Impatiently waiting for warmer weather, along with half of the rest of the country. This time of the year just seems to drag, I want to get out and soak up some sun, go for a walk, get my plants out of the house, get some fresh air without freezing. My plants are struggling, except for the Meyer lemon trees I started. Anyone want a Meyer lemon tree? I’ve got 10 of them started. If I had known the seeds were that robust, I wouldn’t have planted as many.

I put in an order at Burgess seed (got 200 peat pots today), and I’ve got another order at Jung Seed. Some Mock Orange,
”double white blossoms with exquisite sweet fragrance”
a hybrid lilac, “the enormous trusses beautify the landscape while their exquisite fragrance wafts through the air perfuming entire neighborhoods.”
Honeysuckle, “intensely fragrant flowers beginning mid-spring and continuing all summer”
Mojito Mint, “A mint that traces its origins back to Cuba”
and a few other herbs and flowers.

My tiger drawing is progressing nicely,

Lots and lots of dots…

A couple funny internet pics:
(Actually, this is what my cats like to do with my bead kiln)

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,

Oh, BRRRRRRRRR!!!!! The wind is whipping in from the northwest and it’s blowing in some brutal cold. I am trying my best to ignore it, but it’s hard when you can hear that howling wind. Yeegads!! It just blew the cover off the garbage can I have my propane tank in. Scared the heck out of me!

I have some beads to show off. I’ve been selling on Facebook now. Who would have thought it! I’ve been on Facebook for some years now, but have not been on it much because I find it so confusing. A very kind friend from LE urged me to join one of the bead auction groups, and it’s done well for me.

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.

It’s appropriate, I suppose, that the darkest day of the year should be so dark and dreary. But we’re over the first hump of winter, and in about three weeks, the second hump, and the days will start to get warmer. Spring will be on the way!

I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into Facebook, selling beads at auctions there. It’s been quite satisfying selling beads again, it’s inspired me to get back into torching. Here’s a couple of really neat ones I just sold yesterday. they have metallic shimmers that the camera just hints at,

My zebra drawing has been progressing quite nicely, I’m almost done with it and have started planning another drawing already.

 

 

Are news writers so young these days that five years of time can so impress them?
Headline: California Braces for Rain, Snow and High Winds in Worst Storm in Five Years
My zebras drawing is progressing nicely. I think I’m going to put a little bit of blue on the water to add some color.

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,

Sales on Etsy have pretty well tanked for small shops and artists. Last year they opened it up to manufacturing, so individual lampworkers are competing even more with cheap Chinese beads. I’ve been urged to try selling on gasp!! Facebook! Oh gosh, I get overwhelmed just going and looking at my page on Facebook. But either I quit making beads, which I don’t want to do, or find some place to get rid of these things. I’ve got bags of them from the past year and a half.

So, I’ve got my headphones on listening to Tommy Cash, Waylon Jennings and Neil Diamond, and a tutorial on listing beads on one of the FB lampwork groups. Wish me luck, sigh….

ETA: Well, I think I did it.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205648088507940&set=gm.729522300474307&type=1&theater

I am in a funk! I can’t get centered on anything to do. Made some very uninspiring beads, pulled out some quilting, spent an entire day installing and re-installing Parallels and Windows on my laptop, and got totally frustrated with it. Spent hours going through photos looking for something to hit me as a drawing, ZIP! Even toyed with the idea of finding my needlepoint stuff, but gave up when I couldn’t remember where I put it all. Sigh.

I’m sure part of it is the SAD, it’s been so cold and windy and cloudy, it’s hard to find the energy to do anything. We always have wind here, but this has been constant, a cold and bitter January wind. Just listening to it makes me want to crawl into my bed.

It’s been some years since I tried using light therapy, so I ordered one from Amazon. Hopefully it will give me some oomph! (I know that’s a word because the spell checker passed it.)

No flower pics, no bead pics, not even any bird pics, since the English sparrows have been swarming the bird feeder. I do have some Internet pics though.

That could go for Minnesota too.

I could see one of my cats doing this,

This is the United States, where 1 in 30 children have been homeless in the past year, and a baseball player just signed a contract that comes out to $68,000 a day for 13 years.

I can’t think of anything more to say, except that it makes me sad.