Just noticed this morning that my favorite plant is blooming already!

It’s a crazy-cool plant that I got a few years ago as a cutting from my plant pals in Peoria. They call it Bear’s Breeches… but I think the real name is Acanthus Spinosus. It’s got really cool leaves… but the flower spikes are AMAZING!!! So excited that it has really taken off & grown so much over the years. I love it!!!

So we tried the newest OREOs in my pottery classes… and both times we landed on “The Dark Side”… meaning red filling! We never got the blue cream?! And while I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan, I am a big OREO fan!!!

By now you know my mantra… MORE IS MORE.

Why stop with a smooth platter with a good spiral?… when you could create a cool texture?! So much more fun when you start stamping with one handmade stamp. One stamp, two stamp, three stamp, more! Over & over & over again… just one stamped impression at a time!

10×10. With a cloudy start to the day, it felt great to be productive this morning throwing ten pieces before 10:00am!

Before the morning rain… a little early morning pollinating on the purple larkspurs currently blooming in my garden! And they’re breathing a big sigh of relief after a bit of rain… they weren’t so happy during our heatwave drought days last week!

Nothing but clear skies this morning. Calm & clear to start the day. Just a quicky sunrise with a couple lighthouse silhouettes to make it more interesting?!

Spent part of this weekend “working” in the studio reclaiming some dried clay. Trimmings, broken pieces & some class demos that “went bad.” Smashing, crushing & pulverizing bone dry clay can be kinda fun. Then I add it to my reclaim bin with slurry & water. Let it soak & slake down… soon enough I’ll turn it out into a large plaster bat. And voila’… FREE CLAY!!!

On a road to nowhere. Someone visiting my booth during the Northern Illinois Pottery Tour mentioned how “important it is to get out of your zip code every once in awhile.” She was talking about her drive all the way out to Sandwich… but I took it to heart today. A beautiful day with some beautiful clouds. Perfect for exploring & playing out in nature… away from my own zip code!!!

So by now you may have identified my “addiction” to Reality TV… especially my newest obsession… THE TRAITORS!!! I’ve already binged all of the seasons in all of the countries! But they just announced that filming has wrapped on US Season Three… and here’s the official cast announcement!!! Can’t wait to see them all in that Scottish Castle!!!

But here’s my biggest wish… that they make Tom Sandoval a “traitor”… and then vote him out the very first night!!! Seems fitting to me?! I’m done with him.

So what are your thoughts about these cast mates???
And if you haven’t watched, you definitely must!!! It’s addictively brilliant!!!

Looks like someone has been “cleaning out” the Lake… and fishing out a few DIVVY rental bikes! Seems like there has been a “rash” of these lately along the lakefront. But this one looked great this morning in a sunshiney monochromatic kinda way! Loving the crusted seaweed on the spokes!!!