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.

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,

I’m REALLY sounding like a broken record, but we have another cold wave coming in, -17° tomorrow night. Getting really, really tired of it. At least it’s been sunny.

I’ve started on a new drawing, quite a bit smaller than the last, just 5 1/2” x 4”, so this one won’t take nearly as long as the elk. This is Baxter, our kitty that we just had to put down this past fall, when he was a kitten. He had such pretty blue eyes. This is in progress,

I just listed some new beads, and have several that I really like, especially the last one,



And a couple of funny Internet pics,

It’s been quite a busy couple of weeks. We bought a new van!! Technology sure has changed vehicles in the last 13 years. The new van has a backup camera, a side camera for changing lanes, and it pairs with my iPhone so I can listen to the music on it, and hands free talking on the phone. LOL, I can answer the phone with a button on the steering wheel, and if I want to call home, all I do is touch a button and say who I want to call, it pauses the music and places the call, and when I’m done, it resumes the music. Really neat. And the last row of seats fold down into a trunk area, so we don’t have to take out the seat to make room for hauling feed. Just so cool!

My nephews were up to work on my greenhouse yesterday, but they didn’t get much done, it was way too hot to be working outside. Hopefully they’ll be back up this weekend to get the plastic on, because I’ve got a bumper crop of tomatoes, three rows, 30’ long. Next year, LESS tomato plants and further apart!!!


Here’s a batch that I stewed down and froze,

I went down and picked up my nephew last week and had to take a picture of his granddaughter. Oh, what a cutie pie!

And a picture of Pip sucking up to James, one of Mark’s boys,

I’ve found out that Pyr is a cat magnet. If he’s in the studio and Suka is not, she comes out and does some serious snuggling,

I need to get some beads listed tomorrow,




And here’s a couple of funny internet photos:


I can certainly relate to the last one!!!