Forty-Nine Days and Counting

In different parts of the country, different things signal spring.

Daffodils. Cherry blossoms. Shadowy groundhogs. Peach orchards bursting into bloom. Snow birds heading back north.

Here in Louisville, the surest harbinger of spring is when people start making their plans for the Kentucky Derby. What the rest of the world knows as "the most exciting two minutes in sports," those of us who live here know it as the culmination of weeks of festivities, bourbon, parades, bourbon, parties, epic crowds of tourists, hair curling traffic, mint juleps (with bourbon), and the best darned excuse in the world to buy a fancy hat like this:


or this (you can tell she was at Derby by the commemorative cup she's holding. How would you like to have been sitting behind her in the grandstand?)


or this (yep, those are the famous Twin Spires of Churchill Downs behind her):

Or these:
And Derby is only seven weeks away -- forty-nine days and counting!

So in the spirit of all things Louisville, Derby, and spring, here's a pair of earrings of luscious blue faceted glass the color of a beautiful cloudless sky, suspended from gold plated pewter fleur de lis (the symbol of our fair city). Derby on, y'all!