Enjoying a little sunshine this afternoon lunching on the Lillstreet Rooftop with my Summer Campers… along with a black swallowtail butterfly who seems to be enjoying his floral lunch as well.

My “back porch neighbors” are gone for a few days and left me in charge of watering their plants… and they left a little floral surprise on the back porch for me! The best part was their “assumption” that I might have a better vessel to put the flowers in… better than the Gatorade bottle they left them in! And I did… a little stamped & soda-fired vase to make the flowers look a little happier!

Looks like another FLORAL FRIDAY!
Beautiful homegrown zinnias in one of my “quite white” stamped porcelain vases. Kinda loving how the crisp “whiteness” really makes the colors of the flowers pop!!! Thanks for sharing the flowers from your garden Mary! They look great… and I think I may need to make more of these all-white pots?!!!

We’ve been so dry lately, but yesterday’s rain really made some flowers happy! Like this beautiful new dahlia that is looking so radiant today! Pretty excited as this is the first dahlia I’ve ever grown… and there are some more blossoms coming in behind this one! Methinks I might need to add more to my garden next year?!!!

Colorful coleus in a stamped & soda-fired vase. Love the splash of color contrasting with the stamped & soda-fired texture of the vase. Thanks for sharing your beauties Rosene!

Enjoying a quiet moment on my back porch while doing laundry this morning. A quiet little spot to sit & enjoy the plants… and flowers still going strong after last weekend’s art fair! Loving the oval vase that helps spread the flowers out for a “wider” display of floral beauty. The stamping & soda-fired effects aren’t too shabby either… as the B-Clay gets such a nice shiny & smooth surface with great flashing colors.

Towards the end of our bike ride today, we ran across this little field of sunflowers again. We saw it a couple weeks ago… but it was great to see how some of the flowers have changed. New colors blooming… including some “new” almost-white sunflowers! So cool.

All set-up & re-stocked for Day Two of the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR. It looks like another beautiful & warm summer day… even nicer under my shade tree with a gentle breeze! Customers are already starting to show up early… so here we go until 5:00pm. Giddy-up!

Today at Summer Camp I received a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers & lovely note from my CIT Olivia. She worked with me for both weeks of Sculpture Camp and was a wonderful addition to my camps. But today was her last official day as a CIT. As a “Counselor-In-Training”, Olivia has been learning-the-ropes of summer camp from the teacher’s perspective. She’s been a “camper” with us before, but is now old enough to be part of the team! Olivia was a pleasure… and I hope she returns to help out with more summer camps real soon! Thanks for helping… and thanks for the note & flowers Olivia!