new piece and Chicago

this was something i painted on the wall in Z's studio.

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here's a necklace i finished before i left. i haven't been able to load pictures onto blogger for the last few days, but now i can. the base is a piece of sea glass, but it is an intact top of a bottle - in perfect shape; nice and smooth from it's time in the ocean. i found the bottle top on the dog beach in Manasquan. it's quite an impressive piece when worn as it is heavy and chunky.

i arrived in chicago fine and dandy; although a bit late. even though our flight was "on time", we ended up sitting on the runway for a half hour while we waited for the 20 planes ahead of us to take off. i seemed to be sitting in the smelly BO and no AC section. also my seat was broken so it wouldn't tilt back at all. there was a larger size man in the middle row who was encroaching on my space and if you've paid attention to any of the many quirks i've shared about myself, you'll remember that i am VERY claustrophic, especially in a situation like that. i ended up going to the back of the airplane for awhile.

Zhulia was there to pick me up, so after gathering my luggage we headed up to Labarge street to the Jackson Square antique center (well, where else would we go?). we found some great goodies and i'll have to say, i found their prices very reasonable. from there we had a bite to eat at Noodles, but their fare seemed to be upsetting my stomach, so i switched my meal midstream to chicken noodle soup and a roll to quell my tummy ache. from there we hit a thrift store, where i picked items as well.

we got to her house and were greeted by the cutest doggie, Chip. I think Tigger would have been a better name for him as he is very springy, bouncey and sprongy. (yes, you can find all those words in the dictionary)

tomorrow we will shop for groceries and do a little art and then we leave for wisconsin (valley ridge art studio) on thursday after picking up our friend, Jean, from the airport. can't wait to also get to see my buddy, Kim and Julie.