Cozy, warm & savory… baked Delicata Squash on a stamped plate. Handmade & homemade… always a great dinner combo!

Just two months from today… so I guess it’s time to get back into the studio to start making some new pieces…. and quick!!! I’ve enjoyed the holiday break, but it’s time to get back to work. Especially with this big show right around the corner with my talented friends Sarah Chapman, Darlys Ewoldt & Robin Kittleson!

March 3rd, 4th & 5th, 2023 in Evanston… more details to come!

After a long string of home shows, dinners, treats, cheesecakes, holidays, get-togethers & more… looks like I suddenly have a stack of handmade bowls in my kitchen straight from the dishwasher to celebrate another Texture Tuesday!

And the search continues… looks like Allison & friends were out looking around Illinois Beach State Park on a rainy & gloomy Tuesday morning. Guess their persistence paid off with three fortune cookie finds! Well done… and HAPPY NEW YEAR ALLISON. Hope these fortune cookies bring you good fortune in the New Year!

Looks like Tina found the first TWO fortune cookies this afternoon while hiking out at Illinois Beach State Park! She was so excited since last year she found NONE!!! So today was her lucky day… and someone else’s too! Tina was so nice that she left the second one for another lucky person to find on another day!

Looks like the fortune cookie anticipation has been building… a little text message conversation between Ashley & her husband this afternoon!!! Too cute! They randomly found one last year & apparently Mark wants… err, needs… to find more!!!

Celebrating a new Mugshot Monday with this great shot of Donna’s new purple mug… which surprisingly matches her Kitchen-Aid stand mixer!

Looks like Kelly is kicking off her New Year with a quiet moment, a cozy blanket and a warm cup of coffee in her new mug! A fun “surprise” Christmas gift from her daughter Merryn!

… or just an AMAZING COINCIDENCE?!!!

So I was hiking through Illinois Beach State Park yesterday… headed back towards my car in the North Unit of the park. I had already hidden the first half of my fortune cookies. I decided to take a little side path back to the parking lot instead of along the lake… as I had a done that headed the other direction. The park is always pretty secluded – not a lot of people around. So it was kind of surprising when I ran into these two… Heidi & Steve who live up in the area. Steve even joked about there being no one else out there!

So we talked for awhile about Illinois Beach State Park… and how I “found it” as one my Covid excursions during quarantine. They kept telling me about other areas I need to check-out up there… parks, boardwalks, sweet shops, etc. They were the nicest… and only... people I chatted with all day. Like I said, Illinois Beach State Park is pretty isolated without a lot of people!

And then as we continued to talk, I told them that I would let them “in on a little secret”… I told them that I was a potter… and then I told them that I was there hiding my clay fortune cookies! Twenty-three for 2023!

Hold on… wait for it…
Then Heidi stopped me in the middle of my story and said that she found a fortune cookie like that two years ago at the Sand Pond fishing area of the park. She was even impressed that they rattled! I think it took her a second for it all to come together… but what a randomly strange coincidence that I would run into a random new friend out there… who just happened to randomly find one of my fortune cookies TWO YEARS AGO in a random state park covering over six random square miles!!! Crazy coincidence, right?!

We continued to chat on our way back to the parking lot. When we crossed a little wooden footbridge, I pointed out to Heidi that someone else has been hiding things out there too. Like this little Christmas Tree painted rock… that I had seen earlier while I was headed the other way!!! Heidi was so excited… another fun find for her collection!

A little fortune cookie Scavenger Hunt at Illinois Beach State Park!
Handmade ceramic fortune cookies… textured, patterned, stained…
oh, and they rattle too!!!

So here we go… a few visual “clues” to help people find the hidden fortune cookies! Remember, there are twenty-three ceramic fortune cookies hidden throughout Illinois Beach State Park… both North & South Units. Kind of my way to share some “good fortune” for the New Year!

I hid them yesterday… so go get ’em!!!

Of course I’m not going to make it easy for you…
so these little “clues” may or may not help?! Plus, the photos are in no particular order! All part of the game… and FUN for me!!!

And a good thing I brought a couple extra fortune cookies with me…

I found this great piece of driftwood and thought that this would be a perfect place to stash a fortune cookie. When I set the fortune cookie into the hole on the top, it seemed a little wobbly. So I pushed it a bit further back… and it fell right in! ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM!!! I could hear it tumbling down inside… like through a “tube” down the center of the log! Never to be found until this piece of drift wood rots away! Whoops!