Wood Kiln Firing

Last week there was a wood kiln firing in Lexington! Wood kilns are more rare than other methods of firing - they go on for about 4 days, during which someone must constantly feed wood into the kiln and monitor the temperature, 24/7. The result is unique, though; the ash from the fire creates a beautiful glaze on the clay, and you never quite know how the pieces are going to come out. The ceramics department here at UK built this kiln not that long ago, out on a farm where the university does agricultural work. I worked one 6 hour shift, hauling wood, throwing it into the kiln, and eating pizza and marshmallows cooked over the fire (yuummm). By the time I left, the kiln was up to about 1200 degrees, right on the brink of when you have to start wearing special clothing for the heat. It was wild getting up close to the door and experiencing such intense blasts while throwing in the wood, and I went up a couple times with my camera to try to get a view of the inside. A real inferno! The goal was to reach about 2200 degrees at it's peak. After the four day firing, it cools down for about a week, and we are unloading on Monday. I can't wait to see how everything looks!

The Many Expressions of May, part 1

                    

Are words necessary? :) 

~xomo

The Handmade Object

I've been taking ceramic courses this year at school and really enjoying it.  I always love working with my hands, but with ceramics, it is additionally exciting to imagine a physical object or particular shape, and then figure out how to make it a reality.  I'm not very advanced at this point, so everything I imagine is happening at a fairly simple level.  Still though, it is a surprisingly thrilling sensation to eat and drink out of a vessel, knowing that I created it!

My professor this semester is really hounding us to churn out a large number of items, more than I will ever be able to keep...so...I'm going to have a sale at the end of the semester! In person, here in Lexington, but also if out-of-towners really want a few handmade items, we could discuss shipping.  I'm letting you all know in advance because if anyone is interested in a personalized or specific type of object (but think within a cup/bowl framework for now), I would be happy to fill the order.  Leave a comment below or email me at mkelly210@gmail.com, and we can talk about it.

:)

xomo

Spring Fever

I've been feeling a little antsy lately, kind of wanting to travel or do something different, explore a new place, perhaps?  It's been raining and the smell of spring is in the air! but still it's a bit chilly and dreary out, so inside I stay this morning...here are a few cool things I've seen lately online:

At this site, you can watch how the wind is blowing across the entire planet in real time!

Great video of a teenage hyperpolyglot who speaks over 20 languages (makes you feel inspired and inadequate).

Bird's eye view around the world.

Taking stock of a relationship through yawns. 


Photos are of the famous tulip fields in Holland (have to see it in person one day) from this little article. If you squint they could be mistaken for a Rothko. :)

cheers
xomo

Me 'n May

Trish and May came to Kentucky this past week for a visit, and they just left this morning; I'm really missing them!  I am May's Godmother and this was my first time meeting her.  Ahhhhh, this baby is just....so AWESOME.  She has a huge repertoire of facial expressions, and goes between little, babbly conversations and an extremely thoughtful, focused stare that sees right in to your core.  I know everyone says this about their own baby, but she definitely is incredibly advanced.  I am so happy and grateful they came to visit, love them both so much!  Lots of baby photos to sort through now, stay tuned :)

~xomo

ps: An extremely clear resemblance to her parents, haha!

Birthday Week

Hooray! My last post already seems so far away because the sun has started shining, the breeze blowing, temperature rising, and now all the snow is gone and it feels springy! I hope it is here to stay. I was looking through some photos today that I took during my "Birthday Week." I had decided that the week before my birthday I would do one small, special thing each day to make the days feel a little out of the ordinary, and to put me in the mindset of transitioning into my next year. See, it's already starting to feel like time goes by so quickly, and I know it will just continue to race forward as I get older. I don't like the idea of my birthday flying by in one day and barely having time to realize I've reached a different number. I just need a little more time to process...plus I like celebrating birthdays! Well anyway, the week started off well, but then I caught some sort of flu-like virus, which was the pits. I was knocked off my feet for a couple days and birthday week seemed to be officially derailed. There were some bright moments though; Will came over to make soup multiple times, and Trish sent many funny texts to help me smile :) These photos are from the beginning of the week, a visit to a French bakery just 2 blocks from my apartment that recently opened - it is so good - with my friend Nicola. Everything is delicious (amazing croissants and quiche) and filling, and the atmosphere charming. If you order coffee or cafe au lait they serve it in a bowl, which is nice because, some days, mugs just don't seem large enough. Also, I started using a new bar of soap that I received as a gift from some friends when they were passing through, which doesn't sound like too big of a deal, but it's just a really nice bar of soap. It smells so clean! It's Swedish and it's so pretty, and in case you'd like to give it a scrub, here it is.

So you see, it was still a nice week despite getting sick. And now I am 26! (Does that sound old??)

Winter Doldrums

Kentucky is getting a lot more wintry weather than usual this year! It seems like every time it finally starts to melt, another icy, slushy mess falls from the sky. I've been feeling a little cooped up because my bike is really not made for winter riding - I spin on slim, currently very low tread tires. That means less activity day to day overall :( Today I made french toast to try and cheer up the grey morning - ricotta stuffed! Super good, maybe I should do another breakfast week :)

Little Mountain Cabins

Ok, I love Wisconsin, but have you seen this forecast?!  Good grief!  Everyone seems to be sitting inside, talking about where they might like to be instead.  It's been super cold for most of my break, and now it's just getting more ridiculous.  I miss walking outside the most; I started looking through some photos from a hiking trip I took with some friends in the Austrian Alps this summer.  Look at all these little mountain cabins we passed - some of them are so tiny!  The one in the last photo is a little speck.  We stayed for a couple nights in the one in the third photo, with the red and white shutters.  There is a huge network of huts in the Alps for hikers to stay in as they do long treks, and they're really nice and comfy.  And people live in those tiny ones seasonally, perched among the hills, tending flocks :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  2013 really flew by (I only just started remembering to write the date correctly!).  I'm ringing in 2014 in my hometown this year, which is freezing right now, so we stayed in with friends, and watched the little fireworks show at midnight from the window.  I was thinking about how, in 2013, I saw the most amazing fireworks show of my life during the trip to Venice last summer, and I looked through some of the photos this morning.  The one weekend we happened to go there was the one weekend of the year they have this HUGE night of fireworks, where thousands and thousands of people crowd on to one side of the island, and they have an elaborate show timed out, with 3 different boats shooting off fireworks from the water for a full hour.  At the end people cheer or boo, and the success of the show is discussed for the next week.  The whole show was like a constant finale, it was so elaborate.  There were shapes and colors that I had never even seen before!  My favorite kind are the large, arching golden ones, which are so majestic, and they shot off a ton of them at once, seemingly filling the sky.

Wishing everyone a joyous beginning to the New Year! Any resolutions? Goodbye 2013 - You were a great year!  :)

~xomo

Loft Bedroom Makeover

Before...

After!

Well this blog has been sadly ignored for awhile...the semester flew by and now it's already December 15th, crazy.  I hadn't been feeling very inspired to do much photo taking because of a dead camera battery and busy schedule, but then a few weeks ago I finally spent some saved dollars on a new camera, and upgraded to a Canon Rebel sl1! So I've been starting to play with it a bit and wanted to share a few pictures of my loft bedroom, which Will helped me redo last year.  I live in a really unique garage apartment here in Lexington, but I've never posted anything about it.  Here is a first glimpse.  

When I moved in, my landlord didn't expect me to use this crawl space as a sleeping area, just storage, so he hadn't finished it off.  It's actually a pretty spacious little loft, so I threw my mattress up there right away, and he installed a ladder.  It just stayed that way for awhile, but then I kind of got tired of staring up at the ugly pipe.  Will enthusiastically volunteered to lead my home repair project because he has a lot of experience doing this kind of work.  He cut out new pieces of wood to cover the exposed insulation, and then built a beam around the pipe and across the ceiling, in which he cut holes and installed recessed lighting.  I sanded the walls down and painted them with white stain; I like using stain because the grain of the wood shows through.  I also sanded and re-stained the window, which is such an awesome feature - I love having an octagon window in my bedroom!  Not a lot of extra space up there, so it's decorated minimally with a lambskin my parents gave me, and some glass blown balloons I picked up on the island of Murano, during a trip to Venice.  Clean and cozy.  It feels like sleeping in the coolest tent ever!  The whole project cost under $250, which is another item to add to the list of why my landlord loves having me as a tenant :)