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Cathy Barancik Graham and her Creative Comeback

A few years ago Cathy Barancik Graham made a promise to herself to wake up every morning and sketch. She even labeled the drawings by day and date until there were simply too many to count. Graham joined Instagram and began sharing her drafts online. At the encouragement of her friend, interior designer (and author

Paddle Therapy

Audra Billmeyer, a former Division I collegiate tennis player at Vanderbilt, recalls the first time she stepped onto a platform tennis court. It was during a maternity leave and she had not picked up a racket of any kind in years. “Exmoor had just completed a new paddle hut and my husband said, ‘Get out

Oh, Tannenbaum

As early as the Roman winter solstice of Saturnalia, the darkest time of the year was celebrated with light, festivals, and boughs of evergreen. The Christmas tree, dating to 16th century Germany, has been a Christian tradition for centuries— one that has been adopted by the masses as the holiday evolved into the 21st century.

A Circuitous Route from Iraq to Illinois

Good thing the taxicab driver that smuggled Dr. Rami Taha out of war-torn Iraq stashed Taha’s duffel bag near the cab’s engine. Had the hired smuggler simply placed the luggage in the trunk, Baghdad-born Taha—now a Lake Forest resident and infectious disease physician with practicing privileges at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville—would have been

Through the Looking Glass

A recent sunny Tuesday afternoon found Rajic trotting through the fields of Barrington Hills aboard a chestnut gelding from Oakwood Farms. “I had always wanted to ride. Last September I decided to start lessons,” says Rajic. Growing up in Barrington, most days in the early 2000s one could find Rajic in Barrington High School’s dark

Taste of Argyle

Bill O’Donnell’s heaven on earth is a cozy porch seat at his Blue Ash Farm cabin in Argyle, Wisconsin. It’s where the former longtime Chicago Mercantile Exchange commodities trader and current Deer Park denizen likes to sip coffee early in the morning, view nature, and hear its inhabitants produce their soothing choruses. “That,” the 56-year-old

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