Celebrating Spring in the Northern Hemisphere

Well, it's finally arrived here in the northern hemisphere - the first day of spring! To all of my readers in the southern hemisphere, this marks the beginning of your autumn season, so happy autumn to you :)

Since this is a day so many of us here anticipate with hope and the promise of better weather, I'm devoting today's post to SPRING!!! Today is the day that the vernal equinox occurs (11:44am GMT) with the number of hours of daylight being equal to the hours of darkness. The positioning of the earth's axis in relationship to the sun is nearly vertical momentarily, changing through our orbit to create warming in the northern hemisphere and cooling in the southern. For us, it means more hours of sunlight, which allows the weather to warm, plants and trees to begin their growth cycle and so many people's spirits to rise.

Here in the desert southwest, it means that the green and brown landscape will begin to turn into a rainbow of color, as wildflowers and bushes burst into bloom. Cacti begin to form their flower pods, soon to become brilliant splashes of color.

These are a few pictures of some of the beautiful colors you might see during a desert springtime.

If you're like most people, you're ready to start packing away the heavy winter clothes and breaking out the lighter, brighter or softer shades. As a child growing up in Chicago, I remember being so excited about getting to put the winter boots away and going shopping for that new spring coat and Easter outfit! As an adult, I look forward to being able to wear the soft pastel shades that I love and that go well with my eastern European coloring (blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin!) I love clothes and accessories that reflect the soft hues of nature in its springtime glory - the yellows and soft blues, mint greens and orchid purples, pastel pinks and even soft greys. With that in mind, some of my latest jewelry pieces were designed with spring in mind.

Here is just a sampling of a couple of the items from my shop at Etsy that would look beautiful with your spring wardrobe. I hope you take a moment to stop by and browse around... you never know what unique piece you might find that touches your soul!

Have a wonderful day! I'm off to shop for some gemstones and drusy pieces for my next batch of goodies!