I always love when this little guy pops-up in my front garden!
A fun Jack-In-The-Pulpit flower blooming on a graceful stem.

A little on the monochromatic & hazy side of things this morning. Quiet & serene… luckily with a bit of a sunny breakthrough at the end. Shimmering reflections without much of a cloud-show!

Looks like Julie has been busy in the kitchen again… baking up some beautiful cream puffs! It’s a shame that Keith ate too many of them… and only THREE made it to their blue sgraffito platter!!!

Forgot to mention the yummy breakfast we had at GOOD DAY CAFE before going up to the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour last Friday. We knew we need some good sustenance before a long day of pottery shopping! I mean.. I could have gone with some sort of healthy protein omelette or something… but they had these oven-baked apple souffle pancakes on the menu! How was I supposed to pass that up???

I didn’t.

For anyone who might be in the Central Illinois area this weekend… a quick POP-UP SALE near Peoria! I will bringing some pottery down to share with my “first art fair friends ever” as they host their Annual Plant Sale! Their gardens are AMAZING… and they have been splitting, dividing, propagating & germinating just to have LOTS of plants to sell. Lots of homegrown perennials, annuals, succulents, garden accents… and some of my POTTERY too!!! If you’re in the area, be sure to swing by!!!

2314 Skyway Road, Bartonville, Illinois 61607… 9:00am-4:00pm…
right by the Peoria International Airport!

Some microgreens in a micro-bowl…. thanks to Kristy’s lunch!

Great old kiln hidden in the woods. Moss covered, rusted through & seemingly unused for years at the Matt Krousey stop of the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. My guess is that’s it’s still a leftover from the Bob Briscoe days there?!

Last Thursday night, while I was driving north to Minneapolis for the Pottery Tour, my SURFACE DECORATION class was having a fun class without me!!! Luckily, I planned ahead and pre-made some bowls & cylinders for them to play with. And then I also scheduled the best sub teacher ever… Catherine Tweedie with her best water etching demo ever!!! Basically painting patterns with wax resist… and then wiping away the “unprotected” areas to remove a layer of clay or colored slip. It can create some great images, as well as some depth & texture. From the photos she sent me, it looks like they all had a great time. Now I can’t wait to see their masterpieces in real life!!!

In addition to my piñata cupcakes… our “real” baker Martin also celebrated CAKE WEEK with yummy slices of his coconut & mango cake! Cute in its individual box… but better presentation points when I took it home! Homemade food always tastes better on handmade pottery!

Last night in class we once again “celebrated” the next baker booted out of “The Great American Baking Show.” Our own baker Martin survived another episode… but sadly Jon was sent home after making this cute piñata cake. And since he was “my player” in the game… it was my turn to bring in treats based on Jon’s baking endeavors!!!