Wishing For Spring

So many of my friends throughout the world are seeing small plants and the first spring flowers poking their way into their gardens and hedgerows.  And then there is the snowbelt.  Our drifts are up to 10 feet high, our areas where we dump our personal shoveling are more than four feet high, and we are going to get another 1"-2" of snow today.  March is generally our snowiest month, but I am hoping beyond hope, that we will have a very mild March. 

Look at these snowdrifts sculpted by the wind.  They

are gloriously beautiful (in a cold way).  Surely Spirit has

her/his hand on our world and reminds us through beauty

like this. 

Chickie is taking three days of vacation so I'll be short-staffed for three days.  Usually it doesn't come that much into play, but I don't get as much tea as I usually would, and I have to work the sales floor more intensively.  By the time Sunday will come around I will be a puddle of exhaustion.  I'll get my payback when I attend Bead & Button Show in June and my Metal Clay World conference in July.  She'll have to work without my backup then. And she'll attend her family reunion in July which will be the next time I'll have to cover for her.  That will be important because they will be celebrating the life of her Aunt who just passed the Circles of the World last week. Her Mom finally managed to get back to town after spending the last few weeks with her twin before she passed and overseeing the family after her death.  Chickie's been horribly sick with a sinus and chest cold, so in some ways I'm glad she will be gone for a few days.  I have to remember to disinfect the register keys and the phone when I get into the shop today. 

This landscape is digitally rendered.  I love the

sunbeams coming through the forest leaves. 

I spent yesterday working through the first seven chapters of my digital art tutorial.  I am absolutely amazed by what can be done digitally, and realize I have a lot of practice to do.  I ordered four additional lessons which I hope will work on my version of Photoshop.  If not, I'm sure that the principles will work until I can afford a Photoshop upgrade.  I really want to bring my pencil work into the computer for colorizing, patterns, and finalization.  I've been wanting to learn the process of making digital art for years, and just decided I need to take the bull by the horns and teach myself how to do it.  I think it will be very fun.