Gratitude....Monday? My Design Blog Friends and a Studio To Escape To...

Teeny tiles, a half inch across. they will be ruby red....

latex resist....

glazed in black (well, they will be black when they are fired)...

remove the resist...

and get them ready for the kiln...

red tiles...

....and orange ones.

I received an email this morning from one of my readers. I missed Gratitude Friday this past week completely. She wondered if it was me just setting some limits. There are some days where gratitude of any kind doesn't come easily. I don't say this lightly. On Friday of last week, my fingers would not hit the keys to say anything good. Or kind. Or even introspective.

And I don't want to fake Gratitude Friday.

The reasons are really not that important. Everyone has things which bring them down, me included. But down is not where I wanted to stay. In an effort to get myself out of the doldrums, I started searching on line for some creative inspiration. As usual, it was not far away -- the design blogs... you need only to go to my creative blog roll to take a look yourself. As usual, they helped, and I was soon able to get myself thinking about how much I need to do so that the rooms would be as lovely as possible in a few short months. Thank you once again, Holly, Julianne, Sparrow, and the rest of you on that list. If I don't always comment, I always do check what you are up to. I count on you for your beautiful flow of ideas and thoughts, and it is so nice that you are always there.

Once I got motivated to do something, I knew what I had to do. It was time for me to escape. Not very far, I am afraid, just to my studio.

I decided to start the tile-glazing project -- a huge task. I have hundreds of tiles to glaze. I did think I was going to make the bathroom tiles for the new guest room , but I have re-thought this. Instead, I am going to make a focal mosaic mirror frame for the bathroom, and have chosen beautiful stone colored bathroom tiles for the wall behind the sink and for the double shower (which is 4 feet by 5 feet and has a built-in bench). I am also making a mosaic table top for an iron table base which I already have.

I will finish up the tile glazing tomorrow and will fire them up. I can start building the mosaic mirror by the end of the week.

Firing out creative energy helps move me forward, and I am of course, endlessly grateful to have a space to go to in which I can work out the things inside of me.

Now the snow is falling, and we are once again cut off from the world, as no one can get up our hill. But it's ok. After a day of work, I am warm by the fire, my husband and dog with me, and I can sense contentment taking over.