fall favorites

It's been a busy fall here on our "pottery farm," as we like to call home. (For now, at least, the primary crop on this farm is pottery.) It's hard to believe it's already time to put on the flannel-lined work pants in front of the wood stove! But there's nothing like the impending winter to motivate the outside projects, and we've been working steadily on all fronts.

Over the past few weeks we have been:

~enjoying visitors to the milkshed gallery during leaf-peeping season, including the first-ever Foliage Studio Tour (a success!)

~loving when said visitors bring their dogs to play with our oh-so-very-exuberant beast rascal puppy

~sending out kiln shelf share certificates to our "csa" members (number 70 just went out this morning, wow!)

~loving the last of the fall flowers in our vases (or collaboratively-made tumblers, as the case may be)

~putting the finishing touches on two wedding registries for two fabulous couples

~traveling to a good friend's kiln for a kiln-firing sleep-over to complete one of those registries (thank you, Tiffany!!)

~packing and shipping and packing and shipping, and occasionally finding treats left-behind by the co-op in our recycled packing peanuts (most recently a small water-based nail polish for our potters' fingers???)

~oh, by the way, one of those boxes of pottery went to the Artisans Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, for the 4th Annual Cup and Mug Invitational, where you'll find a great collection of handmade mugs and cups, november 11th-december 31st

~most of all, building the massive collection of bricks that is the chimney of our kiln! (we're really gaining on it- more on that soon)

~and most importantly, truly enjoying the work, especially when that means being home together for an uninterrupted string of days, working steadily towards this wild wood-fired dream of ours . . .