When I got home from the studio at sunset… it turned out to be a perfect evening for a neighborhood stroll with a friend. Even better when that stroll takes you to Lickety Split for a little chocolate-yummy sumthin’-sumthin’… which we’ll just call DINNER!!!

Tempted by the vintage candy…
but resisted, and then made my ice cream a LARGE!!!

Yesterday I finally got to ride my bike with two of my cycling friends… from a safe social distance of course! Until now, I’ve only been riding solo! But we finally got to take Beckie on an adventure through the North Branch Bike Trail, up through some northern suburbs and up to Openland Lakeshore Preserve and then up to the Great Lakes Naval Base. It was a beautiful day & felt so good to get outside… pedaling safely with two of my IRONMAN friends… all the way up to “where the sidewalk ends.”

To close out my wonderful roadtrip through Central Illinois on Friday, I stopped off in Chenoa to see some longtime friends and their kids! SURPRISE!!! They had no idea I would be stopping by. So great to see them even if we did try to keep our distance while enjoying pizza & s’mores!!! It was a wonderful roadtrip “surprising” a bunch of my friends during these crazy times… as I know that I have definitely been missing human contact while quarantining my myself.

I mean, a ZOOM meeting doesn’t smell like a campfire and squish with yummy marshmallow & chocolate goodness!

And during these crazy times of quarantining & self-isolating… my friends in Bartonville have this wonderful wrought iron “welcome” sign takes on an all-important message! When this all calms down a bit, the sign can be rotated as the other side has the more traditional “Welcome”… but that might still be a while from now!

Sure, they may have a big fallen tree in the middle of their garden right now… but my friends Gerry & Rosene still have an AMAZING GARDEN!!! Lots of beautiful plants & rusty art pieces all around. It’s so much fun to visit at different times of the year to see what’s blooming each time!

After a “sweet” stop in Eureka on Friday, I continued on to see my very first art fair friends in Peoria. They’ve been “locked-down” with a tight quarantine and definitely needed a virtual hug! They’ve had a tough go… remember they’re the ones who have a gorgeous garden… now with a huge tree that fell down in the middle of it all. And if you look close… you might just see my ceramic totem pole that was in the way!

Luckily, they’re going to get a new one!!!…
totem pole that is, not another fallen giant tree!

So this weekend was supposed to be “ART-A-WHIRL” up in Minneapolis… a big studio tour & art sale in the Twin Cities. And I was planning on being the Guest Artist of my friend & amazing metalsmith Sarah Chapman before this corona-craziness shut us all down!

Want to see more of Sarah’s work… click here!

Needless to say, I’m NOT in Minneapolis, and Sarah’s studio is not open for the tour. But she is hosting a “virtual” tour on her website! So if you’re looking for some amazingly cool jewelry to spruce up your “quarantine look” – check-out the link below for more info! Her work is incredible… I just wish I were there in person this weekend to play with Sarah… while we both would be showing off our wares! Maybe next year?!

Click here to shop Sarah’s website of beautiful things!!!

What have we learned in quarantine?…
Eating right from the container with dribbles on the scarf.
Eating from a sweet little ceramic bowl… NO DRIBBLES!!!

I think we all now know that the bowl made all the difference!
If you need to stop YOUR dribbles, just let me know!
Or you can always click HERE to go straight to my online shop!

Thanks Kristy for the photos…
and thanks Matt for being such a good-sport!

One of the highlights of my “surprise walk” was running into Team Lavender!!!

Two of my pottery students from Lillstreet. Jacob & Molly have been in my classes for quite awhile, most recently the Lillstreet Throwdown class… twice! We’ve even celebrated some momentous occasions with them in my class… engagement, wedding, baby shower!!! And now they’ve recently moved into my neighborhood and we just happened to cross paths today. It was great to see some Lillstreet friends again during quarantine! We even had our own socially-distant “hug”!!!

But then THIS was all their fault… they were eating frozen custard from Lickety Split. And I couldn’t get it out of my head… so this yummy indulgence was all their fault!!! Not mine.

Little Teagan might be a bit under the weather today, but it look she’s more than ready for breakfast in her fancy new ceramic bowls!!! Teagan’s Mom is one of my IRONMAN biking buddies… so breakfast just might be pie ala mode!!!