Out Our Back Door!

This is what we can see out our back door this morning. That is after it let up enough to see out the back door. For a while there you could not see the barn from the house.
Of course the snow shovel was out back and the drive was at least knee deep. Jeff had gone out to shovel what he could as the last storm our snow blower broke and he has not been able to find a replacement part.
Luckily for us we have a grand neighbor and he came and helped with the drive. The thing is while they were out there it has snowed another inch or so and we are supposed to get at least 4 more inches before nightfall. You have got to love South Dakota weather.

Hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the day. I am off to try and make a few beads.

Etsy

I have been working hard to list something almost every day on Etsy. This week has been a bust as I have not gotten it done for several days. But the shop is filling up and at least looks a little healthier than it did a month ago. Take a look at all the new beads including this set.

Home from Minneapolis

Cyd and I had a horrible time getting home from Minneapolis last night. It started raining sideways with horrible wind about an hour after we started home and then with about an hour left to go we hit a 45 minute wall of water. There was nothing to do but try to keep it between the reflectors. Parts of the road were definitely flooded and they say it was raining 2 to 4 inches per hour. I think it is now one of my top three horrible scary drives ever.

I wanted to show you some of the fun we had though. Above is my new table display. I think it is much brighter. I am not sure I am finished with the changes yet but so far I like it.
Cyd was supposed to hand out candy this weekend and she did a very good job the whole sack was gone by Saturday evening. She is of course all excited as the candy and her hair match the new table cloth although her March Madness outfit kind of clashed.
Saturday night Cyd got into her old ratty bathrobe to have a pajama party with the girls we stayed with, Amy and Tera but all we wanted was the Biofreeze and our beds.

Fashion Colors Bead Sets

Some new beads today all in fashion colors. Great browns, greens, and turquoise. One of these sets is headed for Etsy and the others are to go to the Minneapolis bead show with me on Friday. Check out the show if you are in the Hopkins area.

New Flower Bead

I thought I would show you the new kind of flower bead I made yesterday. I am really excited about them and want to play some more with the different kind of petals I can make and shapes of the flowers. They do have to be refined some more but it is a beginning.
The flower actually sits on the side of a small base bead so it will be perfect to make a pendant with. Maybe I will have time tomorrow to make some more.

Amazing thoughts.

Some of you know I have been in a kind of creative funk lately. Well I just read a post on Kabs website that is so poignant that my blog post today is to have you go read this post. I can not tell you how close to home this is for me or how closely she read my mind. It is easier to let you just go read her post.

Jodie Marshall gave my blog a high five because she says it is Fabulous! And she listed several of my favorites as well. So I thought I would ad a couple to the list of fabulous sites.
Regina's Blog
Tera's Blog

Thank you Jodie Love the new necklace by the way.

Orange Tigers

Well yesterday's beads turned out better than I thought they did going into the kiln. There were way more that came out than I expected. I still did not have as full a kiln as usual but at least the special order is done now that I put in a few more today. And today seemed like it was more productive. Guess there has to be One of Those Days every now and then or we forget how good the other days are.

One of those Days!

Have you ever had one of those days where not much goes right. I am sure you have. Well the past two times I have gone to the studio to make beads it has been like pulling teeth. It is partly because I have specific things to get done for people. Special orders which means I have to think in a certain way on a given day. I usually go down there and just make what ever I feel like and when I have special things to get done I have to kind of work rather than going with the flow. Any way it took most of the day to get one order done because the beads were just not turning out the way I wanted them too.

I am sure the fact that it is only 5 degrees out and with the wind feels like -18 once again has nothing to do with the grumps I am having. We have gotten ice and snow the last two days so here it is March and feeling like January. I am really sick of winter and could use some spring right now.

Tiny Faces

My friend Carole Rodgers sent me a tiny face mold from Tuscon a while back and last week was the first time I tried it out. These are some of the faces I made with it. They end up changing shape getting the glass out so you do not have the same face all the time. I think the thinner faces look more masculine. Have to make more as these are for Carole but they were kind of fun to do so different from making beads.

Been gone again.

Well hello did you miss me? We have been gone again. My hubby and I went for a fun weekend to the big city of Sioux Falls, SD. Ha it is not that big of a city but for South Dakota it is one of two city's. We went over Friday for something called the Fine Arts Trolley Tour and we had lots of fun. The trolley did not run for some reason but we walked and then moved the truck to another area and walked some more. Saw lots of really interesting pieces of art and especially enjoyed all the jewelry in the different galleries. We have just been hanging out today and I have been working on some more cords for new felted pieces have to keep my hands busy.

Check out the Trolley Tour though it was fun and we want to go again sometime later in the year when the exhibits change.

Wire beads! Ouch!

I was making these wire beads all last week and boy did they make my fingers sore. But they were fun to make and I think will be fun to use. I might keep some out for sale at the next show we will see. I ran out of contrasting wire though so had to stop making them I guess my fingers are much happier.

I have also gotten back into adding to my Etsy store. Seems like I got lazy about that and had an empty store for the past couple of months. You can click on the links to the right to get to the store and look at all the new items.

Felted Neck Piece

I have been wanting to do some felted pieces for months and even bought fleece and things at the Sheep and Wool festival back when we were in New York in October but as usual did not get it done. Well my friend Jodie Marshall has been doing some great felted lariats and she just inspired me to move my behind and work on a piece. I just finished this up this afternoon and really kind of like how it came out. It feels sort of tribal to me and I can not wait to do something else.