Sunrise from the Living Room

I've taken you on many tours of my property in all seasons, but this morning, I'd like to share the view from my living room. I love the early morning light nearly as much as I love the winter landscape out here in the country. So here's the view, from inside out:

Sunrise

A little closer

Morning Coffee View

Sunrise on the porch swing

Looking North

There's something about curly willows I love

The smokehouse

Northwestern view

From the kitchen window

Artbeads Winter Enchantment Project

My backyard in January

For this season's Artbeads.com blogger project, we were asked to design jewelry based on winter. Here in Wisconsin, winter is a long season. Our first cold snap comes in October and we're usually not seeing daffodils until late April. The season is long, but it isn't bleak. We have wonderful white snow, beautiful bare brown branches, and brilliant blue skies peeking through whenever we can. For this project, I wanted to explore working with some new-to-me materials. While I often use glass beads in my designs, I haven't worked with artisan-made lampworked beads before.  I was immediately drawn to these lampworked art beads when I started planning my winter-white necklace. Brass accents and just a hint of blue completed the palette, and I had this design together in no time.



Winter White necklace



Earrings

Beaded links connected by large jump rings

This necklace and earrings set came together very nicely. My original intention was to string the necklace, but I wanted the lampworked beads to be visible from all sides. Making beaded links instead set the beads off. I rummaged through my supplies for brass jump rings, thinking 5 or 6 mm would be the perfect size. I only found these super-sized rings, though, so I decided to try it out. I like the look even better. It's more open and airy. 

Do you design by purpose, by "happy accident," or a little of each?

Disclaimer: The lampworked beads, brass beadcaps, and brass findings  used in this project were provided to me free of charge by Artbeads. My review is my opinion and I have not been paid for my endorsement.

Winter in the back yard

Here are some winter pictures for you to enjoy. Hopefully you're reading this from a warmer climate!

Too cold, too soon!

I'm a big fan of cold, crisp winter days, but IMHO, 20 degrees is about as low as I like to go. Ok, maybe 15. I usually walk outside in all but the most driving snowstorms. But, when it's this cold, this early in the season, it wears me out. We usually don't get single digits until Feb., and with the exception of last winter, we usually have cold without the snow, so walking conditions are brisk but fine. My poor doggie is going to have to wait until high noon today, when it only promises to be about 10. How's your weather?