I forgot to show off this little plate my friend Erica gave me. She was trying to clear out her extra pots and put them in the Christmas pottery sale and I offered to buy this one from her and begged her to let me have it. In the end she gave it to me for free. I LOVE it.
Because it's quirky and cute and completely unexpected. I mean, who expects cute woodland creatures to have a pistol?
Moral of the story: sometimes begging pays off. Did I just say that? ;)

Getting ready for Christmas...

Since my family doesn't seem to get too into Christmas we keep things pretty low key around here. We bought a tree this week and decorated it. We never really used colored lights before, but we did this year and I'm glad. I think they're fun.
I told my sister on the phone before coming down to NC that "this Christmas I don't want to eat super junky, but I want to eat a little junky." So I dug up that old nutella fudge recipe and made some and let me tell you that it is pretty good.
Thus far since being home we have gotten a tree, made fudge, seen cousins I hadn't seen in about 13 years (it was really nice to catch up with them) and stayed up late talking and watching stupid TV shows and sleeping in. I found a cool little thrift store that I want to visit more. I keep trying to motivate myself to make stuff, but so far I haven't. Maybe I'll dig up some motivation and manage to get a few things done this break. It's nice to just rest though.

So now I think my sister and I and perhaps our brother (if we can convince him to come with us)
are going to go shopping. Maybe Christmas shopping. Because we still like surprises even if we're all adults (almost). :) And then we're all going to dinner. Who knows? Maybe I'll even dress up a little. Why not?

:)

And now the semester is over...

And while I'm quite relieved I also am quite shocked and unsure of what to do with myself. Maybe I should be cleaning my disaster of a room and packing for a 3 week break!

So my roomies and I along with friends from our Bible study made paper snowflakes and hung them all over our wall. I LOVE it! I felt so silly because I was so excited each time I made a new snowflake. I'd fold the paper and start cutting into it and open it and be surprised each time when I saw how it came out. I felt like a kid. In a way it's nice to know that essentially I'm the same person I was when I was 8...I love cutting up paper and playing with mud (except I now I've switched to clay).

Yes, our Christmas tree is bubblegum pink. :)

And here are a couple of photos of what I've spent the last 3 weeks of my life working my tail off over. And by "working my tail off" I mean not sleeping more than 3.5 to 6 hours per night, missing meals, spending 12+ hour days at school, firing kilns till 3:30 am...etc. And now that it's over I feel shocked and unsure of what I'll do with myself. Sleep regularly? Eat three times a day? Stay clean? I can do that? It's a bit of a shock. :)

So this past Tuesday was one year since I got back home from China. And I think I'm finally over it. This semester has been so insanely busy and full of exhausting, stressful and wonderful times that I feel quite content with being exactly where I'm at. I feel like God has blessed me immensely in allowing me to know the people I know, attend the church here and study something I love. I seriously sometimes feel so happy that I might burst. I'm sure it's way better than winning the lottery. Last night we had a goodbye bowling party for Bangmin since he's going back to China soon and almost everyone from ceramics was there. It was the best time I've had with everyone in a loooong time. And I'll miss Bangmin for sure when he leaves.

Not to say that I haven't gotten super frustrated, angry and discouraged from time to time. I have. Especially with ceramics. But I don't think I could put up with all the frustration, hard work, long hours and let downs involved in every aspect of it if I didn't enjoy it as much as I do. And this semester I can see that I've improved so much in my work and have also deepened and forged friendships with my classmates. I love them all so much.

So now I guess I'll get off here and clean and pack and get ready to head home tomorrow. First stop is at my sister's home to see her, my brother-in-law and my niece. Then it's down to NC to see my parents and younger sister. It will be so good to see them all and relax together. I definitely have plans to work on things while I'm home though. Right now my list looks like this:

1. study Chinese and get a head start on next semester's work.

2. hand build with clay that I'm bringing from school.

3. start writing about my work and what I want to accomplish with it.

4. do a little sewing and baking...it is the holidays after all. :)

5. sketch and watercolor.

So yeah, I think it will be great. I think my parents and sister have held off on decorating for Christmas until we get down there which will be great because that means all the paper-snowflake making fun can continue! Let snowflakes and merriment abound!

Okay. Peace out.

Happenings.

So in the past month or so quite a bit has taken place. For one thing it's pretty much no longer fall. We have definitely experienced some winter weather recently and even had snow flurries during kiln building class.

So yeah, all those beautiful yellow leaves are history.

We had the symposium. It was one of the most exhausting whirlwind weekends I've had. It made me feel like I was back in China.

Master Feng demonstrating overglaze technique.

Keith from NCECA sketched Master Feng while he was working. I loved his sketch. That's one of the things I love about being around artists. One of my goals is to have awesome sketchbooks full of fun drawings and sketches.

And if being around the Chinese artists wasn't enough to make me feel like I was back in China seeing the 8 foot vases hanging out behind the ceramics studio certainly made me feel like I was back there.

In addition to the Chinese artists who came in to demonstrate at the symposium Professor He also came back this year to work on an sculpture for our school. He was a wonderful addition to the studio. He left this past Sunday to go back to China and those of us students still at school before break joined our professors and other faculty and their families and had a goodbye dinner with him. It was wonderful. It combined two of my very favorite things: ceramics and China/Chinese. I will miss Professor He. And Bangmin is leaving in December. I will miss him too. Anyway, the dinner was so similar to the dinners we had in China. Great food, everyone was hanging out and having a good time. I felt so incredibly blessed and content to be right where I was. This semester has had its share of ups and downs but overall I am so grateful to be at my school with the people I know and to be doing work that I love.

I am taking Chinese 1 this semester and through my class I got a language partner. She is really fun and I'm glad we're becoming friends! She's from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English. I found out recently that Bangmin speaks 5 or 6 different languages- most of them different Chinese languages. I'm so impressed with these folks who learn to speak so many different dialects and languages. I have actually decided to stay at my school for one more year to get a second major in Chinese studies. I enjoy it so much that I want to learn to speak the language and understand the culture. I'm really excited about it. I love my Chinese class a lot. The teacher is great and my classmates are too.

The roomies and I had a little Thanksgiving dinner party and invited all our local siblings and friends to come over. It was a good time. My roomies and I love to have people over and we like to cook so it was a good combination for us. I volunteered to make the potatoes and appreciated my roommate's comment on the board. I love those girls.

And now it's late and I'm tired. So I suppose I'll stop here and get some sleep. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Goodnight!

more greenware...

at least I finally like these pots. After quite a few panicky weeks where I hated pretty much everything I made I finally made a couple of things that I am happy with. They're a start at least. Hopefully the ideas will develop into something better that the originals.

There are more pieces, but this is all I've taken photos of recently. I made some small and large bowls that I like as well.

My pottery has become quite feminine lately. I think it's a compensation effect since I've felt so dirty and messy all semester. I make up for it by wearing skirts and dresses whenever possible, going swing dancing and making girly pots.

You do what you have to do I guess.

Give Thanks

So once again it's been over a month since I've posted. In my absence though I've been busy busy busy and simultaneously hating and loving it. I'm now visiting with my family and trying to remember how to take it easy and relax. Funny how I get so used to being in a really busy routine and then all of a sudden it stops and I become very anxious. I don't think that's particularly healthy.

Since we're about to celebrate Thanksgiving I think I should say a few things that I am grateful for. In no particular order:

• my health. Despite being really busy and not maintaining a normal eating/sleeping cycle each day I've made it through the semester with a cold and that's it.
• Safety. And for the guys who got me a knife, flashlight and a can of mace for my birthday. And heck, for that matter I'm thankful for all the nice guys I know who I could call on if there was a problem.
• My classmates. The people I spend more time with throughout the year than anyone else. As cheesy as it sounds they are a family to me and I love them dearly. I'm pretty broken-hearted over the fact that so many of them will be graduating or returning to China within the next month and semester. I'm so grateful for the community that we make up and for what they each contribute to the studio.
• My church. I don't think I've ever been a part of a church that God has used to teach me so much. Their desire to serve God and see Him change lives and save people is hugely encouraging and inspiring. Their love toward me and so many other students has meant a lot too.
• My family. For the fact that they're safe and healthy and that they love me. For the fact that even though we're spread out we're all doing well and busy and close.
• For technology, so we can all keep in touch more easily.
• For my roommates. I live with 3 lovely, godly young women who are wonderful friends.
• For my unborn nephew. Due in March! Yay for little boys!
• For my Bible study group. Getting to know other people and studying the Bible with them has been a highlight of the semester.

And for many other things. I hope everyone else has a great Thanksgiving!

midterms

This past week was pretty wild school-wise. I had a critique and 3 tests to take as well as a project due in production. It wore me completely out. Friday was such a huge relief...I took most of Saturday off and hope to take most of today off as well.

I would say the past few weeks have completely worn me out. It seems like there is just never enough time to do everything I need and want to do. I've had a couple of days these past couple of weeks where I realized I hadn't eaten a meal in over 24 hours due to the busyness of my schedule. Needless to say, this lack of eating has resulted in me being pretty hangry at different times. I feel like my patience levels have dropped a lot the past few days and I feel rather despairing at times. I had a few moments this week where I was ready to crack. I was at school till midnight on Monday and having horrible luck with what I was making for my critique on Wednesday and I was so miserable. I wondered why I had to pick a major that made me feel so incredibly bad about myself. I sometimes equate being a ceramics major to being in a bad relationship (which I've never been in so this comparison is only based on what I've heard) where you do all the giving and ceramics does all the taking and it's never enough. Nothing I do is good enough, nothing works out the way I intend it to and I feel like an unappreciated failure. You might argue that I'm taking this too seriously. I probably am. My sister told me I'm a workaholic, but are you still a workaholic if the whole time you're busy you don't want to be working? Cause seriously, all I've wanted to do this week is sleep and watch movies in my bed and eat fall-ish foods.

The whole week wasn't awful though. Aside from being really stressful and exhausting I've had quite a nice weekend. On Friday I went to a friend's apartment and watched Inkheart and Stardust which was fun. And yesterday I had lunch with a friend and walked around Old Navy and the went home and napped and watched the Lion King with 2 of my roommates and some friends. It was so relaxing and nice to be with the girls all weekend. I'm really sad that the weekend is almost over and I still have Chinese homework to do. :(

I think I need to make it a point to get out of the studio more and relax on weekends. I feel guilty and irresponsible if I don't spend all my time working on things and I think I need to lose those feelings and realize that rest and down-time are important. I feel so much more refreshed and ready to go back to school when I make time for fun. I've been trying to convince my professors to start a school-wide "Professor skip day" so we can have a long weekend. It's not really working, but maybe if I suggest it enough they'll jump on it. Especially with the symposium happening this week...maybe they'll be so tired they'll want a break next week.

On top of all that I find other things to worry about. Family, school, future, etc. It gets me really down and I feel like I bottle things up and it just makes everything worse. I've been doing a Bible study that has been really good and helped me with my perspective and also kind of teaching me how to deal with stress and anxiety (cast your cares on Him for He cares for you). It's a work in progress, of course.

Anyway, so that wasn't a very interesting or light-hearted post, but it's what's been up lately. I'm hoping for a calmer week ahead...the symposium starts Friday morning, so I sort of doubt it will be that much calmer, but at least I'll get to see all my Chinese professors and watch them do demos and give lectures. It should be fun. :)