Not every often do you get to see Navy Pier’s Festival Hall with nothing in it. Usually it’s filled with trade shows, garden shows, the SOFA art show, Winter WonderFest… err, well this year… LIGHT UP THE LAKE! A fun new illuminated holiday event sure to come back again next year!

Such cool leaves with great cuts, lobes & holes through the leaves…
and they’re HUGE! These leaves are almost three feet long!!!

Okay, so since the pandemic changed the world… it also changed Lillstreet in many ways. Including a small little rule of not having food in the classrooms anymore. But they can’t really expect me to fully go cold turkey, right?! Crazy talk!!!

So we may have “smuggled in” a few contraband OREOs along the way with the code word being “yellow towel.” We gotta keep them hidden… cautiously sharing… and always cleaning up & hiding the evidence at the end of the night!

More trimming, more fun.
You know how I love trimming…
especially with my DiamondCore Tools & Giffin Grip!
Two of my favorite tools working well together to get the job done.
Spinning fast, gripping tight & trimming sharp!
Especially on these pieces still left over from last session… before the holidays!!!

I’ve had these photos for awhile… but never to late for a little flashback to my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class last Fall when we focused on making mug handles for the night! I showed them how I pull my handles separately… starting with a little carrot-shaped nugget of clay. Smoothy & evenly pulled, then looped over on themselves so they can stiffen-up with a nice curved loop. So many people avoid making mugs because they HATE making handles… but it was my goal to get this group over that hurdle through simple repetition.

Looks like my friend Rosene has been in the kitchen again…
using her stamped & glazed pie plate… this time for MEATLOAF!!!

And I quote…“Yep, meatloaf… with some new light orange squash… yummy… I really don’t like to cook!!!! But I love playing with my pottery!”

After packing away all of the Holiday Home Show shelving… which is also my art fair shelving… I knew I was running a little low on the little silver shelving pins. You know how you drop one in the grass and can’t ever find it?! Eventually you run low on them. So I decided to swing by IKEA to buy a few extra back-up pins. I was impressed by how helpful & friendly they were… and then blown-away when they said they were FREE!!!

Guess maybe I should have asked for more?!

Masked & triple-vaxxed… it felt so great to be back to live theater last night! It has been FAR too long. Sure, some last minute free tickets helped too! We went to see the new “revival” of OKLAHOMA! An updated twist on the original Rodger’s & Hammerstein musical.

While there were a lot of talented performers onstage, I think there were also a “few” bad choices along the way. I understand trying to update it a bit… but I was “confused” by the lack of scene changes, the IKEA furniture, the total black-out dialogues, the video close-up projections & the dream dance scene… which honestly, is a little much in the movie too?!

But again, the talent was there… and it felt so great to back in a beautifully classic theater again! One step closer to a small bit of “normal” again.

Words to live by… WASH THE PLATE!
Especially when one of those plates is that handmade stamped green platter hidden in the far back corner!!!

Handpainted signage by my friend Merryn… a young design student & daughter of my college friends! Feel free to follow her artistic adventures on Instagram – @merryncreates

Feels great to be getting back into “production mode”…
starting off with some smaller vases with some smaller stamps!
Gotta start somewhere, right???