Happy things.

Kittens in boxes,

and kittens on couches.

Surprises of flowers

and the boy that gave them.

My vanilla vine,

my teddy,

and a nice glass of wine.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes me happy. Also a fair amount about follow-through, so I decided to do a quick exercise tonight to practice both of these things. I took a few minutes, and photographed a few of my favorite things, things that bring a smile to my face.

Ginkgo and Sunflower Box

I've come up with a pretty successful method of making boxes, and made this ginkgo and sunflower box for my parents for christmas. I used dried ginkgo leaves as stamps and layered them over a mokume gane box leaving the mokume gane texture visible on the inside. I wanted the leaves to look like they had fallen from the tree, so I brushed powdered pastels on top to dirty them up. Each petal of the sunflower used a skinner blend to add interest. 

Salt and Pepper Shakers

I started my new job, and my brain is working on catching up with the changes in my life. I'm hoping that my more "normal" schedule will allow me to have more time to work on clay. I've been really busy with swing stuff (btw, check out our new blog!), but maybe I'll have more down time as things even out. In the mean time, I'll get around to a series of posts of Christmas gifts I made. These were an experiment to see what BotanyBoeh salt and pepper shakers would look like. Henry's step-mom collects salt and pepper shakers, so I made them for her for Christmas. I'd love to do more of these down the road, any takers?