when it all feels right...

when claire let georgia and myself know that she'd be coming to the states and wanted to see us again, my heart swelled up. last year was our first time meeting each other and i think it was love at first sight for all of us. something just felt right.

here is beautiful claire. 

originally from south africa, now living in dublin, she is filled beyond capacity with a love for life and people and writing and photography and laughter and travel. in case you were wondering, yes, i'm old enough to be her mother, if i had birthed her when i was 21.

by now you know that we made special plans to meet up with caroline. 

canceling plans were contemplated, after we woke up to a monsoon blowing its way through chicago, but we decided that even with winds that could blow me all the back to wisconsin, the rain wouldn't melt us. unfortunately caroline was only able to spend about 2 hours with us and i honestly feel like i hardly even talked to her. i've asked her for a do-over.

in wicker park we spent the afternoon talking and laughing in a tiny little coffee shop, who will probably ban me from ever coming again once they watch the security tapes and see that i asked people to get out of the way change seats, so that we could have a corner to ourselves. 

a huge treat, after meeting caroline, was also meeting georgia's brother and sister-in-law who live in the area and stopped by to see us. so with all of us in the little corner we carved out for ourselves, and cameras everywhere, photos being taken of everything and everyone, we proved without a doubt to anyone in ipsentos, that we were all total photography geeks. from an outsiders's perspective, i can't even imagine what they thought of us, or what we even looked like. crazy comes to mind.

when it was finally time to leave, the rain had let up and we soaked up some outside time. 

oh, and of course this is georgia, although claire and i now refer to her as 

new mama extraordinaire. 

so now on top of being an interior designer {which she isn't but should be}

and a vintage wardrobe consultant {which she isn't but should be} she is an amazing mother.

i have close ups of these strangers that i'll share later. i asked if could take their photos and of course they said "yes"

the guy on the right is a james dean look alike.

seriously, wait till you see his head shot.

georgia's home is amazing. it's warm and inviting and filled with everything wonderfully vintage. and now it's filled with the laughter of a baby. i call that perfect.

{look at him listening to his auntie claire}

this was taken right after a diaper change and right before we took him to the quaint little town of woodstock, where he got to watch us eat the most amazing crepes.

throughout georgia and her hubby's home, there are little vignettes everywhere. 

i took tons of photos but they barely show how incredible her home is. 

our last little time together

here we are in woodstock where we celebrated, once again, the end of a rainy day. 

obviously, we quickly learned that rain wasn't going to spoil our time together.

with the happiest, most laid back baby i have ever seen, we managed to really get out and celebrate our time together. 

but i have to say that dinner inside, with a buffet filled with trader joe's yumminess, 

claire's brushetta and georgia's hubby, was so special.

and 

when i told sweet baby isaac it was time for me to leave....well this just broke my heart.

"don't worry sweet thing. i'll be back to see you very soon"

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