Spent the weekend down in Bartonville (near Peoria) visiting some good friends & playing in their amazing garden with my Cousin Kim! It’s just enough warmer down there that they are easily a few weeks ahead of us. So many Spring flowers already blooming in their amazing garden! Full of colors, textures and a bunch of wonderful rust pieces!!!

Spring in Chicago… in between the snow and rain,
we’ve finally got some pretty things popping up around the City.

It’s April… mere days away from May… and then THIS happened today?!
What?… snow again?! I thought we were done with this stuff.

Looks like someone at Lillstreet jumped the gun with their flowers?!
But then again, who would ever expect now this late in April?!

One of the “handbuilt cube” challenge pieces survived the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN and finally made it through the soda kiln! Molly & Jacob are taking their first soda class… and their fern looks excited in its new home!

What a wonderful way to kick-off my Easter than with an AMAZING bike ride
with my best pedaling partner Chrissy-Chick!!!

We had a beautiful morning ride through the woods on the North Branch & Green Bay Trails, around the Skokie lagoons, into the Chicago Botanic Garden and more!!! Incredible weather, great riding and over thirty deer sightings along the way!!! So much fun… maybe the best Easter ever?!!! And to think a week ago we had a huge snowstorm!!! Spring in Chicago!!!

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What a difference a couple days can make?!!!… two days ago we had a snowstorm, and today we have snowy white flowers blooming on all the star magnolia bushes. Guess that’s just springtime in Chicago?!!! Crazy.

Just because it’s a big snowy mess outside… doesn’t mean that it isn’t still beautiful. It’s just pretty with an oddly slush-covered layer of mid-Spring snow on top of the pretty!!! No worries… it’ll melt… and maybe Spring will eventually get here for real?! Maybe…

Still blooming… so much fun to have one of my orchids RE-blooming while living in one of my stamped & soda-fired mugs! Great to have so many blossoms going up the stem… more flowers to come!!!

With cold rain, wind & verging on a mix of “sleetish-snow,”
good to see that Spring is still trying to push its way through!!!

When I got home from NCECA yesterday, I was greeted by one of my orchid plants
that decided to bloom again… must like living in a handmade mug?!