Luckily, after a full day in the dusty basement, we did get out for a really good dinner!
The three of us went to my favorite restaurant Rose Angeli’s. I think it’s my Mom’s fave too!

So when she suggested it… I was excited to go back! Especially since I knew it was
Pear Ravioli Week!!! One of the best “weekly specials” ever! Plus, we had a really great
appetizer! Some sort of Duck Casserole?!… a baked concoction of duck, spinach, cheese,
sauce & more! Not to mention the all-time best hot caramel sauce ever on my favorite
bread pudding dessert!!! Seriously, the bread pudding is just the “vehicle” to get the
caramel sauce into my mouth faster!!!

And here’s our tools for the day. Yum… and more yum!

We all started out making our chocolate pizzas. The “crust” was a layer of milk chocolate.
Followed by “sauce” of candy jimmies, “sausage” of gummie worms, “garlic” of M&Ms,
more sprinkles, more chocolate, more gummies, more fun and a drizzle of white chocolate
“parmesan cheese” to top it all off. Layers & layers of yummy goodness.

Imagine a room full of seven year old all hopped up on sugar! Too funny!!! And if you
look closely… you’ll also see my parents working in chocolate too! Taylor made sure that
her Grandma & Grandpa were playing in the mix. So focused on their yummy projects.

So here is Taylor’s masterpiece pizza… with lots of toppings! Many of them chocolate!!!

And here’s mine! We’ll just call it my “late night snack”…

Once the pizzas were done and off to the side, we switched to making chocolate
“ice cream cones” using plastic candy molds. Here’s Taylor working diligently to make her
chocolate treats just perfect! Drizzling chocolate, sprinkling candies and more!

It was a great birthday party for Taylor and several of her school friends.
They were all so cute. So funny. Playing. Working. Teasing. Interacting. Creating.
So focused in the beginning, a little looser and animated as they “snuck” more chocolate
into their mouths, and by the end… it was a real party!!!

And the best part… besides playing with Taylor the birthday girl…
is taking home a box full of chocolates that I’ve created for myself!!! Yummy…

Click here more information about The Morkes Original Party.
Morkes: The Chocolate Shop – 180 North Rand Road, Palatine, IL 60074 – (847) 359-3454

And then

And then, after letting the slip dry for a few minutes, we carefully peeled out the leaves
to reveal the leaf reliefs!

Next we took our slabs and draped them over a few handmade “frame” molds. After pressing
the slabs carefully into place, we trimmed off the excess edges & finished them off. They are
now set to dry… and after they’re fired, I will glaze the plates in the their “chosen” glaze color!

We headed down to Navy Pier to continue her fun day in Chicago!

Little did she know it, but I had also arranged for her to attend a surprise performance
of “Cirque Shanghai Extreme” on the Skyline Stage on Navy Pier. My friend Kim is the
Production Manager, and she graciously “hooked us up” for the show! And Taylor loved it…
she was mesmerized during the show. Especially when the acrobats came out over
the audience and performed just feet above her!

And then, oh but wait there’s more… after the show, Kim also took Taylor under her wing
and with a nod & a wave, Taylor got a complimentary stuffed panda. Which was then
autographed by a couple of the acrobats! And then… Kim also asked if we wanted to go
backstage to see some of the props, costumes and the large globe cage!!!  And after seeing
four motorcycles all driving around & flipping around inside the cage, it was very cool
to go inside… sans motorcycles!

But her evening wasn’t over yet… once she saw the huge Ferris Wheel on the Pier, it was somewhat inevitable that we would be going for a ride. So we were once again “hooked up” and hopped on the ride – slowly taking us up well above Navy Pier. With fantastic views of the city and lake all around us!

But the fun continued… as it was Wednesday night, which also means Fireworks!!!
Yep, every Wednesday & Saturday night we’re treated to fireworks over the lake!
And with that… her magical Claydate Playdate had come to an end…

I’m pretty confident she had a wonderful time.
Okay, except for the moment when she found out she was just an inch too short
for the flying swings ride!!! But that was “corrected” with a huge swirled lollipop
for the drive home!

Be sure to note the scale of these impressive sculptures…
look at the REAL split-rail fence to the far right bottom corner of the deer sculpture!!!

8:00am – Driving back to Schaumburg in some of the thickest fog ever!
Knowing that it was also “Bike The Drive” and thousands of people would be riding
along Lake Shore Drive in the fog!!! Glad I’m not one of them… but still not the
weather I was hoping for! Very thick. Very heavy. Very foggy. And it only got
darker as I got closer to Schaumburg!

9:00am – Setting Up… Again.
Back in my booth putting things back together. With the rain at the end of yesterday,
we had packed down most of the larger pieces. Putting them back into their crates
and putting them on the ground… just in case “anything” terrible happened overnight.
Which luckily, it didn’t. So I spent the hour putting everything back in place…
questioning if it was even worth it with a weather forecast of impending doom.

10:00am – Let The Games Begin… bring on the customers!
The show opened and there are a few customers. Typically, the “crowds” are very slow
to get started on Sundays… what with brunch & church & all. But today, there were more
people than usual at the start. My guess is they were trying to get a little shopping done
before the storms! Shop fast…

11:00am – Clouds and Wind and Thunder… oh my!
And the fun started rolling in. The winds were picking up. The clouds were moving quick.
With an ever-entertaining symphony of thunder off in the distance. Fun, huh?! And with
everyone on the smart phones, the place was abuzz with everyone’s “radar” forecast!
And then the rain started… There were many reports of the “waves” of storms coming in.
That this one would pass, then there would be another… and another… and another…

11:30am – Raining.
With the skies opening up, it was definitely time for the tents to be closing up.
But the question is “for how long?” Will the storm pass over? Or not?
My Dad checked his phone for the radar. You know how “orange” is the color for
severe thunderstorms?… well, his phone showed the pin-point for where we were…
and the rest of the entire phone screen was ORANGE!!! All orange!!! All storm!!!

12:00pm – Thunderstorms.
All tents closed… so we started “packing down” some of the bigger & more expensive
pieces. Thinking “just in case” something bad happens, at least those pieces are safe.
But as we continued the process, it was evident the storm was not stopping. So neither
did we. My Mom and I were packing everything as my Dad went to get the van. And if you
looked around the fair, we weren’t the only one packing it. It was the start of a mass exodus.

1:00pm – Packing Up and Flooding!
It was still pouring. And we’re drenched. My Dad was packing the van as we were packing
the crates in the tent.At one point, the winds picked up – gusts were blowing around. And
my Dad was stuck outside the tent holding the flaps in place to keep us dry! I know that my
tent is securely anchored into the ground, but it’s still scary when the entire structure starts
shaking, rattling, bouncing & moving. And my Dad, still holding it down. We were packing
as fast as possible as the rain was coming down in bucketfuls. It wasn’t until we started
taken the sides off the tent that we noticed the walkway just in front of my tent was flooded!
Just feet from where were still working… pack faster… flood waters rising!!!

1:45pm – Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Break.
Amazing what sort of therapeutic effects Mom’s cookies can have on you
during a torrential downpour! Luckily, we had enough to share with others too!

2:00pm – Still Packing. Still Dripping. Still Drenched.
Sounds like a fun way to spend your Sunday afternoon, huh?

3:00pm – Driving home.
Apparently, it’s not only Schaumburg that got rain! It looks like it rained everywhere!
There were sections of the drive where you had to plow right through the flooded streets!

4:00pm – Unpacking & Drying.
As if it weren’t enough fun to pack up in the rain, it’s always fun to unpack it all again!
The fun just keeps on coming! Especially this time as everything was wet. Including us.
Not soaking wet anymore, now just kind of cold & clammy! So we unpacked the van
at lightning speed as there was a break in the rain. Then I had to dry off all of my
wooden shelves so they wouldn’t warp or get funky. And now all of my tent pieces are
spread out and “drying” in my storage room! So glamorous, huh?!

5:00pm – Showered & Dry… finally.
Now wondering what I’m going to do for dinner… and I feel that I “deserve”
something really good for dinner! Ordered in, of course!

Let’s hope that everything dries in the next two weeks… Hinsdale Fine Art Fair!!!

We were driving south on the expressway when all of a sudden… red lights!!!
Lines of red lights all the way to the horizon. Not a good sign. Never a good sign.
So we decided to get off the expressway and try taking a different route. Good idea?
It was beautiful. Nice scenery. And the traffic was moving. So we thought we were
doing well. Until we suddenly realized that we really didn’t know where we were.

At one point, we turned to get on a different “more-well-known” road…
and it turned into a ferry launch! Yes, we actually took a ferry to get home tonight!!!
However, we had to wait for a couple “round-trips” before we could get on the boat.

Okay, so the drive home took longer than expected. But we made the best of it
and I got to spend plenty of quality time with my parents. Including celebrating
Mother’s Day a week early – as I will be in Minnesota again next weekend for the
St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour.

It’s a long day of greeting people…
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
Repeatedly. Over & over. Until, imagine my surprise, when my parents turn the corner
and I throw them the same stock response… and then realize it’s them! They had read
on the blog that it was the Open House and they decided to come down to visit and
surprise me… and they did! So they hung out, visited a few studios including metalsmith
Rebecca Zemans who they met a coiple years ago as my art fair booth neighbor in Hinsdale!

And then… when the day was over, we decided to go out for dinner. I think it might have been
their plan all along to go to Rose Angeli’s?! I think the “surprise studio visit” may have been a
good “means-to-an-end” for us all to get a great meal?! Which I’m totally fine with as you know
I LOVE Rose Angeli’s!!! And we did have an incredible meal… I had some Chicken Vesuvio
filled ravioli with parmesan cheese & lemon cream sauce concoction YUMMY!!! – and we
shared three desserts!!! Bread pudding with pools of hot caramel sauce, chocolate & peanut
butter ice cream, and a hot chocolate fondue pot! Plus some quality time to get caught up
on  a bunch of stuff. Including all of the craziness going on at Lillstreet these days!

And being the great Grandparents… how can you let a Christmas “hint” like that go by?!
So they got her the “huge” dollhouse she pointed out in the catalog. It’s apparently
sized for Barbie dolls, which also makes it taller than Taylor herself!!! It was camouflaged
in an oversized Christmas present. No gift tag. No name. But I think she may have guessed.
We all made her wait all day… for the final gift unveiling!

So I made her four different sets of “dinner plates” and two oval platters!
Each set with a different texture, pattern & glaze color. She’s been to the studio several
times and loves playing in the clay. She loves to flip-over all of my pieces to make sure
my signature is there. So yes.. I made sure to sign each little plate!

She was excited as she opened her present… and then proceeded to put plates in every
room of the house… on the porch… on the bed… and luckily, even the dining room table!

Thank you so much to all of you who stopped by this weekend, and shared some holiday
cheer with us. Everyone was so supportive & encouraging. I couldn’t continue to do this
with such supportive friends & customers. And special thanks to my parents and my friend
Nancy who worked so diligently all weekend! I couldn’t do it without them either!

Feels good to be done with another year’s Holiday Home Show!
And luckily, I still have some great inventory for the rest of the holiday season.
Next up on my holiday schedule, the Lillstreet Holiday Open House
on Friday, December 3rd from 6:00am-10:00pm.