It has taken 5 years of paperwork and inspections but Ilene Hopkins, a Chicago police officer formerly in the 13th District, is now a mom. Her new daughter waited for her arrival in China and they are U.S.A. bound.
While special needs children may require more efforts to keep them stress-free during the holiday season, people of all ages with or without special needs might find stress reduceres in at least some of Julie Martin's tips for planning ahead.
"How did this business start? That's funny. My daughter Heidi went off to school and I guess I was bothering her too much. She told me to get a life," explains Nancy Kapelak of Garden Offerings.
Peasants' Plot has been part of the Wicker Park Farmers Market since 2007, the year that Julia and Todd McDonald got married; bought twenty farming acres from a family trust in Manteno, IL; found a trailer on the side of the road; moved it and themselves to the farm; and put in a septic tank.
Glass and bead making is a way of life for Luigi Cattelan whose family members have been blowing glass in Italy since the 15th Century. The Murano glass factory, for which he worked for twenty years closed primarily due to foreign competition from the Czech and Asian markets where labor is cheap.
![CircusAndTheaterCollide](/sites/default/files/imagecache/small/when circus & theatre collide 2.jpg "Julie and Jeff are in lower middle during the first "Midnight Circus: When Circus and Theater Collide!"")
