“The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday started bright and early, the snow had barely melted at all and it was REALLY COLD! I went to the hot shop in the morning where I worked with Nick (one of the other Americans).  I worked on making the long vases.  Stig-Allan kept walking by saying "Brraaaa (goooood)! Now BIGGER!" So, I kept having to gather more and more glass and try not to drop it all on the ground.  The point was to gather a bunch, blow a bubble in the top, near the pipe, then hold it down-ish, so that the weight of the glass at the end of the bubble pulls down the bubble streching it and making it longer and longer.  It was very hard to have it hot enough to stretch and cold enough to keep it from instantly dropping all the way to the floor.  I am not going to lie, several attempts ended up a pile on the floor.  I made some big ones and was actually for the first time impeded by the size of the glory hole! I was warming one vase and when I hit the back to the glory hole I was so surprised I almost dropped it! haha. (why does it have to be called a glory hole?!?!?)

In the afternoon I went to work in the cold shop.  Last time I was there Rebecca showed me some enamel pieces that they had for examples and suggested that I brain storm on some ideas for the enamel, slumping and fusing.  So, I had thought about layering some colors in the enamel and laid it out, but didn't get to put it in the kiln, or is it an oven... I have no idea, it looks like a kiln.  Here is what I did:

 I put white down and then blue (which looks purple before it melts) and then some green.

 They are supposed to be cool fish skeletons in water-y looking colors.

 I had to use these to block the blue and green from covering all the white.  They were suspended over the glass on those copper wires.

The whole process didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would so I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing the bottoms on some of my vases from the day before.  Here they are:

 These two are my favorite ones:

 

 Here is the rest of the snow outside! It even snowed some more during school but then turned to rain and left us with this patchy snow.

 During the afternoon Rosanne worked on making beads and here is a shot of that.  She is warming both a clear and a black stick of glass in the flame.  You have to wear these goofy glasses so you can look into that flame for extended periods of time.  I really suck at the beads but Rosanne is pretty damn good at it.

In the evening I went to a riding lesson where I got to jump Poseidon.  We did the same jumping exercise as I did on Wednesday which was fun to do on another horse.  We didn't make the jumps as high but Poseidon jumps way high over the jumps so it felt like they were just as high.  Pia said "sometimes he thinks there is a tiger under them" which is exactly true.  We did a good job, but it was interesting how different a ride he was. She said that when I canter to a single jump on him I push him too much with my body and we don't have the same rhythm.  I tried to be more still with my body but it was hard since he wants to stop before the jumps too.  Oh well, I guess that is what makes it interesting and challenging and fun!  I also broke out my long underwear and wool socks for this night lesson! I can't believe it is already sooo cold!

After riding I convinced Rosanne to go to Kalmar with me and get some sushi! There isn't much better for the soul on a cold Friday night then this:

 Miso soup and a nice warm drink in a ceramic cup followed by delicious sushi!

Then home to curl up on the couch with tons of blankets and watch movies and go to bed early. 

Saturday (today), Rosanne and I went to Nybro to get some knitting needles for her, but the store was closed, then we were on our way to Emma Boda to get her a second hand freezer but while we were driving there the guy called and said it had sold! Not a good day for Rosanne's shopping.  She was sad, and we both felt kind of stupid for driving all over and not getting anything but then I remembered that I wanted to go to Kalmar to go shopping for a big winter coat and a heating element for my apartment.  I heard from the other girls that the land lady still isn't turning on the heat until 9PM and until then it is FREEZING in the building.  So, I really needed one before I move back in and Sam comes to stay with me!  So, off we went o Kalmar.  We went to this big shopping mall and went to a few sporting good stores to look at jackets.  They all seem to be either black, white, red, pink or this cool light/bright blue.  I went straight for the red one but Rosanne steered me towards the blue ones and I was very pleasantly surprised with how they looked (even though I have a sweater in that exactly color and it's one of my favorites).  I finally found one in the 3rd store we went in, I think I am looking a little late in the season maybe, there weren't a lot of choices in sizes.  At the second store Rosanne suggested that we look in the men's section of the jackets as well as the women's and I told her that probably wouldn't work.  I tried on their smallest one and low and behold it was HUGE! Then I suggested I look at the children's since I was already wearing the extra small in the woman's... she seemed doubtful until I tried one on and IT FIT! haha.  So, here is the jacket  I ended up getting:

And, yes, it is a children's jacket but it fits and was cheaper then an adult! It even has a spot to write my name... in case I leave it at camp or school or somewhere kids leave jackets! :)  I won't be cold this winter in my new spiffy coat!

PS: The other weekend I went by a horse riding store and they were having a sale on kids gloves and I got a great. really warm pair... now I can use my kid gloves with my kid jacket! hahahahahaha oh, why am I so small?!?!  I can't decide how to feel about that... I guess I should just accept that I am 25 and still wearing kids clothes.