Saturday

Over The Rainbow

“The purest

and most thoughtful

minds are those

which love color the most.”
 ~John Ruskin

. . .

When I was in elementary school, 
my favorite color was
purple.

For my one-the-go needs, I was outfitted in purple. I had not one, buttwo purple lunch boxes (one soft, one hard), a purple back pack, and an adorable purple suitcase. The suitcase (I still have it) was a gift from my Grandmama and has always been extra special. Not only is it purple (my little girl most favorite of all), but it has my name monogrammed on the bottom right corner. In cursive. It felt very fancy to me as a young girl and I smile every time I get it out now (I have used it for packing Miss N's clothes on trips). 

I remember wishing there was a purple option for the radio/tape player that I bought with my homemade candy sales earnings. Alas, it was powder pink. And I did not like pink. My basketball t-shirt was pink...hot pink. Our team name? "Can't touch this." Oh yes. I'm a child of the 90's.  I remember now that was afraid to wash it; I didn't want the hotness of the pink to fade. So I didn't. All of those sweaty games...no washing. I just sprayed it with perfume. I wonder if anyone noticed?

My brothers were on a soccer team called "purple people eaters" which  I thought was a fabulous name. Kind of sounded like monsters. They got to wear purple shirts for their games. Lucky.(Were you both on the team or just one of you?)


By the time I was in high school, 
I had moved on from purple  to green

I loved green. I remember thinking it was such an appropriate favorite for me since my eyes are also green. In my closet you could find green shirts, green shoes, green jeans (guess what? those colorful jeans are back in style, folks!), a dark green silky shirt (those are too!), some plaid green converse-looking shoes, and a favorite necklace with green leaves on it.

I was still very anti-pink and had almost nothing in my closet with much more than a fleck of the feminine hue. I prided myself on staying away from overly girly/'prissy' attitudes/styles. (Go ahead and laugh) The earthy tones were the perfect backdrop. Green symbolized growth and learning...and I was doing a lot of that in those years.

In college, I combined green and purple...
to jump on the black is best bandwagon.

As a sophomore, I started to collect more sophisticated shades to my wardrobe. I really loved blacks and whites. I expanded my collection of black tops, chunky black shoes (early 2000's, anyone?) and watched my roommates put on eyeliner to hone my black-outlining skills. I still loved green but the darker shades held more of my interest.


By my early twenties, 
I was starting to notice the color 
I had been avoiding all of these years...pink.

As a missionary, I had to dress conservatively (you Sister missionaries now get to wear the cutest things!) but packed a few colorful tops just to mix things up a bit (since I would be wearing the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over again for 18 months). This included one single pastel pink button up short sleeved top.

A switch was turned on. Pink was the new black. Or green. Or purple. When I came home, I started to notice pink everywhere. I remember wearing a pair of pink capris when Mr. H and I spent an afternoon in Nashville (post-mission, pre-engagement). I loved it. I still love it now and my favorite winter wear is a pink pea coat.


In my mid-twenties, I found myself balancing out--unable to choose "one tip top favorite"; I now had many colorful favorites. 

In those working/school years (post-marriage, pre-baby), I painted a room in lavender (shout out to my early purple years), discovered the flexibility in greys-whites-blacks, fell in love with green all over again, accentuated with pink, and had flip flops in almost every other color in the rainbow.


Last year, I discovered a color that I had mostly ignored and never considered a qualifier for a "favorite list"...and now you can see me wearing a pop of this color almost every day.


Yellow.



When sisters-in-law and I were looking for a fun color combination for family photos, we saw a picture of a family using  yellow as the coordinating color. Soon I found that as I was searching for the little yellow elements to add to our family's outfits, I started seeing yellow everywhere...and liked it! I now have several yellow elements to add to my day (yellow watch, flats, earrings...) and people often ask me if it's my favorite.


. . .


I've been through a rainbow of favorites over the years. I don't have "one favorite" these days--more like a kaleidoscope of favorites. Do you have a favorite color?



Every day in November!  NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. Write a post on your blog every day in November. For the 3rd year, I've decided to tackle this challenge & enjoy the opportunity to switch to writing mode. Want to join me? Leave your blog link in the comments so I can follow you too! 

1 comment:

Linda said...

I pretty much love the rainbow. But blue....love it! Thanks for taking me through your color loves.