Sunbathing Beauties 

Inola H.S. Graduation

This past Friday night we were pleased to witness the graduation of Justin Lowell Shoemaker, our nephew. His parents, Sam & Lisa Shoemaker, were rightfully proud and the mood was very fesitive and celebatory. His grandparents (Cynthia's parents; Betty & Abner Shoemaker) were there as were his Uncle Kelly and Aunt Jamie with many of his cousins and his two brothers. When it came time for him to cross the stage you could hear our cheers from the top of the bleacher stand! The sky even seemed to help cheer him as it backsplashed the entire scene with brilliant colors. We couldn't be more proud of him! Way to go, Justin!!!!

Justin Shoemaker 

Proud Parents 

Sky Canvas 2 

Sky Canvas 1 

Pool Days

It is official! With the current humidity and tempartures in the 90's it is absolutely undeniable....SUMMER IS HERE! And we couldn't be happier! The pool is opened, the flower beds and lawn are groomed, and the grill is fired up! Let the festivities begin!

Staying Afloat 

My Wife The Artist

What do you do when you can't find the right painting for that wall you want to decorate? Why, you paint it yourself of course!! At least that is what Cynthia and I thought. So, off to Michael's we went to arm ourselves with canvases, acrylic paints, and brushes. Then back home I faux finished the canvases to match the adjoining wall we had painted a few weeks ago. After this dried Cynthia turned her creativity loose on our masterpiece. Below are some pictures of the process and finished product. Let us know what you think. We are thinking that we are going to give the local artists on Brookside a run for their money! LOL! I am working on the interpretation so that I will have a ready answer for those who ask "what does it mean?" I mean, after all, isn't it much better to spin a mystical answer rather than say, "We just wanted to incorporate our colors in a painting?" I mean, what kind of an artist is that? LOL!

Getting Started

Getting Creative

Staying The Course

The Finished Product 

SBC or Me?

Cynthia and I have redecorated our living room complete with new furniture. That fact stated there were some logistical problems to work out as the entertainment center had to be relocated. As we have TiVo (a necessity if you don't want to miss an episode of "Desperate Housewives" or "Blind Justice") it is necessary that a phone jack be available for this electronic wonder. So....being the capable man of the house that I am, I promptly called SBC to have said jack installed. I was informed that they would be happy to do this.....for $110. $110??? After learning that this did not include a new phone or massage I informed them that I would do the job myself, thank you very much! Well, after a trip to Home Depot and $15 later, I was ready to tackle the job. Guess what? I did it!! Drilled a hole in the brick wall, routed the cable through it and attached it to a jack that I had purchased. I then routed the cable to the phone box, taking the time to tie the cable to the other cables running underneath the overhang, and attached the appropriate wires to the terminals. One hour later I had a very professional job completed for $15. Beats $110 all to heck!! What is it with over inflated prices from these monopolies who service our homes? What makes them think we will be willing to pay exorbitant prices for minor jobs like that? SBC is not alone in this type of practice. You will pay $60 for the first jack from Cox and $10 per jack thereafter, $25 for some yahoo at the gas company to switch your account to a new residence, the same for your water account to be switched, and on and on. Whatever happened to an honest day's wages? While I don't mind paying someone for their labor I can't see sending their kids to college as well!! Thank you for allowing me to vent my spleen in a healthy manner as I am outraged at price gouging and shoddy work to boot! Anyway, SBC or Me? Why, me of course!!

More Than I Can Say

Cynthia is my biggest fan in life and never is this more true than when it comes to my poetry. At her request I am posting the poem I penned for her today. She makes the poetry come easy. Enjoy or endure. 'Tis for her I write.

More Than I Can
Say

It is simply more than I can say,
The love, the touch, the way;
For every day dawns anew,
That I spend loving you.

Each morning brings its own joy,
Like a child’s brand new toy.
I delight in you my fairest Dove,
As the gift you are from Above.

If I could pen a song or write a sonnet,
‘Twould have you written all upon it.
Yet it would fail to rightly show,
The absolute joy in you I know.

It is simply more than I can say,
The moments, the nights, the days;
That I share so fully with you,
Only one word will do
That word is…..You.

With all my love and heart,
Tim

May 5, 2005

Battle of the Ages!

Reflections From Cynthia

Feeling young, feeling old, forty five is a very weird age. You think of yourself still young and look at people funny when you know they are thinking older.

Most days I feel young. I can work all day and all night, knowing that most twenty year olds do not have my work ethics, nor do they try. Yet that very thing makes me feel old, speaking of twenty year olds who can’t keep up.

It is weird, the mind that is. You feel young, you think young, and then you look in the mirror or say something you know just came out of your grandparent’s mouths. Simple things like going to work. I used to be one of the young ones and would look at the older ones and think “Some day I will have your job” and now I look around and know someday they will have mine. God Bless them. Simple things like taking a trip to the doctor. The nurses and the doctor used to all be older than me and now they are all younger. How did that happen? My mind says I am still young, and then I look around.

I can hear my inner self crying “You are not getting older” but at the same time I can hear my inner self crying “You are getting older”. I always seem to hear that old saying, “You are only as old as you feel" and I have to admit that some days that is pretty old. I look at my twenty three year old son and twenty one year old daughter and know they must be someone else’s kids. I am not old enough to have birthed them, am I?

May I always be open minded. May I always have this battle of young or old going on. For as long as I do, I am still young at heart.

Celebration! 

Settling In

We are officially relocated to our very own home and couldn't be more thankful! Thanks to friends and family and a lot of hard work before hand we are now moved in and are settling quite nicely! Everything is unpacked, hung on the wall, or placed in the right spot. Even the Mud Hut is in place and just aching for its long lost artists to return! Or, perhaps it enjoyed the brief respite from our toil! LOL! At any rate, we are ready to start slinging mud again! Thank you for your patience in the lenghty lapse from my last posting....almost one month to the day! But oh the work that has been accomplished in that 30 day period! Stay tuned for more good things to come!!

Our New Home 

Moving!

Just a note to let you know that we haven't really fallen off the earth! We took a break after the holidays and now we are preparing for our move. We bought a house!! We are both very excited and can't wait to take possession of our new place complete with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (can you believe it?), double car garage, and an inground pool! Wow! Guess what we will be doing all summer long? LOL! I have included a picture of our new home. Our closing date is February 25 and we take possession February 28. Needless to say we are very excited! We have already begun to ready ourselves for the move. Saturday found us with the chimnea smoking and us raking leaves. We gathered over 100 bags of leaves! We power washed the house, put up For Rent signs and fielded 8 phone calls inquiring about the property. We showed the house Sunday to what we hope will be the future tenants. So....with all this going on it will be a while before we have any more pottery to boast of as we will be relocating the Mud Hut as well. Stay tuned for new developments!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!! 

Twas Just A Few Days Before Christmas And....

Twas just a few days before Christmas and all through the house, everyone had a gift, even the mouse! Posted below you will find some pics of the finished Christmas mugs and some other pieces we created as well as some of the beautiful gift sets that Cynthia put together. The pics are poorer quality than I like but we will soon take care of that as Cynthia and I have purchased a new digital camera that will allow more creativity and clarity. Hope that Christmas is coming together for all of you bloggers out there! Merry Christmas to all!

One More Christmas Bowl

One More Christmas Bowl

Christmas Mug 

Decorative Pitcher 

Ready To Go 

Christmas Bowls 

Christmas Goodies 

Maria's Cups 

The Perfect 72-Hour Day

Cynthia and I enjoyed a long three-day weekend that saw as much productivity as relaxation. Friday was a perfect day as we observed our Annual Christmas Shopping Trip. We have long learned the art of mixing fun with work and Friday was the perfect example of that. After leisurely waking up and spending time together in our cozy covers we made our way to the first of many stores we would go to that day. By lunchtime we had purchased most of the gifts that were on our list (and some items that weren't! lol!) and found ourselves dining at El Chico's in the Promenade Mall. From here we took in another couple of stores and went to see "Christmas With The Kranks" starring Tim Allen. We laughed ourselves silly! From there we went back to the stores and wound up finishing our day out at Starbucks where we enjoyed some lattes to warm us up. The day's enjoyment is hard to tell in writing but let it suffice to say that we had a blast!! We thoroughly enjoy the new traditions we have crafted together and celebrate each other fully! Saturday we attended two Christmas parties, my company party and Scott and LaDonna's party. Both were very enjoyable! It is looking a whole lot like Christmas at the Johnston household and we are more in love than ever as each new day takes us deeper and deeper! Hope your weekend was equally wonderful!

The Table Is Set

The Tree Is Trimmed

Christmas Mugs' Progress

Just wanted to drop you a pic of the mugs to detail their progress. The handles that I threw under Mel Cornshucker's supervision are turning out nicely. We are hoping to bisque fire the mugs by midweek. From there we will move to the glazing and then on to someone's tree! I will be sure to post the end result.

Drying Mugs

Down From The Mount

Feeling as one of Christ's disciples after the Mount of Transfiguration I have climbed down from the mount with more wisdom than I had going up it! I spent last night with Mel Cornshucker at Boston Artists Gallery learning how to pull handles. He kindly took time out in his preparation for his showing in Phoenix, Arizona to teach me the ropes. With his supervision I pulled 9 handles for the cups that I brought with me. Like the old adage "You can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day or teach him to fish and he can eat for a lifetime." I now feel equiped to pull handles from now on! He was amazing in patiently explaining the process to me and from now on any of my artwork that has a handle will carry a little bit of Mel with it! Of course, I can imagine that none of us are solely ourselves but pieces of all those who have influenced us. A great big heartfelt thank you to Mel Cornshucker!!

The Christmas Daze Continues

The daze of Christmas continue at the Mud Hut. We took several Raku pieces over to Boston Artist's Gallery over the weekend and fired them with Mel's supervision. We continue to love the effect that Raku has on clay! You will find some pics showing the finished products below. We are to return to the gallery this evening with 9 Christmas mugs I threw Sunday afternoon to get Mel's help in learning the art of handles. (I've always been told that you don't have to know all the answers to be smart, just where to find them!) Hopefully this mini workshop will help me get a handle on things after all! I will be sure to post some pics soon of the mugs and their progress. We are continuing to find people to match with our pottery for our gift giving this year and busying ourselves in the studio whenever time allows. Hope your holidaze is going equally as well!

Christmas Raku 3 

Christmas Raku 1 

Christmas Mugs for Maria

We have received our second Christmas order! One of Cynthia's co-workers, Maria, has placed an order for four mugs. She is to come by this evening to choose the glaze she would like. Guess that I will perfect our handle pulling unless Maria can be persuaded that mugs don't necessarily need handles! Alas, I am sure the hot beverages usually served in mugs will persuade her otherwise, so.....handles here we come! Actually I am looking forward to making the mugs, handles and all. I have some mugs in the works already that I have been working on and look forward to putting into practice the lessons that they are teaching me. We will keep you abreast of their progress and will be providing some pics soon as I hope to throw them this weekend. Remember, in this hectic and busy season, to keep family and faith in sharp focus. These two entities should never suffer lack of attention. Happy merry making in your pre-holiday season!

Santa's Little Workshop

The sound of saws, hammers, and drills cannot be heard in our studio but we are assisting Santa as well as the elves that are so celebrated at this time of year! We found time over the long weekend to glaze and fire quite a few pieces. We finished the Christmas order my co-worker, Carrie Fitzgerald, had placed for four bowls and I shall deliver them to her this morning. In addition several more pieces were brought to completion and are pictured below. We have begun matching up our pieces with the people we wish to present them to for Christmas gifts and are finding that we have more pieces than people! And in addition to that, Cynthia says that we don't have to give everyone pottery for Christmas! Can you imagine that?? LOL! She is right, of course. Thankfully we have learned the art of keeping some of our pottery ourselves. Nothing like eating out of a bowl that you created as Cynthia and I did with our potato soup Sunday afternoon. One day hot in the kiln and the next day filled with hot soup! Now that is what I call "performance art"! Enjoy the pics and let us be the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!