One more day of this beastly hot weather, Saturday night a cold front is coming in. I do NOT do well in the heat.
I started the foal drawing over, the smudged one was just too damaged.
I’ve been trying to get back into coring some of my beads, and here’s the latest:


Pet photos, Suka playing with Chunk,

and Pyr getting introduced to the cows,

Here’s Chuck checking out Suka,

and one of my favorites,

And a picture of one of the baby orioles,

I think the next time I get an order from Amazon that I didn’t order, I’ll just donate it to Goodwill. In May I ordered a wood baby gate to keep Pip from going into Lukas’ bedroom while he was still sleeping. $17.99. Works just fine! The next week I got a baby stroller delivered. Didn’t order it, was completely puzzled! I called Amazon, and was asked (in an accent that was really difficult to understand) if someone ordered it for me as a gift. I don’t think so! Somehow, the order number for the baby gate had became attached to the stroller in Amazon’s computer system.

Amazon sent me a return label, which I used to return the stroller. All good, I thought, only 15 minutes wasted on the phone. But then I get a refund for $17.99 on my credit card! So I called Amazon, explained everything, another 15 minutes spent on the phone trying to get everything straightened out. So they sent me an email requesting me to go onto Amazon’s website and give permission to take the $17.99 back out of my credit card. Which I did.

Then earlier this month, I get an email from Amazon reminding me to return the baby gate! OK, I’m really starting to get tired of this. I ignored it. Today I got an email telling me that since I didn’t return the baby gate, they were charging my credit card $17.99. Now I’m getting ticked!! So back onto the phone, trying to explain the whole convoluted mess to someone with an accent that makes it difficult to understand.

Hopefully it is now resolved. I WILL be watching my credit card closely for a $17.99 charge.

Puppy photos! Puppy photos!! I love the photos with Christian,


Little puppy tummy, so inviting to tickle,

Playing with Suka,

I love this one, it looks like Pyr is laughing, (Suka looks ferocious, but no one is getting hurt)


One of my baby orioles checking me out through the window,

And one of my focal beads. I really liked the way this one turned out, with one of my own murrini,

I am SOOOOO frustrated. It’s been too hot to torch, so I started a pen and ink drawing a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been starting to look good. Last night after working on it a while, I took a break to make supper and then came back to it. I was horrified to see the lower right hand part of it was smudged! I use waterproof India ink, and I’ve never had this happen before. So I tried painting some white gouache over the smudged parts, and the ink was mudding up. I still don’t understand what happened, other than maybe the ink is so old it’s not waterproof anymore? After the paper dried I tried white acrylic paint, and that seems to be covering up the worse of the smudging. But as to whether I’m going to be able to draw over the paint, I have yet to see.

I haven’t decided yet whether I should keep working on it or just give up and start new. Regardless, I went to Dick Blick and ordered all new ink, some more pen nibs and a couple of new kinds of paper, and even paid for 2 day shipping. That’s how frustrated I was.

Well, at least my orioles are still entertaining me. Like any siblings, they fight and squabble,

and here’s one enjoying a cool bath on a hot day,

Do you like yogurt? Greek yogurt?

This time of the year I eat a lot more yogurt than I do in the winter, I like mixing it with a little agave juice and lots of fresh fruit. But I like making my own yogurt, either with a bit of store bought yogurt or with a yogurt starter, in my 1 quart size Salton yogurt maker.

Unfortunately, they’re stopped making the quart size, but others do, they’re just more expensive.

Then after it’s done and cooled overnight in the refrigerator, I spoon it into my Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Cheese Maker ($18 on Amazon).

The longer you leave it in the strainer, the thicker it gets. I’ve got a batch I’m going to mix with minced garlic and chopped chives, and maybe a little basil, to spread on crackers. Yummmm!

Hot and steaming today! This kind of heat just strips all the energy out of one. I feel really bad for people who have to work outside.
The oriole babies are cleaning out the jelly bowl every day now. Here’s one taking a break on a sunflower.

Puppy pictures!! Pyr with Christian,

and getting introduced to the swimming pool,

and a goofy grand-nephew trying on a swimsuit for a hat,

and some newly listed beads,

Pyr all tuckered out, sleeping on Suka’s black monkey toy,

Again, just not right!! We’re going to be hotter today than Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yesterday we topped out at 100° for just a few minutes here, and today they’re forecasting 100° again. Only another month of this... but at least the tomatoes and corn like it as long as I remember to water every day.
Some of the latest photos of Pyr, our new puppy, with Christian, my oldest son, and Suka, our husky,

We have a new addition to our family, a new puppy. I’ve been looking at the local rescue sites for a while now, and finally found one a couple of weeks ago. He was just transported from a shelter in Tennessee today, along with a van full of other dogs and puppies. I was afraid things were going to fall through anytime the past two weeks, and today when I arrived at the foster home that had him and told them I was picking up a male puppy, the young man went to check the kennels and came back and said there wasn’t any male. My heart just sank! But he went back and checked again, and came out with this big ball of fuzz,

He is just so darned cute!!! He slept all the way home. Here he is getting introduced to the other dogs,


Right now he’s crashed right behind my chair in the studio. More photos to come, I’m sure.

Back into the furnace, 91° here. We really need rain. In May-early June, we had 10” of rain, less than a half inch since then.

Birds, flowers and a lonely bead tonight, a house finch and mate,

a red-breasted grosbeak and mate,

with a bill full of jelly,

2 baby barn swallows

a beautiful calla lily and day lilies,

and my lonely bead,