Happy Valentine!

Decided that the winter snowman hanging had to come down this week. Sick of snow, even though KC hasn't had but about 6 inches altogether. Or, maybe just sick of winter. In any case, that left a big blank wall to fill. So got some red felt, pink fleece, pink felt, scraps of Valentine-y fabric, bits of trim, and some pretty red glass beads--Voila! Instant hanging--no, correct that, took much longer than an instant, but it was a fun one day project. What slowed me down was Violet, who wanted to first climb UP the red hanger before it got hung (on my cutting table of course), then attacked the metallic thread, which for some reason really appealed to kitty, oh, and the beads, don't forget the rattly box of beads, way more fun there. Finally gave up on Violet and lured her out to the screened porch to watch birdies. So Happy Valentine from me and Violet!

Home Improvements

Back in the Fall, we had our sunroom reroofed, because of previous hail damage, and because our skylights were leaking. Apparently all skylights leak eventually, as did ours. So a new roof was put on, and we had these skylight holes left. Hubby put up insulation in the holes, and I thought about what to do to cover them, aside from just a normal piece of plywood. First I considered painting night skies on the plywood, but then thought, oh wait a minute, that would darken the room just by two black holes, can't have that! We use the sunroom as our exercise room and want as much light as possible. Then I thought about painting blue sky with white puffy clouds. Went to Joanne's to get winter fleece, and found exactly the fleece I needed, blue sky with white puffy clouds. So I upholstered each piece of plywood, and hubby installed them, with a tiny bit of assistance from me, yesterday and today. Looks pretty good for short and easy mural work! Now when we exercise, we have a blue sky all the time.

Beading again!

It's the start of a New Year, so thought I would bead up a couple of new things. One I have shipped down to Mom in southwest MO, the other I have kept for myself.

Found some beautiful dichroic handblown glass beads at Zingz Art Glass Shop in Blue Springs, in shades of red. So I went through my collection, thinking, purple would be good, but instead chanced on some pink rose quartz, in different sizes, varying from chunky to 3 mm round, so I put together a length she can pop over her head, or use the clasp.

Then, daughter's new mom-in-law gifted me with this really neat cat bead, when we were out in CA for the wedding. I had some bird head beads from a Peruvian necklace I used to wear, but which broke years ago, and which I had set back for a rainy/snowy day. Voila! I was also gifted with carved bone beads at the same time, so tucked those in between, and came up with a whimsical necklace, throwing in some coral spikes to repeat the bird bead spikes.

Now Mom and I both have new jewelry to face the New Year!