Trying to Get Back into Blogging!!!

Life has been happening and Palm Tree Pottery is still going!!! We have graduated another son from high school - last May, 2011. Now we are going to graduate one from college this May!!! So it goes with the Hester's. Marsh just finished his freshman year at High Point University and Tyler will graduate from Greensboro College in May.

As for the pottery - we are gearing up for our year. We will be doing a few more shows this year - a few are new to us and at the beach - which we have not done before. But first, I want to let everyone know that our first show is coming up, The 4th Annual NC Pottery Festival on April 14 and 15 in Seagrove, North Carolina. Instead of this show being in Greensboro at the coliseum this year, it will be in Seagrove at Seagrove Elementary School. We will have some new colors that are not on our website. They are also on white clay. We have started adding white clay as well as still using our speckled brownstone. We look forward to seeing everyone in Seagrove.

Here are a few pictures from this past year:

Marsh's Graduation

Tyler coaching his JV team

Just a few pictures of some new pieces

Also, remember to like us on Facebook and tell all of your friends!

Glad to have you stop by. Keep looking for more posts with some of our new colors.

The Potter's Wife :)

www.palmtreepottery.com

It Has Been A While - AGAIN!!!

Okay - I know it has been awhile and I am sorry.  There is a lot to tell, but today I am just going with - this is what The Potter's Wife is having for dinner.

Tonight I made Chicken Enchiladas - The Potter's Wife style.  I only have a picture of the enchiladas before they went into the oven and then when they came out. Sorry for not thinking ahead.  But here is how I made them.

First, I baked two skinless, boneless chicken breasts sprinkled with salt, cumin, and pepper.  I drizzled it all with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and baked at 375 degrees until done.

The next step was to shred the chicken in a bowl.  To the shredded chicken I added two wedges of Laughing Cow Light Queso Fresco & Chipotle cheese and two handfuls of Four Cheese Mexican Blend fancy shredded cheese from Harris Teeter.  To this I poured the liquid from cooking the chicken breasts.  I mixed it all together, making sure the chicken was moist.  

For the tortillas I used Tumaro's Gourmet Tortillas - Honey Wheat (8 inch).  I cut them in half and put some of the chicken mixture on the tortilla and rolled it up.  I placed the rolled up chicken tortilla, seam down, in my pottery casserole dish (that I made).  Back up - first you need to spray the dish with cooking spray and pour enough enchilada sauce to cover the bottom.

After making all the enchiladas, I had a little chicken mixture left and I just scattered it across the enchiladas.  Then I put a couple of handfuls of the shredded cheese over that and poured the rest of the enchilada sauce over all.  I baked the enchiladas at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  You know until the cheese is really good and melted and the enchilada sauce is bubbly.  Yummy!!!

  

The picture on the top is before cooking and the one on the bottom is right after taking it out of the oven.  Notice all the pottery serving pieces.  I made the casserole dish, the bowl with the cheese was made by Marsh and the piece with the cherry tomatoes was made by Tyler.  Of course, the berry bowl holding the grapes was made by the true potter - Mac.

While the enchiladas were cooking I went over to one of my favorite blogs - The Happy Housewife to find her recipe on how to make my own refried beans since I already had some pinto beans cooked.  Here is the link -http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/refried-beans/. (They were awesome and the best part - I know what was in them!!!!)

Now to set the table and finish up getting the lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, and extra shredded cheese to go with the enchiladas and refried beans.

Ready for dinner.  Notice the plate - pottery by Palm Tree Pottery!!!

For dessert, we had brownies and homemade Peppermint Ice Cream that I made over the weekend.  Because I had left over candy canes from Christmas I decided to try this recipe I found at another of my favorite blog spots - Finding Joy in My Kitchen.  Here is the link for the recipe - http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2011/01/peppermint-ice-cream.html.  

Really easy to make and so,so good.

So there you have it.  Hopefully, I can get back to some posts on pottery. 

Thanks for stopping by. Until the next time . . .

The Potter's Wife :)

www.palmtreepottery.com

Getting Ready for the Woolly Worm Festival

We are busy getting ready for the Woolly Worm Festival this weekend in Banner Elk, North Carolina.  If you have never been you should make the trip.  It is in downtown Banner Elk (which is beautiful in itself) and so much fun.  They actually race woolly worms.  (That is what is going on in the picture above.)  There is a cash prize for the top winner of the day.  When I was an assistant in kindergarten, I would always bring back a live woolly worm for the kids to see and show them how they are raced.  They race up a string attached to this huge board.  It really is fun and everyone has a great time.  

This weekend is supposed to be very nice and sunny - unlike last year when it snowed!!!  We are in our same spot, booth number 5.  We would love for everyone to come to the festival and if you do, please stop by our booth and see us. You could even get in a little Christmas shopping -preferably with Palm Tree Pottery :)  Really, there are great vendors there and you could knock out some of your shopping while enjoying the beautiful mountains and watching the woolly worms race.  

Just to catch up since the last blog, we have changed our booth at Artwalk.  Not the actual booth, we are still in the same spot, but the "decor" if you will of the booth.  We think it looks really good.  When you are in Boone, please stop in and see what we have done.  (Actually, we need to get one more piece of furniture - the tall skinny one - and then it will be finished. It is hard to buy furniture and visualize it at the same time.)

This is our booth before.

Here are my guys doing the work.

Here is the finished booth.

Hope to see you at the Woolly Worm Festival!!!

Until the next time . . .

The Potter's Wife :)

Palm Tree Pottery

Sawtooth School for Visual Art

This fall Mac is taking his first official pottery class at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art.  We found out about the classes through a mutual potter friend, Gaff Pearce.  Gaff is the teacher of this class and he owns the Lazy Lizard Pottery.  We met him and his wife, Martha, at the first Seagrove pottery show we did in Greensboro, NC.  They do beautiful work.  Anyway, we like their style and Mac decided he would like to learn from Gaff.

We had never been to Sawtooth and when we got there, we were in awe!!  They have just renovated their pottery studio and it is fantastic.  We wish we had a studio that large.  There are windows all around the area where the potters throw.  It is very open and well laid out.

I know Mac will learn a lot from Gaff.  He has already taken away some new techniques and there will be more to come.  I cannot believe we have had our pottery business for seven years (we incorporated in 2003) and Mac has been throwing since 2000, but this is the first official class he has ever taken.  Too bad they cannot help me!!!  Actually, it is a good thing.  If I could throw, I am sure there would be another wheel bought and I would be put to work more than I am now!!!  Really, I wish there has been either a handbuilding class during his or one on precious metal clay jewelry.  Those are the areas I would be interested in. 

The picture of Mac shows part of the windows behind him.  You can kind of imagine what the studio looks like.  

Until the next time.  . .

The Potter's Wife :)

Palm Tree Pottery

It Has Been A While

Okay, I have not been very regular in my blogging since the summer has ended.  I am going to catch everyone up on what has been happening with us.  First of all, my "baby" - Marsh - turned 17!!!  I do not know where the time has gone.  He is taller than I am and such a nice looking young man.  Of course, I have the same thing to say about my 20 year old also.  The week that Marsh turned 17, I also had what everyone else has had around here.  I think I spent two days in bed that week.  I did make it to Bible Study, though.  We started our ladies Bible study at church for the Fall that week.  We are doing the Beth Moore study Stepping Up - a study of the Psalms of Ascent.  

On Friday of that week, we noticed that our cat, Mau was having trouble jumping up onto a stool.  I took her to see our vet and he ran a blood test on her.  He could tell on examination that she was anemic.  The results were back on Saturday morning and she was in renal failure.  I had had her in three weeks prior and she had a urinary tract infection.  We gave her some antibiotics and she perked up.  My vet told me then that if a cat lives long enough and nothing has gotten them, usually renal failure is what does and when you find it out, it is too late.    Anyway, we decided to try giving her fluids under her skin because she did not look or act like she was sick.  The first few days she perked up, but by the end of the week she quit eating for me.  We ended up having to put her down on Saturday.  She was eleven years old.  Needless to say, it was a very sad weekend in the Hester household.  We got Mau at the shelter.  Tyler, Marsh, and I went the day before school started that year.  Tyler was going into 4th grade and Marsh was going into 1st.  As we walked into the shelter, there were two cages on either side of the door with kittens.  As I walked in, a paw came through the cage and swatted at my hair.  My reaction was "that cat will not be going home with me".  Well, that kitten was Mau and the last one we looked at.  It was like she was saying "Hey, I have picked you to take me home with you".  She was a great cat and we are and will miss her very much.  Izzy will miss her also.  

We are still making pottery - since that is our business.  We got another new store through Wholesale Crafts.  It is the Cottage Craftsman in Bryson City, NC.  Also, the Woolly Worm is coming up October 16 and 17 in Banner Elk, NC.  If you are in the area, come and see us.

Until next time . . .

The Potter's Wife :)

Palm Tree Pottery

This Little Piggy

Today I have been making piggy banks.  Mac throws the body and I put all the attachments on to turn a "vase" or "bottle" into a piggy bank. 

 

The top picture shows all of the attachments that I have to make to put the pigs together and the bottom shows the body before attachments begin and after legs have been put on.  

After I attach the legs, I go ahead and sign the pig.  I want the future owner of the piggy bank to know that it took two people to make this pig, so I came up with the above.  For all of you who do not know, my husband, Mac (aka the potter) calls me Pudge and that is what I sign my pieces of pottery with.

Here I am putting their ears on.

And here they are finished. Aren't they cute!!   They will have to wait to dry and be fired twice before they are ready.  The best part of our piggy banks is that you do not have to break the bank to get your money out.  It just comes out of their snouts.  (I guess I am a poet and didn't know it :)

The picture below is just to let you know what the potter was doing while I was working!!!

I guess he had worked all day, so he deserved a rest. 

Thanks for reading!  I love y'all! 

Until next time . . .

The Potter's Wife :)

Palm Tree Pottery

 

Labor Day

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day.  We spent ours in Montreat.  If you have read my blogs during the summer you know how HOT it was in Montreat.  It was a very unusual summer in that way.  Well, this weekend was a typical pre-fall weekend.  The weather was great.  The air was clear, the sun shone and best of all the temperatures were perfect.  It actually got down in the 50's and maybe even lower at night.  

Of course we ate at my favorite mexican restaurant - Ole's Guacamoles.  As usual the food and service were excellent.  

We did a lot of walking which helped with the eating!!  It was so good to be back in Montreat.  After one of the long walks we all took a siesta (aka a nap).  It was hard to come back to what I call "reality".  We now really have to get back to restocking the pottery shop as our shows are looming on the horizon.  The first one is the Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk, NC, Oct. 16 and 17.  We would love to see everyone.  If you are there, please come by and speak to us.  

Tomorrow, I will have a post on my work in the shop with the pigs.  

Until then...

The Potter's Wife :)

Palm Tree Pottery