A happy New Year!

Hello everyone. This year we skipped Japanese New Year's Day celebration partly because I had eaten all of the Mochi, rice cakes that I bought in London in early December. Mike caught my flu and nobody could go for shopping and our fridge was empty, so I decided to have a couple of Mochi, but somehow finished the packet over several days!

I entered 2014 with dancing in the early hours. After a champagne lunch, I danced again. A perfect thing to do on a stormy New Year's Day! I love any dance music old or new. I also like any smokey music including rock'n roll. Once I start dancing I won't stop until I get really tired.  Mike is a softie. He likes mellow songs and acoustic music. He never dances. Never! In a gig, if you see a man sitting tight on a chair, next to a little Japanese woman dancing like there is no tomorrow, he is most likely be Mike!

While I was in the studio preparing for tomorrow's firing, Mike started this.

Mike, what are you doing?

 He decided to swap main boards. He has built all our PCs. He is a geek. (100% pure)

Colourful cables!

Then he said he forgot how to reconnect things! He checked on his laptop using Topaz's crate as a table. Notice her unapproved look with spooky yellow eyes!

'Why doesn't he use the dining table....?'

In the mean time, I was busy preparing this mask for bisque-firing tomorrow.

The mask I made on New year's eve. 

 And I have built a new one. They look similar but different. Each has its own personality.

My first mask of the year. 

Also these little guys are ready to the kiln. I can almost hear their chattering. :D

One little, two little, and lots of little owls! 

There is one unhappy camper in our house. As I was happily dancing to loud music before the bells last night, Pearl the whippet had enough - she sleeps in our bedroom  - and decided to move from the the side of the bed to the back of the bed. She hates loud sounds while she sleeps. (Nobody does!) She sighed, whined and stared at us. Well, Pearl, only one night a year, I should be allowed to listen to any music I like until late.
Now I know how you feel when your kids groan when you listen to your favourite oldies loud. : D

A very happy New Year, everybody!

Forest girl and Water girl

Hello everyone. Yesterday we had a long lunch with two neighbours. We had a relaxing time with them. How nice! Pearl was getting lots of attention; she was stroked and hugged. You might wonder what happened to Topaz. She was locked in her crate in my office upstairs. Otherwise she would bark nonstop at our guests. So this is good her and for us.

I have made a couple of masks. The three masks I made for the last exhibition gave me a new idea so I am exploring it. Most will go to my Etsy shop. So they are smaller than those in exhibitions.

Forest girl and birds

 I hope I would be able to bisque-fire them next week.

Water girl

Have you seen the new sweet rabbits in my shop? The left one, which is a bit goofy, is much larger than my previous ones. I have three more, so I will list them one by one.  

White rabbits.

Christmas creation and storm

Hello everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas. We chilled out and probably ate a few too many sweets, especially Turkish delights and chocolates! We also looked after cats for a neighbour.

I have also made several little creatures.

Ice Baby

 I made Ice baby for three children over the pond.

Mother dog

Feather

Turtle

And also made several owls. These are larger than the previous ones, You can see very sleep owls!  

Owls

The storm we had was the biggest one for some years in our area. Next morning, we saw a couple of fences came down in neighbours gardens. 

Two fences were down.

 When we walked dogs, we discovered more damage caused by the storm. 

Fences were down here ...

and there.

We won't walk near the tree.  

Lots of houses lost ridge roof tile at the corner. We were lucky not to get any damage.

Ridge roof tile fell. 

Then I received an email from a lady in Surrey that she had had no power since last Monday! It's terrible. I hope you are safe and sound.

Pearl decorated!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Hello everyone. Mike finally finished Christmas shopping this morning. We have stocked up with our sweeties again. We had already finished two boxes of chocolates and one box of Turkish delight earlier as well as my special New Year rice cakes. I intended to keep it until New Year's day, but while we were ill, we ran out food, so I ate them!

New stock of sweeties

Last night we had a storm. I felt the house shaking. I am from Japan where typhoons are an annual thing, even so I was worried if our roof would take off! There were a couple of fences blown down in our neighbourhood, but we were safe.

'Dad has bigger cushions on the tummy! '

In the afternoon, we shampooed Topaz, While she was drying herself in a warm bed upstairs, Mike, I and Pearl watched Narnia and Life of Pi with chocolates. Mike gets jealous if I am putting Pearl on my lap. As I am so kind, I let him hold her. :D It's Christmas!

Next box, please!

We finally put the tree up last night, and started watching Downton Abbey. Last 12 months I had been too busy to watch anything on TV or in cinema. I hope I would be able to relax a bit this year.

Topaz and the tree. 

So finally we are ready for Christmas. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

New chapter for my work

Hello everyone. Yesterday Mike and I went to the gallery to do the take down of my exhibition, Clouds, part 2. We went in after lunch to wrap the purchases. About four we started taking down everything else, luckily there weren't many left. Usually people can only collect their purchase after the exhibition finishes, but as it is Christmas, they made an exception. Some works had already been collected earlier.

Messenger from the North - sold

It is very difficult to find a parking space at this time of the year in Canterbury. Mike dropped me off at the nearest car park to the gallery, but he had to go to another car park as there was no space available. Unfortunately it was raining all day, sometimes cats and dogs.

Angel II - sold

A wonderful thing was that I had the chance to meet customers who came to collect their purchases. What a pleasure! It is such delight to meet them. They told me why they are attracted by what I made. It was truly precious. Thank you so much for coming on such a miserable rainy day. You made our day!

Wind - sold

They start their new lives with their new people. They found lovely people to live with. They are very lucky!

Shadow - sold

I am resting today. We had better decorate the tree before Christmas. But from tomorrow, I will go back to my creation. Creating is totally relaxing to me, and that's what I need to do.

Cloud II - sold

I will share some photos of my new work with you over the holiday. 

Wolf - sold