Planting with Broken Pots

As you may know I've spent the last several months making a truckload of ceramic garden stakes, so I thought it just might be appropriate for me to actually *plant* the herb garden too. I use fresh herbs in my cooking all the time, so why not?

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I have a terribly black thumb. Nevertheless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed (sans the thumb) that my herb garden will somehow not know that it was me who planted it. My daughters helped me and the jury is still out on what color their thumbs are, so with any luck together we’ll fool the basil.

As an usual accent, we lined the edges of the garden with broken pottery shards. That was particularly fun - we took some of my old unusable or flawed pottery pieces and we smashed them down onto concrete. I'm sorry that I didn't think to record the delicious sound that made...it was an indescribable sensory delight. It made the girls giggle and the neighbors peek over the fence to see what we could possibly be doing! (There goes the neighborhood!)

Good to the Last Drop, Part I

In an effort to minimize waste and in the true spirit of recycling, I save every bit of excess clay that I generate. Here are some scraps from smoothing the edges on my garden stakes. They are so picturesque in their own way; I often frustrate my creative juices trying in vain to figure out what could be done with such perfectly delicious curlicues of clay. Just for indulgent fun, I once even plunked some down onto a kiln shelf and bisque fired them! Of course they emerged more permanent but alas, they still refused to communicate their purpose to me.

My kids like breaking them up into little bits...it's almost as much fun being the first and lucky person who gets to drag a knife across the top of a new tub of butter. My kids fight over that one. I think I'll buy two tubs next time just to avoid the conflict. And maybe an extra one just for me.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the airport

I've been invited to join several other artists selling their wares in the gift shop of the Flushing Town Hall Council on Culture and the Arts! Very, very excited about this! Flushing Town Hall hosts art exhibitions and various music and dance performances, plus they have a gorgeous gift shop to boot!

So this past Sunday, I brought the whole family with me to set up our shelves and hang up another, larger wind chime. It looks beautiful...I feel both exhilaration and anticipation at the same time. I hope, hope, hope it works out!

Mother’s Day

My first experience celebrating Mother’s Day as the mother being celebrated (as opposed to the daughter celebrating her mother) was when I was pregnant with my first born. A friend of the family sent me a Mother’s Day card in the mail and I read it in disbelief, partly amused that I would soon be a mother and partly shocked into realizing that this meant I too could legitimately celebrate Mother’s Day. Today my girls are 7 and 9 and I revel in the pampering and handmade gifts that they shower upon me.

Here is a picture taken sometime in the mid 70s of me, a friend and my mother on the day we added our Siamese cat, Rastis, into the family. I’m the little cowgirl on the right with the fabulous hair and the exquisite one is Mom.

I miss her, on Mother’s Day especially.

Watch me

This is my favorite watch. I probably shouldn't but I wear it every single day as long as I'm not getting covered in clay. It is handmade by a company called "Shablool" which in Hebrew means "snail" - funny name for a watch maker, don't you think?

I bought it several years ago during a trip to Israel. Well, that isn't really true...I picked it out and was admiring my newly spectacular wrist for a moment but when I went to pay the bill I discovered that my brother-in-law had already paid for it. Is it ok to fall in love with your brother-in-law too?

My perfect vibe

Vered Skolnik of http://www.veroque.etsy.com/ recently put together another most gorgeous treasury, only this time she called it "Her Morning Elegance" and added a link to the YouTube video of Oren Lavie's song of the same name. It is the most remarkable of compositions in every way; I've been watching it over and over obsessively. Here is the link ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

Please tell me I'm not the only one whose heart melts watching this.

Love Letters of Late