I spent most of October in shock that it was October so I felt wholly unprepared to flip our kitchen calendar to November's page. When daylight savings came to an end, I spent much of that Sunday puttering around and complaining of feeling "lost in time" which drew a few eye-rolls from Kev.
Luckily for my ceramics career, there's muscle memory that's kicked in somewhere along the way. In spare moments I often find myself pinching the beginnings of a lemon or rolling out the base of a cactus dish. Here and there, a pear ornament appears, a scoop is made from scraps. These will all make their way to my shop for the upcoming (has it arrived already?) holiday season. Some of those lemons and cacti are already done and awaiting their new homes.
Now that we're over halfway through the month, here are a couple of updates for November 2022.
Partnership with Parachute Home
You can find Arch Vases and Maraca Vases online and in-store at Parachute Home! My big production push earlier this year was for this partnership, and I'm so proud to be included in the women-founded marketplace they've curated.
Jeweled Jelly Ornaments
This year, I've brought back Jeweled Jelly ornaments, which feature ceramic jellyfish caps with hand-beaded multi-colored embroidery thread for tentacles. They first debuted in my Etsy shop in 2019, sold out that season, and haven't been available since.
They are incredibly labor intensive, so much so that it doesn't make business sense to prioritize making them. This time around, I enlisted my parents' help in threading the beads onto the tentacles, which requires Elmer's glue to harden the thread ends, knots in between beads, and lots of close-up concentration to spear those tiny beads, glass pearls, and crystals.
I've already reserved one to keep for our tree; these were truly a labor of love.
Life Lately
Winter has arrived in such an imposing and unceremonious way: 70 degree highs dipped into freezing nights in only a matter of days. I guess I should start a knitting project or something?
For the first time, all three of our dogs are on different diets, with Sunday and Fitzgerald needing specialized food for an albumin deficiency and heart issues respectively. Only Huxley can still eat the food and many of the treats we usually stock for all of them. It’s a sad reminder that our pets’ lives are unfairly short. I love them so much that sometimes just looking at one of them will choke me up, and I’m so grateful every day that they are part of the family.
Jasper turns 2 in January, so it'll soon be time to start thinking about how we want to celebrate. It probably does not come as a surprise that my love language is making things, and I want to plan out little projects that will contribute to his celebration.
Negroni November is being observed here in my house :) We recently swapped sweet vermouth into our negronis, which is apparently the "correct" way to make them. All along, we'd used Dolin dry vermouth - the change makes a huge difference!
For Thanksgiving, I’ll be attending a pot luck celebration at Jasper’s daycare on Wednesday, and a get together on Kev’s side of the family on Thursday night. Since Thanksgiving was never a thing growing up, my side will be going out to try out a new restaurant in Flushing that specializes in Sichuan cuisine.
Christmas movies are starting to get released and I am so excited to watch them. I love how silly and how easy they are. Speaking of Christmas, I've just purchased two new rolls of wrapping paper for this year's wrapping party, which is on the calendar for December 17th. That means I should probably get going on gift hunting soon.
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