March, Annotated

Welcome to Ammie Annotated, a closer read on the life of a small business owner, art journaler, queer cutie, book lover, and enthusiastic Instagram story poster. In this free issue, I’m sharing what I’ve been up to this month plus everything I’m loving, planning, and recommending lately. If you love this, consider joining the paid tier for even more. Thank you to the paid subscribers who make it possible for me to keep this space thoughtful, personal, and running.

It’s hard to believe March has come to a close. Historically this is a pretty busy month for me with a pottery conference, sprinting to get my accountant everything she needs for taxes (kill me), and working on new designs for my bisque line.

This year I was delighted to incorporate Chicago Stationery Fest into the schedule and I had the absolute best time. I give you the full run down of the trip in a recent issue, so if you want to hear more about it, check that out below.

Work

I just got back from Ceramajam, an annual ceramic conference put on by my besties Bisque Imports. This is my 10th year teaching at the conference, and for the last 5 or so, I’ve been teaching classes on my own bisque designs. I think this aspect of my job is a little confusing, so I’ll do my best to explain it here.

Bisque Imports manufactures and sells ready-to-glaze pottery (bisque) to paint-your-own-pottery studios across the world. I’ve been designing shapes with them since 2019. It’s such a cool process- pitching the designs, going back and forth with the factories, making edits, and finally being able to hold a piece in my hands that started in my brain (often over a year after the pitch. Manufacturing takes a long time!)

So, when I teach at these ceramic conferences, I’m often teaching a design to paint-your-own-pottery studio owners so they can bring it back to their studio and offer it to their customers as a workshop, finished piece for purchase, or as a sample to inspire. (This is also what my subscription service essentially is, and I’ve been offering that since 2020!)

This Ceramajam, I taught a Rhinestone Cowgirl design on my new Cowboy Hat Container. It was Chappell Roan meets Las Vegas Cool Girl Elopement. I loved it.

The event was Renaissance Fair/Game of Thrones themed and at the Monday night party, they brought in tons of amazing vendors to entertain and delight us. A Falconer, Henna artist, hair tinsler, reptile zoo (I HELD SNAKES!), axe throwing, and of course, a DJ. It was SO fun. I am currently obsessed with birds of prey and recently kept Elaine up way after bedtime explaining why owl’s ears are uneven, and why that falcon had a little hat on. I am still rocking the hair tinsel, which admittedly, is a little too whimsical for my day-to-day life, but it’s a reminder of a really great night with friends I don’t get to see often enough.

Can you tell I was really into the birds lol

I just launched a new round of designs that may be available at your local Paint Your Own Pottery studio! You can always tell if it’s mine because there is an AY on the bottom. If you don’t see it on their shelves, you can always request it through the staff. It’s totally normal, but if you feel weird about it, I’m happy to do it for you. The industry is small and there is a large chance I know who owns your local shop. Isn’t that fun!

Below is a recent unboxing of some new items. Shockingly everything survived that box falling off my table, lol.

While I was in North Carolina for Ceramajam, I stopped into Good Postage and taught a class on Creative Journaling and Memory Keeping. I was prepared for 2 people to show up and was delighted to have around 35 (some snuck out before the group photo) and it was a freaking blast. Look for more info about that in an upcoming issue.

Reading

March has been a strange reading month. I’m having to consult my Happy Planner for everything I read because I am having a hard time remembering. checks Reading Log Oh right. I’m rating it a C+.

I go into the top row more in depth in the recent Chicago issue (linked above) if you want to know more about those.

Listen For the Lie- I got this on audio for my road trip to North Carolina and only listened to about 30 minutes of it. And why is that? That’s right, loyal reader, it was because I cannot tear myself away from Charli xcx at the moment. I also sang along very loudly to MUNA and Damien Rice (I was down a nostalgia rabbit hole). I finished the audiobook this weekend while on a walk and then journaling. I enjoyed the experience and didn’t completely see the ending coming, so I rated it 4 stars, but I can’t think about it too hard or else I’ll find plot holes and confusing bits and drop the rating. Do you have a thriller you love? I love listening to thrillers on audio but haven’t been drawn to many lately.

Just Friends- I finished this yesterday and immediately needed to make a reel to process some of my feelings. I will upload the full version here soon- Instagram only gives you 3 minutes and my original rant was over 7 minutes, lol. TLDR; it was as expected, which is to say Not That Good, but everyone should calm down about it.

I host Book Club for April this week (we are all out of whack on our usual schedule this year) and I’m so exciteddddddd.

Journaling

In attempt to morph into the coolest person I know, Sam Voshall, I picked up a Hobonichi Original A6 at Chicago Stationery Fest. It’s an April start, so that means I get to officially crack into it tomorrow. Could I have used it before April 1? Of course!! But I’m too intimidated. I know how to use my Cousin, my Happy Planner, and my Weeks (though I am changing things up a bit in there- more on that later) and I have an idea how I WANT to use the A6, but that doesn’t always translate into actually how I might use it. Does that sentence even make sense? I know I just need to start, so if you use an A6, or if you know people who use theirs in an interesting way, please link them in the comments.

May we all embrace our Inner Sam.

Watching

I’ve been moving around too much to watch much of anything lately, but this weekend Elaine and I binged both seasons of Last One Laughing on Amazon Prime and laaaaaaaughed. Ten of the best UK comics are put into a house and for 6 hours, no one can laugh. You get one yellow card if you’re caught laughing or smiling once, and a red card if caught twice. Then you’re removed from the room and get to watch everyone else from the control room with the host, Jimmy Carr. Last one standing wins and it is so stupid and silly and joyful. When we realized the final ep of season 2 isn’t out yet, we went over to LOL Ireland and are having just as much fun. We recognize a lot of the comics from our Taskmaster addiction, as well as random UK quiz shows we find on Youtube. I could watch Bob Mortimer chase around Daisy May Cooper while singing his original songs all day.

When I logged into Youtube to get that clip for you, I saw Chris Fleming is back on Working On It and I can’t wait to watch. Chris is my special little boy and I love to see him getting the praise he deserves. Watch his specials!

That’s all for now. I have several Youtube videos to edit, including a February Flip Thru in my Cousin, a book vlog, and a couple travel vlogs. Filming will always be easier than editing, I tell you what.

Thanks for reading!

Chat soon!

Ammie

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P.s. this is the free issue of Ammie Annotated, something I’m trying out this year. If you liked it, you’ll love the stuff that’s behind the paywall, just saying! Also feel free to share with a friend who may enjoy this issue!