One bag of clay.
Twenty-four cylinders to become mugs.
Quick & productive in the studio this morning!

After the “brunch food fest” yesterday, I just “had” to go for another sunrise bike ride
this morning. No excuses. Did a little damage at the sweets table… time to pay the piper!
And I’m glad I did… the morning started out with a patch of clouds low on the horizon.
But as the sunrise began to appear, the clouds had moved over enough to converge
at just the right time. Another beautiful morning.

While I was out in St. Charles, I also found the cheapest gasoline I’ve seen in a LONG time!
It’s been around $4.55… $4.65… even $4.75 in Chicago lately. So when I saw this…
I had to top-off my tank! In only wish my tank were lower so I could get more cheap gas!!!

Today I joined my family for Easter Sunday Brunch out at Pheasant Run Resort
in St. Charles. It was one of those huge ballrooms full of people and buffet tables.
Trying hard to pace yourself, plate after plate, trying to get your money’s worth.
Which is hard to do… but I gave it my best shot! Hello, dessert table!

After Brunch, we walked around the Resort and found that my painter-friend
Cheryl Holz has an exhibition of her work currently in the Bourbon Street Gallery.
It’s this great little section of Pheasant Run  that they’ve done up to look like this
little old cobblestone street. Sadly, the actual Gallery was closed as it is Easter!
But that didn’t stop me from peeking inside, snapping a few photos and finding
a few more beauties in the hallway! Even from a distance… beautiful!

Cheryl grew up in the country, collecting moss, bugs, leaves and to her mother’s chagrin,
snakes and salamanders. Her rural upbringing had a big influence on her aesthetic
sensibility, and most of her work today is an homage to nature’s strength, beauty and
diversity. She emulates natural aging processes by building up and wearing away paint
and plaster to hollow wooden panels. Anything from dragonfly wings to prairie grasses
are embedded at various points of the process. The symbolic implications of the methods
and materials are as important as the imagery.

I met Cheryl a few years back at Art In The Barn in Barrington…
pretty much right above me! I’m in the Lower Barn, and she’s in the Upper Barn.
But the first time I went up to see her work, I was immediately enamored.
The colors. The textures. The layers. The typography. Love it all.
Since then, we’ve done some “art fair trading” and I have one of her prints in my bedroom.
In case you can’t make it to Pheasant Run Resort… here’s a few more pictures…

And my favorite of the ones I could actually get close enough to really see…

Cheryl Holz : On exhibit now through May 2, 2012 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.
Closing Reception on Saturday, April 14th from 5:00pm-7:00pm.

Or, you can check out more of Cheryl’s work at www.CherylHolz.com

I was sent this photo from my good friend Kelly to show off her lilacs in one of my vases.
The bouquet of lilacs is quite impressive. Apparently the town trucks were out doing a big
Spring trimming of all the trees & bushes – and they cut off HUGE chunks of her lilac bushes.
Luckily, Kelly had a chance to throw them in a vase so they could enjoy them for a few
well-scented days! But really?… it looks like Kelly might need a bigger vase?!

However… it’s the beautiful Rosie who really steals the show! What lilacs? What vase?
Who even notices them when you have such a precious little beauty sitting beside them?
Even better?… today is Rosie’s big day! HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY ROSIE!!!

I’ve got just over three weeks to build a full soda kiln’s worth of pots!
My next soda kiln is scheduled for Saturday, May 5th… loading on the 4th.
So it’s time to kick it into high-gear again. Again tonight, it seems like I tend to
start with the smaller pieces and work my way bigger for some reason?!

While we’ve had a kinda “crazy” Spring here in Chicago… too early, too warm, too fast…
It’s good to know that there are some Spring “traditions” going on around the world.
Even if our local tulips came & went in March?!!!

The fields of northern Holland explode into a colorful springtime display.
Their dazzling colors are thanks to the years in the 17th century when Tulip-mania
swept the globe and the more eye-catching specimens changed hands for a small fortune.
But, like a rainbow, this colorful rainbow is a short-lived phenomenon. When the flowers
are gone, the land will be cultivated for a rather more mundane crop of vegetables!

Plus, a view of the tulips from a more common eye-level vantage point…

Today was a very productive day. We worked all day long in the basement.
It’s very dirty & dusty down there. And it’s an unfinished basement – not very glamorous!
We all had our own jobs. Our own projects. Trying to make room to do one before another.
But, all of my new pots have now been unpacked, priced and organized into the inventory.
That part took a little longer than I expected. I guess there were more pots that I thought!?
Priced. Labeled. Cleaned… and on the shelves! We did throw away some clutter along the
way, but not nearly enough. I still have far too many boxes of things I “need.”
Methinks there will be another “storage room day” in my not so distant future!!!

Luckily, after a full day in the dusty basement, we did get out for a really good dinner!
The three of us went to my favorite restaurant Rose Angeli’s. I think it’s my Mom’s fave too!

So when she suggested it… I was excited to go back! Especially since I knew it was
Pear Ravioli Week!!! One of the best “weekly specials” ever! Plus, we had a really great
appetizer! Some sort of Duck Casserole?!… a baked concoction of duck, spinach, cheese,
sauce & more! Not to mention the all-time best hot caramel sauce ever on my favorite
bread pudding dessert!!! Seriously, the bread pudding is just the “vehicle” to get the
caramel sauce into my mouth faster!!!

Today’s going to be a long day…
My parents are coming over for the day to help out in my basement storage room.
There’s a LOT of pots down there from my recent kilns that need to be unpacked,
cleaned, priced and organized. Not to mention all of the other “garbage” that is scattered
all over the place. I have far too much “stuff” down there. I have a tendency to keep things
that “I’m sure I can use someday”… and they pile up. Tools for this. Supplies for that.
Things we can use for kid’s projects at Summer Camp. But at some point, all of that stuff
starts to get in the way too. So today it might be some ‘tough love’… things have gotta go!

This morning was a little gray & gloomy… with a large cloud mass coming in to cover the sky.
I wasn’t sure that we were even going to get to see the sunrise or not?!

But then… it finally popped up just above the low-lying cloud cover.

Luckily, I was treated to a beautiful sunrise – even if it was for a short moment
before the sun disappeared behind the “other” large cloud blowing in!

Which, now don’t get me wrong, was pretty darn beautiful in and of itself!