Well, it took awhile for my dahlias to bloom… and I had no idea I would get a second “harvest” of blooms! This is the first time I tried growing dahlias in my yard and I was very pleased… and planning on growing more next summer!

Another beautiful sunrise ride… although I’m thinking I might need to pull out the heavy Winter gloves soon?! It was pretty chilly this morning… colder than I expected. I love Fall, but I’m not a big fan of frozen fingers while riding so soon. Can’t we hang on to the warmer weather for a few more weeks… please, oh please, oh please?!

As part of FALL INTO DAMEN AT NIGHT, my other pottery student Chris is the proud owner of District Chicago. A very cool & stylish home furnishings store on Damen. The store’s style is great – so well curated… loving the bronze bears with eyeglasses! And oh, but wait there’s more… Chris also refinishes all of the vintage furniture himself. A fun night seeing two of my students outside of pottery class… and to see what they do outside of taking my pottery class!

Follow Chris and his store DISTRICT CHICAGO on Instagram – @districtchicago

Tonight I swung by FALL INTO DAMEN AT NIGHT near the studio to see two of my beginning pottery students who were participating in the event! Robert makes these great candles with witty names, metal containers & great fragrance combinations! After smelling almost all of them… I ended up coming home with a “Spruce Wayne”. Can’t wait to light it up!

Check out Robert’s soy candles on Instagram : @rapwaxcandles
… or click here for the website!

With the sudden cold-spell coming through, plus a threat of frost in the next day or so… I thought it was time to take some cuttings from my coleus plants to start propagating for next year! Okay, so I might have gotten a little carried away… but once I started cutting I just couldn’t stop myself!

More is more… even with plants!

Remember a few days ago when I posted about the cool cement carvings along the lakefront?… well, apparently this is “a thing” here in Chicago…. who knew?! Thanks to Matthew for letting me know about this history of carved cement art along the lakefront in Chicago.

For more details… click here for the article & photos!

Well, it was bound to happen.. another batch of textured picture frames as part of another upcoming collaboration with painter Mary Foster. We first introduced these collaboration pieces at ART IN THE GARDEN this summer… and kinda figured we should do it again for THE COZY COTTAGE POP-UP in November. She’s already got a head-start on her paintings… so I felt as though I had better get my act together too!

A little pop of Fall color on the bushes…
as the leaves are just starting to change colors!

A beautiful salad… made prettier with just a hint of the handmade stamped bowl holding it all together! Make your meals more attractive with handmade pottery!!!

My studio neighbor Karen Patinkin has been working on cleaning up her studio lately, and has gathered this wonderful collection of test tiles. I’m loving all of her slip trailings & glaze combinations on these porcelain shards… and I’m sensing perhaps a really cool mosaic piece in the making?!