BRRRRRR!!

Dang, it's cold out there...

OK, all you folks who live in 4-season locations have no sympathy for me, I know - BUT... Since having moved to the San Francisco Bay Area 30-some-odd years ago, my blood has thinned considerably. So this arctic blast we're getting is doing a number on me. I was putting trash out last night and by the time I got inside, my nightly blueberry tea ritual was more appealing than ever! We've got snow all over the Bay Area. Check it out in the pix posted on SFGate. I'm particularly fond of this one in the Carmel Valley - that's a bit south of me, and snow is very unusual there as well.

Snow in Carmel Valley

Now I'm tempted to load my fur kids into the car and haul them off to the hills to see this strange white stuff we call snow. To my knowledge (they're both rescue pups), they've never seen it before. This could be fun - but it'll have to wait until tomorrow, I'm going to be cooking up a batch of beef stew before I go teach my class tonight. They're probably just as happy where they are. After I finished my breakfast this morning I went back into the bedroom to make the bed, and there was Peanut - playing in the snow was not on HER agenda...

And Niki is STILL in her "waiting for the mail to come" spot in our front room...

Once again, tonight is the last night of my latest 4-session Beadmaking 2 class. This one went by so quickly - we had classes 2 nights a week rather than one so we wouldn't bump into the holidays. So we'll be doing some complex twisties, floral cane, and applying flowers to beads. This has been such a fun class - I'm really glad that these students have joined our SGB Norcal group! I'm bringing my camera with me tonight for sure.

I'll probably be making more "color of the year" demo beads tonight. Yesterday I did pull out some of my yellow glass, but I noticed that I had a leaf sitting on my work table - a real one sent to me by the wife of an old college buddy of mine from Connecticut. Rather than do a bunch of yellow beads as I had intended, I made a leaf with my yellow glass layered with several other colors. I think I'll send this leaf bead to my friend who sent me the real deal. She'll get a surprise for sure! Here's the real deal along side of my leaf bead. It was a real challenge keeping this one from cracking without overheating it, but it was fun. I'll be doing more of these for sure!

And now I'm off to the kitchen to get my stew going. I have to leave for class in 2 hours - yikes! Have yourselves a warm and cozy evening!