I have a lot of excitement to be able to share that someone by the name of Alene Bouranova came to my studio back in June and I had the pleasure of making her waste a perfectly beautiful beach day to come hang out with me in my studio along with Chloe-dog for four hours.

It wasn't something I shared because you never know, right? But, just last week, I started getting tagged online and people were sharing that they saw my photo and studio in the Boston Magazine Home print edition! Then, after a day or so it was up online. Dreams do come true!

The photographs were taken by Greta Rybus and you can find her portfolio of work here. She came to my studio a couple of weeks later and was so nice and down to earth. It was easy to feel relaxed but still embrace that awkward vibe I try to bring to any ol' occasion.

Chloe, wearing one of her usual happy faces in the studio.

Alene was so wonderful to have in the studio too. Not once did she make me feel rushed or weird. I basically kept my studio music on and Chloe wandered from place to place napping here and there and being very friendly with our visitor.

Sharing this brings me a lot of pride because I have never had anyone come to the studio just to want to learn and understand the process and importance of why I work with porcelain --having struggled to dig out a niche when it was non-existent back in 2012. Even when I was growing my body of work from 2008, I didn't fully enter the realm until I quit my job and changed the business name to Porcelain and Stone. So, I'm nothing but smiles right now.

This comes at a strange time for me I suppose as my mother has started entering the wandering phase of her early on-set Alzheimer's. She would so not like the attention if she knew, but the reality is we are all human and she herself, in the past, has always been rather a water-under-the-bridge person like I have grown to become.

Life is life and celebrating the good and the bad is what my mum definitely taught me as she would come twirling and dancing into the room when I was younger. 

I would be playing either the piano or my alto saxophone and she would shout over the music... "I want you to play this at my funeral!" With a great big happy smile while humming. She and my dad have given me the emotional tools to survive whatever life wants to bring. They also gave me my horrible, legally blind eye sight if it weren't corrected by glasses or contacts! So, ya know. Good things, bad things, winky face emoji things. But I'm so grateful to have my family around for the ride to celebrate the little things together.