heres a picture of my favorite new treasure,, its a painting by the highwayman rodney demps,,
i was visiting jeff cook and he has 2 paintings by rodney,,, i love that they are so loose and wild, rodney definitely has taken the highwaymen to a different cooler place,, anyways Jeffs gallery is doing so good that he is expanding [doubling ] the size of his gallery,, his paintings are wonderful and Jeff and Patty are good folks,,, Jeff is bringing a coupla Backus paintings out this weekend for the extravaganza,, what a treat!

well my eustis house is finally listed for sale ,, it should be on the MLS listing today and on realtor.com next week,, it took forever to get it ready, the weather has been so bad that the flowers in the front yard are still in their pots and i take them in and out every day,,  im sure it wil take forever to sell so im not anxious,but it sure would be nice,,, the house looks so pretty inside, better than when im living there

well im busting butt making pots in the artic florida winter,, im taking 9 new pots out of the kiln this morning and then refilling it to the brim w/ seminole indian maiden vases for the backus Museum the  next 2  weekends,,  ive been having good sales right along so i dont know what i even have at the market to sell beyond whats coming out of the kiln this morning,,

alrighty then im off to unload the kiln and put the flowers back out in the front yard [and wait for buyers] and finish up the dolls,, dont forget tomorrow starts the biggest and last extravaganza for the season,, be there or be square!

i was throwing this pot at the market and a pal Kathy was watching me, and asked what i was making ,, i replied a ''butt'' and she said ''well thats blog-worthy'' so here it is,, im trying to come up w/ some really cool for the febuary extravaganza [a week from friday] so this is it,,, admitedly it has a looongg way to go,,,
 stay tuned to see the finished masterpiece,,
and read the blog below it as it is new and informational

i finally found my camera,, it was at the bottom of the washing machine,, so i got another new one,, but the picutures were still good on the memory card,,
this is a picture of the pots i sent to the Backus /museum a few weeks back,, anyways Kalthleen and Debra called and says they need more pots NOW! and theyre having 2 events that i should attend for my show and tell [show and sell],, so i will be bringing my wheel down for throwing for 2 saturdays,,, the first is on the  saturday of the 27th, its ''pioneer days'' so the place will be filled w/ cowboys cracking whips and indians dancing  and dealing black jack [sorry about that remark, but if i hadnt lost i wouldnt so much i wouldnt have said it]

so i will be outside in my very own tent throwing pots,,

so im thinking that i will be a pretty boring attraction compared to whip crackers,, SO im going to come up w/ some ''pottery throwing tricks''!!!
     heres the 3 tricks ive thought of ,,
first throwing pots blindfolded,, i think i can do that as i wear trifocal glasses and cant see anything anyways ,,,
   the next trick is throwing a pot w/ one hand tied behind my back!!  maybe i can do that, i have 2 weeks to practice,,
and the third will be a magic trick where i put a chunk of clay in my mouth and spit out a finished pot,,, it will involve ''sleight of hand'',, is anybody out there a magician? does anybody know a magician? i figure i will have to throw pots in long sleeves for the magic trick part,,,,

i just want to entertain folks,, im a ''giver'',, what can i say?

the other appearence will be Sat, march 6th for the backus memorial weekend,,, again a tent,, [their tent not mine i dont have one], and i hope it isnt hard to put up as i have never met a tent that wasnt a pain in the ass to put up] on sunday they are cooking breakfast for 500 people [ i dont know why] 
i almost volunteered to help cook as im am an experienced short order breakfast cook of 17 years,, for once i kept my mouth shut, as i still have nightmares for that job,,

heres my secret ive been hiding,,,, my eustis house is [was] a toxic waste sight,, thats right,, i have,, or rather had an underground oil tank for my furnace,, a huge NO NO when you go to sell a house, and the EPA would have a hissy fit if they knew it was there ,,, long story short i spent a fortune having it dug up and removed,,, im so relieved now i can get my house on the market and sold,, even cooler is that Mandy is moving in while the house is on the market,, shes only been there one day but shes already given it that ''girl-y-ness'' its smells really good and has towels and candles everywhere,, and she makes me take my shoes off when i go in MY OWN HOUSE,

of course now the shower stopped working and the water heater is leaking,,, i love old houses,, something always DOESN'T work,,,  i must say im even more in love w/ my new home,, i just wandered all around every day in awe of it,,, bob has started his garden,, we have tomatoes, collards, brussel sprouts, onions, dalias and zinnias,, of course all of it is in pots and not planted yet, and bob bought me a blackberry [bush not the phone] for our 10th anniversary, i also have a little fig tree,, oh yeah and we have 3 camilias in bloon,, i love camilias its as close as you can get to a peony in florida, we are starting a big camilia garden as a famous grower lives down the road from us [martha stewart loves em too!]
i think we are all caught up,, im making pots like a crazy person