It’s finally Spring… and it’s finally time for pretty plants!!! This Friday & Saturday is our second annual PLANTS & POTTERY POP-UP SALE down in Bartonville, Illinois… near Peoria! Hundreds of homegrown plants for your garden, patios & home… and plenty of pottery for everyone! Be sure to share with your friends!

2314 Skyway Road, Bartonville, IL 61607
Friday, May 13th & Saturday, May 14th – 9:00am-4:00pm

This weekend was the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour! So great to go up for the tour – finally back in-person after two years of “virtualness” due to the pandemic. So much wonderful pottery everywhere, as well as time to chat with the potters. Time to touch the pottery, bask in the creativity, and to take some inspiration & ideas back home… as well as a “few” purchases along the way! We had amazing weather with beautiful blue skies and wonderful Spring temps in the 70’s!!! Huge THANKS to all of the studio hosts, the organizers and all of the potters who participate in this wonderful event… it’s a HUGE undertaking and they make it look so smooth & seamless! Kudos to you all!!!

No spoilers here… except that I just finished THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN on HBO Max!!! Binged… and done!!!

I just wish there were more episodes… or a U.S. version I could compete & play on?! So many great projects. So many challenges. So much fun!!!

Time to get some glaze going… luckily, I’m getting ready for a soda kiln firing, so it’s more about liner glazes, inlays & accents… and not fully glazing things. So it “might” go a little quicker?… but everything needs to be wadded too, so maybe not so much?!

Time to mark your calendars… we’re just nine weeks away from the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! I will be playing with my pottery friend Cory McCrory at her studio location in Sandwich, Illinois… along with fellow ceramicists Linda Kiepke, Nancy Gardner, Kenyon Hansen & Lindsay Heiden. Put us on your calendar for a fun weekend road trip for some pottery fun!!!

Feeling a little ROUGE inspired… and painting some RED accents on these pots tonight for my next soda firing!!!

A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT!!!
Here’s a great story… follow along…

So I made some plain vases for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class for their Glazing Challenge. I had an extra one, so my friend & fellow teacher Chelsea glazed it during the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class. It came out beautiful. And then Chelsea gifted it to Clara for her birthday… and Clara is in my THROWDOWN class. So what started in THROWDOWN is now back for good with a THROWDOWN for good!

Happy Birthday Clara!!!

Always a great day when THIS arrives in my mailbox!!!

After two years of pandemic virtual tours, it’s so exciting to see that the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour will once again be going live & in-person this Spring. So much fun to see so much beautiful pottery over the course of a weekend… driving from studio location to studio location… chatting with over 60 talented potters… picking up a few pieces for my own collection along the way… and forever daydreaming that I might one day be invited to be part of the “Pottery Tour” instead of just a patron! Dare to dream, right…

Who knew that retro Valentine Cards had so much pottery in them?! Lots of teapots, bowls & cups to brighten your day with some really bad puns!!! You know I like a good “Dad Joke” as much as the next… but seriously?!

I needed to make a pie and didn’t have any apples in the house. So I decided to go with a retro flashback recipe thanks to the folks at Ritz Crackers! It’s a great recipe for an “apple” pie that uses no apples, no applesauce, no apple juice… nothing apple related. And yet somehow it’s YUMMY and tastes just like an apple pie?! Looks like it tasted pretty good… not much left!