Things to be excited about Monday morning....

Well, I have to be honest, days of the week tend to blend together for me, as I tend to work the same on weekends as weekdays. However I know most people out there with "real" jobs tend not to look forward to Mondays. With this in mind I bring you "Things to be excited about Monday morning"

To top the list, Christy finished her first ever Triathlon this weekend. She's been training all summer and so not surprisingly (to me at least...her coach) she did great. Yeah!!! Christy!

Next on the list of things to be excited about is our Ming dynasty pots. I took some real pictures of them for your viewing enjoyment. I never would have guessed we could afford pottery that was made in the 1400's. Surprisingly enough we bought these for less than some pots that we sold in our own gallery. Feels like a steal really.
We bought two pots, first off a beautifully decorated small bowl.



We also bought a small bottle.
Pretty exciting huh? Well I'm excited at least....


Also exciting......... Our kitchen:

I need to switch over to making pots pretty soon as the Fall Art Tour is quickly approaching and we want to put on a good showing. My brother and his wife are coming to visit this weekend from Washington state. I'm hoping to have the the Kitchen, Bathroom (the bathroom is in about the same shape as the kitchen), and Bedroom all painted and hopefully have the trim up before they get here. Always good to set some goals, as I work best with deadlines clearly set... keeps me from procrastinating too much. After their visit I'll be back on the wheel until our next firing in early October.
enjoy your Monday
Joe

Hidden Treasures

We spent the weekend in Door County, WI. Friday night Aaron, Krista, Joe, and I boogied down at a wedding celebration for close friends, and Saturday we slept in at our lovely little bed and breakfast before heading to The Linden Gallery. Both Joe and Krista had been tipped off that The Linden Gallery was the place to go to see pottery in Door County.

Our informants were correct!

Amongst the incredible array of contemporary and ancient Chinese art, the Lindens have a treasure trove of ancient pottery, including lots from the Ming and Sung Dynasties. And they were nice enough to let us sprawl out on the floor and pull stacks of pots out to look through.

It was like being at the Freer Gallery, except we could handle all of the pots (and we took a few home, too, which is frowned upon at the Smithsonian).

Brian Linden also gifted us each a lighted magnifying glass of the sort that antiquities dealers use to distinguish the real from the really good fake ancient pottery.

Krista confirmed that we were indeed looking at Ming Dynasty pots.

We will be more than happy to show you what we came home with next time you swing by Windy Ridge!

tile tile tile!

Looks like we might have ourselves a kitchen floor sometime soon!

yellow

We picked out paint for the kitchen and bathroom today, and Joe got started painting right away. Although we forgot the old "it-will-look-darker-on-the-wall" rule of selecting paint, I am thrilled at the prospect of a sunny yellow kitchen. Although every step in our house process is important (or so I've heard!), painting is just so much more visibly transforming than, say, reinforcing floor joists. More pics tomorrow!

A week in review

Well, a week went by and I've dropped the ball on keeping the blog updated. So here is your week in review through pictures:

Winks kept the busy keeping the slab roller warm as Christy worked on pots.

A couple of Christy's boxes in progress. As they are not my pots I can feel free to tell you all that they turned out great (hopefully they'll be even better after they are fired). I'm glad that Christy is still able to find time to make pots in between her two jobs.


I spent a good portion of this last week working on the house. The kitchen and bathroom both have some new floor joists and a new sub floor and are primed and just need to be painted and tiled. Here is a picture of the bedroom, which I'm in the process of patching up all the walls and ceiling. Lots of cracked plaster, and holes where we put new wiring in.

Finally the most exciting thing this week for me:


We got two new crates of shelves from Kohler! I drove up Monday morning to pick up the shelves and spent the night with my good friends Chris and Adream in Milwaukee. It has been a while since I've spent time with them and it was good to catch up, and meet the newest edition to the family Karina who was born this January... I would put in a picture of her here, but I forgot to bring my camera with me.
Anyways I spent this evening unloading all the shelves. pheew... Although I'm not nearly as fast as they are, the more time I spend biking the more my arms start to resemble the arms of Frank and Andy Schleck. Shown here showing off there "guns" after a stage of this years Tour de France.

Not a bad thing when your racing your bike over the French Alps... not so good though when you have two crates of 100 pound shelves to unload.
Joe


PS-Collin I responded to your comments in the comment section, drop me a line if you want Kohler contact info.