Shop Small Saturday

Saturday started with pastries at Motzi. I got an heirloom tomato and pesto danish. Can tomato season please last forever? Paul got pain au chocolat. We'd gone for their new softserve (melon and creamy basil swirl) but it wasn't ready yet. We'll have to go back.

Then we grabbed Frisket and headed to the Remington Shop Small Crawl. Hotdogs at Glizzy's first, then into Greedy Reads to browse, then a cocktail at Pink Flamingo. Rum and apple cider with a dash of this and that. Perfect for early afternoon when it's still a little cool out.

After that we drove over to Bolton Hill for the Festival on the Hill. What a pretty neighborhood! Old row homes, tree-lined streets, architectural details I want to explore more. We got oysters at a stand, then I found my friend Jen's booth (Yummy & Company) where she was selling pottery.

Her pieces are beautiful—delicate jewelry, mostly. Small sculptural forms that sit in your palm. I didn't get photos of her work, which I'm kicking myself about now, but there will certainly be other opportunities. I'll just have to share a blue and white snake I have of hers. It looks like Delft, which is totally my jam.

It's so nice to see a friend's work displayed like that, price tags and all. It makes you see it differently. More seriously, maybe. And perhaps you can take your own work more seriously, too.

A few stands down we saw my friend and neighbor, Alison of White Hill Pottery. She makes really cozy ceramic dishes—the kind that makes you want to take all the doors off your cabinets so you can display them. Big fan. I didn't take photos there either, but here's the charming little stand she has on our street.

I've been painting pottery myself this week. Nothing as refined as what they're making—they've been at this for years—but I'm learning. Friday afternoon at the Potters Guild, then again on Sunday. It's a different kind of making than drawing on paper and screens. More deliberate. More patient. You paint it, it gets fired, and only then do you see if the three layers of white you applied successfully covered the smudge of blue you couldn't wash out.

I've been so busy writing for the community site this week that I haven't drawn much. The pottery was freeing—just getting to make something without anyone to answer to except myself.

We came home and our friends Van and Alex came over. We grilled more hotdogs (hotdog day, apparently—no complaints), had eggplant and potato salad, then Taharka ice cream, which is seriously the best. Then we played Isle of Cats, a board game I'd never played before. I won despite having no idea what I was doing and playing what I can only describe as a very lazy game.

Sometimes that's how it goes. You see your friends selling work they've refined over years, you work on your own pieces between other projects, and then you win a game you weren't even trying at. There's probably a metaphor in there about creative practice, but I'm too full of ice cream to figure it out.