"Taaa-effing-daaaaa!" ~ me

PICTURES!!! hooray!!!! Apparently, I missed the whole needing to log in, log out, change a setting, log on and off again baloney that it takes to reset your storage options... whoops.  I thought google was supposed to make things easier for everyone... NO! oh well, here are PICTURES! Yay!

So, here are the pictures I promised before of Sam and I at the castle in Kalmar...

 Sunset...

 canons, water... 

 gleaming windows on the castle...

 the crown topper on the castle

 the only inside part we really got to see.

 beautiful though :)

It was very nice and romantic, and Sam's first castle!

OK, moving right along to some more of Sam's trip...

That same day I had some of my friends over to hangout and get to know Sam a little better.  It wasn't many of us since most of the school was home for their Autumn Holiday.  I also don't know why Nick (crazy hat and beard) is in nearly every picture... oh well.

 Jokke (one the left) and Sam really hit if off! I don't remember what they talked about but they bonded.  Oh! I remember, it was something along the lines of if you have beard you can do anything you want... in Spain?  Who knows, clearly it was an odd conversation.

 Here, Nick is doing a taste test of the two whiskeys at the party.  We had Grants and something else.  Everyone at the table agreed that the other (much cheaper) one was better.  Stupid Grants... 

 Kirsten and Anniina even made it out on a Friday night! It was a lot of fun... Nils was there too but never got in a picture I suppose.  We sat around laughing at each other, listening to good music thanks to youtube, and taste testing different Swedish beer that Sam and I got at Systembolaget.

The next day he and I went to Norrköping to visit the fam.  Sam got to meet my Uncle as well as my two older cousins Hans and Magnus.  Eva had met him previous on one of her trips to visit my mom in NC.  Eva cooked a wonderful dinner and dessert and afterwards when we were all super full Sam and I went on a walk with Magnus and Hans.  We were supposed to go see the lights on the waterfalls in the old industrial part of town... Sadly, the whole town was very dark, almost no people out and absolutely no lights on anything.  

Here is a shot of the waterfall to give you an idea: 

 The walk did help us recover from the food comas which were setting in.  The next day Anders (uncle) took Sam and I to see the rock carvings in town.  They are from the Bronze Age and are pretty cool.  

 You can barely see them in red at Sam's feet.  There are boats, and cult scenes and some animals.  I have to admit they are cooler when it isn't below freezing out.  

Here is the Sun God I think:

 Then on Monday Sam and I went to Örland.  It is a huge island just off the coast of Kalmar... ok, maybe not huge, but very large.  They have windmills (old and new) and burial sites from a billion years ago, the ocean and some arts stuff also.  Sam and I happened along this camping site on the Baltic Sea side of the island.  It was noted in a sign to be important because it is one of the only places where the grazing meadow goes directly to the sea.  There is no beach of any sort.  Here is Sam freezing to death again...

 But there was this cool stone pier you could walk on and in the summer I believe swim from also... I walked out and then got promptly hit by a big wave and soaked from the knees down...  IT WAS SOOO COLD!

 Sam went out and managed to leap over most of the waves but also ended up getting kind of wet.  We had to tour the rest of the island from the car after that.  

So, since this is kind of confusing since I know you aren't all Swedish geography buffs here is map:

Visa större karta

The dot is on Kalmar, where the castle is, to the east is Örland, the island, and I live just to the west of Nybro on route 31 in Orrefors.  

OK, I am off to bed, next time I will have more pictures and etc! I am super happy this is finally up and going again... I was starting to feel like a complete slacker by not posting anything for DAYS! 

“I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to run around like Dennis Rodman and head-butt somebody.” ~ Greg Norman

Still no pictures... this is sad.  I am currently sitting around procrastinating getting ready for a party by drinking beer, eating pizza, watching Legend of the Seeker (HORRIBLE btw) and warming my toes on my heater...

I do want to go to the party... I just don't want to have to undress (wearing lots of long underwear), shower (badly needed today), put clothes back on, drink some more, put on makeup, find some shoes, all that walking... you see, anything involving me not sitting down right now sounds like a bad idea.  I had a long day (went to school at 7:30 AM! yuck) and rode (Vaaaagner the obnoxious puller) and I have to be ready in 17 minutes to meet Rosanne.  The good thing is she is usually late when she has to get ready for a party.  If my luck holds out, like yesterday, she will be on time.  Yesterday I went to my ridding lesson which is supposed to start at 7:45 but NEVER does, at 8:00... often times this lesson starts at 8:15 or later.  Which leaves me cold and waiting... not this time... THIS TIME I WAS LATE... damn.  So, better go get in that shower, I now have 14 minutes and counting... uhg that means moving...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  (even if I didn't go to this party I would have to shower and stuff... I can't go to bed smelling this badly...) thirteen minutes...

still sitting here... now at 12 minutes... am getting up now I think... maybe... oh god! pain my legs!!! So tired!

now it is 3 late... I realized in the shower that I completely out of shampoo! How?!?!? I have been here 2.5 months! I had to put water in the bottle to get any soap! crap... 4 minutes late.  Still no word from Rosanne at least!

dressed! 7 minutes late... now must find some party music... Bon Jovi... CHECK!

14 minutes late... Rosanne just called! She is ready! I have everything except my hair.... I also need to trim my nails... but maybe that can wait till tomorrow...  Ok, hair and another beer.... what am I going to do with soaked hair?!!?!?! uhg.

21 minutes late... she is here and i am ready! ha! ta-da!!!

Hopefully pictures tomorrow.  I am sure they will be more interesting then this rambling junk!!! adios!

“The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up” ~ Unknown (could be any of us really!)

I am so overwhelmed by the complete lack of posting while Sam was here that I am nervous to try to catch up! We didn't do that much... but it still seemed like a lot happened.  You might have to get the main recap and then maybe over the weekend I can do a little more.

Last time I left you with... Sam eating meatballs at Ikea.  What did we do next?  Let me check my camera...

Ah! Yes, we went to the castle in Kalmar!  It was very romantic... the sun was setting over the water and the castle windows were gleaming! Sadly, it was FREEZING cold so we didn't stay that long.  Also, we got there too late to see the inside of the castle really.  We walked into the courtyard but that was all of the interior we could see.  Here are some pics:


AHHHHH! The universe is conspiring against my posting!  Apparently I have used all my free photo storage! So I have purchased more but it will take a while before I can use it.  A day or so.  Until then... this is really all you get!

OH! I have exciting news! But I have to go to school now!  I will tell you next time!

The antic-----
ipation!

hahahahaha gotta love Rocky Horror!

I promise to write more tonight or tomorrow!!!!

"I know it’s been a while, sweetheart, we hardly talk, I was doin my thaaaaang." ~ Kanye

HELLO EVERYONE! I am sorry it has been so long, OK maybe not really.  I have been enjoying all my time with Sam in town.  I didn't want to waste it typing away on the internet.  Now, he is cooking risotto, which takes FOREVER so I have plenty of time ;)  But here is what has been going on since I lasted posted... I have to see what I last posted... hold on.

OK I am ready:

On Wednesday I went to school all day in the hot shop! Sam slept in the morning and then came with me in the afternoon.  He had jet-lag so I didn't want to make him do too much just relax and chill.  Maja and I were making these really cool vases where the middle touches.  They were very tricky and maybe even more tricky to describe so I will just show you a picture of one:

 This one has some blue and red color at the top.

 look at that middle... TOUCHING ITS SELF! hahahaha... sorry.

Here are 3, the one on the far right is the one Sam saw me make :)

They were really tricky and Stig-Allan laughed because the first successful one we made was the one Sam watched me make.  Stig-Allan said maybe he was my good luck charm ;)

The next day Sam had here, Thursday, he tried to document me blowing some glasses with Maja:

 Putting some color on my clear glass.

 Using the scoopa to make it all smooth and the right shape.

 I have either just blown a bubble or am waiting for it to appear or getting ready to blow a bubble.

 obvious...

 Some more clear glass over the colored glass.

 Frowning at something going minorly wrong...

Warming it in the glory hole...

 Blowing into a glass mold at my feet.

 Maja is bringing me a bit of glass to make a handle.

 There is the glass with the handle! Ta da!

 Here is what it will look like, well bigger and purple... but you get the idea.

 Here are some of the cool colors I got to use and make... fun stuff.  

Thank you Sam for taking all the pictures!

Then Sam and I went to Ikea to eat some traditional Swedish food! He wanted some meatballs and I had heard they were really good at Ikea and pretty cheap.  Sam got the meatballs and I got a shrimp sandwich (an first for Sam) for a late lunch.  While we were there I had a complete spaz moment and thought I had a lost my debit card! It was horrible... but low and behold I had stuck it in a different pocket in my purse! Haha idiot.  But here is a happy happy Sam enjoying some meatballs!

We also got these two goofy fellows:

 Kinion & Mitten 

Can you tell who is who?

“If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a 'wandering to find home,'' why should we not look forward to the arrival?” ~ CS Lewis

In a few short hours Sam arrives! HOORAY! In the mean time I need to clean and shower and in general try to make things nice! I signed up to receive a text message when his plane landed, that was a mistake, now I am counting down the time until his train arrives! 

I thought I would do today's post right after school.  I didn't want to forget tonight.  Soooo here you are:

Today we had to spend the WHOLE day in the cold shop.  It is the last day this week that the cold shop is open and they wanted us to get lots of stuff done I guess.  Who knows.  In the morning I finished the bottoms on some bowls, made some beads, OH! and sandblasted! I sandblasted those sugar bowls I made a couple of weeks ago.  They look pretty cool I think:

 And a small vase...

 This one ^ still has a clear lip and foot.  Also the inside isn't sandblasted.

 This one has just a clear lip.  Sorry the picture is sideways... but it looks kind of neat and outer-spacy.

 The vase has two clear stripes.

 And they connect in the bottom.  It is kind of cool but nothing too special really.

In the afternoon I worked on this big jug I made.  I wish I could come up with a better word for that... maybe Karaffe?  Can you use a karaffe for anything or just sake?  Here is what I made...

 I cut the top at an angle yesterday and did the bottom design today.

 Here is a close up.  It is hard to see...  I did it on the flower cutting wheel but tried to make it look like deep cutting.  The piece is too thin for deep cutting but this kind of worked.  

I like it a lot and it is so big! 

I also finished the bottoms on some more vases and some tiny cats I made.  

 cats are even harder to photograph then normal glass!

I also made these two vases yesterday.  I think I made one more but it cracked.  If you remember it was not an exceptionally good day... but these turned out nicely!

 Pink with blue spots on the bottom... blue bum! haha

 This one is all blue dots.

Here you can see better I think.

I have realized two things since writing this blog and this post in particular... 

1.  I need to take a class or something on how to photograph art and most importantly glass.

2.  I really need a manicure or something... look at this mess:

 OK, they look worse in real life.  And you can't see all the cuts and stuff on the underside of the fingers.  My hands have seen better days! I try to cut my nails and keep them reasonable and clean but it takes 2 days of no blowing to get clean after just one day of blowing!

This thumb has a but that goes from the skin, across the cuticle and actually cut my nail too.  WTF!

Maybe I will get a manicure when I first start Christmas break and I can enjoy nice nails until I come back to school! Until then... I will just try to hide my hands when in polite company! haha.

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not." ~ Yoda

OK, this may be the worst music video ever... but for some reason I LOVE this song!  It came on my ITunes shuffle today while I was working and I realized I hadn't listened to it in probably 5 years! That made me have two thoughts... WHY?!?! It is so good:

Sadly this version is missing this part:

"Take for example when you go to the movies these days, you know.

They try to sell you this jumbo drink, 8 extra ounces of watered

Down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents. I don't want it.

I don't want that much organziation in my life.

I don't want other people thinking for me.

I want my junior mints. where did the junior mints go in the

Movies. I don't want a 12 lb. nestles crunch for 25 dollars. 

i want junior mints."

The second thought it gave me was... wow I am old.  I can go for 5 years and not hear a song?!?! Then... I found two potentially gray hairs on my head! There was some debate at school if they were gray or just super blond.  So, I am either getting old for real or my Swedish blond roots are coming out strong! Haha.  Weird...

Well, the sad news is that Sam did not arrive today :(  His flight was cancelled from Charlotte to Chicago, so he missed the international flight.  He will be arriving tomorrow a little before 6 my time! Currently, he is wandering around downtown Chicago looking for deep dish pizza... I am slightly jealous... I had a frozen dinner and then two large salads with Rosanne.  Yes, I ate two dinners... I am an eating machine.  We are talking about Sam now... remember?  SO.... HE WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!!! HOOOOORRRAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!  I might not post as often while he is here, but you can't blame me can you?

So, today at school.... We went to work at the factory.  Most of the school is away on Holiday and the other class that is still here is had a day of no blowing, they were doing some sort of inspirational thing, taking pictures and etc.  It was Rosanne, Maja, Nick, Nils and I working.  I ended up working in a group with Maja and Rosanne.  It turns out I have lost all patience with Maja, when she is difficult for me to understand I easily get frustrated, or when she repeatedly speaks to me in some language other than English and isn't not because she is stressed working... just talking I get annoyed.  I have no patience.  This is a problem... She is not that difficult, she is not that annoying, but I can't handle it any more.  I can't handle when she gets mad while she is working and turns into a bad partner, I just get annoyed by her existence at times.  Not good.  I will have to try to work on that.  Maybe some time off with Sam will help that!  Today we worked on making vases some more, it was not a good day.  I was exhausted (got woken up by 2nd Halloween party upstairs) and couldn't concentrate very well.

In the afternoon I went to the cold shop because I was going to have to work with just Maja in the factory if I stayed.  But I lucked out and got to go to a slide show of work done by this lady who is working on her teaching certificate here at Orrefors.  She helps with the classes some and observes us and is really nice.  She is really good at making little animals!  She went to Orrefors about 18 years ago when she was 24 and now has a hot shop with her husband (who went here as well) and they support themselves with their glass.  It is so nice to see someone who was where I am now making it.  Succeeding at what they want to do and supporting them self and their family with their craft.  I have been lucky with so many examples of artists succeeding growing up Seagrove with my parents and their friends, but here is someone who was nearly my age starting glass and still doing it and doing it really well!  She makes these cool shapes that she sandblasts the hell out of with this lace or crochet pattern on top of them until there are holes where the lace isn't.  Pretty cool stuff!  Her husband does technical pieces with a lot of Italian influence and really awesome chandeliers!  Sadly I can't find her website, I didn't catch the name of her hot shop... Her husband is coming soon to blow some at the school.  Maybe he can make a cool chandelier while he is here!

Then I worked on finishing the tops of my bowls with curly feet.  I will be able to use these bowls for some flower cutting and deep cutting.  It will be more fun to work on bowls I have actually made not just school practice bowls!   I also worked on finishing some of the drop vases too!  Some of them are big enough to be a cool water or wine decanter or something.  Here is what I made the other day:

 Some of these guys are HUGE! I had to stand on a chair to take this picture!

 This is the one with the handle on the far left of the above picture!

 This is the the only colored on in the middle sort of.

I love these colors and they way they kind of swirl.  They are kind of Bad Circus colors to me.  There is some black and then it is just chaos of other colors.  It is really thin but super cool!  Maybe I can finish it and convince Sam to carry it back to the US with him... maybe.

It is so much fun to make BIG things! I don't know why but I totally fall into the mentality of wanting to make everything bigger and bigger and it will be better and better! I was still a little mentally out of it in the afternoon and during even class in the cold shop and managed to break 3 different things.  It wasn't pretty but I was happy it was only 3.  After that I only did very simple tasks for a while.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better on the concentration/hand & eye coordination front!

Now, I have to go to bed so I can be in the hot shop all day tomorrow and then be bright and fresh for when Sam finally arrives!  Since I am sure he will be so bright and fresh... haha oh well! Can't wait!!