One of my most favorite Halloween costumes my mom made for me when I was seven was a die made from a big cardboard box and black and white construction paper. I put my head through the top and my little arms out the sides and wore that thing so proudly to school and trick-or-treating. I thought my mom was brilliant for coming up with such an ingenious costume when most of my friends were superheroes or house pets. I like to think my mom passed that same cleverness on to me, as I love to come up with unique and playful ideas for myself and my children. There’s nothing more rewarding to me than when I can think of an idea the pushes me in a new direction or one that someone else feels worthy of taking and using to create something. I love it when my children are in need of an idea for a project they are working on and we sit around the breakfast table and brainstorm together. Although they usually come up with their own ideas, I like to think I am a conduit of sorts for getting them to that idea. I digress. Today, I made nine clay dice and realize now that I should have made ten so I would have five sets of dice. It was more challenging than I thought it would be, but I loved making them. I made a ball of black porcelain to fill in the die holes and hope that they don’t melt too much when I fire them. I also had a photo-shoot with Becky, our beautiful chicken named after a YouTuber that my son found and learned so much from. She’s awesome, check her out for all your chicken questions. I am also working on creating enough beads to do something, I don’t know what, but something with.

“the dice are loaded” - I first heard the song “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen as a cover by Concrete Blonde on the soundtrack from the movie Pump Up the Volume when I was in my teens. It was one of my favorite movies and songs back then.