Looks like Spring has sprung in Crystal Lake where my Cousin Kim has gathered a few flowers from her garden for her Easter centerpiece using one of my ikebana flower vases! So festive. So pretty!

Another beautiful Spring day perfect for another bike ride! Not a cloud in the sky as I pedaled north… past Northwestern University, the Gross Point Lighthouse, the Baha’i Temple, the huge houses in the fancy suburbs, Openlands Lakeshore Preserve, Fort Sheridan and finally turned around at the Great Lakes Naval Base. Blue skies & spring flowers the entire way… and a gentle headwind on the way back!

And for those who don’t do Easter at all… HAPPY SPRING!
It’s still a perfect chance to appreciate the warmer weather, the new spring growth & the early flowers popping up everywhere! Here’s an amazing collection of hellebores gathered by my friend Yuki presented & floating in one of my stamped bowls. I love the colors, textures & patterns of Yuki’s collection – thanks for sharing!!!

Looks like Maryann’s houseplants are ready for a warmer Spring just like the rest of us. Happy to be blooming & basking in the window’s sun. Perfect for Flowerpot Friday!

Pretty excited when I got home from biking to see the very first crocus blooming in my front yard! Love the vibrant purple color… and LOVE that I’ve never planted crocus & yet somehow this little cutie found it’s way into my street corner planter box!

Looks like my Thanksgiving Cactus is re-blooming… a few months off schedule… but still a welcome surprise. Not nearly as stunning as it was last Fall when it was overwhelmed with blooms. This time there are only three blossoms… but I’ll take ’em “whenever” they show up!

So after last night’s pottery class – the last of our Winter session – I walked away with two AMAZING flowerpots made my my uber-talented student Christine! I have some of the BEST students ever!!! Thank You again Christine – you rock!!!

And oh, but wait there’s more… SO MUCH MORE!!!
Or would that be MORE-eo?!!!

Not only did I get Christine’s Chicago flag flowerpot as part of our trading game… l ALSO got this amazing piece that she made as a surprise gift for me!!! Christine has been taken several of my classes and knows my penchant for OREOs firsthand. So she knew that this would be the PERFECT gift for me. And apparently, there was an all-on covert operation going on behind-the-scenes at Lillstreet to get it through all of the firings without me seeing it (thank you Dave – her cohort in crime!) Such an AMAZING way to end our session… with this AMAZING OREO PLANTER.

And don’t hate… but this is only Christine’s second handbuilding project ever!.. yes, she’s one of “those” people!!! I will do a post soon that show’s her step-by-step process in building this masterpiece!!!

After last night’s “exchanging-trading-stealing” game with my Intermediate class, I walked away with this SWEETIE of a flowerpot Christine! She’s been working a lot with terra cotta, white underglaze backgrounds & detailed paintings with colored underglaze. This one commemorates the Chicago flag & Lillstreet 2021. Great class… great planter… great souvenir of our class!!!

Tonight is the final class of our Monday Intermediate Wheelthrowing class. As with most of my classes, I like to do a little “trading-exchanging-stealing” game with my students. To celebrate Spring, the category for tonight is a wheelthrown flower pot with a plant growing inside. This is my entry in the game… blooming right on schedule!

FYI: We were supposed to end last week which would have been perfect for St. Patrick’s Day… but we got postponed a week do to the snowstorms that shut-down Lillstreet for two days! So we missed the holiday, but now they get flowers! HA!!!