music up, the dog is snoring in the corner behind the wheel, until the wind blows and she barks at leaves falling past the window, and there are trim scraps just about everywhere.

having fun with the new trim tool

love it love it love it!

I'll have to go get the phone, get back to work on these submissions, work out some new marketing ideas, get another mailing ready and perhaps even settle on a place to live. It's all gonna happen and keep happening, but this time of actually doing the work that I work so hard to be able to do...I am grateful.

getting lined up for the kiln