heres  a picture of an umbrella stand,, [only the second one ever to turn out] that was a last minute christmas commision ,, i made it in only 6 days from start to finish and it turned out to be one of the nicest pieces ive eve made,, i really busted my ass to get it finished and its beauty stopped traffic all weekend while it was displayed proudly next to me and the throwing wheel,, then i had to give [sell] it away,, i was really torn when i was strapping it into the customers' carseat as it was going away never to be seen again to an unknown person,, and who knows if she would even like it or appreciate all the work that went into it,,, i was sick to my stomach for the next 2 days over it,,, how wacky,,, from now on my best work will only be sold to people i know and trust,, again how wacky,,

heres more info about my new home,, which im happily living in and having the time of my life, enjoying the country life,, see the picture on the front page of the website

weve always wondered what inspired the architect sam stoltz to create such an unusual masterpiece of architecture in the boondocks of florida,,

anyways the book ''storybook style'' gave us the answers,, the storybook style,[crazy old european style craftsmen style]  it seems that in LA during the heyday of grand epic silent films, craftsmen and builders were brought over from europe to create sets for silent films of exotic faraway places, [think robin hood and castles and french chateaus]
in 1921 Harry Oliver an art director from hollywood designed an built  the ''Spandena House'' as an office and movie set for the Willets movie studio,,, the house is very similar to ours [ours is much more imaginitive] and it was featured in the magazine ''home designger and garden beautiful'' several times,, my thinking is that Sam Stoltz saw the magazine and the Spandena House'' and was inspired to out do it and created our home,, actually ours is the second version of Sams creation, as the first try burnt down,,

its fasincating to think that hollywood movies were the inspiration for my home!!!

by the way we are still marveling at the beauty of the house and property and trying to figure out how to make everything work,, clint has been doing lots of odd jobs, as he is the only one who knows how to fix 80 year old windows and toilets,,

im busting butt making potteries for the January extravaganza, as im up to my ears in commisions [these days im not about to let a dime get past me]  the studio is filled w/ unfinished pots, and hopefully they will all turn out to be treasures
which reminds me i better get to work,, im still at the old studio so i have to comute like a real job 

as you can see by the picture , i have a bigass christmas tree standing upright in front of the front windows,, i got the tree for 30 bucks at the lowes store!! thats practically free for a 12 foot tree,,

well we are almost moved in,, all we need is to move the tv and bed,, and we are still battling comcast,, its been two weeks of constant phones call to get cable ,, i could do 10 pages of all the shenanigans that weve been thru!!!

clint managed to fix the ''toilet-on-a-throne'' upstairs,, so now i can *** like royalty!!

the opening last friday at the Backus Museum  was a big success,, i sold lots of potteries and made lots of new pals,, i was so busy chatting that i never even got near the buffet of hor-deorves,,

i got really nervous before the opening, what if nobody talks to me? what if everybody hates my pots? what if i dont sell anything?  so i chugged a few beers and ate a whole pack of rolaids before i got the nerve to walk in the gallery,,i dont know why this happens? but as soon as i walked in i could see all the ''sold''  stickers on my pots and everybody was most friendly, i dont know why i flipped out

we drove down there in a 4 hours torrential downpour and it was the same weather driving back only colder

bob didnt want to go to the opening as Al's diner had ''allyoucaneat'' fried fish night so he dropped me off went and ate all the fried fish he could eat and talked politics w/ Al while he ate,,, then he went back to the motel and went sound asleep,,

COMPLETELY FORGETTING TO COME PICK ME UP AFTER THE SHOW!!

luckily Kathleen the backus boss spotted me sitting alone in the cold dark wet parking lot and gave me a ride back to the motel,, bob felt really bad and went and got me mickyD burgers and fries [ did pitch a fit]

AND my kilns are both working,, the tile table top is fired and ready for assembly,,i figure it will take me all day today,,

life is good

seeing as my place at renningers is low on potteries i brought out all my stuff im moving and have no room for,, including my kickass 1970s space age stereo and i also brought out a bunch of kitshy florida souveniers, and few radios and scarey lamps

i also hoping to have to house in decent shape by a week from sunday [dec. 20th] and invite all of you out to visit in the afternoons,,  more news on that later,, i cant wait to show off my new digs !!
ok back to work,

well i had a great show at the renningers 3 day extravaganza,, Mandy did ''WOW'' w/ her resturant,,
the next morning i began my 9 day [so far]  routine of making pottery for the Backus Christmas exhibition/MOVE into my new home,,

every day i get up a 4 am and make pottery till it gets light outside and then take off to the new place and clean and move,,, come home and fire up the kiln,, the big kiln is still dead so im having to use the little one, which only holds 3 pots at a time

     ive scrubbed that house from top to bottom, including my new studio,, so far ive gone thru 40 contractor trash bags,, and a gallon of floor cleaning concentrate,, clint and i fixed all the broken windows [mostly clint] and we've been working all over cleaning and fixing, the biggest mystery of the house is ''where is the goddang water shut off valve?'' we cant fix the toilet till we can turn off the water,,,

my frineds Patrick and Jerry came over and blessed the house catholic style w/ holy water and indian style w/ burning sage,, so now theres only friendly spirits roaming about,,,

 AND we got a refridgerator!! 

thursday the cable guy comes to hook up the tv/pc,, friday  and sturday we're off to the backus museum and sunday i can take the day off and go throw pots at renningers,,, then next week get a truck and start moving my furniture into the house,,mostly the bed,, we may have to hoist it up over the balcony as the stairs are too narrow,,
alrighty i gotta back to packing,,,
heres a picture of the living room as it looks today,, the furniture keeps moving around and around