What a wonderful....

...week!! Yes, I've had a wonderful week this week, concentrating on spending more time with my family, especially as the kids are off school at the moment.

My lovely Mariah said something to me the other week that really made me think. She said "Auntie Linda, I remember a time when we didn't see you for ages" and I thought, Yeah, I remember that time too, it was when I was really depressed. But it pained me to realise that the kids had noticed I was "missing" from life. As it is, there are certain nieces and nephews that I see less often than the others, and I really want to do something about that.

And have I mentioned my niece Sophie? For various reasons (which I won't go into here) I had never met her before, and she is now 16. She is Autistic and very shy of meeting new people, but recently I have been blessed to meet her. I have seen her 3 times now, and already I feel we are becoming more relaxed with each other. She has a fantastic sense of humor! And she is a great artist too. She tranforms her sketches into computer graphics, which is a concept beyond my little grey cells. I hope she will let me watch her work one day.

My niece and nephew, Dylan 8, and Kiera 4, came over on Thursday for some clay time. They really surprised me by their creativity! Especially Dylan, who has never played with clay before and yet needed hardly any help from me! Just look at these wonderful pieces!


Dylan's mask is on the left, and Kiera's face is on the right.

Kiera also made a garden and a beach scene:


And Dylan made a monster!


I'm just so impressed with his mask, which he made almost entirely on his own! He was actually complaining that he wasn't good enough to make a swan!! I had to remind him that today was his first day and that he's only 8! Oh dear, we have another perfectionist in the family! But if he keeps practicing with the clay I predict that he will be an amazing potter and sculptor! (He even asked me if I had a wheel!)

What impressed me with Kiera is that although she needed help to cut and mold the clay into the shapes she wanted, she knew exactly what she wanted! The design of her pieces are completely her own.


So, today I have Charise 12, and Mariah 15, with me. We may do a little drawing or something this afternoon (although they are engrossed on their laptops at the moment!) and Scott will show Mariah and Owen 11, a few table tennis moves later! (I love how they are all interested in different things, but they seem to fit in just right with me and their uncle Scott!)

Tomorrow is a big day!

Yes, tomorrow I go to view a kiln!!! (long pause for dramatic effect)

I've been searching ebay for a kiln but as I said before, they are either really small or really big, and they are all really expensive and too far away! Then Scott noticed this kiln in the local Art Fellowship news letter, which is medium sized and a really good price, and local!! So tomorrow, I go to view it! Yippee!!! :D