HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to our very own Martin Sorge… as well as the other two Top Bakers! Sarah & Dyana gave it their best… but couldn’t quite catch Martin in the end!!!

And the WINNER of THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW is “our very own” Chicagoan Martin Sorge!!! Such a wonderful opportunity for Martin… to show off his skills in the kitchen on reality TV!!! He did a wonderful job in each of the challenges… sometimes surprising the judges with CORN as a primary ingredient of his bakes!

CONGRATULATIONS MARTIN!
We’re all so proud of you! Now get back to pottery class…
and bring some award-winning treats!!!

Can you read her lips?… host Ellie Kemper…

“And the Winner of THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW is…”

So it’s down to the THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW Final Three… and Sarah tells us she believes “someone from Chicago is winning today!”

Reminder… Sarah & Martin are BOTH from Chicago!!!

So now we’re down to the big finale of THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW!!! And it’s down to the Final Three… each of them a great baker. Will it be Sarah, Martin or Dyana who takes the top baking honors?!!!

SPOILER ALERT… the big reveal is coming soon!

Just a quick “refresher”… Martin was one of my wheelthrowing pottery students while THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW was streaming on TheRokuChannel.com! And while we all now know that Martin is a great baker… he also makes a LOT of amazing faces & quirky comments. Perfect for reality television… and so much fun to have in class! He definitely gave us good reason to celebrate & follow-along with the show. Celebrating each of the bakers as they were voted off with class snacks “inspired” by the losing baker! And when we last discussed the show… we were down to the Final Four.

Well, it’s been over four months since THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW started streaming for free on TheRokuChannel.com… and it seems like that’s been long enough. Just to refresh your memories… Martin, one of my pottery students, was one of the baking contestants!!! Tomorrow I will “reveal” the final results of the show! So be prepared… and don’t read the posts tomorrow if you want to be surprised. But seriously, you’ve had over four months to watch the show!

So excited to FINALLY have these growing my garden! I’ve always loved Black-Eyed Susan flowers. So simple. So classic. But I’ve NEVER been able to get them to grow in my garden. I’ve tried many times… but failed. People say they grow like weeds… except for me! People have sent me plants and told me they’re “impossible” to kill… and yet I did. But I decided to give it a go & try again, this time with some homegrown plants from my Peoria friends and their Spring Plant Sale. Now I don’t want to jinx myself… but they’re still alive & finally blooming!!! We might have broken the curse!!!

Good clouds. Good wind. Good drama. Not quite sure if the the sun would be able to work its way through the cloud-cover or not?! But in the end, it finally peeked through the clouds giving us some beautifully golden sunrise moments.

This past week of Summer Camp was wheelthrowing & handbuilding with the kids! One of them came in on the first day wearing this shirt… “Together We Grow.” Nice thought… but I felt as though I just had to update it a little bit!