Where are the BRAKES?!?!

Well, the "Limbo" is securely behind us and it's now full speed ahead!  We had the meeting with the town board.  Maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised, but what a nice bunch of people!  They were very receptive, made some good suggestions and were generally very supportive of local merchants.  There were just a couple of minor items to clarify about the parking spaces and determining any DEP restrictions (which could prove to be not so minor) since we're right across the street from the Musconetcong River.  But we're pretty confident the next meeting will be the last and everything will be "ok'd".

Oh, yeah!  And the sign is up!

Looking pretty professional!

On the pottery side, not so "full speed" anything!  I've decided to skip the craft show circuit this fall.  Between the new business and family activity I'm just not comfortable booking my time on anything else.  It's been years since I've done the Working-Mom-of-Three routine and now my sedate little life has been tossed into high gear and I'm a bit slow adjusting.  So rather than get in over my head I'll leave me some breathing room, thank you very much.

I'm still getting into the studio on occasion to get the inventory up for the holiday shopping season on our website.  The kiln is slowly filling up.  So, not to worry, I'm still getting my therapy!

Limbo, limbo!

Too much going on and nothing happening.  Everything seems to be in the process or patiently waiting.  Even the birdhouses are still waiting to be loaded into the kiln.  They're taking forever to dry in our lovely, humid NJ weather.  And here, I was afraid they'd dry too fast!  Silly me.

We finally got our Used Car Dealer license.  Can I get a "whoop, whoop"?  However, we still don't have the sign up (small town bureaucracy!) and are going to have to get the town board to amend our property use so we can have more than 10 cars for sale.  It's ridiculous the hoops they make you jump through but we have to play nice to get what we need!  You would think the town would be tripping over themselves to encourage small businesses to move into vacant buildings.  You would think.  =/

Taking a break from the madness to enjoy some of God's handiwork.

These re-seeded from the half dozen I planted last year.  For scale - the fence is 6 ft.

I love the different color combos.

I never realized how hard it is to take pics of butterflies!  Kudos to those who have the patience for it.

Bogged Down in the Mire

Wow!  I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.  There's so much that's been going on:

• Getting the new dealership licensed (any day now!), office set up, computers installed, etc., etc., etc....
• Awesome trip to VA with ASP (detailed post to follow)
• Ailing parents  =(
• Summer gatherings  =)

Somehow, I did manage to squeeze in finishing up some of the birdhouses.

Cattails and dragonfly on the textured vessel.  I'm liking this look more and more.





























Cacti and gecko (new design)

This is the hippo.  I'm not loving him.  I should have made the nostrils bigger.  If I don't trash him, hopefully, he'll look more like a hippo and less like a long faced bear when he's glazed gray.

Unfortunately, several are still sitting wrapped in plastic, untouched except for the occasional re-wetting spritz.  At this point, I'm pretty sure they're too dry and a lost cause.  So they'll end up being reclaimed.  Oh well, the only waste was my time.  Shame on me.

I hope you're all having a safe, relaxing summer.  And as they say in Appalachia -  'Ppreciate Y'all!

My New Project

First, I will apologize to my pottery followers.  This is completely removed from anything to do with mud.  But I did sneak some creativity into my current project.

I've been working on getting the shop ready to open.  We've gotten the preliminary approval from the township and have sent the application to the state for our dealers license.  In between piles of paperwork I've been painting the office.  We settled on English Racing Green as our official color to tie in with the name Highlands Auto Exchange.  And because I can't stand boring white walls I thought the checker board was appropriate.

New wall before (yawn)

New wall after

Now we're very fashionable (I think)

Prior color was Painters Tape Blue

The view from the shop is much  prettier.  It overlooks the Musconetcong river across the road.  I might have to take up fishing.

View of the shop from the road

Craig had the brilliant idea of displaying and, hopefully, selling pottery in the office!  He's a genius!  So this is the wall I'm thinking of putting up some shelves/displays.  Maybe we'll do a special:  

"Buy a car - get a mug"!

=D