Moon Over Lake Chelan

Jim took this picture of the moon rising over the lake at twilight. I thought it was really pretty and thought I'd share it with you!!!

Hoar Frost

It's recently been so cold here, and yet foggy. It's lifted a bit now, but about a week ago, the conditions were just right to create hoar frost. Hoar frost appears on branches, wires, posts - and is comprised of zillions of tiny spiky crystals that look sort of like miniature horizontal icicles. Here are some pictures:

Playing With Pendants

My sister recently came for a visit with her husband and dog. It was a lot of fun as we celebrated a late Christmas together. Lindy (sister) and I got time to play in the studio, where we had fun making Valentines Pendants which we strung into banners. She made one for her daughter who's birthday IS Valentine's Day and one to keep. I just made one. With my uncanny ability to make things more difficult than they need to be, I designed my pendants to be strung together with chain and then got the idea to make little heart "charms" to put between them. And I coated the little hearts with Glossy Accents to make them look glossy. I did like the way it turned out. Above are some pictures.

For Danny

My brother-in-law, Dan Uhrich, has let me know on several occasions that I am doing an exceedingly poor job of keeping up with this blog. So one of my goals for 2013 is to be more attentive to this blog. I look at all the absolutely amazing blogs out there and wonder why anyone would bother with reading mine. But I guess if no one reads it it doesn't matter anyway, and if someone does read it, well that's just great!!! It IS fun to write so I guess that's all that's important!

I have been busy as usual. My sister and i got started in a group called "SwapBot". It's free to join, and people from all over the world sponsor different swaps. You sign up for a swap - there is a posted deadline for signing up - and there is a deadline for completing the swap. There are ALL kinds of swaps, from food, to artwork, to candy, to tea, to ......you name it! Some are even "computer swaps" of sorts where people swap lists of things that interest them. Some are for people who love to write and they may swap stories, poetry, letters to pen pals, etc. Most of the ones we do are for art of various kinds. After the swap is completed, one rates ones partner. Not following through on a swap you've signed up for is very poor form, and many swap hosts won't allow people with a low rating to enter their swaps. (One would obviously get a low rating for not following through.)

Anyway, it's a lot of fun and I've received some wonderful artwork and met some great people. The picture above was from a Fairy Jar Swap. This was the one I did. It had little lights inside (the battery was under the leaves on the top) and a polymer clay fairy (you can sort of see her on the left).