*Lyrics from You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me as sung by Me’Shell N’degeOcello. I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz on Pandora lately and this soulful version just delighted me. If you dig her voice, perhaps you’ll like her latest offering, Pour une âme souveraine – A Dedication to Nina Simone.

Beauty shot: Bam. Tulips. In your face.

So, the change of season has begun. I know we just had a major blizzard in the Northeast just a few weeks ago, and more snow and cold weather are on the forecast, but the sun is shining longer every day, and I am starting to notice the change – the spring fever – amongst my fellow man. The other day, the temperature reached the low 50s here in NYC, so I was able to run outside. Delightful. On my way back from the run, meandering through throngs of sunshine- and warmth-starved Brooklynites, the streets were buzzing with street vendors selling their wares, with t-shirt and shorts clad hipsters, and flower markets bursting with post-Valentine’s Day overflow stock. Naturally, I was eager to get mine, to capture just a breath of spring, so I put in a request with the husband for a mass of cheerful flowers.

He brought me three bunches of yellow tulips. Yellow is the first color to emerge from the winter season – forsythia, daffodils, and crocuses will soon pop through where the snow has melted away – and I think it might be the only time yellow is something that I crave seeing. I’m no fan of yellow in general, though of course I love it in nature, but these tulips were just what the doctor ordered. I love me some winter, but this year, with the zigging and zagging all over the place (ok, just moving back and forth every week or so from the house to the apartment is considerably draining), I’m feeling like I’m ready for some tangible and positive change.

And, yes, that's a lamp you haven't seen yet. On a table I haven't shown you yet. Against a wall that needs revealing. (Guess who didn't pack their tripod?)

Maybe it’s all those banana muffins I’ve been enjoying, or knowing that yellow means spring is really coming that makes this year’s yellow bits burst forth with more meaning to me, but well, I’m on a yellow kick. (Just not in furniture.)

So, go out there, bring back some life, whatever makes your step springier, or your smile brighter. We could all use a dose of sunshine, and of intense, life-affirming yellow.

xoxo