It was cold in Chicago!

But then I really like it to be cold in January in the midwest....cold and wind both carry an aliveness for me that I like.

When I arrived it was unseasonably warm, 50 degrees in the day in Chicago!  I walked in the morning and had to take off my light fleece and walk in my tee shirt and leggings.  Day two things changed a bit with a 32 degree morning and I walked in my winter coat with earwarmers and gloves!

I happen to love a bare tree silhouette

 and one covered in ice delights the senses

Friday night dinner out with a favorite group of folks, Lisa, Bev, Gabriella, NanC and Jeroen.  Gabriella I was fortunate to meet in a bead class a few years back in Atlanta.  I'm lucky like that, I get to meet and maintain so many wonderful relationships that started with the love of beads.  NanC was one of my first teachers when the show was still called Embellishment.  I did a little freefrom brick stitch vessel in that class and she encouraged me...and I was so grateful.  Fast forward a few years when I was writing the first book and I was 'too close' to it and couldn't decide if the work was compelling or trite and again NanC encouraged me. Lisa I met at a Great Lakes Bead Guild bead daze so many years ago.  Maggie introduced as and I knew at once she would stay in my life.  Bev and I meet up at Bead and Button and this year, a first she took Aelia with me on Saturday.

 And a highlight of the weekend (well there were many) was meeting Jan, son Ewan and husband Jeremy.  We've been facebook friends for a long time, that kind of facebook friend that just kind of creeps in, with a comment here and there and then all of a sudden you 'know' them, know a bit about their life, their beadwork, their family, their knitting....and then you get to meet them and they are even lovelier in person.

I have a date in Chicago next year same time!