Pottery doesn't talk back

The slumber party was great--although the ladies didn't completely rule the canasta game. Oh well, there's always next time.

But on Saturday, the great men gave us the day off to enjoy "therapy" of our choosing. We considered retail therapy, podiatric therapy, and dairy therapy but decided on pottery therapy. One of those pick-your-piece-of-pottery-and-paint-it places just opened and I've always wanted to try it.

So after only a tiny bit of convincing we went in, heard the scoop, decided it was the deal and set to work on persuading the creative juices to flow. The staff was truly helpful and once we found the baskets of stencils, stamps, tracing papers, and stacks of super cute ideas, we were creatively salivating over the world's next greatest piece of art.

We each picked a plate shape to create the "Family Celebration Plate" piece--I know it's not exactly a unique idea but it's a start--and we were on our way to colors, brushes and oh yeah, the actual work.

We painted in sweet, companionable silence, just enjoying the therapy of using colors and brush technique to fashion the images we had for our plates.

And the pottery didn't talk back to us, not even once. The pottery didn't ask to have more green and less blue. It didn't complain when the lines didn't completely fall in pleasant places. The pottery didn't even squeak with ingratitude when, in our timing, it took us a bit to decide exactly how to letter the edges or which stars to use. Amazing, huh?

When our plates were finished, we rested and were thoroughly pleased with the results--they were very good. Most of all, they were fashioned with love and thought for our family members. On any given day when a celebration is in order, the plate will signify unique rejoicing for that family member. What a day that will be!

Definitely we'll be going back to pottery therapy--what a great reminder.