After a full summer of growing, my Obedient Plant has finally started to bloom.
I love how the flowers start at the bottom and work their way up in perfect sequence.
And how the little blossoms are lined up so perfectly in four vertical rows…
waiting their turn to pop open!

My garden is green. There’s a lot of green.
But suddenly, there’s a new splash of color popping out.
I had forgotten that I had planted these caladium bulbs earlier in the spring!

So there were some “extra” peonies in the floral cooler at the “glitter gig.”
They were tight round buds, but no sign of blossoming. And since the blooming season
for peonies is LONG over, I doubted that they would open. But I was told that once the
buds can be stored for months if they are wrapped up & chilled. And that once they came
out of the cooler, the heat would “force” them to open… and they did! Last night they were
tight round buds, this morning they’re open, fresh & fragrant. Who knew?….

All set up and ready to go at the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival.
It’s going to be a beautiful weekend under the best shade tree in the park!!!

Two days of fun in Burlington Park. Both days from 10:00am-5:00pm.
Saturday, June 9th & Sunday, June 10th, 2012.
And the shelves are packed with LOTS of pots!!! Come early for the best selection!

It was great this year… as there were two empty booth spaces right next to me.
So I “spread” out a bit and created the Fire When Ready Garden Shop! Complete with
textured terra cotta planters, windowsill herb flower pots and groovy garden stakes!

Plus a little shameless self-promotion along the way never hurt anything…
especially if it’s about my big TV debut tonight on HGTV!!!

So this weekend I was down in Peoria, Illinois for another “glitter gig.”
After the event, I spent some time with my “first art fair friends” Gerry & Rosene.
I met them years ago at my very first art fair… in Sandwich, Illinois!!!

I thought I knew what I was doing, but I was SO wrong. So there I was there struggling
to get my booth together, pottery sitting all over the place, nothing priced and in the
way of everyone else trying to get through. Lucky for me, I had a couple of veterans
right across the aisle. They took me under their wing and helped me through the show!
And we’ve been friends every since. They’ve retired from the craft fair circuit, and have
focused on gardening in their own backyard – and hosting an annual Garden Sale.
Complete with a HUGE assortment of beautiful perennials all split from their own plants.

Lucky for me, I left once again with a car full of “lovely parting gifts.”
Now I just need to find the time to get them all into the ground!!!

A HUGE thank you once again to my friends Gerry & Rosene!!! You guys rock.

Another beautiful garden surprise this morning…
my Jack-In-The-Pulpit plant is bigger & better than last year!

It was nice to have a morning without rain… but it was pretty apparent that
the rain had passed through fairly recently. I love how the raindrops cling to the
leaves. The plants are loving the wetter & cooler weather. Me?… not so much.
Although I can’t complain, the bad weather has helped my studio production time!

Another rainy morning as I head back to the studio
Again, no sunrise bike ride today.

But I did get to see a beautiful glimmer from the droplets of rain sitting on some
hosta leaves in the back yard! I’ll take a little natural beauty wherever I can find it!