Happy Sunday everyone.  Daylight savings time began (in most of the U.S.) very early this morning, so we sprang ahead and lost an hour of sleep, or I did anyway;  I didn’t want to lose an hour of my day by getting up late.  It’s all good… I’ll get to bed earlier tonight… usually I’m not too creative in the evening anyway.

Yesterday morning the sun looked so brilliant rising in the eastern sky and then I realized that this was the end of the sun, it is slipping up behind the clouds.  However, the sun came out later and it turned out to be a very lovely and temperate day.  You can see the icy frost covering the grass.

A few days ago I received a special little envelope filled with vintage cards from one of my blog readers.  I’ve written about my love of vintage, especially illustration, in quite a few posts now, so it’s no secret how much I LOVE things with a past.  I must say how touched I was… thank you, Joy, so very much!!!  I will treasure these.

Do you remember when ladies wore these kinds of orchids for every special occasion?  They would be kept in the refrigerator at home until it was time to go out.  I now know that they are Cattleya orchids.  I tried growing them years ago, but didn’t have enough light.

I cannot grow Cattleyas in my home but, Phalaenopsis orchids do well as I have a bay window that they seem to love.  It gets chilly at night which keeps the spider mites away.  I have five plants remaining from a trip to Hausermann’s years ago, and four are in bloom right now.

This past week I enrolled in a couple of Craftsy photography classes, Soft & Dreamy Portraits and Portraits at Play.  I’ve been playing around with my husband’s macro lens on my camera and learning a lot about using natural light in my photos.  Here’s a portrait of my Penny.  Sorry, she’s naked; I need to make her something to wear.  I love the soft, blurry background that you get with a wide open aperture.

And, here are a couple more photos taken with the macro lens.  These are miniature potted tulip props that my husband brought back from Holland for me.  I found the perfect little watering can (it’s hiding behind the tulips) to go with them.

I also took this photo of my test sweaters with the macro lens.  I never would have been able to get this close with my basic lens.

Hope the new week starts off perfectly for you!  Bye for now.