Home + Design

The New Quiet Luxury Home

How wellness, ease and invisible technology are reshaping modern living Article by Cat Rolfes Wellness Begins at Home: Designing Spaces That Support How You Live Luxury once announced itself loudly. Ornate moldings, layered finishes and recognizable brands signaled success before a word was spoken. Today, luxury has softened. It is less about what is seen and more about what is felt. Calm instead of clutter. Ease instead of excess. Homes designed to support daily life rather than compete...

Home + Design

A Church, Reimagined

Pam and Matt MacPherson transformed a midcentury Glenview church into a family home that honors its past. Article by Cat Rolfes | Photography by Amee McCaughan On a quiet stretch of Glenview Road, the fireplace glows where rows of pews once faced forward in unison. Leather chairs and a curved sectional gather close to the stone surround, softening the scale of a room originally designed for congregation rather than conversation. For Pam and Matt MacPherson, this intimate seating area is the...

Home + Design

North Shore Fixers & Finishers

Four North Shore experts shaping what’s behind the walls and what brings a home together. Article by Cat Rolfes Some home professionals solve problems you never see; others shape the details you live with every day. The most successful homes depend on both. This month’s Fixers & Finishers brings together four trusted North Shore experts spanning construction, design and critical home systems. Together, they represent the craftsmanship, coordination and care required to create homes that are...

Arts + Culture

A Love Letter, Goodnight

Lit & Local: Indie and local books that are bound to inspire. Article by Cat Rolfes For children's author Taylor Tomlinson, expanding her “Goodnight” series to Chicago’s North Shore wasn't just a strategic move. It was personal. Raised in Green Oaks, Tomlinson says the newest book felt like "a joyful walk down memory lane," shaped by childhood recollections of places that anchor family life today. The result reads like a love letter to the North Shore, blending nostalgia with the rhythms of...

Health + Wellness

Connecting Empathically (Even When It’s Hard…)

Empathy strengthens relationships, even in the most challenging dynamics. Here’s how to protect your compassion without losing yourself.It is one of the best parts of my job.Not showing empathy, but learning about yours. So much of therapy is about learning, practicing, and connecting empathically- understanding what that means and how it shows up in relationships.Where Connecting Empathically BeginsWhen we talk about connecting empathically, we’re really describing how empathy builds from...

Health + Wellness

Connecting with Attunement

Connecting with AttunementREady for REsolutions, REfocus, REset, REgulation, RElationships, and REsilienceAttunement means being deeply responsive and aligned to another person or to yourself – noticing cues, understanding them accurately, and adjusting your response in a way that matches what is needed in the moment.  This word came to me as I thought about all the GenZers who are seeking therapy sooner than “we” (older than GenZ) did.  But more on this awesome generation in a minute…...

Finance + Legal Services

Sarah Reusché: Rooted in Community

Civil Litigator, Community Advocate & Quiet Force for Good Article by Cat Rolfes On paper, Sarah Reusché is everything you’d expect of a rising civil litigator: sharp, articulate, relentlessly prepared. In person, what surfaces first isn’t intensity but empathy. “The best way to be a professional is by being a person first,” she says. “You get to know people, you build trust, and everything flows from there.” At Lavelle Law, Reusché practices civil and commercial litigation and works within...

Arts + Culture

Enemy in Your Pocket

Lit & Local: Indie and local books that are bound to inspire. Article and Photography by Cat Rolfes On one of the coldest afternoons in December, Chicago native Jackson Antonow stood in the wind, hands tucked into his coat pockets, talking about the book he never planned to write. “ Enemy in Your Pocket: How Using Your Phone Less Will Change Your Life and How to Do It,” currently for sale on Amazon, did not begin with a revelation or a manifesto. It began with a feeling he could no longer...

Shopping

Unplugged by Design

An Evanston father-son watch brand built for calm, not notifications Article and Photography by Cat Rolfes In an age when time vibrates, buzzes, and lights up our wrists, Matt and Rohan Kuttan are betting on something quietly radical: stillness. Their Evanston-based watch brand, MADHU, launched October 1, isn’t trying to outsmart your phone. It’s trying to help you put it down. Sleek, automatic, and entirely analog, the MADHU watch is powered not by batteries or Bluetooth, but by movement...

Arts + Culture

Everything Is Possible

How artist Emmett Kyoshi Wilson is redefining ability through abstraction, generosity and joy Article by Cat Rolfes | Photography by Stephanie Bassos, David Spingola & Daniel Klutznick The first thing you notice when you step into Emmett Kyoshi Wilson’s house is not the art itself, but the way it has claimed the place. It spreads. Paintings cover walls, lean in stacks, rest against door frames. The Glenview ranch house where Emmett lives with his parents feels less like a home displaying art...