Change for 2025

I like bright colors. If you don't need sunglasses to look at it, it's not bright enough! :-)

This color aesthetic has included the colors of pens I use in my planners. I've been using purple ink to write and crossing off my completed items with neon pink highlighter. The colors of the tabs I use to mark pages I need to refer to are bright, and so is anything else you can name.

For 2025 I've decided to move to a neutral color palette. This is where the shocked face comes in.

I'm not sure why I made this decision. Maybe it has something to do with moving into a completely different planner than I've used for the last eight or nine years. Maybe I just need something different to be excited about. Maybe it was just time for a change.

That's part of the reason for the pen tests. I'm using a .5 mm burgundy pen in my mulberry-colored weekly planner. I have a brown pen and an olive pen, and of course, a pen with black ink. My highlighter color is called Chai Latte and it's the perfect shade of brown. I even have dot markers in neutrals like gray, beige, and pale earthy green.

There's no time frame for how long I use these colors. At least through 2025 because I'd hate to switch up mid-year, but after that? Shrug. Who knows?

I am very excited by this change, so it's pretty clear I was bored with the old colors. Sometimes, we just need to change things up.

I Like Pink

Once upon a time, before I had my website professionally done, I had a lot of pink on the site. Maybe not the best choice since I was writing paranormal action/adventure/suspense romance at the time and pink isn't exactly the most kick-ass color in the world, but I liked it.

And then I saw some women making fun of my website for using the color pink. They weren't my readers, just some random women who somehow found my site and were mocking it.

Why do some people have such a violently negative reaction to pink?

There were no pastels on my site. I don't like pastels. I like bright, in-your-face colors, and if its a fluorescent color, so much the better. This pink was more of a fuchsia shade than anything girly.

I get crap at work from some of the guys for all the pink I have--clothes, tote bags, gym bag. This bright fuchsia shade is my favorite color, no question about it. And I like this pink paired with bright lime green, or a glow-in-the-dark orange (figuratively, not literally glow in the dark). The brighter the better. If you don't need sunglasses, the colors aren't bright enough for me. :-)

No one makes fun of people who are heavily into blue. If my site had been a bright aqua blue instead of pink, I bet no one would have said a word. So what's wrong with pink?

The only guesses I have for this reaction is 1: I'm a romance author and Barbara Cartland's over the top use of pastel pink ruined that color for all romance authors or 2: these women were reacting with unconscious sexism. Pink is a woman's color therefore it is less than other colors and totally mockable. Or 3: maybe both options?

I'm not sure what their deal was because they didn't cite why they didn't like my pink, they just made fun of it. Since I've had my website as it is today for years, you can tell how long this commentary has stuck with me. To paraphrase: All I'm saying is give pink a chance. :-)

Color is in the Eye of the Beholder

Because of our office move at work, I'm sitting near a new department--one I have to walk through every time I want to use the restroom. One morning while I was walking past their cubes, I noticed one of the women was wearing cute shoes. A second later, I shrugged and thought, Too bad they're brown. Then I noticed she was wearing a brown shirt and light brown slacks.

Being a goofball writer, I immediately started running down the color path. I realized that I never wear brown. I remember once upon a time I owned a super cute brown shirt, but I think that was donated years ago.

That got me thinking some more about how I don't wear pastels either. I do own a few shirts that fit this niche, but they're buried in my closet. I also have some taupe shoes hiding somewhere and some brown ones (unless I donated those before I moved from Minnesota), but I usually wear black shoes or tennis shoes. On the sneakers, the brighter the better.

Actually, almost all my clothes are super bright or black. Fuchsia--my personal most favorite color ever--dominates my wardrobe (and my knitting); aqua holds a close second. I also have bright green, violet, other shades of bright pink (again, totally my fave!). Seriously, the brighter my clothes are, the happier I am. I wear my brightest of brights either on Monday to cheer myself up or on Friday to celebrate the upcoming weekend. I tend not to wear it in the middle of the week.

I can even manage a few jewel tones, especially purple, but I don't love it the way I love the bright, happy colors.

After I thought through this, I wondered if I was unusual and realized that I probably was. A lot of people must like beige and brown and taupe. I find those colors absolutely boring. I'm sure people who enjoy the earth tones probably find my clothing choices garish. I guess what colors are considered exciting are in the eye of the beholder.

Color My World

There was just a commercial on The Weather Channel (Yes, I watch TWC) where it showed a couple looking at their white walls, then they go to Home Depot to pick out paint. It made me remember all the episodes of Designed to Sell and House Hunters that I've watched on HGTV and how many of the homes shown have these white or nearly white walls--and usually throughout the entire house! And nine times out of ten, if their walls are blank, their furniture is every bit as neutral, so it looks as if they're living in a bowl of oatmeal.

I always shake my head when I see this and think, "why are people so afraid of color?" Of course, if y'all have seen the pictures of the house I built (link is on the right to go to the house galleries), you know that I love color. Take my great room for example. The walls are largely a neutral creamy off-white color, but then I have the focal wall. That's a brilliant blue. There's a bright pink, tall vase on the floor with big orange flowers and my area rugs are very colorful and fun.

But I digress. As usual. Anyway, I don't understand why people are so afraid of color. You paint, you don't like it, you repaint. No, it's not a huge amount of fun, but it's not difficult either. Or if they really hate painting with a passion, get some color in the room through accessories, like my brilliant pink vase with the orange silk flowers or accent pillows. Something. I just can't imagine living in a house without color.

Last year sometime, I found a quiz online that told you what your decorating style is. I blogged about it at the time and included the link, but I don't have time to try to search it out. Anyway, I took it and my style was determined to be Contemporary, Modern and Asian, and after reading the definitions of those styles on the website, I have to agree, those are totally my styles.

I was able to turn the heat off yesterday, for the second time this spring, and open up the windows. It was windy and it'll be windy again today, but also 80 degrees. Yea!