I had four trumpeter swans fly over the house the other day. They are so white against a blue sky. Thrilling!!!! Spring is on the way, even though we’re freezing our buns off here. We’re going to have a warm-up for one day, then it’s going to be frigid again. I keep looking at Intellicast’s 10 day forecast, hoping to see a real warm-up, but there’s nothing to cheer about yet.

My latest drawing is progressing. He’s laying in water, trying to cool down. I’m just about ready to start putting in some color.

Some new beads, I’ll be putting these on Facebook,

Another dreary day here, cold and raw and snowing. Oh well, at least I don’t live in New York or Boston. I really feel for them.

My leopard drawing is finished,

I’m working on a tiger now, and if it progresses well, I think I’ll finish it with color.

I have some new beads up on Facebook,


I’ve been playing around with layering some silver glasses over the Galaxy layers. The problem is that I’m ending up with some large (for me) beads. Just going to have to start with a smaller footprint.

Well, off to the middle room to work on my drawing. It’s warmer in there, especially if I use the electric throw.

I’m finishing up on my leopard drawing,

I think I’ll do a tiger next. Thank National Geographic for this spate of wildlife drawings, it’s been inspiring to watch their wildlife shows (except for the ones that show the kills, I have to fast forward past those scenes).

I am SOOOOOOO ready for spring! We had 40° today, and it was just teasing me. I’m just thankful I don’t live in Buffalo, New York. Gosh, have they been slammed this winter.

I have amaryllis and orchids getting ready to bloom, so hopefully next time I post I’ll have some beautiful blooms to show. In the meantime, some beads I’ve got on Facebook,

This is Arke, a Double Helix silver glass. It is really neat using it in a Galaxy stringer, it just shimmers like crazy.

January 2015

We’re having our January thaw, and it is SOOOOO nice to go outside without my fingers going numb in a matter of minutes. Winter is on its way out…

I took this picture last month and forgot to post it. It was a grapefruit from my tree, and it was delicious!

I’m almost done with my leopard drawing, and so far, I’m pleased with it. It’s coming out nicely.

Time to start looking for something else. I think I will do a tiger. I was watching a show called Tiger Dynasty on National Geographic Wild, and there were a couple of scenes that struck me.

Some new beads on Facebook; the first is on dichroic glass, and I’m not sure I like it, the second is a pretty Galaxy bead.

It’s a howler out there tonight! It snowed today, and then the wind switched to the northwest, so it’s blowing the cold air back in. But there’s hope!! Next week we’ll start warming up. Yup, time to start poring over the seed catalogs.
After a couple of false starts, my leopard drawing is progressing nicely,

Double Helix came out with a new glass, Iaso, and I’ve got a half pound coming Monday. I’m really excited about it, it’s a copper glass,

and reduced,

Some new beads on Facebook,

Sunshine!! Blue Sky!!!! I see them both! It’s been a long, cold, dreary, cloudy month, and I’m glad it’s on its way out. We got about an inch of snow yesterday, so everything looks fresh and clean now. Life is good…

I finished my zebra drawing, and I like the way it turned out. I’m on an African wildlife kick, so my next one is of a leopard.

Less than three weeks to go until the winter solstice, the shortest, darkest day of the year. That’s the first hump to get through the winter, then three weeks later, the days start getting warmer (statistically). Once we get past that, I can start feeling like the worst is over and I can start planning my gardens. I’m going to get some moving around of my bird feeders. I read an article that feeders should be closer than three feet or more than 30 feet away from windows to prevent birds from crashing into them. And of course, right now all of my feeders are inside that danger zone.

After finishing my bird drawing, I was wandering around feeling lost because I just couldn’t settle on a new drawing. I decided to get my embroidery machine out and try working on that, but couldn’t find the power cord for it!! I cleaned out the half of the foyer closet where I keep my boxes of thread, not there. Cleaned and went through the boxes of fabric and misc. on top of the bookshelves in the middle bedroom. Not there. So after wasting two days (well, guess not wasted since I cleaned or organized) I decided to go onto Amazon and see if I could get a replacement cord. Had to check the embroidery machine to get the model number, and guess what I found under it. The power cord.

Work in progress, A Confusion of Stripes, (I got inspired after watching some National Geographic shows about zebra migrations). This one is larger than my normal size, about 9x11 inches.

We had a surprise at our bird feeder the other day,

I think they’re cute, but I’m not enthused about having them around, since they’re so destructive, so we had Suka chase him up a tree a couple of times. He got the hint and moved on to more peaceful feeders.

Speaking of Suka, this dog has a huge personality! When I get Lukas up to shower him, Suka has to find his toy and claim his spot on the bed. Such a silly puppy!

I must have been especially uninspired August of 2013. I just finished photographing the last of the beads from that month, and there are quite a few ‘blah’ beads. My bag of rejects is going to be growing as I winnow through them.

I’ve gotten a few new funny photos off the web, here’s a couple,

Indian Summer?

It’s a warm fall day here, the wind is blowing and the leaves are drying up. I don’t know what it portends, but we have a LOT of pine trees drying up and turning brown, even the big mature pines. I don’t recall seeing so many turning before, even in the drought years. We could use some rain, certainly. I’ve been watering my front flower garden because I plants some new perennials and bulbs. Much as I hate the hot weather, I do wish we could have another couple of months of this. I don’t think this is Indian Summer yet, because we still haven’t had a hard freeze.

We’ve got our wood and hay in for the winter, 50+ bales of hay and three-four cords of wood.

The mosquitoes and black gnats are out in force to get their last licks in. This big boy will be going to the butcher next month, and I won’t be too sad to see him go. He’s been sparring with Dexter, our bull, and I don’t want Dex getting hurt.

I was thinking this morning that I should probably take down the hummingbird feeder, but then I had a little straggler stop by, so I’ll leave it up for a bit yet. This is an earlier picture of a little girl preening herself,

I love storms, as long as they aren’t severe. The power of nature is always awe-inspiring.


The cat was sleeping on the kiln and fell off, here she was giving me the evil eye for laughing at her.

Some bead pics,



and funny Internet pics,

Every cold wave for the past month and a half, I say ‘This has to be the last one, it has to start warming up!’ The sun was kind of shining yesterday, and I so wanted to get outside and play in the dirt with my bobcat, but with everything still covered in snow and a frigid NW wind, it didn’t happen. It’s 6° right now, and that NW wind is still blowing. So very, very, very tired of winter.

I’ve been playing with a new style of beads. I think I’ll try putting some murrini on the next one I make.

My parrot drawing is progressing. As usual, I’m not entirely happy with the progress. Maybe after a few more watercolor washes to pop the color I’ll like it better.

And a little humor for the day,