Trying to Beat the Heat!

We are having a spell of hot hot hot weather here in the middle of the U.S. It has been around 80 when I get up in the mornings.  I try not to listen too much to the weather news — there are two pieces of information I really never want to know.  The wind chill in the winter and the heat index in the summer!

The pug and I have not been able to get out and walk at the park at all. It is just too hot to take her out except to potty.

Pottery class is going well.  The pot I made my first night of class in June has been glazed and fired. I also threw a mug and this past Monday I sanded it and put it in the firing room to be bisque fired.

First glazed pot

 

Mug 7-16

 

A somewhat humorous event occurred in class.  I had thrown a cylinder and I was trying to put a collar on it and it collapsed in two places due to a thin spot in the clay.  Just as I was about to trash it, my instructor said “You need to keep that.  Controlled collapses are so cool.” So I thought — well, if that’s what you see, then fine by me.

The more time I spend in the studio the more I enjoy it.  I want to create some stamps for stamping designs on some of the pieces I make.  The other evening I threw a small cylinder that I really did “control collapse”  at the top, a small vase, and another mug body.  I think I may try to get over there Friday after work and pull a handle for the mug.

Sunday I made another yummy salad.  Tuna, cucumber, and avocado salad with fresh dill. It is definitely a full meal salad.

Tuna cucumber avocado salad

 

In early August I am helping with a benefit and I agreed to prepare three appetizers for the VIP hour.  My appetizers will be paired with white wine, so of course I am doing veggies!  I think most of the other appetizer stations will be done by local businesses and caterers, so mine have to be top notch since I am the only non-business person.  Hope I can measure up!  I am doing cucumber slices with a dollop of my homemade hummus.  The second will be caprese skewers.  And I have been toying with doing a crostini for my third and playing around with different ideas.  And this is what I am pretty set on — a sweet pea crostini.

Sweet pea crostini

Excuse the bite marks in the photo.  It was near my dinnertime when I made this and I was so hungry that I bit into it and then thought to photograph it!

Suddenly I have several of the books on my summer reading list to get through.  I was trying to space them all out, but now I have several I am trying to read.  My lunchtime book at the office is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.  My evening book at home is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  And next up is Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok — and another whose title I cannot think of at the moment.

I am down to finishing the sleeves on the striped toddler cardigan.  Still knitting dishcloths.  I have not been terribly motivated recently in the knitting department.  I decided to start knitting a man’s ribbed scarf and I got out the needles and the yarn and cast on and knit about 5 inches and decided I don’t want to make one right now after all.  I just don’t have a project in mind at the moment.  And that is an unusual occurrence.  Perhaps it is because there are so many other things I have going or want to do at this time.