I love to give names to things I'm fond of & one of the first things I noticed when I was looking at buying this property years ago was the big cedar trees at the entrance of the drive. So once I moved in I promptly named him Cliff as he greeted me with his low hanging branches every time I pulled in. Turns out after doing a bit of research Cliff is actually a girl but I had been calling her that for so long that I just couldn't let it go ;). Cliff is an Eastern Red Cedar and the male & females are pretty easy to tell apart this time of year as the males have the little orange pollen buds (you can see them in the background of the photo with my new danglies of this post) and the females have little round bluish colored buds (for some reason I always had it in my mind the ones with the blue buds were the males). So Cliff sits directly beside her wife & it's like they are holding hands across my driveway. They are the parents, grandparents, great grandparents & great great grandparents to the other probably 100 or so cedars I have on my property & probably the ones across the road as well. A lot of people consider them "junk" trees but I love them & these 2 guys are around 100 yrs old and they can live to be 300 - some are even documented at 500! So they'll probably out live me which I'm totally ok with as I would be heartbroken if something happened to one of them.
With all that being said Cliff and her wife are the inspiration behind my logo, a big part of my branding as I send little pieces of them (and their kids) out with every order (unless you're international - sorry I get in trouble with customs for that ;) and the inspiration behind my new Sprig danglies that will debut later this week! Can't believe it took me this long to incorporate them into an actual piece of jewelry! But here they are finally cast in silver! I will wear mine as a good luck charm & hope they'll bring you luck & love as well!