Of Ladybugs and Snowshovels

 Greetings, my little snowbirds!  It's been a long time.  So what happened was, in December my laptop decided to take early retirement.  As some of you can relate, that threw my little world into a complete uproar.  And even though I got a new laptop, I could not locate my photo editing software.  I feel like if I publish a blog post without photos, it's just me going blah blah blah, and nobody wants that.  I did find my disk, but it won't install so I'm using my phone photos just as they came off the phone.  I'm sure I could edit them, but I'd have to actually take the time to learn how.

My store is overrun with ladybugs!!  While other people are complaining of stink bug infestations, I have these little guys (and girls) busily investigating everything in my shop.  So that's fun.

K.G. Ranch Road two days after the blizzard.  Treacherous driving, not a great plow job.  OUR street was pretty clear by Saturday afternoon; the perks of living on the same street where there's a state garage.

 What's not fun is our weather.  Snow does not make me happy, unlike some of my friends.  "So why do you live in New England"? I can hear you asking.  Well, I was born here.  I didn't choose it.  Believe me, it wouldn't take much to make me move to a warmer climate.  While my friends are thinking snow angels and beautiful white winter wonderland and snow days, I'm thinking bone-chilling cold, power outages, and lost wages.  Wah, wah, wah.  Ok, I'm done bitching. For now.

 To cheer myself up and keep my mind off the situation outside, I have been throwing myself wholeheartedly into my craft.  Valentines Day, St. Patricks' Day, Fourth of July, even Christmas stuff that didn't get finished last year is all fair game.  So productive.

Loren Spears comes in and makes my store beautiful!  She does such a good job.  If I had a payroll, she'd be on it.

Also, I've been poring over my bead stash and coming up with some pretty cool jewelry.  This necklace and earring set was actually inspired by the blizzard we had a week ago; I found these clear glass beads which have no particular shape, and since some of them have tiny bubbles inside resulting from the manufacturing process, they reminded me of ice chunks.  And the midnight blue would represent the way my house looked when the power went out and I could no longer see the beads.  THAT was tragic.  But we were only without power for a few days, and while I'm grateful for that and realize that other people fared way worse than we did, that was more than long enough. 

And finally, you know you've had enough winter when you start taking pictures of the local news stations' mistakes and posting them on their facebook page with snarky comments.  Yeah, that happened.  I need spring, I need to have weather warm enough for me to clear the fallen branches out of my yard without my hands and feet going numb.  I need to see the buds growing on the trees, I need to hear the insects singing in the evening, I need to get out in my garden and play in the dirt.

Oh yeah, I said I was done bitching, didn't I?  Sorry. Kathy and I spotted the first robin of the year outside my store the other day, though, so that was encouraging.  That sight might get me through till spring.  That, and visiting the hardware store and fondling the seed packets.