I thought I'd start this New Year, Chinese New Year that is, with a pic of my view from my front door. Happy year of the Ox! Those are the San Jacinto mountains you are looking at. Usually very brown and flat looking. You can see the green peaking through from all of the rain we got. A grand total of 3 days! In another couple of weeks the mountainside will be purple and yellow from all of the wildflowers and the air will smell amazing. I love this time of year. It sure beats the hell out of the 130 degree summers. Gotta love the desert.

Also, a few items that I have been crafting today. They can be found shortly in my Etsy shop http://www.loudmouse.etsy.com/ . I craft in an ADD fashion. I flit from thing to thing until I get completely consumed by one or the other. The problem with that is, I hate to leave things unfinished! So, If I start a craft project that turns out to be spooty (you heard me!) I still have to finish it. So, the happy medium that I have found is short timed crafts. Crafts that are not going to take longer than say, an hour or so. Seems to do the trick. That is, until I decide that I really should start that baby clothes quilt I have been planning forever. I cannot win with myself!

Today's offerings are feathered hairsticks and an Anti-Valentine's day Art.