Uff Da!

Uff Da! My daughter has decided this is her new phrase. I told her that it would make her Grandma Ruth smile to hear her utter Uff Da*.



Recently I traveled home with my eldest sister, Liz, to help our mom out with the 35th Anniversary Party for her Crazy Ladies Bridge Club. (THAT is another story in and of itself.) During our visit we decided to help Mom clean out our older brother’s old bedroom so that she could use it for an office. My parents had their house built back in 1968, so after all these years she’s finally getting a space to spread out all her projects. It’s about time.

My mom is a notorious pack rat. She’s not an out of control hoarder like those people on cable, but she saves things. A lot of things. Sometimes she saves things because they are valuable. Mostly she saves things because they have a sentimental value associated with them. We joke that she’s saved things so long that they are now worth keeping because they are so OLD!

My mom takes great pride when she pulls out some long forgotten treasure for a special occasion. My brothers, sisters and I have benefited from many of these stashes of stuff over the years. We all give her a hard time about it, but down deep we are all likely grateful that she hasn’t taken the opposite path and pitched all of our childhood paraphernalia.

During the push to purge – well, rather re-organize as no purging was the rule - we discovered many treasures and a bit of trash – and a lot of in between. Liz and I travelled home with a few things that Mom was able to part with and pass on. One of the things I brought back with me was an hand carved “Uff Da” sign that my mom had bought years ago when she organized the Gregerson Family Reunion – a large gathering of the descendants of the seven Gregerson brothers who’d emigrated from Norway many generations ago.

Mom seemed a little perplexed that I would want the Uff Da sign. The puzzled look on her face seemed to reflect her thought about where in the world I would put that in my house! I quickly explained to her that I planned on putting the sign in my pottery studio. Yes, that made more sense to her now.

Uff Da is a perfect sentiment to what often happens in my studio. I hung the sign over my kiln.

My handy hubby is full of his Finnish Sisu**. He has a "SISU" sticker on his tool box that screams out this eerily real ancestor-like trait of his – sisu. He is one of those guys who doesn’t give up – has an inner strength to persevere. True sisu.


So why can’t I be full of Uff Da!!?! Ahh, I like the way that sounds - full of Uff Da.

************************************************************************************

*Uff Da - international exclamations that can express joy, frustration, bewilderment, etc. It is an analogue of such words in other languages as "oy vey" or "carumba." In Norway, Charlie Brown says, "Uff Da!" instead of "Good grief!"

**SISU- a uniquely Finnish quality; the word used to typify the Finnish spirit; a concept that is at the heart of how all Finns view themselves; a certain feature or value considered by Finns to be typically Finnish - endurance, resilience, tenacity, determination, perseverance - an inner reserve of diligence, capacity, the ability to face head-on and always overcome - craziness: the recklessness that inspires a person to take on something in the face of incredible odds - bravery, empowerment, inner strength

You know you are tired when...

1 - you send a customer a message to say you "just finished listing the two sets of bowls" but really type "I just finished listening for the two sets of boys. Feet were louder than mine."
WHAT?!?

2 - you wear your husband's glasses to bed and don't even notice that you can't see ANYTHING with them on.

Moral of this post: Don't type messages while head bobbing.

Goodnight.

No Solicitors... or maybe not?!?

Summer time seems to be open season for solicitors in our neighborhood. We live in a city that is pretty rural so there aren't sidewalks, etc... Most of the houses have driveways off of a main road.

Our home is in a small development of about 40 houses in a loop, which seems to make us a prime target for solicitors. I've never lived somewhere where we've had so many people try to sell us things. I'm all for supporting the Girls Scouts, Cub Scouts and other organizations like that. What I get SO tired of is the pest guys, tree guys, driveway sealers, a/c-heat guys, magazine salesmen, window washers, yard guys - all trying to sell us their services. If I needed their services, I wouldn't be waiting around for them to knock on my door.

I finally had it last summer after a particular bad week of solicitors that wouldn't take no for an answer and put up a small "No Solictors" sign right over our doorbell. I'm still blown away by all the people that still try despite my efforts to tell them up front that we aren't interested.

Why just today I found 3 different flyers on our front door handle and porch (yard service, A/C and driveway re-surfacing) when I answered the door. Who was at the door? A pest guy, who decided it was his job to inform me that my "No Solicitors" sign was "about the smallest one he's ever seen". What?!? So, did that give him the right to ring my doorbell when I was telling him not to with my little sign? Geez. I admit that it is small (and ugly), but it really shouldn't matter.

I'm making a new sign out of clay - large enough for the pest guy to read.

Sorry for the rant. I feel better now.

Update: Here are a couple that I just finished. I'm going to either do a wrapped wire or a ribbon as a hanger.

School's Out for Summer!

The song plays through my head. Today was the kid's last day of school for the year. They had a great year. It was a busy one for me, as all three kiddos were in our school's PACE program. It's a parent co-op within our school. I put in a ton of volunteer hours this year with PACE and with our school's PTA, where I was the chair of the Art Docent Committee.

Frankly, I'm looking forward to having the summer off to create in my studio! I have lots of ideas pouring out of my head. I just need some time to work on them. Time. That will be my challenge this summer - to find enough of it and not lose too much sleep because I'm up in the wee hours of the morning (like now).

Tumbler Love

This tumbler set is getting a lot of Etsy Treasury love lately - they are featured in the Chocolate Lime Treasury and Brown and Green Treasury - both shown below. Green and brown seem to be the "it" color combo this year. It reminds me of the blue and brown combo that was so popular not long ago.

It's interesting to watch the trends of color combinations that we see in clothing and home decor. I've been seeing a lot of brown and black featured together lately - like the many of the items in this Coffee Break Treasury.

Personally, I won't be sad if I never see a revival of the salmon pink and seafoam green color combo that was so popular back in the late 80's/early 90's. Do you remember it - the Southwest themed colors that were everywhere? I'm sure there were others - ah yes, neon (pink, yellow, green) and black. That was big when I was in college. My kids had neon day at school on Friday. Is that making a come back too? No neon glazes here. :-)

What other color combinations of yesteryear am I missing?

Blueberry Bowl

I have some bowls that have lived in our cupboards for a long time. I made them years ago and they are full of character (flaws) that I could point out, but won't. I still love to use them -especially for breakfast. One of my morning staples is blueberries with yogurt and granola. I took a photo of my breakfast in my very old "blueberry bowl" this morning before I dug in. Food really is more appetizing when served in a nice dish.

Recently I realized that many of my rejects or rookie potter pieces fill our kitchen. It's difficult to part with them but they often are what friends see and use when they are at our house. Perhaps it's time to take some nicer pieces out of my inventory and keep them with the old pieces. I can't get rid of the old rookie pieces. They have a lot of character and remind me of the days when I was just learning how to throw. The words "brick and door stop" come to mind, if you get my drift. :=)

Summer Heat

I've been wishin' for summer heat. Seriously wishing. It's been one of the rainiest months of May in the NW that I can recall. I might just prune if it doesn't let up. So I had to chuckle when the little green and rust brown flecked bowl of mine was featured in an Etsy Treasury titled "Summer Heat".

I wonder if I make a bunch of pieces using this glaze if it's the equivalant of doing a sun version of a rain dance. Good gravy, we need some sun! Soon.