Jill MacKay's BLOG

Hello from Colorado!

Reporting in from points WEST elevation: High on life and happy as a lark. Each time I return to Colorado makes it harder and harder to return to Pittsburgh. This state is filled with magnificent beauty and is so much more progressive in it's commitment to environmental issues and those who care and are aware of them and spreading the word and fighting for GREEN issues. The mind-set here...more progressive overall. Love it.

Went hiking in the mountains up the Poudre Canyon in Young's Gulch yesterday and found the Pasque flowers were in the highest numbers I've ever seen. Whole hillsides of them in the sunshine...was pretty magnificent I must say.  The Pasque flowers are Colorado's first spring wildflowers in bloom every year. A welcome site in the mountains after winter's long snows. Had I brought my own lap top I would up-load  a picture of these three odd balls  within the hundreds we found that had  mutated in their form and were different than the rest in they had more petals, a whole second center row..?! Yet were exactly the same in every other way.

But here are a couple of generic shots just to give you the idea I found online:

 

Today will be more visiting with more friends that I actually grew up with in Ohio that live here too. So these are friends I have known since I was 12!!! Let's not count how many years that is! Then tonight the official birthday party though yesterday was the best birthday I can remember. My daughter started it off by being the first to call....

Back to jewelry...I wanted to share with you this funky wild contemporary jewelry site I found. www.klimt02.net is an online platform for the communication and development of international and emerging art jewelry and jewelry design. There are some really talented contemporary artists to be found here. Here the boundaries of art jewelry are pushed above and beyond. I  signed on for the newsletter, you can too. Much of the material you have to be a paying member to access but there is still much you can view for free. Certainly enough to inspire new ideas and expose you to the brilliance of some very bright minds and the jewelry ideas and forms that come through their eyes, fingertips, tools and materials. Materials I might add of every kind. I particularly love the non-traditional materials. Enjoy!

Well I am going to start my day and head out into the Colorado sunshine. Make the most of your day and live your live wholly and to the fullest.

xoxoxo

Jill

My Trees Are Having SEX!

Today is am amazing day where I live. Today is one of my favorite days of the whole year EVERY year...top 10 as far as BIG beauty and INSPIRATION goes. Today is the day the Magnolia trees will be in FULL BLOOM. They are MAGNIFICENT! I cannot tell you what their beauty does for me inside...they only thing I can compare it to is the feeling I remember as a small child the night before Christmas.  Like there is a hive of butterflies in my chest and anticipation in my eyes. As if each and every bloom had grown from a small seed into a tree and struggled through the  winters and the wind to be renewed again by spring and  open to expose their most fragile and beautiful parts just to show themselves to me. It really is remarkable you know....just stop and think about it...and let it excite you as well. Here's some help:

   

This White one with more petals is a Snowflake Magnolia. This is the kind I have in my yard. The White and pink is in the neighbor's yard to my left and the solid pink below is in the neighbor's yard on my right! There are many more varieties.

 

It's just CRAZY BEAUTIFUL!!!!  I have seen huge, old  Magnolia's that had blossoms as big as dinner plates. Do you know what trees are doing when they are blooming?! They are having SEX! My yard is seriously XXX Rated!!

To those of you who have no blooming trees, enjoy these...for you who have them but are still freezing...this is coming soon to a yard near you!

I am so very blessed. Bless you too.

xoxoxo

Jill