My second thyroid test has come back normal, so apparently I don't have a thyroid problem, I'm just tired because I sleep too much. It's all my fault. I just don't try hard enough to stay awake and keep active. I probably have water retention because I don't try hard enough to pee, and no doubt after my third sight test my vision is blurry because I don't try hard enough to see. I'm so lazy.

Results!

I received the results of my blood tests today, and as promised, here I am to share them with you! Thankfully I am not diabetic, so I won't have to cut out chocolate! But my thyroid is under active. As strange as it may sound, I'm actually really happy about this because my hope is that once I start treatment I will have more energy, lose weight, lose the uncomfortable water retention, feel less depressed and anxious, be able to see properly out of my right eye, and be able to remember my own name! (Which is just a few of the symptoms of hypothyroidism!) If it wasn't my thyroid then I would just have to continue putting up with these things!

So that explains why I haven't felt like doing anything all summer! I didn't go to class tonight because... I was asleep! I didn't have anything to glaze tonight either, and I just don't seem to be able to get into the "zone" with clay at class. I feel restricted by the time thing. (Yeah, "thing" 'cos I can't think of the right word. Hopefully this will improve too!)

So there you go. What else can I tell you? Umm... got an exhibition coming up in November which I have been invited to take part in! It's a bit posh there too. It's only held in a small village hall, but the people seem a bit lah-de-dah so hopefully they'll have loads of money and buy something of mine! I just roll my eyes at all the pomp, but I don't mind really; I fit in with all sorts me, 'cos I'm so cute and lovable :) And 'cos I don't tell people what I really think of 'em! Hahahaha! No, just kidding.

Back to class!

Firstly, I must say a big hello to Anne! Hello Anne! :) Anne is a lovely lady from my pottery class and she's been popping in (on the blog) to have a look now and again. She's making an amazing chess set at the moment, which I must photograph for you all sometime (permission permitting).

Well, tonight I glazed a few dishes, which is pretty much all I use the classes for now. They won't be fired this week though so it will be a couple of weeks before I can show you how they turned out. I spent all summer agonizing over which glazes I was going to buy for them, and in the end I just used one at the class! I painted on a little design with iron oxide first, so I shall have to see if it shows through or not. If they come out well, I shall glaze the two vases the same way.

And I finally collected Reeses from class! Remember Reeses? My lovely chocolate bunny that Leanne made when she was visiting all those months ago! And here he is, looking deliciously like chocolate mint flavour!


Thank you Leanne! He looks so scrummy I keep wanting to bite his ears off! Mmmm... I need chocolate now...

Weaknesses, Phobia's, and Sheer Horror

Mugs. My weakness. I said I wasn't going to buy any more - I have no room, and anyway, I can make my own! (Although I was toying with the idea of starting a new mug collection - mugs from all my favourite ceramic artists!) But today I saw these, and I just couldn't help myself...

a "Maynards Wine Gums" mug and a "Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts" mug
Do you have these sweets in the states?

Anyway, I decided I deserved a treat after my busy and distressing day. "Oh no, why was that Linda?" I'm glad you asked! I'll tell you why, because it is autumn here in sunny England - also known as the arachnid season. Actually, it isn't, I just made that up, but we do get rather a lot of them at this time of year. And they are my phobia. Now you know two things about me - my weakness and my phobia. So our conservatory has become one giant web and home to every spider in the entire country and my sister very kindly offered to vacuum it out for me because spiders don't bother her. Her phobia is rats and mice. But let me tell you, even she was freaked because there were so many and they were so big. I stayed inside, quivering and crying in fear.

Holy broomstick. It gets worse...

So then she goes to tackle the outside toilet (meaning attached to the house but the entrance is outside). I mean, whose idea was it to build outside toilets? What sort of a stupid idea is that? Who wants to freeze their butt off to go to the toilet? And who wants passers by to hear them straining to do a number two? Ok, enough with the mental imagery. I hate outside toilets because spiders love them. I have not set foot in that toilet the whole 12 years that we have lived here! So when my sister swung open the door we got a bit of a shock... the floor was covered in RATS DROPPINGS!!

(dramatic pause for effect)

Can you believe that?? I've been in shock for the rest of the day. I'm waiting to hear when the pest control man is coming round, but in the mean time I felt I deserved a couple of new mugs... and a couple of bars of chocolate... and a bottle of Bailey's. The back door is well and truly locked, and my poor sister was so traumatised that I felt the least I could do was to buy her one of those plug in things that deter rats and mice for her home!! Other wise she would never sleep again!

So that was today. In other news I have had a completely inactive, uneventful, unproductive, not worth writing about, summer. Which is why I didn't. Write about it, that is. I've not really been feeling all that grand, so I'm having some blood tests on Friday.

Also, my classes start again on Monday! I wanted to buy more glazes before then but I'm having trouble choosing!

It's a funny old game

No, this isn't a post about football; I'm talking about clay! It seems to have a mind of it's own!

Remember this vase?


At the time I had set out to make a replacement for the ivy vase that had been damaged. But it just wanted to be... something else.


Then recently I started working on a taller vase, and I intended it to be tall and very simple. But that vase wanted to be something else too...



...it wanted to be an ivy vase!


I didn't smooth out the surface of the vase so much this time. The idea is that I want it to look old with ivy growing out of it. I have thought about adding cracks to the surface, but I still haven't made my mind up about that.

It's larger than the original ivy vase (although only a foot tall, even though it looks taller even in the flesh), and the leaves look more like ivy this time thanks to the new leaf cutters I have! Click on the photo's for a closer look.

original ivy vase
(Which was my first coiled vase, and now looks hideous to me less than a year on, even though I was so proud of it at the time!)

Nothing to report

No updates on the clay I'm afraid. I've been quite busy with my nieces and nephews since they broke up from school for the holidays. It's very tiring, but I do love them.

Guess where I went yesterday with Asriel?

hmm... I wonder if they do a size 5?

Strangely, I didn't fancy any chocolate all day. It might have had something to do with the constant sickly smell of it everywhere we went!

Slow Progress

Here is the vase I started on last week:


I've still not finished coiling it yet, and I've not smoothed it out properly yet either. Yes, those are plastic carrier bags from the local supermarket that I have been wrapping my unfinished vase in - we do things in style in this house! The reason why this vase has been taking so long is partly because I keep having to leave it to stiffen a little after every few coils, and partly because I've not been feeling very well, so after a coil or too I'm ready to pack up anyway!

I'm not sure if I like this one - I'll let you know when it's finished! It seems too wide at the top... or too narrow at the bottom. It's taller than the last one but not actually as tall as I had intended, but I started to bring in the top because it was getting so wide.

With every vase I keep thinking how I can't wait to have my own wheel, but I know it will be really frustrating for a while until I learn how to throw well. I wonder to myself if throwing will be easier than coiling once I learn how, or will it just be "different"? I may have the opportunity to buy a wheel soon, although I'm not sure what it's like yet or how much it will be. I'm praying for a wheel! So I hope the wheel will be a design I feel comfortable with, at a price I can afford.

In other news
I have 10 weeks before classes start again and I'm thinking ahead already! I phoned my tutor today and he said my vases have been fired, so I will have pieces to glaze on the first night back!