I ♥ Macro - Spring is busting out all over



White Currant

Lots of things are busting out all over! So nice to see!!!

AND it's actually sunny right now, snow mixed with rain this morning!

Red Currant

Of course with all these wonderful plants busting out, so are the weeds!

I need to get out there before they get too far! 

Goldflame Spirea

Variegated Jacob's Ladder

Rhubarb!!

And of course when I'm out taking pictures I have to take pic of my girls!

Ginger in back, Shasta up front!

Shasta with something on her nose, and those ultra short legs, she is SO CUTE!

Check out StudioWaterstone for more Macro!

I hope you enjoyed my spring photos!

Kristi

Bead Table Wednesday - Palooza

Disc Palooza!!

I'm loving the discs I've been making so much I churned out quite a few in a number of different textures.

Urchin, Ammonite, Paisley and more.

And Ring Palooza too!

There are alot more of these but taking photos is challenging right now I have to do it on the floor next to the window and my girls try to help. None of the other pictures turned out lol.

With Valentines Day around the corner I thought I'd better get some Hearts ready.

Here are some pendants and I do have some earring pairs

 but again my lovely assistants made them almost impossible to get.

I typically take my photos outside but below is the reason I'm not able to do that at the moment.

What I'm sure will be called the big snow storm of 2012.

It's been snowing almost constantly for 2 days, today it's mostly been very fine wet snow.

That's little Shasta bounding her way through the snow,

 she's fairly close to the house so it's not quite so deep there.

Shasta is about 10 pounds.

Above is Ginger, this is her immitation of a snow plow!

I just love paw prints.

We're out of power at the moment for the second time today.

Thank goodness my lovely husband put a generator in when we moved in to this house!

So with a few exceptions it's almost normal.

I'm hoping to get the kiln going but I certainly don't want to start it while we're on generator.

And I hope once I do that the power stays on long enough for it to finish.

Kristi

I Heart Macro Puppies

My little Shasta was helping in the garden today, as soon as I turn up dirt she has to participate, just in case she can find a critter. She didn't cooperate much letting me take her picture but see the dirt all over her nose, mama's little helper. The last picture is Ginger, just because she's gorgeous I had to take a picture of her too!



There's my Shasta with the dirt covered nose!



Shasta (Ginger's mom)




Georgeous Ginger. Shasta's baby who's outgrown her by a few pounds.

The girls are Miniature Long Haired Dachshunds.

Check out the other lovers of close ups at StudioWaterstone!

Kristi

A Swing With a View

Yesterday morning, the first day of My Week Off.

 I spent almost an hour on the swing, I'll be going out there again this morning.

It was so nice and relaxing and Ginger spent almost the whole time in my lap. Shasta is our resident watch doggie, all 9 pounds of her. She got up and down a half a dozen times but towards the end she stayed up for a fairly extended time.

We were visited by a hot air baloon, it was nice enough to stay quite some time in the only patch of sky I could see from my swing. Even when it was out of sight I could hear the blow of it's bellows as it fired up to keep itself afloat. I'm wondering if it's out there every morning, I guess I'll find out.

Shasta up front Ginger in the back.

Shasta the ever watchful guard dog.
As my husband says, she's the man!!

Ginger the professional snoozer, it takes alot to get her barking,
she usually does these quiet little woofs.

There's the hot air baloon making an appearance again after disappearing for awhile.

The view of the wonderful island that give us our lovely privacy.

While I was out there I wanted to see what kind of photos I could take from my spot, I brought  my 18-55mm so I could take pics of the girls on my lap and I brought my 55-200mm so I could take some longer shots. Got some Faux Macro shots of the fushia baskets and more of some of the other plants a bit further away.

Ginger was so comfy she didn't want to get off the swing, even after I left.

I'm off to the swing again this morning, it's not nearly so pretty this morning but I'm sure we'll all enjoy it just the same.

Thanks to everybody who left me comments on yesterday's post, some I have already tried some I have not. I appreciate you all taking the time to express your warm wishes and make suggestions more than you know. THANK YOU!

Kristi

I Heart Macro and Puppy Dog Noses

Here is an ultra close up of one of my girls (Ginger) little nose...

 

and one of her little furry paws.

Kristi

Is it Friday yet?

I hate to wish time to go fast but I do wish it was Friday!!! On that note, here are some pictures of my girls, pictures of some jewelry you may have seen before but I had the opportunity to take new pictures in actual sunlight, so pretty! AND some new goodies I'd like to share!

The girls in their favorite spot, looking out the window. I like this sillouette shot!

Here's a different shot!

Shasta, ears up on alert...what's out there?

Nothing new, just some pretty sunlight shots in Picasa Collage form!

Something so pretty about a Collage.

Received this new book today,

 ordered it some time ago and pretty much forgot it was coming.

AND it's got a DVD, I like that!

Beautiful Raku Angel Fish from

http://www.animadesigns-shop.com/ 

Also got those adorable Scrimshaw Turtles from this website.

Bullion, French Coil Wire.

 Got this from http://www.etsy.com/shop/discountbeads

She was very helpful to get me what I wanted.

I look forward to trying this instead of Wire Guards which I don't care for.

That's all folks!

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

BTW and Fusion Bead Readers Challenge AND ABS Designer of the Week!!

Today I'm combining Bead Table Wednesday with Fusion Bead challenge. That's what's sitting waiting to be creating today. Since the reveal for the challenge is barely 2 days away I guess I'd better put it all together. I think my additions are going to look nice, thinking bracelet this time maybe...

It's a good time to share a picture of my girls in one of the spots they often hang out when I'm in my studio. It's a shelf under my soldering table that I've put a nice cushy blanket on, they usually sleep under there but they also look out the window and

bark at the birds on occassion.

Oh and some breaking news, I just saw that I'm

 Designer of the week on the ABS blog!!

 WOOHOOOOO!!!

Gypsy Princess Necklace

Kristi

http://DreamSome.Etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Movie Night

When we both sit on the couch to watch a movie or tv and the girls join us we have always called it "movie night". Sometimes we're all covered in blankets having snacks, sometimes we're mean and clip their nails while they are comatose.

Here are the girls enjoying some dad time,

 they really love "movie night"!

Shasta and Ginger

Shasta in the zone, you think she's happy?
Daddy is rubbing her belly, what could be better than that?!?

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

My girls

One of my rare non jewelry related posts, I just had to share my beautiful girls with the world.

This is Ginger and Shasta, 2 Long Hair Miniature Dachshunds and their favorite thing these days is eating yogurt I've put in to ice cube trays and frozen. I can't open the freezer without them watching me like a hawk. They used to think regular ice cubes were pretty cool but now they won't eat those until they are sure that's all that's comin.

I snapped a couple of pictures to share. My little cuties!!

It was tough to get this shot cause they kept jumping up lol! That's Ginger with her nose close to the camera and little Shasta being very proper!



Shasta and Ginger, trying to be patient!



Shasta says finally, nom nom nom...




Just a couple more bites...



Caught Ginger with her tongue out, still gorgeous!



She took this piece and swallowed it whole, gulp!



Kristi