And speaking of “smoke”… looks like the smoke bush in my front garden is getting ready to bloom. Tons of tiny little flowers that fill out the bush with a very cool “smoky” illusion… hence the name.

So Monday night we had a little “party” in our final pottery class of the session. Lots of food & fun… and these two HUGE OREOs that practically cover my blue dinner plate! Thanks to Maureen for finding these huge goodies!!! More is more… but in this case BIGGER IS BETTER too!!!

All signs point to YES.

Looks like another fortune cookie was found at Illinois Beach State Park today This time by my “new best friend” Heidi that I met out there so randomly while I was hiding them on New Years Day! Even more random… she found one two years ago too… well before she knew the story behind them!!!

The zinnias are in full bloom… thanks to the condo down the street! Yes, the same garden that had the amazing lilies earlier this summer. Beautiful colors, textures & patterns. Reminding me that I should try to add more flowers into my front yard garden next year!

Okay, so I knew it might be a “challenging” week of Summer Camp on Monday when I asked if they had tools pulled aside for my class to do their handbuilding projects. And all they brought me were coffee stirrers, toothpicks & plastic forks?! Really?… toothpicks??? It kinda felt like I was in an episode of “The Great Pottery Throw Down”… kid’s version!

I will admit, that out of frustration, I went down to my own studio and pulled plenty of REAL tools for my campers to use!

Just a little early morning waxing before Summer Camp starts. Trying to squeeze in one last glaze firing before this weekend’s GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR!

Trying to get a few more things done in the next two weeks… throwing, stamping, firing, glazing, firing… before the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR on July 30th & 31st. So I did a little stamping on another large platter. Here it is from the start… row after row… one stamped impression at a time!

I mean… one row is nice… but two might be better…

So why not go for a third row of stamps???

And if three rows are good… lets go one row further!!!

Looks like there’s just enough room left for one more row of stamps…. so let’s go for it!

New clay nuggets… kinda looking like a mini-Stonehenge... getting ready to pull some handles for my latest batch of mugs!