Welcome back...

It's been almost three years since my last post. Changes are in the air and it's time to get back to the blogging.

Most notable is a planned relocation. After 5 years in Pilsen, Chicago we're moving to Streeterville, Chicago. A downtown highrise with all the amenities.

Can't wait to share with you our new life in downtown Chicago.

XO
Mark

The deck repairs..

Hostas

Some color...

Columbine

getting their hedge on :-)

Boxwoods....

Curbside color...

Blue Junipers

It's all about curb appeal

It's all about curb appeal,

here you can see the before during and after on this weekend project

8 months and 3 days later....

yes.. still alive and have plenty to blog...

Babe..

in addition to Babe being one of my all time favorite movies, and I LOVE baby pigs.. here's a babe for the Lake House.. Bowser wasn't quite sure about him since he's bigger than Bowser is..

other Trophies

Ken has a nice collection of Trophy Cups at the loft in Chicago, we just had to add some to the lake House decor.

some new additions...

some new additions to the Lake House...for the record, not a fan of deer hunting. I am however a fan of Trophy Mounts.. and until now all of our Trophy Mounts have been faux.. But this guy was just so beautiful and he was so lonely hanging in that musty antique store. I figured, he's already mounted.. he might as well have a beautiful, warm home to keep watch over.

First there was a sign..

So Ken and I have a dream about retiring to a Hobby Farm. I say screw it, why wait for retirement age.. I vote 5 year goal! We have a sign.. just need the farm..

Hey there...

Sorry I've been gone for so long.. 1st off I went back to work.. ugh. so thats where I'll lay all the blame on my neglect.

My love of all things Blue... Happy 4th of July...

as in Blue Dog...

summer lovin

The boys love to lay on the deck and seem to follow whatever bit of sunshine they can get...

visitors to our estate...

a baby rabbit was playing in the yard while a wacky squirrel devoured most of the food in the bird feeder....

The rain gutter adventure

ken and I installed new raingutters on the Lakehouse recently and considering we were working with a ladder that was about 5 feet too short.. I think we did pretty well.

This is the real grill..

we broke the grill in the night before by grilling steaks, but this lunch just turned out so beautiful I had to show it off. The Steak kabobs the next night were near perfection ...

Memorial day visitors...

we're finding more and more critters that like to visit at the lakehouse...

the Screen room...

we redecorated the screen room at the Lakehouse this weekend. We were looking for a tent feeling and chose a striped canvas fabric from Ikea. Tenting the fabric to cover the ceiling. We added halogen lights along the ceiling since there are no light fixtures out there. Check out the before and after photo's.