Color in the Winter

I just love that my two cactus plants bloom in mid-January when winter has come to stay and the colors are at their bleakest.  The pops of color from these two plants are beautiful and refreshing especially when I look at them with a window just beyond revealing the white, wintry landscape.  One cactus has salmon colored blooms and the other one (below) bright, fuchsia ones. 

While doing the dishes the other day, the wide-open blooms on this reminded me of birds in flight, and I had to click a picture.  I'm so thankful for these bright spots of color during the winter months. 

Springtime Blooms

Just two pictures of what is blooming around our house.  I've enjoyed them and hope you will too.

Mother-of-Pearl

I was captivated by Victoria magazine's January/February 2011 section entitled "Treasure from the Sea." All of the mother-of-pearl in the article (it's on the cover as well) was just gorgeous. I have always liked the warm iridescence of mother-of-pearl, and I like it's "oldness". By oldness I mean that mother-of-pearl has been a beautiful embellishment or material that has been used for centuries. There isn't a shell button that I can't resist. My mother had a mother-of-pearl inlaid compact mirror that I remember admiring as a child. What a pleasing article it was to read!

Well, fresh on the heals of reading that article, I put together this perfume bottle with a little mother-of-pearl bird on it. The sweet bird was a recent antique store find that I immediately liked and knew I could use somewhere. It has an aurora borealis eye that goes perfectly with the pinks of the apple blossom vintage jewelry piece that I used to embellish this pink stopper-topped bottle. Enjoy!