SPOILER ALERT : We “may” have had another Yellow Towel Situation in class last night as we play along with “THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW”!!! One of my pottery students is a “baking contestant”… is that even a thing? But for the fun of the “game”… we’re “celebrating” the ones who got kicked off the show!!! So tonight we focused on the first episode of the show… COOKIE WEEK… where one of the unlucky bakers was sadly asked to leave the tent. Sorry Stacie!

Reminder… you don’t need any special subscriptions to watch the show. Just go to www.therokuchannel.com and you can stream all six episodes for FREE!!! No special equipment or ROKU box required!!! And then you can vicariously play along with us as we all root for Martin… who survived COOKIE WEEK under the tent!!!

Not to be out-done… my pink Easter Cactus is doing pretty good too showing off its pretty pink colors!

Looks like my Easter Cactus is happy… albeit a little late for Easter?! Beautiful pom-pon-like blooms on a cactus plant that seems very happy in its handmade stamped & soda-fired flower pot!

Don’t you just hate when you forget to wire a platter off the bat… and then let it dry far too long to a very stiff leatherhard… and then still try to wire it off so you can trim it?! I thought I could do it… spinning it on the wheel while I pulled the wire tool through slowly & very, very taut. But then THIS happened… so much for this platter!!! And so it goes… into the reclaim pile!!!

Now that’s MY kind of museum… I could sit there for days!!!

So I saw a random post on Instagram over the weekend about a basic potter’s challenge… for newbies & more advanced throwers. One pound of clay, perfect cylinders, four inches tall with just four pulls. Not a bad way to start the morning…

One of my all-time favorite trees… stunning Redbud Trees in full bloom along the lakefront bike trail. I love how flowers that grow along all of the branches… as well as the graceful sweeping & arching shapes the branches make. A beautiful area full of Spring colors & natural beauty. It doesn’t get much better than this!!!

Always fun to see what improvement have been made to the lakefront. Like this new pedestrian bridge that seemed to “pop-up” over the winter. It crosses over Lake Shore Drive giving better lakefront access for those on the South Side. A cool blue bridge & beautiful blue skies!

A colorful contrast of colors & textures. With shiny green leaves on crusty wooden vines… and colorful crabapple flowers in stark contrast to the beautiful blue skies!

The beautiful South Shore Cultural Center on the south side of Chicago… kinda where the bike trail ends… so it makes a nice place to refuel & to turn around to head back home!