Forty years ago.............

I made these little ornaments in a ceramics class. My husband was stationed overseas in Japan and we lived in a large military apartment complex. It was huge and in addition to six wings that held the apartments for military families, there was also a grocery store, base exchange (you could buy almost anything there), library, nursery (daycare as we call it now), theatre, flower shop, post office and a hobby area. There was also a base chapel and dining areas for both enlisted and officer personnel. I was just 21 and with a tiny baby and more miles from home than I really wanted to be at that time. My husband's job took him on temporary duty to places like Korea, Taiwan, the Phillipines, and Okinawa and so there were long stretches by myself. I remember that it cost just 35 cents an hour to take your child to the base nursery. I was able to use it and took a few ceramic classes during our time in Japan. These little ornaments are one of several items that I made during those classes...........

I vaguely remember that I rolled clay very thin and then cut out some craft patterns and traced around the edges, then cut the design from the clay. They were fired and then I just used craft paints on them and finished with a glaze. They have survived all these years, including a few moves, except that........if you look really closely at the snowman, you will see that he is cracked and has been repaired. Oh, well, at least he didn't melt. Ha! Ha! I just love these little ornaments and when I see them they remind me of days that are soooo long ago. How can it be that they were made forty years ago? Of the almost 600 ornaments that I have, almost 100 of them were made during the time we stationed in Japan. More on them in upcoming posts.
On the "decorating front", I started working on the little tree in the dining room that I am going to decorate in silver and gold but I didn't get it finished. I have a light issue again so I removed some older strings and will put on two new ones. So what did I accomplish? I made fudge!  Then I portioned it out into little cupcake liners, two each and wrapped in plastic so that they can go in the goodie bags that will be prepared at church. The filled bags will then be delivered to church and community members who are homebound. I remember doing this when I was a kid and love it that I found a church that does this. It's the women's group that coordinates the project and when the goodie bags are all filled everyone enjoys a potluck! I haven't figured out what I will bring for that yet. Something will come to me. ;-) I also did some cleaning, worked on Christmas cards and tried to get in some sewing but never found time. I'll try again today........or tomorrow. Still plenty of time til Christmas. :-)
Sandi Claus