The great cactus show chez Robinson is about to unfold. Right now they think they are Thanksgiving cacti. Next month they will probably think they are Christmas cacti. Salmon, white, magenta. They are all loaded with blooms.

No matter. They are gorgeous. They are blooming. They are happy. Who cares what kind of cacti they really think they are?

Let the show begin!

The other day I was grocery shopping in our local ShopRite. I was looking for a particular brand of rye bread that we have here in the east only I couldn’t remember the name. I know what the packaging looks like, no problem. But the name? Call it old age syndrome or whatever, I could not remember at the time.

I scanned the bread aisle in the section where it usually is, but no luck. There was a man restocking bread in the aisle, so I asked him. “Where is that really good rye bread hiding? Did you put it in another section?” He said something of which I didn’t quite catch the whole sentence but it included “Pepperidge Farm.”

“No, no, no,” I exclaimed. “NOT Pepperidge Farm, you know the really good Jewish rye!”

He looked at me kind of funny and said “Lady, I am trying to tell you that I am only the Pepperidge Farm distributor and I have no idea which bread you are talking about! If you could tell me the name though I might be able to help you.”

“OHHH ...” I said. (oops!) “Sorry! And no, I can’t remember the name just now. Thanks, I’ll keep looking.” And I did. I scanned that bread aisle from front to back and high to low, yet I didn’t see the familiar package on the shelves.

Finally I gave up and went back to where he was still restocking the Pepperidge Farm breads.

“Oh well,” I said to him, “I guess I am going to have to settle for Pepperidge Farm this time.”

He stood up, put his hand over his heart and said “OUCH. You’re killin’ me here! You’ve really wounded me. Settle for Pepperidge Farm? That hurts!” And then he laughed.

I picked up my Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Rye bread and put it in my cart. He approved.

One of the many small reasons I love living where I do is the people I encounter every day.

The Pepperidge Farm rye was not nearly as good as this rye, which of course I remembered the name of once I got home. But please don’t tell him I said so!

OMG. These things are so addictive. Thanks to friend Carolyn, I’ve had to eat the whole bag just to get them out of my pantry! Be gone evil nuts! I banish thee to ... uhm ... my mouth! Argh! I cannot. stop. eating. these. disgustingly delicious morsels.

Be gone ye evil things!

Out, out and into my mouth! Hurry, no time to waste.

Okay, gone now. I can go back to normal eating habits.

Whew, that was painful.

If anyone is making some kind of sweet potato casserole this Thanksgiving these would make a great topper! That is if they make it past your mouth and on to the casserole ...

Lay’s potato chips, you have met your match. I challenge you to “eat just one.”

P.S. Carolyn, do I thank you or curse you? Hmm?

When I opened the can, the scent wafting up from the lump of bright turqouise Play-Doh sent my brain spinning back to childhood. Who can forget the scent of Play-Doh? It smells so good.

The question begs: why is Lynne playing with Play-Doh?

The answer is simple my friends. I wanted to try out some different textures for my pot that’s in the works, and what better cheap medium to try with?

Play-Doh doesn’t quite have the consistency of real clay and I was making things tiny since I was using only one can of dough per each object d’art. So, bear with me, okay?

This was my first attempt at replicating something like I did in class. I didn’t take a photo of this one before I added the texture to it, but you’ll see it in the next one.

It really needed to be taller to see the texture better.

Here is the state the pot I am working on in class is in. Coils of clay stacked on each other. I pinched the ends for something different and staggered the beginning and ends. My real pot is much more uniform and a lot less lumpy looking than this one is, but I think you get the idea of what it looks like without any kind of texture added, right?

So, same Play-Doh pot with Texture 1:

After the first texture I needed to re-roll the coils so the pot is a slightly different height, but here it is with Texture 2 with an added little button adorned with Texture 1:

Which do you like better? Texture 1 or Texture 2? No texture at all? The bright pink one is also shown in Texture 2 since I forgot to take a photo of it in Texture 1. Doh ...

(That was intended as a cute pun for those of you that didn’t get it and have never seen the Simpsons.) Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you’d vote and tell me which one you prefer.

Next I am going to mix all four cans of Play-Doh together to get more “doh” to work with. What color do you think I will end up with mixing hot turquoise, neon pink, dark lilac and not-so-neon-pink? We didn’t have these colors when I was a kid!

Yesterday was pottery class day. I have to say that in a way I was not looking too forward to it. Which was silly, really.

We walked into the studio and there was my apple sitting on the table all nice and dry. Unfortunately it still looked the same as it did last week. I said as much to Kathy (the instructor) and she said “don’t be dissing your apple so much, everybody in the other class loved it.” I felt immediately better after that and even better yet when I saw what one woman in the other class had made last week. Yes, I felt much much better about my apple.

I took my cue from my other classmate and this week brought an old shirt to put on over my clothes. I was glad I did because today was sanding day for the two pieces we created last week. I was able to sculpt the apple just a tad but left some little dents since after all, no apple has a perfectly smooth skin. It will be fun to do the glazes next week.

As we worked we could see it starting to snow outside! The flakes didn’t last long before we heard the sound of sleet pelting against the studio windows.

I also got to see what my bowl looked like after it was turned out of its forming bowl. Not bad. Not bad at all! As I was sanding down the edges to make them smoother, some small pieces broke off from the rim. I wasn’t too worried as it made it look all that more artistic. Everyone else had done a different texture on each of their clay slabs that went into forming their bowl, kind of like a patchwork quilt. I guess I am a not a “busy” person because I used the same textures on each of my slabs. The look turned out very cohesive and because I varied the pattern it didn’t look too matchy-matchy. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that it holds together in the firing process. I wish now I had taken the camera to get a shot of it just in case. At least if it doesn’t make it through the firing process I’d have something to show for it!

Today’s project was making an extruded vase/bowl. We formed a base by tracing around an upside down bowl, then rolled out different lengths of coils of clay which we then wound around the base to whatever height we desired. I tried to stagger the beginning and endings of the coils so it would be more interesting. I am still debating how to finish mine off: whether to use a ravioli wheel cutter to introduce some texture like I did with a pot I made before (way back when), or to leave it in its natural form. So, since I was undecided I wrapped it in plastic to keep it moist until next week. I was kind of liking how it was looking in its natural state, so we’ll see how I feel about it next week.

I think I’m going to be sad when it’s over. Maybe I’ll take another round of lessons ...