The dandies are in town

Jeroen's brother Rene dropped by for a 24-hour visit on his way to a Keystone (CO) science conference and skiing gig. Arriving Saturday afternoon, we immediately hit downtown Chicago navigating through a free-Egypt protest to the Purple Pig for nice bites and drinks. Bone marrow, pig's ears, octopus, the whole sha-bang, and it's was excellent.

And then a quick tour thru the city to Millennium Park and Big Bean. Chicago and January are not the best match with a chilly wind from the lake, but we were much better off than the bride having her wedding reportage taken in high heels and a strapless dress. They are off to a warm start of their lives together.....

Next on the schedule was some serious shopping along Michigan Avenue, not for nothing dubbed The Magnificent Mile. The Mac Shop, royal parfumeur Creed at Neiman Marcus and Cole Haan.

Ladies and gentlemen, the dandies have touched down in Chicago! 

Sunday morning we took Ruba on a short term polar expedition to the Fort Sheridan lakefront, finishing off with a little more..... shopping, but now at the local Target. 

Rene, thanks for coming - we had a blast............

Oh baby it's cold outside

The Illinois winter has not been too bad up till now - less snow than average and not always cold. But once in a while the temperatures fall, and fall, and fall. And the windchill adds on to that. It does result in interesting sights: Johnny's got Illinois plates and icicles!

Our tv room

We keep on moving furniture around. Today we have a tv room where the dining room used to be. Jeroen is watching football. The Bears are in a very good condition.

Spring in my studio

It might snow today, but it's spring in my little studio



Finished one necklace yesterday. Started a new one today (Laura McCabe design). The centre piece looks pretty good.

Location:E Old Elm Rd,Lake Forest,United States

And as promised Ruba and her new boots...

Don't make fun of her. She won't like you anymore!!!

At work...

Almost a month!!! I mean that we live in Highland Park. A month! Time flies when you are having....
We had a wonderful Christmas. Jeff, Joanne and Marianne were here. We had an alternative Christmas dinner, fish-fondue: oysters, lobster and some white fish. Mmmmmmm. We had heaps of snow, we had lunch with J&J at 'the purple pig' in Chicago, we went downtown by train, we bought snow-shoes, all fun. Now back to the normal live. We still have to figure out what that means in our new surroundings: Jeroen's new job, our new house, new supermarket, new pet hospital, new insurance, new dentist, new pharmacy, new bead group, new sounds. All very exciting, sometimes tiresome.
My car at the front door, very lonely, 2 days before Christmas:

The blob in downtown Chicago. And see, no snow:

Start of our Christmas dinner. Tomato, fig soup:

Our tree. After 2 weeks of hard work, we had just enough time to put up a tree:

Man cleaning our 'stoepje'. Nasty job:

Jeroen cleaning our front door steps. He's the young guy in our hallway of 4 families:

A little hike to the lake. Lots of snow!

The lake was spitting ice, heaps of ice. Brrrrrr cold: