What a lovely day today!!! The sun is shining, it’s almost 20° and there’s a 40° day in the forecast! And my bobcat is coming today. I’m really looking forward to this summer and using it for landscaping etc.

I’ve been working on more murrini,

Some new listings on Etsy,


I finished the drawing of my latest butterfly, so now comes the magic of putting down the watercolors,

Some funny pics,

I’m in a slump again, too many clouds, too many headaches, too many backaches. I NEED A NEW BODY!!

I did update my website, www.greyhavenart.com, to show my latest pen and ink drawings, and a new ACEO.

It only took me 2 days to figure out how to make a new gallery for the website. Talk about frustration!

I’m still working on murrini, and that’s a whole new field for frustration. Can you image taking these colors,

and ending up with this?


Or how about this one,

and ending up with this?


Actually, it’s kind of fun!

Yesterday was a fun day, chaotic from beginning to end. It began with Suka grabbing S.C. (cat) by the tail and not letting go, me grabbing his collar and hauling him up to try to get him to let her go, with the two little dogs attacking her, and her sinking her claws in my legs trying to get away. My day ended with me going to bed with a snack of cauliflower and dip, and having Pyr sneeze all over it. Sigh. Who needs to bungee jump for excitement when you’ve got a life like mine.

Oh, what a dreary day, it’s been snizzling, and the weather forecast is snow/rain/cloudy for the rest of the week. Sigh, I want some warm sunshine.

My nephew and his ex came up a couple of days ago to do some work. Scott has been staining and varnishing an oak door for me, and Jenelle cleaned my ceiling fans!! I walk through the house and look at them, and think, gee, I really should clean those, and then, blah, I’ll go wash some dishes instead. So I was quite happy to see her doing that! Hopefully we’ll get enough snow this week that they’ll be able to come up with Scottie and do some snowmobiling. It was enjoyable, standing out by the barn with them, watching the twins run around with their tails kinked, enjoying the sunshine. Just call it a family moment. :)

I’ve got amaryllis blooming!


Beautiful bright colors!!!!

I’m still in a rut, struggling to find something to do besides go to bed and curl up under a nice warm blanket with a good book, with a dog on each side of me. I’ve been trying to keep making beads, even though there’s no creative urge to do so. Right now the most creativity I’ve got has been going into making more murrini. Here’s two of my latest:


I really should list some beads, but I think instead I’m going to go make some more earring pairs, just until it’s late enough to turn on the blankies.

A nice sunny day here, above freezing, and nothing to complain about being it’s Feb. 6, and my amaryllis are blooming! Such huge, colorful flowers. This is a Minerva,

And this is a new one I picked up from Bachman’s, Paris,


And some beads I just finished cleaning and photo’ing, just need to get them listed,

And I’m still on a murrini-making kick,

It really is amazing how putting clear over them (the ones on the right side are encased with clear) can really bring out the colors.

It’s really sad to see how an American business like Sears go downhill. I usually buy my large appliances there, and have tried using their website. Their website must have been designed by a community college drop-out, it is just so bad. A couple of months ago, I wanted to buy a couple of things that were on sale. It wouldn’t give me the sale price in the cart, so I called their customer service to find out how to do it, only to be told that I could order it over the phone. So after reading the part numbers to her, and giving her my Sears card number, then she needed me to spell out my name and address. At that point, I told her ‘that’s why I order online, so I don’t need to do all of this!’ and hung up.

So yesterday I got an email about the Sears Craftsman Club sale. I want a router, and they had one on sale. Went to their website and open the flyer and spent 10 minutes trying to put it into the cart to order it. Seems the only way to do that is to click on the little words ‘Member Price,’ not the photo or name of the item, which would be the logical way to have it set up. So I get to the item, and instead of being $99.99 like in the flyer, the member price is $107.99. No wonder they’re not doing well.

That was my peeve of the day.

I’ve been getting bored with making beads, so have been playing with making murrini again. Murrini is laying down layers of colors on a rod of glass, then pulling it out into a thinner rod, then nipping it into slices, which then gets melted onto a bead. Here are some of the better ones,


This is a bead with one of my favorite Double Helix’s murrini,

and I really wish I knew what glass they used in this murrini!


ETA: This is one TALENTED lady! Her name is Cynthia, http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=glassactcc&_armrs=1&_from=R40&_ipg=&_trksid=m37 and http://www.etsy.com/shop/Glassactcc/. She makes such a variety of beads, and they’re always just gorgeous!