“Gotta keep searchin’ searchin’… find a place to hide… searchin’ searchin’!!!”
Let the games begin… and WELCOME TO 2025!!!

To celebrate, I’ve hidden 25 ceramic fortune cookies for people to find!!! Twenty-five for 2025… get it?! Anyway, they’re hidden all over Illinois Beach State Park. An annual tradition that started during the pandemic. And now every year, more & more people are starting to search for their fortune… cookies!

So new this year, I’m also asking that you find all you can, take pictures & selfies along the way… but try to limit yourself to taking one per person home for your collection. Let’s leave some there so more people can experience the fun of the search! Use the photos in this Reel for your clues… and let the searchin’ searchin’ begin!!!

Last night was another night of BINGO-fun at IKEA! Holiday lights, kitschy outfits & festive prizes. But for me, and my table of friends… it was Bingo-Bubkis!!! Came close a couple times… but no BINGO’s for me!!!

Making mugs again… but this time they’re part of the class challenge I gave my Intermediate Wheel students. They’re all working on sets of four MATCHING MUGS for our final class of the session! So I’ve got to step it up and make mine too! As I told them, I would never “stress out” over making just four that match perfectly… measuring, refining, stressing. Instead I’m making a lot of cylinders that are very similar, and then I’ll pick out the closest “matching” ones later!

As if Wheelthrowing Summer Camp weren’t fun enough… I challenged my pre-teen campers to do a little blindfolded throwing!!! And they LOVED it!!! After just two-and-a-half days of learning to throw on a pottery wheel, I think they did an AMAZING JOB… and the giggles were absolutely contagious!!!

It’s been a long day… but I finally made it home. Now I just need to find my car! You would think it shouldn’t be all that hard, right?! I was just gone for one night in Dover! HA!!!

WINDOW SEAT!!! Looks like we’re finally headed home!! Time for a nap! If all goes well I’ll be asleep before the plane takes off… and wake up when we land in Chicago!!!

So at least my plane is here now. Things are looking up… except for those crazy clouds!
Fingers crossed we make it outta here. I just wanna get home!!!

Okay, so I’m stuck at the Philadelphia Airport trying to get home after a quick overnight in Dover. Flights cancelled due to lightning in Texas… nowhere near this airport?! So our stand-by attempt to get home earlier was thwarted by those people rebooking. And now our regular flight was just delayed another two-and-a-half hours!!! Stuck in the terminal with nowhere to go!!!

Last night in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we celebrated the end of another session with a fun “white elephant” trading, exchanging & stealing game! Category was?… COOKIE JARS… many of them already filled with cookies!!! Nicely done team!

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Ruth for taking home the First Place win!!! And kudos to everyone else who did such an amazing job this session! Turns out Season Six of THE GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN was one of my favorites… with a great group of people all working hard, playing hard… and keeping it light, humorous & inclusive for everyone!

I know I had an amazing time this session… although I kept telling them all that they weren’t there to really learn anything. They were just there TO ENTERTAIN ME!!!” …and they did weekly!!! I’m already looking forward to next Winter when we get to do this all over again… with new peeps & new challenges!!! Thanks again everyone… it was another great class to teach!