The concerts are over. The guests have packed up. And we’ve begun the arduous task of taking everything down and packing the semi-trucks to head home. It’s been a great project to be a part of once again. This was my third Firefly… and hoping for many more to come. It’s a lot of hard work, but also a lot of fun.

Good news… they’ve already announced Firefly Music Festival 2015!!!
And pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow!

Sure, it may look like I’ve just been “vacationing” in Dover… playing on my bike, riding to the Bay, enjoying a few sunrises here & there. But in reality, we’ve been working long hours every day setting up the Firefly Music Festival. And tonight was the first of the headliner acts on the Main Stage. Here’s a quick shot of the Foo Fighters performing with just a “few” concert-goers enjoying the show!

Love the morning sunrise glow… coming soon to a Dover Speedway near you. We’ve got about three more days to get everything ready!

Headed pretty much straight East… and maybe a smidge North?!
Anything BUT Southwest… on Southwest Airlines!!!
And I’m glad none of that luggage is mine… simple carry-on for this quick trip!

Okay. I love marshmallows. Don’t judge.
Especially the new huge oversized ones.

Tonight I was “snacking” in the studio and came upon the biggest one ever!!!
It was like I had won the Marshmallow Lottery!!!

Just hit the “SEND” button… look at me, with a full 26 hours to spare!!!

I met a coworker of my sister a few years back.
They’re both teachers at the same school.
He was a novice potter and became enchanted by my pottery.
He was a fan, and a great friend to my sister.

Unfortunately, he recently passed away from a chronic heart condition. My sister donated a vase from her own “Gary Collection” flowers to be presented at the memorial service. She knew that he would be looking down admiring, and his family will be able to keep the vase as a keepsake for years to come. Such a sincere, loving & thoughtful memento.

A beautiful friendship… A beautiful thought… A beautiful life.

Today was the 30th Annual Shamrock Shuffle… okay, so I’ve missed the first twenty-nine!!! But today was a beautiful day for my first Shamrock Shuffle! A fun 8K run through downtown Chicago! And lucky for us, today was a beautifully sunny day… finally. Sure, it could have been like ten degrees warmer, but otherwise a BEAUTIFUL day in the City… finally!

And what Shamrock Shuffle would be complete without a Leprechaun?!!!

With close to 40,000 runners flooding the city this morning, it was a great surprise to run into my friend Megan at the start. Sure, I never found my other friends I had planned to meet up with… but it was great to find Megan!!!

Soon enough it was our turn to start. After Wave One… after Wave Two… finally my Wave Three! With thousands & thousands of runners all around… waiting anxiously to hit the road!

And finally…. it was our turn… Wave Three, Corral H. And Stanley was ready to go too!

Through the streets of Downtown…

Past the historic Chicago Theater…

And the ever-popular Gatorade break stations…

And after five miles, and several Flat Stanley photo stops, I made it back to the Finish Line in Grant Park. Celebrating with friends (yes, I finally found them) all around Buckingham Fountain. Too bad it’s too early in the season for the fountain to be turned on. Still, Stanley was pleased to cross the Finish Line too!

And no race would be complete without the necessary rows & rows & rows of Portos!!!

After the Shamrock Shuffle, we walked around the city and played more with Flat Stanley. There will be more pictures to come towards the end of his “adventure” with me. He saw a LOT of the city today – and even made two “flat” friends!!! You know how much I love the Flat Stanley project… and I hope my cousin’s youngest kid Christopher will love seeing his journey at the end.

And here he is at my place… at the end of today’s Shamrock Shuffle journey!!!

Today was our NCECA personal field trip. My friend Nancy Jana-Kent and I played hooky and went up for one day of the NCECA Conference. She’s the biking friend I’ve known for years, and suggested that we both take our first pottery class at Lillstreet many years ago. So it’s all her fault that I’m so addicted now… anyway…

We arrived in Milwaukee this morning after a rainy & gloomy drive. We registered in the lobby of the Wisconsin Center and then head off to see stuff. We didn’t really know where to go, what to see, what to do. We didn’t really do our homework beforehand. So Nancy & I were just winging it… ready to see a little bit of everything!

We started by dropping of my two cups for the Annual Cup Show. The actual sale event is not until Friday morning, but the tables were already filling up with mugs. I wish I could be there Friday morning to see how many mugs there end up being for the fundraising sale.

We then went into some of the smaller galleries. Each conference room had been transformed into a small gallery space. Our favorite was the gallery showcasing the work from the Archie Bray Foundation. Headlined by Steven Young Lee… who is one of the current “hot potters” in all ceramic world. He’s in all the magazines. He’s all the rage. He’s the hot ticket these days. He’s been making these beautiful, traditional Asian blue & white porcelain vessels… with one really big flaw! Okay, maybe it’s just me… but I don’t get it. I’m sure there is some very hoity-toity, symbolic artistic meaning behind them… but I would rather having the stunning vessel BEFORE the “accident” happened. Either way, even though I don’t “get it”, I can still admire the technical craftsmanship that goes into them.

A beautiful collection of wall pillows – with incredible dotted & drawn details by Giselle Hicks. Each individual pieces is pretty spectacular… but put them together into a “puffy quilt” and it’s even better!!!

Not a lot of purely practical & functional pottery in the gallery spaces. So I was really drawn to Paul Donnelly‘s beautiful set. Nicely thrown, beautifully assembled & glazed. But the coolest part was the unique wooden trivet-tray that all of the pieces rested on… and if you picked them up, the foot of each cup fit into a carved recess in the tray! Brilliant!!!

We also saw this great “set of ladles”… sorry, forgot the artist’s name?… but it brought up the conversation about how neither Nancy or I have ever made clay spoons?! And that we both think we should try it.

Okay, so by now you might know that I kind of have a “thing” for roadkill. So many bike rides have taken us so many over the years. So I loved this “ceramic roadkill” by Beth Cavener. Now I’m not really sure that that was her intention… but that’s what I read into it. And I loved it… all that was missing was the “smell of death.”

While in the “Grounded In Wisconsin” Gallery, I saw this really cool wall piece by Marta Matray. I loved the “pillow” volume, the texture and the beautiful flashing colors.

As we were leaving the small gallery spaces, we ran into another Lillstreet potter Marian Castro-Palanyk, who joined Nancy & I for the day. As we headed upstairs for the Resource Hall Expo, we turned a corner and practically ran into Aaron Nelson & Steven Lee. Two former teachers of mine from the old Lillstreet days. And now each of them have become “pretty big deals” in the ceramic world. I took wheelthrowing class & my first glaze chemistry class with Aaron. He is currently the artistic director at Medalta in Alberta, Canada. While Steve is the resident artistic director for the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. Both “big wigs” in the clay world… always a bit surprised that they even remember me?!!!

As we entered the Resource Hall, I was kind of surprised to see a couple pottery galleries actually selling pottery. I kind of expected to see pottery in “galleries”… and not for sale?! Pleasant surprise, huh?… cha-ching $$$.

Always fun to see… Artstream Nomadic Gallery! A wonderful diversion & creative re-use of an old silver Airstream trailer. The entire unit has been converted & transformed onto a traveling ceramics gallery! Alleghany Meadows was the mastermind for this brilliant concept… and he makes pretty amazing work too!

So we continued through Resource Hall and saw a LOT of booths selling tools, glazes, books, clay, wheels, kilns… and did I mention tools?! We did a lot of shopping, bought lots of tools, and ran into a bunch of friends along the way. It was great to see so many familiar faces… Glynnis Lessing, Delores Fortuna, Amanda Syler, Dave Trost, Dustin Yager, Steve Lee again… and so many other familiar faces hovering around the Lillstreet Art Center booth.

We shopped and made it though about half of the Expo, when we broke for lunch. Incredible nachos across the street.. and then back for more shopping. More tools. More fun.

One little surprise along the way was when we stepped into the Coyote Glazes trade show booth. Lots of colors. Lots of glaze swatches. Still visually overwhelmed. But very pleased to see a mug there that I recognized!!!

Scott Reed from Symmetrical Pottery in Florida makes these awesome “sheet metal” mugs! And there one was glazed in Coyote “Root Beer” glaze. I’ve only “met” Scott online through blogs & Facebook. I’ve seen his work & techniques change & grow very quickly… and continue to see a LOT of pictures of his pots on Facebook. This was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing one of his mugs in person!!! Click here to see more work from Symmetrical Pottery on their Facebook page.

At one point in the Expo, I stopped off at the Medalta booth to say “hi” to Aaron again but he wasn’t there. Ironically though, they’re doing a Call For Entries for a “Spoon Show”… and didn’t we just say that Nancy, Marian & I were all going to tackle making spoons?! Coincidence?… I don’t think so!

We continued to work our way around the Expo. So many things to see. So many people to talk to. It gets very overwhelming very quickly. I’m sure it’s not so bad if you’re there for the full, multi-day conference. We were there for one day today, and determined to squeeze it all in. And I think we did a really good job!!!

As we were getting ready to leave the convention center, we were headed towards the escalator when I though I heard my name?!… Turns out it was my good friend & ceramic artist Cory McCrory! I was so glad to see her there… and a little sad that we were on our way home, and not staying to play longer!!! But we were exhausted… wallets spent… and ready to head home to re-live & admire our purchases!!!

Who can resist an adorable 8-year old singing Les Miserables at the school talent show?
Not me.

So when Taylor called to invite me I knew that I had to make the drive out to the ‘burbs tonight to see her big stage debut. She auditioned & decided to sing “Castle On A Cloud” from my favorite musical. And although she had a few technical “issues” along the way, I think she had a wonderful performance! And could she be any cuter??? Really?

Click here to see the video footage from her big debut!