Being so busy over the last three weeks, getting ready for a couple of shows, my “noticer” went on hiatus. But I was grateful that it popped right back into action today when I had time to slow down. Here’s a list of a few of blessings that today brought.

• My young son’s socked foot always finds another socked foot under the kitchen table. It’s an egalitarian foot; it doesn’t care whom it belongs to.

• My husband brings me flowers on a pretty regular basis. Carries them all the way home on the train. (Yes. I know how lucky I am. Totally.) I love seeing what colors he picks for me and that they’re wrapped in crackle-y deli paper.

• My older son cracking jokes and the whole family laughing.

• My jeans fit okay. (Yes. This is a blessing. It doesn’t rank with like world peace or something, but it ranks.)

• Reading for an hour in the green armchair, on this rainy day, with several rounds of tea in my favorite fat mug.

• A fridge full of healthy food.

• Walking with my friend.

• Pink flowering cherry trees and bright yellow forsythia layering their colors in my front yard.

• A new gold Sharpie.

• Cracking a glazed kiln load, and seeing bright, shiny pieces staring back up at me.

What did YOU notice today? What made you feel lucky?

If you’ve been following me, you know that I’ve been TRYING to take a break from claywork these last few months, to concentrate on writing. But hard as I’ve tried, that damneddeliciousfrustratingwonderful clay pulls me back in. The piece that did it? Delft, Reconstructed – for the Tombola at Pinot to Picasso, one of the Arts Council of Princeton’s yearly fundraisers.

I thought it might be interesting to capture my thought process from a piece’s beginning, middle and end. So here we go: hang in there. I have learned that my “flow” is not linear. It’s kind of a rabbit hole, but I’ve learned to go where it leads me.

1. I see a promo postcard from the Times Discovery Museum in NYC, advertising the exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors. (Short history: In 1974, Chinese farmers start digging a well and instead come up with an army of nine THOUSAND clay soldiers, horses, figures, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor in China (210-209 BC). Their purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.)

2.  Become a little obsessed with the AMAZING tiled stone armor detail on the soldiers.

3. Start thinking more about soldiers and armies, which are such male-dominated things, aggressive things. And, long ago, when it was just men out on the battlefield, the women were left behind with all the rest of life. It got me to thinking about mothers, and how they’re also soldiers, in a way. Soldiers for their children and families. Domestic soldiers.

4. Question: How I could interpret armor in a more feminine, domestic and modern way?

5. Think about ceramic items used in everyday domestic life, like vases, mugs, plates.

6. Think about the idea of excavating a life, about archeological digs and the pieces of domestic things that are found.

7. See an old piece of blue and white Delft pottery at the Tomato Factory.

8. CLICK. Start creating my own modern interpretation of Delft pottery/female armor. Create tiny tiles and begin stitching a modern, rectangular shape with silver thread. Decide a softer, feminine addition is needed, to contrast against the hardness of the pottery, and add orange thread and tiny gold glass beads.

Delft, Reconstructed : now finished and mounted.
A true labor of love that I get to enjoy for a couple of weeks, before it goes out into the world.

I used to wait for inspiration to strike.

I also used to believe in the Easter Bunny.

I mean, who doesn’t want to believe that some magical benevolence hops into your life and deposits chocolate and the BIG idea, right into your basket? No work, no money to exchange hands, no sweat? It would be the greatest thing ever. And sooooo much easier than the reality.

It’s not to say that once in a great while, lightning doesn’t strike. There are those times, like winning lotteries and a good parking space in downtown Princeton on a Friday night. There are genius ideas that come in dreams. But it’s lightning. And how long do you have to wait in between strikes, or for it to strike at all? Answer: Usually a LONG ASS TIME.

So. What to do.

I have the answer. I’m not gonna lie to you: it’s not glamorous, or even that appealing. You ready? Here it is:

STOP WISHING. START DOING.

Start writing. Start painting. Start making. Start creating. Every day. When you’re tired. When you have a headache. Upside down. In your jammies. Uncaffeinated. Super-caffeinated. When the kids are fighting. And especially, when you don’t want to. The most important time to do it is when you find yourself sighing, or cursing, at the screen, at the canvas, at the block of clay. I hate this, you’ll think. Why am I doing this? I have not one whiff of an idea in my head.

I’m not gonna lie; I’ve made a lot of crap and written a LOT of crap. Mountains of it, truth be told. But when I look back on it all, even the crap has something to say. It gives me a record of where I’ve been, what I was thinking, roads I don’t want to take. But often, I find a kernel, a path, an idea, somewhere to go or explore. There is value in all of it.

Creating something from nothing is a really hard thing. Really hard. It’s a skill and a skill takes time, and practice. Lots of practice. It’s hard work. But I think it’s where the lightning lives.

“Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus.
Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.”
– Helen Hanson

….Amy Abolafia!! Congrats, Amy!! I’m so happy that Rosie’s new home will be with you. Just zip me an email at mudstarceramics@gmail.com with your shipping info, and I will send her on her way!

xo Rae

p.s. Thank you, all, for your sweet comments on my 100th post. I just love connecting and sharing with you. (I’m smiling, can you see me?)

Three big, yes, BIG things are happening today:

1)  Today is National Margarita Day.  For me it might be right up there with Christmas.  It’s Friday – why not mix a batch up for you and your honey to celebrate a long week’s work?  I’m usually a purist when it comes to my margarita, but seeing as citrus is in season right now, this Grapefruit Margarita is DEE-lish:

This makes six small margaritas, or four properly-sized ones.  (C’mon.  Get your head in the game.)

• Salt
• Lime wedges
• 1 cup tequila
• 1 cup fresh grapefruit juice
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/2 cup Cointreau
• Ice

• On a small plate spread salt.
• With lime wedges moisten glass rim.
• Dip glasses into salt.
• Place glasses into freezer to chill.
• In a pitcher combine tequila, grapefruit juice, lime juice and Cointreau.
• Remove glasses from freezer and serve margarita mixture over ice.
• Garnish with lime slices or grapefruit slices.

I will be using said margarita to toast the next two items:

2)  Last night I hit 150 pages of this novel of mine.  I gave myself three months to “change gears” from pottery to the written word.   (Oh, I’m totally coming back to clay – just a hiatus for a few months…) Now I am writing in the Princeton Public Library, in the early morning, in the night, upstairs, downstairs, in my Honda, in my jammies, in my dirty apron, at Small World Coffee – whenever and wherever I can.  When I’m not writing it, I’m thinking about it.  It’s way more difficult and way more fun than I anticipated.  I can’t share everything, but I can tell you it is a modern romance that I hope is a little funny, a little sexy, and I hope a lot of fun to read.  I keep a weekly word count here on my website’s home page, if you’d like to pop in and check my progress…

3)   It’s my 100th post!!!!!!

I started this blog as a way to keep a record of my creative journey, process and inspiration, and to share that with other like-minded folks.  I am so grateful that you kind readers have stuck with me, connected with me, and have shared some of your journeys.  The creative process can be a lonely one, and it has been such a comfort and joy to connect with other artists here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my readers.  You make my heart happy.

So in honor of this momentous occasion, I’m doing a giveaway of the design that started it all – my Rosie Candle. If you would like to be put into the drawing, just leave a comment and I will put your name in. In a week or so, I’ll pull a name out of my bright orange winter hat, and Rosie will be yours! (And yes, kind readers, I will ship internationally…)

And have I said Thank You? I have? Just one more.

Thank You.

Back in November, I wrote about changing gears – giving myself permission to try new things, to stretch, to push into the uncharted territory. And so I’ve done it. Though working with clay scratches a creative itch unlike any I’ve ever had, I’ve finally broken down and given myself until the end of March to pursue my writing. I’m not going to lie – it’s been a little weird, because I was in such a ceramics groove the latter part of 2012. I found myself going from working with clay six/seven days a week, doing five shows between September and end of December – to basically halting production. Talk about weird! Talk about scary!

It feels right to talk about this in my 99th post here. (99…Phew!) Two milestones this week: I have hit 99 blog postings counting this one…c’mon…#100!!  And I have officially written 25,000 consecutive words. (Flu, included.)

I’ve written this blog since 2009.  I am really grateful that I’ve kept at it.  It documents a lot of my creative journey, and it is really gratifying to have a record of where I’ve been, of what’s inspired me.  The ritual, the habit of writing this, along with all the work, learning, and growing that I’ve done with Mudstar, has taught me:

1) Rome was not built in a day.

2) 90% of creating something good is just showing up and doing the work.

3) Making/writing/building/doing creative things makes me feel alive and whole.

4) If the task feels difficult, or even impossible, yet you still feel drawn to do it, and you feel this weird compulsion and propulsion, then it’s probably the right thing to pursue.  Go for it.  Just start chipping away.  Just begin.

p.s. Stay tuned for my 100th blog posting!  A giveaway is on the horizon for a lucky reader…:)

Yesterday I found this brain of mine cluttered up with all kinds of flotsam and jetsam. Taking up square footage are definitely important things that have earned the space they take up. Things like: how to help my kids thrive and be happy, this year’s ceramic designs, a new direction for Mudstar, plot points in this piece I’m writing. Then there are the stupid things that should be relegated to one shelf in my mind’s closet: like why porchetta is the new darling of the food world, when beards are going to be over, the size of my thighs, and why can I not find music in the new millenium that I can identify with. Writing was not going to get done that afternoon, so on a hike I went, through Chauncey Woods.

There is something about trees, and inhaling the cold fresh air, and the crunch of leaves and cry of crows that always makes me calm down and remember what I thought was important in the first place. Do I really want to spend 80% of my time on stuff that made me 20% happy? (Rhetorical.) What do I want more of this year? What do I want less of?

And more of this.

Less of this.

Definitely more of this.

I would like fewer parties where I need to wear Spanx, and more gatherings where this is acceptable attire. (Hi, Millie. You look pretty fantastic.)

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breakfast apple in my coat pocket

knit hat in pumpkin orange

tracks made by running rabbits

Days are blurring by like the view from the windows of a moving train. But it’s a pretty view, nonetheless!

Coming up is Mudstar’s Trunk Show at the fabulous Jane. It’s where I sold my very first lamp a few years ago, and it’s like coming full-circle, even a little like coming home. My Etsy shop gives a little taste of what’s in “store”, but not everything….(She says, teasingly…) And there will even be some little star ornaments made with Jane’s logo in mind! Mmmm….picture Jane Blue glaze…

Jane is lovely. Jane is chic. Jane is eco-conscious. Jane is community-minded. Jane is kind to artists. I LOVE JANE.

Please click here for the shop’s pretty website, all done up in..what else…hues of Jane Blue.

The show runs from Thursday, December 6th through Saturday, December 8th. Hours for all three days are 10am to 8pm. On Thursday, Mudstar will be paired up with Lisa Ham, who makes these beautiful, ribboned gift items. Love her colors!

Come scoop up some colorful, handmade holiday gifts made by local folks – something for everyone! And as always, especially at this time of year, I am so grateful for these opportunities, for my sweet customers, for kind store managers and shop keepers, for local businesses. Thank you.