Inspiration: Longer Days, Vibrant Colors, Jewels & Rocks Galore

Isn’t the spring time lovely? Growing up in SoCal, I really didn’t understand the changing of the seasons thing since seventy degrees and sunny about 340 days out of the year usually means that there was never an abrupt change in much of anything around me. That all changed when I moved to New York and had my first real experience with drastic changes in weather, clothes and foliage.

Nature geek that I am, I so love to see the change in seasons and boy, did I see all of them in NYC! Living in the Pacific Northwest now, winters can be very long, very rainy, very dark and very dreary. Spring comes around with its first sign of color and I immediately want to breathe it all in. That means throwing open the windows when it is still forty degrees and trusting that just like the year before, each day will get longer and color will magically appear and temperatures will rise…even if temporary…they will change.

I love how Mother Nature cleverly designed gemstones that mirror the colors of flowers. Rhodocrosite, the color of the pink dogwoods in the pix above, continues to be one of my all time favorite rocks! I honestly love to work with it when I can find it at affordable prices – which seems to be getting harder and harder to do these days. It has a special energy all its own, which makes it much more interesting to me. Yellow calcite, in its most vibrant yellow iteration seems to take a cue from the bright azaleas in the yard. A softer form of yellow shows up in jade; and, like its more vivacious calcite sister, I share it with all of you when I can. Of course, the color purple is everywhere and these tiny little bells are often among the first signs that spring is just around the corner. Amethyst in lots of different types is always a great choice in jewelry; and, purple banded agate and lepidolite are right at the top of my list of fun to work with gemstones and rocks. Now that I think about it – all of the gemstones and rocks I work with are favorites…if they weren’t favorites, would I be designing with them? No. Well, that was easy!

Hope you’ll take some time to take a look around the site/shop and find something that suits your, your mom’s or maybe your bridesmaids’ fancy. (Grammar experts – should that be fancy or fancies? Sadly, I knew these things at one time in my life, but it seems that as the years roll by my knowledge of all things grammatically correct are rolling away with those years!) Grammar lesson aside, what do you enjoy about this time of year? I know, this Blogger comment system makes no sense, but if you click on the tiny almost invisible “comment” link in the close you’ll be able to share your thoughts. That’s always fun. I like to know that there is someone out there reading my blog and hopefully enjoying it enough to take a minute or two to comment. Meanwhile, I hope that spring time has arrived in all her glory in your little corner of the universe and that you’ve thrown open your windows and are breathing it all in.