Fall fun with family & friends last weekend at Christ Orchard in Elmwood, Illinois. Spent the day playing in the field searching for the coolest pumpkins & gourds. Playing with my Cousin Kim… and my “very first art fair friends” Rosene & Gerry! It’s always fun to get out of the City to play out in the farmlands… I think it’s quickly becoming an annual adventure!!!

So here’s my sister Jen’s GHOULS COLLECTION. She might have one of the largest collections out there… although she is missing a couple. Can anyone spot the missing Ghouls??? It’s a shame they’re all Limited Editions!!!

And more importantly… does ANYONE out there have all of them???
If so, send me a photo of them on display!!! – gary@firewhenreadypottery.com

We wanted to be in the room where it happened! So we did… and we saw the “big screen” version of HAMILTON at the theater tonight. So much fun with my sister Jen & cousin Kim who had never seen it before… and we ate plenty of POPCORN !!!

Always fun when my Cousin Kimberley Sue comes to the art fair… hanging out, chatting, laughing… and adding to her already HUGE pottery collection! This time it was all about some new flowerpots for her houseplants!

Also fun (for me) when someone finds a FREE pot! A little art fair game I like to play…
basically just to entertain myself!!! Well, today it was Kim’s lucky day!!!

Free pottery for the win!!!

Another freebie tomorrow…

Looks like my cousin Kim has some happy plants… especially that clover plant that’s thriving in a handmade & stamped flower pot!

Spent today playing hooky with my cousin Kim. We had a lot of great adventures & laughs along the way. We ended up at her place… where I saw her peach tree FULL of peaches. Too many peaches? Is there such a thing?… yes! They were EVERYWHERE!!! I can’t even imagine stepping out my back door to find hundreds of peaches at arms length. Crazy!!!

And yes… of course she sent me home with a bunch of homegrown peaches!!! So yummy!!!

Last night was another night of numbers fun at IKEA BINGO!
No winners at our table… but a fun night with family makes us all winners!

Sure, I probably shoulda’ been packing up for this weekend’s art fair in Glenview…
but I can do that today, right???

Celebrated the Fourth of July again this year with some of my “adopted family” of friends from college. They live in a small little town in central Illinois called Chenoa. They have the best “Norman Rockwell-esque” holiday celebrations in town. Including the annual “House Decorating Contest”. My friends won 2nd Place!!! But in my completely “non-biased” opinion… they shoulda won FIRST!!! They lost out to the house that won last year too… with just a couple patriotic inflatables… probably “Made in China!” Nothing as cool as all of the handmade, hand-painted & cool decorated efforts that my friends put in for their first entry ever! They even had Rosie hand-painting the stairs!!!

Yesterday we had a great adventure… kind of a SAFARI ADVENTURE!!!

My cousin Kim, niece Taylor & my sister Jen and I went to a drive-through animal “safari” park in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. You drive through the park with animals all around… coming right up to the car for a snack… and INTO the car for even more snacks!!! They give you the animal feed when you enter… and it’s obvious the animals know the drill. At times it almost felt like one would block the car so the others could come up to the windows!!! Too much fun… and great to see these animals so close-up & wandering free. As “we” were the ones in the “cage” of our car!!!

Tonight was another night of fun at IKEA BINGO in Schaumburg! Lots of numbers called… always more exciting when five of them line up!!! “BINGO!!!” So… “someone” may have finally won at bingo… and it wasn’t my sister Jen or niece Taylor!!! Just sayin’… any guesses???