![[Bloglines]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[kirtsy]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/kirtsy.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://fromskilledhands.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
Send Me Your Mug Shot: A Contest
It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is no question that most mugs are functional: they hold the liquid which has been placed inside. There are, it seems, other factors that make a mug “work.” The size and weight of the vessel, and the size, weight and position of the handle are important to the user. And then there are other factors. How has the piece been decorated? For me a question is: has it been made by hand?
Some mugs are beyond description—- and that, my friends, is why we are having an Ugly Mug Contest. Send me a photo of your ugly mug and I will enter your name in the contest. The prize? One of our favorite mugs! Send your photo to: from skilled hands AT g mail DOT com (remove spaces).
Here are some photos:
And here is the mug and the comment that inspired this contest:
Kris stated, “I didn’t send a picture last time because I *hate my mugs! I don’t have a one that I love. I can tell by the image above that the handles of those mugs are perfect – plenty of space for more than two fingers, which I like. Want me to send you a picture of the mug I use but don’t love??”
Mug Shot Winner
The winner of one of our favorite mugs is Laura P. I know she loves her little brown mug, and I hope that she will love one of our favorite mugs, too. Check back tomorrow for a look at our next drawing, where, you, too, will have the opportunity to win!
Mug Shots: A My Town Monday Post
As I sit sipping my coffee with frothed, steamed milk, I cradle my sacred mug in my hands. The mug’s the thing, more than it’s contents. It’s handle, user friendly; it’s body rounded to fit in my hands. Mugs are a personal thing.
Last summer I asked what you like in a mug. Since Spring has finally really arrived in my Valley, it’s time to ask again. What do you like in a mug?
Send me your mug shot, and I’ll enter your name in a drawing for one of our favorite mugs. Using my usual high tech method, in which I draw a name from a hat, I will draw a name on Sunday, May 9, and post the winner in next week’s MTM post.
Send your photo to me: from skilled hands AT gmail DOT com.
Visit My Town Monday to see who has what to say about his or her town.
The Story of Touchstones
So now I will tell you the story of the Touchstones. It was just before 9/11. I had been holding a piece of porcelain in my hand, musing about it’s texture and how it felt. It was like a stone. I rolled it into a comfortable form, and picked up a tool that I use for carving the tiles. I began to write words on the stones. No thought, just action. I rubbed colorants into the carved areas, like I do with the tiles, and fired the pieces.
These little pieces were like those that people all over the world hold: worry stones, beads and stones, and the like. It seemed that in the business of daily life, we—-I—-often lose track of things that I need to remember. These little pieces of porcelain were touchstones—-reminders—–to pay attention. I carry them in my pocket, and as I handle them, they help me remember.
A year after 9/11, I was in the studio. A couple came in. They were from New York City. We started talking. They were planning on walking, with a group of bagpipers, at dawn, from Battery Park to the place we now know as Ground Zero. The woman wanted to buy a touchstone that had PEACE on it. I gave her a dozen and a half or so, and asked her to pass them on.
A week or so after that, I received an email from a man who had been given one. He wrote that he had been in his office near the Twin Towers on September 11, and that receiving a touchstone was a life affirming experience—a connection with others who cared.
I continue to make them, on and off, when the time seems right to me. We sell them at our gallery in the Village of Peninsula, and I give them away when it is what I need to do. And that, my friends, is the story of touchstones.
As always, feel free to leave a comment, or a stone (o), to let me know you’ve stopped by. If you choose to leave a comment, I will enter you in a drawing for a touchstone.
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday
Don’t forget to send me your mug shot for a chance to win one of our favorite mugs.
Mug Shots: Send Me Yours. More Updates
Send me a shot of your favorite mug and I will enter you in a drawing for one of our favorite mugs. (from skilled hands AT Gmail DOT com). I will post the winner on Monday, July 27, 2009.
Here are some mug shots:
“This is one of my favourites – a Royal Alma mug by Staffordshire. I love anything English and stone or potteryware..”
Kat Mortensen
“They are big enough for two measured cups of coffee, keep the contents warm, and big enough to warm my hands in the winter (all three weeks of it!). They tend to be the favorite mugs of all the younger folks that come for coffee because of their size.”
Patti Carter
“Though I have my favorites, any mug will just about do in the morning. This one was given to me by a friend when I resigned from the ICU. I miss Freddie and think about her when I pour a cup of coffee into this mug.”
Rudeek who works nights as a hospice nurse.
“Meredith’s Lake Catherine mug, which Mark brought her from Hot Springs, and my local Ashland Coffee and Tea mug 
Now, I feel like a cuppa coffee …”
Laura
“Here is my favorite mug.”
Mary
“Here is a picture of me with my favourite mug. Not sure how clearly it shows the glories of the mug itself, but it does show just how huge it is and that’s what I love about it most. It holds at least a pint of coffee which is what I need to get me going in the morning, sad but true! Not only does it hold a pint it keeps it hot too for as long, pretty much, as it takes me to drink it, which is a good forty minutes. It has no handle, and doesn’t need one, sitting perfectly in both hands as it does. Ideal for the Scottish climate: it’s a mug and hot water bottle in one! The glaze is a luminous cream with splendid green stripes all around it. Another thing I love about it is that it was hand-thrown by a particularly handsome potter who evidently loved his job. My fingers fit neatly in the ridges that his hands created and thus I feel comfortably connected to its origins.”
Eryl
My Town Monday: Pythons in Peninsula, Oh My!
The Village of Peninsula, Ohio, population 601, will once again celebrate the saga of the Peninsula Python, the serpent whose escape, disappearance, and subsequent sightings terrified the people in the Valley during the summer of 1944.
Word War II was going on, and many of the young men from the Valley were deployed overseas. When the story of the Python was picked up by the wire services and Stars and Stripes, soldiers stationed overseas sent letters to the Village. Letters from places people had never heard of.
While the story of the python frightened people in the Valley, it was not nearly as scary as the horrors of war.
The mayor deputized a posse to try to capture the renegade reptile. Although they men of the posse followed up on every lead, they were unable to find the snake.
photo courtesy Your Community News
If you are in our neck of the woods on Saturday, July 18th, come on over to the Village. We’ll be celebrating the python with our Python Fest. There will be all kinds of things to do. Slither on over here to find out just what will be going on. Steve and I will have a plethora of pythons around the Gallery, at 1619 West Mill Street. If you can find them all, you will win a prize.
You can also wander down the trail to Deep Lock Quarry, part of the MetroParks, serving Summit County. Celebrate Hobo Days with food, stories and the crowning of the Hobo King and Queen.
If you’d like a chance to be part of our modern Peninsula Python Posse, post a comment. Last week’s Posse winner was Barbara Martin. She joins fellow posse members, Amy, Terrie , Sam, Travis, Barrie, and Eryl.
My Town Monday is now hosted by Clair Dickson here. You will find links to other MTM posts all over this fine planet. Travis Erwin is the originator of MTM. Go visit him and say hello. He’s a very nice guy.
More Mug Shots: A Giveaway
Email me a photo of you with your favorite mug and tell me why you like it. I’ll post your photos and comments here, and enter you in a drawing for one of our favorite mugs. AND you will have the opportunity to beome a member of the Peninsula Python Posse! How cool is that? This is what I like in a mug.
Email to : from skilled hands AT g mail DOT com (you know what to do )
The Peninsula Python Returns: A My Town Monday Post
Ronda Russell, the proprietor of Peninsula’s Downtown Emporium, loves the Village of Peninsula and it’s history. She says, and rightly so, that Peninsula is full of stories. The story of the Peninsula Python is unique, one that was told all over the world in the summer of 1944. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of Ronda’s stories about the Python and the festival she spearheaded in it’s honor. For more information about Python Day, slither on over here.
Last summer, I wrote about the story of the Peninsula Python:
So the story goes like this: back in the summer of 1944, a traveling circus came through Bath Township, which is a short distance from the Village of Peninsula. There was an accident in the local cemetery, and two large snakes escaped. One was found dead, and the other disappeared—for a short while.
Farmer Clarence Mitchell was tending his corn field. He reported that his dogs were mighty nervous for a couple of days; then they refused to go near his field. Mr. Mitchell looked up and said that he saw the biggest snake he had ever seen, sliding along the ground in plain site. Local historian Randy Bergdorf, of the Peninsula Library and Historical Society writes:
The first sighting of the python occurred on June 8, 1944, along Riverview Road in Northampton Township, about halfway between Ira and Everett. Local farmer, Clarence Mitchell, reported that he had seen a snake 15 to 18 feet long cross his fields and slide into the river. It was spotted later that day by Mike Bobacek on the other side of the river, near Szalay’s corn fields on Bolanz Road. Days later, paul and John Szalay saw mysterious tracks, “like from an auto tire,” weaving across their corn field on Akron-Peninsula Road, a few miles south of Peninsula. Those doubting the existence of the python decreased in numbers on June 23rd, when Mrs. Vaughan on Northampton Road saw the snake climb over the fence of her chicken yard with a noticeable lump in its middle.
Multiple sightings of the serpent were reported during that summer of 1944; the mayor organized the local Civil Defense organization into posses. Folks with loaded guns responded to reports of the wayward snake. The then director of the Cleveland Zoo, Fletcher Reynolds, pleaded for the life of the snake. He asked that anyone finding the reptile stay calm and phone him with the snake’s location, so he could come and take him alive. Locals came up with plans to capture the snake, from box traps, to clotheslines and sticks, to music.
By this time radio newscasters, and reporters from the United and Associated Presses were regularly reporting on the escapades of the snake that had become the Peninsula Python. The story was reported in the media that was sent to American troops abroad during WWII. Letters from soldiers came into the Village’s post office. Robert Bordner, a reporter from the old Cleveland Press was one of those who wrote about the snake; one of his stories was published in the Atlantic Monthly, in November, 1945.
Sightings of the reptile decreased; some folks wondered if the entire story was a hoax concocted by Bordner. Those who saw the snake stand by their stories.
What do you think?
#######################################################################################
Post a comment and I will enter you in 2009′s first Peninsula Python Posse drawing for an official badge! You will have a chance to join Peninsula Python Posse members Amy, Terrie , Sam, Travis, Barrie, and Eryl.
As always, Travis Erwin, an official PPP member, is the man at the helm of My Town Monday. Slither on over there and see what he has to say.
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
All content copyrighted. Please don't steal. It's not nice.
