Dare I say it?

Day #5 of non-stop rain, with more of the same coming tomorrow and Wednesday. Dare I say it? Dare I? Okay, I will. Damn, I feel like I'm in Forks! (It had to be said.) My train station fronts the woods and with them being so green and lush today, I felt like Edward was about to come leaping out of the trees to bite my neck. Now I know how Bella felt. And so, my purple rain boots and I, we'll go trudging on together until sunshine returns. I thought it was supposed to be "April showers bring May flowers," not "April showers bring even more May showers."

Green

It's so hot today that it feels like we've skipped spring and gone right into summer. In fact, all the rain we've had lately has made everything around me look like the lush and green of summertime.

Happy Friday

It's a gorgeous spring evening here. I went out for a run and the whole neighborhood smelled like flowers. I also stopped to pet a few neighborhood dogs, two of which were these adorable chow chows that resembled furry little brown bears. I am in love. I really want one now.

Pink snow

A cardinal

Look who paid a visit among the rapidly pinkening blossoms. I've never actually seen a cardinal this close before. There were two of them, chirping as loudly as you please, with Moxie hanging out on the windowsill, riveted, watching and waiting to pounce. I love spring.

Blossoms

The cherry blossoms reached their peak today. They look like bunches of fluffy white cotton balls perched on top of the tree.

Blooming

One of the hyacinths has bloomed! I have beads the exact same shade as this hyacinth that I'm going to put to good use.

Looking for birds

Now that spring is here, little Moxie has been stalking the window for the return of birds and squirrels.

A-sproutin'

My purple hyacinths are finally coming out of the cold, muddy winter ground. They are usually my personal harbingers of spring, so when I see them start to peek out I know winter's almost over. Next come my neighbor's pink tulips, then our cherry blossom tree, and by the time the blossoms turn pink and drop to the ground like snow, the weather has turned balmy for good.

Rejoicing

This is more like it! From my newspaper ~

How sweet it is: Daylight savings time arrives at 2 a.m. Sunday. (That means you need to turn your clocks forward one hour before bed Saturday night.) And we're gonna get a heck of an extra hour of daylight Sunday evening with temperatures likely to be in the 60s at sunset (7:08 p.m.) -- after afternoon highs in the mid-70s!

Happy weekend, everyone.
(photo credit)

Dreaming of April

I absolutely love this dress by Econica. Gorgeous shade of green, much like newly sprung grass.

Friday kitty blogging

One great thing about coming home after vacation, besides sleeping in my own bed again, was coming home to the kitties. I missed them. Moxie apparently missed us, too, because the night we came home she got all pink in the ears, a sure sign that she was very excited. They both came right to the door to greet us.

Forget spring - today feels like summer! The pollen count is also in the high billions, as evidenced by the burning in my throat and watery eyes. Still, I can't complain!

Spring flowers

The tulips have finally bloomed!


After about a couple of weeks, the cherry blossoms start dropping to the ground, which makes me sad because I wish they would stay up in the tree all spring. But the blooms look very pretty slowly making their way down. It makes our yard look like it's covered in pink snow. We track them in all over the house and it gets everywhere, but I love them.

More cherry blossoms

Blossom time

Overnight, it seems like all the cherry trees around my neighborhood have burst into bloom, creating a gentle pink paradise as soon as you drive in. They also planted daffodils in the little park, making for a decidedly cheerful space.

As it is a gorgeously warm day today, I took my camera around and took pictures of the long-awaited blossoms. I may take a walk later on to snap more of my neighbors' trees. There are a lot of varieties of pink to be seen.

Here are some front yard shots.




View from our back deck.


Nomad and Moxie enjoying the view from their perch.


And this is the view from my craft room/home office.


And both hyacinths are finally in bloom!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!

It's finally here!

Though it was a windy and blustery day, I was in high spirits. The best part was I could still see the sun when I left work. Yay for daylight!

To celebrate, I wanted to post a few of my favorite spring things.

Check out this wildly colorful Balenciaga purse, which I wildly covet. It looks to be in the same style as their Motorcycle purse, just a different material and color palette.


And then I saw this pair of Prada shoes and thought, "Nice classic peep toes," until I noticed the heel. And then I promptly fell in love. Flower heels! How awesome is that?


I also love this strapless dress by Tibi.

And this pretty, fresh yellow dress by 3.1 Phillip Lim, one of my new favorite designers.


This pair of Linea Paolo shoes I am contemplating getting for real. I love Linea Paolo. If I could marry this brand and tuck it away in my pocket forever, I would. I own several pairs of Linea Paolos and I dust them off and coo at them and talk to them as if they were my precious babies (which they are!) You see, Linea Paolo has every one of their styles in size 4. Do you know how hard it is to find grown up shoes in size 4s? Not only grown up shoes, but flirty, cute, and funky shoes? Very hard. Very, very hard. So when I discovered Linea Paolo, it was like manna from heaven. I wish I could buy a pair in every style. But this is the pair I am eyeing for spring; it has 3 1/2" heels!


Lastly, I love love love this green dress by Alice + Olivia.

Red and white bracelet

A new bracelet added to the shop today, featuring a mixture of red shell, dark carnelian, pearls, coral, and white jade. I named her "Pia" after my cousin's baby girl. More details and pictures of Pia are available on Etsy!

And for some exciting spring news, one of my hyacinths has finally BLOOMED! Check her out, isn't this a lovely sight?

The tulips, however, have not yet bloomed (I can't see the bulbs appearing yet), so I decided to wait until I can see some measurable progress before taking more pictures, lest my neighbors think I'm casing the joint.

I am also watching the cherry blossom tree on my front yard like a hawk. The buds have begun to appear on the branches a couple of weeks ago, so every day I am scrutinizing them to see if they're any closer to blooming. I think they said the cherry blossoms are supposed to peak in late March/early April.

Peach coin pearl bracelet

I've been meaning to add the matching "Linda" bracelet to the shop all weekend but it has been a very busy weekend all around. But here she is! You can see a full-length picture at the shop, as well as more details.

Last night my sister dragged me to see "Step Up 2 the Streets," where I was fully expecting a cheese fest, but to my surprise, it ended up being a really enjoyable movie! All the dance moves were so impressive and made me want to boogie down myself. Of course, it didn't hurt that the lead actor was a total hottie (he looked like a younger Sark with rhythm) and the lead actress was pretty awesome. I even cried at the end. (Granted, I also cried at the end of Con Air so that's not saying much.)

I've been thinking of my friends and family who are buried under 20 inches of snow in Ohio this past weekend, especially as I stepped outside yesterday morning to sunshine and without a coat on. It was around 60 degrees here (I'm sorry guys, I know I'm rubbing it in) and it's days like these that make me really glad I no longer live in Ohio.

Tulip watch: look how much taller they are from last week!

And my hyacinths are definitely coming out as well:

And on that note, I gotta run - busy weekend steaming along...

Spring countdown

My neighbor's tulips are slowly but surely coming out of the ground! I feel like coaxing them along so they'll hurry it up. You can do it, tulips!

And in another sign of spring coming, the hyacinths in my yard are also coming out!


You can even see the little purple bud already peeking out from its leaves. How exciting!

As I was surveying our yard this morning I was dismayed to note that my two azalea bushes have turned all brown and shriveled up. I think I forgot to fertilize them in the fall in preparation for the winter season, as I was told to do by the nursery guy. I am very fond of my azaleas because I planted them myself with my own two hands the summer after we moved into our house, and I was the proudest little gardener when the flowers actually bloomed in profusion.

But now I'm afraid I have killed them this winter. We will see - I'm holding my breath.

New shop item: pearl choker | earrings

So I thought it was time to unveil these pieces on Etsy - the "Karmela" necklace and matching earrings! I made them back when I first started this blog, but for the longest time I could not get good pictures of the pearls, so I bided my time.

The time is now!

Karmela, named after my awesome sister, is now available at the shop with more details and pictures.

And in the good news front, I made another sale today! My sister-in-law Alissa bought the Ella. I am so excited - thank you so much Alissa!

SPRING FEVER

Many of you know how I've also been biding my time for another event...spring. Seriously. I am so sick of winter and this crappy cold. So as I was scouring the weather blog today, looking for words such as "70 degrees," "budding tulips," "spring showers," and "warm, sunny and delicious," I came across this:

"Daylight saving time arrives in 11 days (Mar. 9). The first day of spring is just a hop, skip and a jump after that (Mar. 20). And not far behind is the [baseball] home opener (Mar. 30). Yet, all three surefire signs of spring seem far away on a chilly, windy day like today. The breezy chill continues tomorrow, followed by slowly rising temperatures for Friday and the weekend."

CRAP.

Well, I suppose that there are hopeful signs on the horizon...