New Inside

Hi Blogosphere! Notice the outside of our town home. Well it will look like this in the spring, but the inside will look like new. After months of looking for a new or different home we have decided that we do like the neighborhood and can't seem too find what we want elsewhere so let's just give the inside a little face lift. We'll be redoing the floors which means we're moving out for a short period of time. It is also meaning my shop will me minimally active, too. I'll keep you posted. In the mean time hope all is well with you and you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I love Facebook and Twitter...

If you follow me on Facebook you'll know where I've been. Where are you? Make a comment and tell me. For those anxiously awaiting the Bahamas 09 pics, just check out the slide show on the right side. If you click on it you'll be miraculously transported to my Picasa webpage. If you don't want to go there, just enjoy them right here. We had a great time on Tilloo Cay just off Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island.

The pic below is the view from the front porch of where we stayed. Lance Armstrong was there for some R and R after the TDF. He must have heard what a great place it was. After all, I was there!

The Brandywine Community Garden

Here's what's keeping me busy lately. Our plot in the Brandywine Community Garden. With an unbelievably small amount of work we have reaped some big rewards. Early this year one of the residents, Claudette Krell, informed us of a community grant program through the city of Greensboro for community gardens. She polled our residents and found there was enough interest and applied for the grant which we received. With some classes about raised bed gardens at the Guilford County NCSU Cooperative Extension Service we were ready to proceed. The money bought us the service of tilling the area and the lumber for the raised beds. Several of us pre-assembled the lumber and with the help of volunteer Master Gardeners from the Ag Center we laid them all out. After securing the beds we shovelled the surrounding dirt into the beds and added some more organic matter, put some wood chips around the outside, and were ready to plant. The grant money also purchased a Mantis rototiller and a little house for the area to keep tools in. The gardens have been a real hit with the community and we've been eating tomato sandwiches and garden veggies all summer.

Leannes New Work

Some new work from my friend Leanne. I love her subjects. They have a way of transporting you to a story hidden within the subject. You can follow her work on artandlife.

Auto Makers Bailout

BTW. Even though I work for an auto supplier, this ad sums up what I really feel about using our money to bail out the big three. Just in case you can't read the fine print in the ad,

"You probably thought it was smart to buy a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But your forgot one thing. We spend a shit load of money on lobbyists. So now you're out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe next time you'll buy American like a real man. Either way, we're cool."

I'm Back!

What a great trip! Will write more and post some pics later.

Off to Abaco Island .....

Off to Abaco Island, Bahamas for some fishing. This time we're renting a boat and hoping to go deep on the Atlantic side along with the usual bonefishing in the Marls. We'll be staying on Tilloo Cay in the above picture. Hopefully the wind will die down! Probably a headwind the whole way. I'll have some more pics when I return.

Arts & Crafts at the Market

This will be the biggest showing I have this spring. This year I'm concentrating on getting my work out through galleries and some craft sites like Etsy. One such gallery is the Marshall Art Gallery in Greensboro. An exceptional place with super friendly people and exquisite items for sale. I consider my self very lucky to have shown and sold some of my Beggars Bowls there. Here's the write up for the Crafts at the Market. Hope to see you there. BTY, mention my blog for a 10% discount on any one item of mine you purchase

Spring Arts and Crafts at the Market
Sunday, March 22, 2009
11 am-5 pm
More than 80 local craft artisans exhibit and sell handmade crafts, including pottery, home decor, hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, florals, fiber arts and wearables, soaps, sculpture, wood, folk art, and more. Find unique gifts for birthdays, Easter, Mother's Day, graduations and weddings. Admission and parking are free.

Mokume Cuffs

I've had these for a while but only recently taken photos. These are copper and german silver with a sterling liner. Customers have been interested. The earrings have sold well but the price on the cuffs have been a little high for the Saturday morning market customers. I'm sure they will move at the shows.

Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

As it became more and more evident that Obama was going to be our new president, I kept hearing commentators, and reading journalists referring to Aynn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". It made me put a copy on hold at the public library. That was more than a month ago. I don't know if the delay is because they had so few copies or there were so many folks waiting to read the book. Here's an other take by economist and editorial board member Stephen Moore of the WSJ:

"Many of us who know Rand's work have noticed that with each passing
week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus
scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the
very acts of economic lunacy that "Atlas Shrugged" parodied in 1957,
when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant
hit."

"One-Man Movement"

Facebook | One-Man Movement - washingtonpost.com

A One-Man Movement
Cary Grant Set a Pace for On-Screen Grace That's Left His Followers Mostly in the Dust
This article is so right on about Cary Grant in particularly but older movies in general. It speaks to a time when special effects didn't dominate the stories but rather the characters themselves. I saw a little bit of this when Sarah and I saw "Gran Torino" this weekend. Of course, even in his "spaghetti westerns", Clint Eastwood relied on his movements and especially his facial expressions to convey emotion in the story. Check out the scene where he's sitting on his front porch and spits his chew while looking at the grandmother and she then tops him by spitting a bigger chew. that said, as the article which my daughter talked about on her Facebook, says, Cary Grant was the master in this. And, I think Alfred Hitchcock as director helped.