After yesterday’s Andersonville Farmer’s Market… I was stocked-up at Stamper Cheeses & prepared for today’s holiday… who knew?! So here I am with my favorite blue cheese & blue cheese-layered Brie… for NATIONAL MOLDY CHEESE DAY!!! Yummy!!!

Celebrating NATIONAL GUACAMOLE DAY with a quick snack before teaching class tonight! Fresh & yummy… with some homegrown tomatoes from my friend Lisa!

Celebrating NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY
with a quick snack after teaching class.

And thinking of my Mom who used to bring homemade cookies
to almost every art fair!!! Such sweet memories…

My Monday night class has been focused on “enclosed forms” lately. So we combined that with a little Christmas in July!!!… and Halloween too, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it?!!!

The highlight finale of the Fourth of July Celebration yesterday was the AMAZING fireworks display that the town of Chenoa puts on every year. Bigger & better every year & totally synchronized to the music soundtrack. Crazy amazing fireworks… especially when seen from beneath the goalpost while the fireworks are shooting off from the other end of the football field!!! SPECTACULAR!!!

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!!!

HAPPY EASTER to everyone who celebrates… and HAPPY SPRING to the rest of us!
So pretty now that Spring has made it to Chicago with flowers starting to bloom around my neighborhood. Let’s hope these magnolias hang around for at least a few more days!

My favorite part of the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden was the section dedicated to the Holi Festival. Wonderful orchid arrangements on the walks, dramatic lighting & colorful powders splattered everywhere!!! During Holi, a Hindu festival celebrating Spring and the triumph of good over evil, people throw colored powder & water at each other as a joyful and symbolic act of unity, forgiveness & the celebration of new beginnings.

Something it seems like we all could use a bit of these days!!!

You know how I love a good holiday… well, today was NATIONAL OREO COOKIE DAY!!! What better way to celebrate a Thursday???… well, that and playing with my Lillstreet Throwdown students in class… followed by a late night watching THE TRAITORS finale!!! So sad it’s over… but always better with OREO’s!!!

You know how I love a good holiday… and today is NATIONAL PIZZA DAY!!!
And I woulda been remiss if I didn’t celebrate with a couple slices!!!