My sister brought the above book home from the library. We are now obsessed and up to our eyeballs in visual self-analysis. Its one of those "find your colors" kinds of guides and since I have spent years working on figuring out what colors I should wear and yet still feel a little befuddled....my appetite is handily whetted.
So confusing trying to sort out all the pieces and make sense of it. So much of color is psychology and meaning, personal taste layered on top of actual objective reality. For years I hated the colors orange and teal (I can't even remember why....I was insane.) and now I have trouble accepting colors like mauve and beige but I think its mostly about ideas and stories I tell myself about the colors.
My sister Foxy and I....plus a photo-bombing baby! She has my un-bleached, natural hair color.
I think I am a Summer or a Spring but its hard for my to sort out the cool and warm color bits. I wish in some ways we were still in the 80's when it was trendy to have your "colors done" and come away with a purse pocket swatch for handy referencing.
My sister Lockbox and I....similar but not exactly the same.
We are reading all kinds of cool things though....examine your eyes in detail and notice all the colors in them: the darkest colors, the rays, the softest muted shades, take a look at the veins in your wrists and look for shades of blue, green and purple, and take notes on the colors you blush when pinched and the darkest and lightest colors in your hair. So fun noticing the details of yourself! The artist in me loves these assignments. This is the nature of being a painter...not seeing "blue" skies but noticing that sometimes the sky is purple and sand and aquamarine but almost never just "blue." Real observing. Its a Buddhist kind of fashion assignment really. Being in The Now, truly present and fully aware.
Detail of my multi-colored eyes.
May there be clarity! May there be fresh green knowledge! May there be in my future a cashmere sweater in the perfect shade!
Life is calming down around here. We're back to trying to follow a housekeeping routine, catching up on the dishes and the laundry are a daunting task but I am starting to believe it might happen soon. I can at least find clothes in the drawers again.
We've been doing lots of slowing down though...cancelling things, playing outdoors, reading together and naps, naps, naps. I've been working on a compilation of data about how to increase the strength of the immune system, since we've all been clearly a bit low and susceptible.
I got the urge to mend our big master bed quilt the other day, there were flaps open on several of the patches after a lot of use and love over the last decade. Once I sat down in the sunshine with a needle in my hand, I couldn't stop.
I did the utilitarian mending and then after all the holes were closed I just kept going. Its a block quilt with no real top stitching anywhere and so I just did some random top stitching, following my inner creative urges. It was so cozy there in the sun, with my needle, and the little stitch tracks going in and out and in and out....
One of the most incidentally meditational things that has happened to me in a long time. I could be hand quilter for hire. Any brilliant quilters out there who love the piecing and need a slightly obsessive, tiny bit harried housewife to sit glaze-eyed for hours pleasantly stitching designs over the patchwork? I am your woman! Please get in touch directly.
Spending more small moments today. Drizzling, chilly, rainy afternoon with a bit of a break in the action. I spent some time mouthing middle name possibilities in combination with our short list of boy names, roasted some chicken wings, folded laundry, washed the counter tops and put dishes away....and then this evening while I waited for A to call to say he was on the train home I started my birth soundtrack.
For both the boys births I have compiled a cd of songs to listen during labor...my first cd (for Ru's birth) was a source of great comfort during a really tumultuous hospital birth and many of the cheery tunes I picked are burned forever into my memory in association with his arrival. For Dee's birth I had a more mellow, snuggly soundtrack, not quite as peppy...I guess, I was feeling more calm about the whole arrangement and just wanted music to wrap me in that mood.
This time around, honestly, I'm not sure what I want. I keep waffling and scratching my head. But, yeah frankly, at this point...I don't have enough time left to keep putting it off and deliberating so, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone and just make two cds. I have "Zen Birth" and "Peppy Birth" in the works. We'll see what suits when the moment comes I guess. I've only gotten partway through both compilations but, so far here's a taste of what I've got:
