Halloween

Landon at the top (Janae's boy) apple bobbing, then cinderella and kitty Brianna.

I pride myself in helping kids get acquainted with their daring side, this week I was able to get my friends daughter  Kenzie to get over her fear of riding a two wheel bike, I was successful. She is now a rolling strolling steam rolling machine. Watch out.  So last month my goal was to help Brianna get over her fear of water. Not that she is really afraid, it just takes her two hours to get use to it. She is eight. So after a few visits to Kenzies pool she began to really get bold and even go down the slide, yay Brianna. Here she is helping her little sister Kayla down the river at our church river walk. What troupers.

This is another Project almost finished, I actually hauled all these rocks (with a little help from my hubby) and placed them like a puzzle together to make a walk way. Woah it was a lot of work but well worth it. I am so proud of myself.

Favorite picture from New Orleans

The Garden Gurus

So this is the beautiful garden we moved into this year finally. We built some raised beds and put on a front gate which isn't in this picture. The beautiful arbor around the garden was built by the previous owners (lucky us.) So this is our first real garden, Collette would be so proud. Rich grew up gardening so I'm very lucky to have him as a montor. I'm learning that the trick is actually maintaining the health of the plants and not just planting them (darnit!) So if anyone has good organic gardening pesticide recipes etc. please tell me. (I should call aunt Gail)

RIpping out the Deck

Here is the 3rd McClellan project, (I am a Spurt blogger) Rich decide one day that he wanted to take two weeks vacation time to build a new deck. He found some random person who was giving theirs away so he went with his brother and picked up the wood which is basically new, and put it into ours. Its not finished yet but more pictures will come. 

The fireplace

This picture is just for bragging. This is our fireplace project from 3 months ago but I never showed it off. We are soooo happy with it and I think it has been one of the most fulfilling art projects I've ever done. And best of all it was a family effort. we each have blood and sweat into this puppy.

Lake County Native American Mural

Well here is one of the many McClellan Projects, we are even working together to make it happen. Cheryl McClellan (my mom in-law) started a museum, I often wonder how one does that. We are helping her paint a mural of a native scene on one of the walls. Cheryl ,daddy, and even the girls came to paint too. It has been an ongoing effort for about one month and I dare say it is kinda fun painting again, its been quite a while.

Raising money for the House of Refuge

If you haven't seen my screen prints from our Philippines trip last summer please feel free to do so, the link is on my list at the bottom. House of Refuge. They are sold to raise money for the House of Refuge Orphanage that we visited with while we were there. 

McClellan Family after dinner DooDah!

Here is a nice photo that Elena took of the typical after dinner visits at the McClellan house. This particular visit was on Easter Sunday. We had mom's amazing turkey stuffed with homemade stuffing too. Kristen brought some yummy peanut butter and peanut butter cookies that each of us ate at least 5 of. Me and my girls sat and played with our olived finger tips. (that comes from the Lee side of course) And of course Easter egg dying my favorite art.

I just have to say.......I sure have married into a cool family. I love living here. 

You she's a Beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl!

My dancing Queens

Here are my adorable girls being little dancers. They have been in Ballet off and on for about 1 and a 1/2  years and really love it. Who knows if they'll stick with it though. SoI just have to say that I cannot believe how expensive dance is and will continue to be. It's not like it's a rocket science or something.  Our friend Mylene came over and they practiced their dance a little. Emphasis on the "little" but nonetheless an honest effort for them and moms too.

Flash from the past

So, I have been reflecting a lot this last week and a half while Rich was gone (over Valentines) about my life with this amazing man. (but first off isn't he a hottie) I don't think I remember a time that I was more happy than I am now so this is by no means a venting session about missing him over the lovey dovey holiday. In fact I over booked myself so I would not get depressed. I couldn't help but remember how it all started, so I found myself rummaging through old photos, letters etc. And I just have to say it was sooo cool but made me miss him so much. There is a whole other part of his life that I haven't experienced and flipping through photos of him being a reckless missionary and even in Jerusalem with all his girlfriends made me know him so much more than I thought I did. then I looked at old photos of me. All I could think to myself is "WHAT POSSESSED HIM TO MARRY ME?" I mean yeah I was crazy and spunky but....WOW! I looked at letters I had written that made absolutely no sense, wore clothes that made absolutely no sense, and especially acted like I had no sense. This is the guy who dated and planned to marry someone who was like a Valedictorian or lawyer or something smart. What happened? I still ask him that question.

So over Valentines I found myself thinking a lot about who we are today, and I can honestly say that I feel good about who I am and the kind of life that he and I are leading with our two beautiful daughters. Now if only we can keep his feet on the ground here in Cleveland. (Or maybe even land over toward New Mexico with the rest of the fam.)

So me and the girls had a fun visit to my friend Kathy's. She is just moving into a new apartment and we went over to kristen it with a girls slumber party initiated with all of us doing face masks on each other. The girls are still talking about how much fun they had. Then we all cozied up on the floor together and told stories and ate popcorn of course. The next morning Kathy made the most amazing oatmeal buffet you ever saw. Toasted coconut, jams, syrup, raisins, nuts, you name it. Wow! the girls are still talking about that too. :o) Thanks Kathy for the fun.

my Fire Hydrant enfatuation

So I have long had a fascination with fire hydrants. Maybe even a little bit of a fetish :o). I know my husband truly loves me when he engages in my rediculous hunt to get as many different kinds of hydrant photos into my collection. This is one that he got in Europe somewhere.

He had to go to Austria for work training and decide to take advantage of it a little and took an extra week to travel around and down to Greece. How cool is that. We are so spoiled. Our world travel experiences are needless to say wonderful and I hope they become a habit of ours. Maybe next time I will get to go. I'm banking on Monte Carlos next. 

Hey I can always dream right. 

Remembering Jazz bowls

Well I have honestly been intimidated by my blog since I haven't had anything as cool as the Philippines to write about, so here is my first step back into the fun.

My husband got up in church today to bear his testimony and as usual it hit me right in the heart. What an inspirational man! I can't believe how lucky I am that he fell for for such a quarky, punky redhead like me (when I was 16 of course). That even still today I must have him brainwashed into believing I am as high caliber as he to live life as a McClellan and have adventures together forever.

Anyways his testimony expressed thoughts about Viktor Schreckengost and President Hinkley living such amazing lives leaving behind legacies for us to learn from. (their passings were both within a day of each other last weekend) He expounded not only on their lives but, but compared them to each of us posing a question. How are we living our lives? What are we leaving behind? What track are we leading ourselves down and is it on purpose?

I really appreciated his few profound words about this subject and will probably forever ask myself these questions to keep myself in check, I guess that is now what makes me a McClellan. No wonder the family has such an amazing repetoure of accomplishments. (sorry just had to brag a bit)

The art above is Viktor Schreckengost's, it's a piece that Rich discovered on the web I think. One of my many favorites. I still can't believe I got to work with Vik to recreate the Jazz bowls. I miss that scene a bit and am nostalgic for the old dirty Ford factory surroundings. Day after day I would admire the beauty of the parabolic oversized bald porcelin bowls slowly drying in the sun, and carve intricated details on the walls of them while the shavings formed into delicate little curly Qs that fell into an ant pile on the canvas stretched table. The white dusty clay coated the surface of everything in the Cleveland Institutes of Art's ceramic department with the amazing ora of honor monopolizing the 3rd floor the entire summer of 2006. I recruited 10 students who slaved all summer in the hot sweaty studio to recreate over and over and over the masterpieces crafted in the 30's by people just like them and probably just as young. I still don't think any of them truly realize their privellaged roll in such a wonderful re-enactment as this, and first hand with the man himself. 

The idea to recreate the Jazz bowls was Richard's and the initiation was mine. In the beginning I worked with a potter, Jim, who threw a few bowls for me to carve and experiment on. My first crit with Vik was over the the only one that remotely survived the firing. It was relatively smaller than the originals, the foot had been blown out in the kiln, it was the wrong blue, and worst of all warped. For proof of effort and the sake of emergency I sculpted a new foot on it so it could at least stand up. The carvings were just about perfect, I had studied and worked for about 4 weeks to develop some stencils to apply but ended up free handing it anyways. At first glance Viktor's face lit up with excitement, like he was at the Institutes final crit week. Instinctively he began to teach me everything that came to his extremely sharp mind. He explained how the first ones were fired upside down to avoid warping on the rim, cast them in molds, and made stencils for the imagery around the bowl. "Each motif, he explained, leads into the next creating a continuous pattern around the bowl." The oval martini glasses imitate the round rim of the bowl when skewed, and the Egyptian blue glaze that emulates the glow of New York city night life. He went on and on like he had created it yesterday. Despite my ashamed stature when I first presented it to him I walked away having more inspiration than I had ever had from any of my art teachers, and this wasn't even my own art.

So here I am faced with myself as an artist and perplexed at the development, or lack of, and wonder where my art is going. What am I leaving behind? What track am I going down and is it on purpose? Questions Rich posed, that I pose. Will I naively jump into a thoughtless New years resolution of commitment to throw my art on a wheel and form it into an amazing Jazz bowl that will influence the lives of people for generations of time? Or will I continue to stare at the wheel with a blank intimidated look accepting an excuse promoting schedule packed with motherly errands, community involvement, and church callings, all of which prevent me from addressing my unsatisfied inner artist?