i worked diligently on the goldarn mosaic,, it took an entire day to glaze all 183  pieces,, i got them all loaded in the kiln and the kiln pooped out on me,, im hoping its not broke just too many kiln shelves in it covered w/ tiles for it to heat up all the way,,

ive worked that poor kiln to death for 6 years now,, and i need a new one

therefore,, im selling my florida souvenier jewelery collection,, its 40 + pieces,, mostly brooches,, 9 alligator tooth,,[3 carved] 2 rare olive common  pices of the 6 i have,, and lots more treasures,, i want to sell the whole collection together if i can,, i will have it out at the extravaganza this weekend,,

i still havent gotten moved into the house but its on my agenda next week,, pottery comes first,, but we do have water now, so i can start cleaning and watering the lawn,, and then get a bed and cable tv, and a fridge,, and on and on,,
ok i gotta get back to work,, im making pots for the backus christmas show

well bob and i closed on our new [actually pretty old ] home,, it was a pretty tense day ;,, sitting and waiting for something to go wrong, we signed a million papers and Gina the realtor handed us the keys [none of the keys fit into anything]
god bless Gina,, shes been trying to sell this masterpiece of architecture for almost 3 years,, along the way she got a lung infection when sweeping out the mess and then she fell down the stairs when we were trying to buy it,,[she still wears a boot/cast] she was glad to finally be done w/ it and knowing it was going to a good home [ a home going to a good home?]Gina is just the best!!

it was sort of a letdown, afterwards,,

we toasted w/ champagne,,''TO ARMAGOSSA!!''
 
and then started discussing everything that had to be done,, the well pump is tomorrow,, and then a fridge, and a dumpster,, and then trying to find time to move,, and then a battle royal between bob and i over whose stuff goes where,, and yoig and peanut have to be fenced in as they run willy-nilly all over the place every time they are there
a lifetime of fun,, im so excited,,

well i tried up post a picture of my mosaic, but the inter-web isnt cooperating,, anyways the next morning after my mosaic disaster i was up at 4 am ready to do it again,, i cant stand failure,, i decided to simplify the whole thing and ended up w/ 181 tiles, all of them labeled! and i photographed the whole thing for further refrence when trying to piece it all back together,,, Suzy said i should keep it simple and just make it a jigsaw puzzle and let folks put it together themselves,, [brilliant idea!! why didnt i think of it??]

''armagossa'' is a movie you can rent on netflix, about a middleaged lady from NY who got stranded in death valley and bought the theater and motel in the ghost town she landed in and turned the theater into her own opera house where she performs a one woman ballet weekly,,[always sold out!]  its a wonderful story of creativity and bravery,, and what can be done w/ a wonderful old building,, im always inspired by her,,,
thats all folks,, oh wait heres a picture of  my gator box,, the 3 gators on top are lids that come off for storing treasures in the log

heres a picture of my seminole indian cookie jar,, im most pleased at the way it turned out,,  years ago i made a cookie jar as a christmas gift, and didnt take in account the shrinkage of the clay during the firing and i made one that only a newborns hand would be able to reach in a get a cookie,, i made doubley sure i didnt repeat that mistake,, this cookie jar will hold  a bunch a dang cookies

yesterday i started a mosiac table top,, so i drew and cut out a template and then cut out all the pieces,, 154 pieces,, and then i tried to assemble them,, but i forgot what it looked like,, so i had to reassemble the template,,
ive never got the hang of putting jigsaw puzzles together,, so that was a mess,, i got most of it together and decided i better start carving and assembling the pieces before they got too dry,,,,,
 then after about 10 minutes i realized i had no idea what i was doing and after a quick meltdown i threw all of it away,,, a day and half of work and nothing to show for it,, im mad at myself for not thinking it thru,, i will try again tomorrow [if first you don't succeed,,,,,]

well 47 hours till we close on the most incredible house in the state of florida,, which will be our new home,,  every coupla hours i get emails of stuff im supposed to print out and sign and all kinds of stuff i dont quite understand,,i figure i have till thursday to read it,,

i can no longer complain about how long this whole thing took, as last friday they added a 6500 dollar tax credit for home buyers,,  it appears that i qualify,, so i guess god was looking out for me,,[ i know god doesnt care about me buying a house, so  i figure its his way to make up for the whole broken leg ordeal, which i didnt deserve]

im starting to make of list of things to do to get ready to move and then the packing and moving,,, i still have stuff i havent unpacked when i moved here 20 years ago,, i figure i will make pots during the daylight hours and move in the dark, or maybe vice versa,, its exciting and overwelming,, and i cant wait,, and im dreading it,,,
of i gotta go, im treating myself to a digornos frozen pizza for dinner,,