Hi! My name is Joie (pronounced like Joey, but I will answer to the French pronunciation, too) and I asked Jessica to add one more thing to her busy, busy schedule and guest blog for me.
(see Joie’s blog here)
She was angel enough to agree (also, she is Superwoman) [editor's note: I know, right??]. I figured the least I could do was reciprocate.
So, I thought about what I wanted to write about for a wonderful blog of first-time motherhood and family life and running, among other things. I quickly realized: I got nuthin’. I’m a long-distance aunt living with a roommate and I D.O.N’T. run (but really want to do the Color Run in Colorado Springs next year . . . must start training).
BUT! Jessica has the perfect last name to inspire an ENTIRELY random post.
I love bolds. This was my first (and second, and third) umbrella:
Backing up: I am a scrapbooker in my spare time. I finished a wedding album earlier this summer and am perfecting my former roommate’s baby book for her twins (due in October). I’ve been working on my mother’s milestone birthday album for a year and a half (sorry, Mom) and I have what is designated as my “therapy” album (by the way, I’m Bi-Polar), which is ongoing. I also do event cards, invitations, or whatever strikes my fancy.
This post comes from one of those “whatever strikes my fancy” moments.
Currently, I’m working on a bachelorette party. Each night I try to do a little bit to prepare so that everything is so good to go for the party that when I arrive at the house, everything will snap into place like when Mary Poppins helps the Banks children clean their rooms. (Hey, I can dream, right?) Also, I’m also a Type-A personality and everything has to be JUST SO. It cannot be JUST SO if I am not prepared.
For said bachelorette, there’s going to be a snacks table. And it WILL be pretty. One of the things I’ve done to assure that fact is to make paper flowers.
They’re super easy, if a bit time consuming, and they’ll really brighten up the table(s). So, after seeing the twenty-four flowers I made for the bachelorette, I decided my apartment needed some flower decorations, too.
Of course. Because I have so much extra time as it is.
I asked my roommate what colors she preferred, seeing as we have to share the apartment and she has graciously let me take over the living room with too much quite a bit of my stuff already. She just said “color,” so I decided to do a rainbow.
This is when I discovered (read as: consciously realized something I’ve always known) that I love bolds, specifically bold colors. I could not find a proper yellow or purple to save my life. I had plenty of goldenrod and marigold, but no butters or brights. And since I’m such a bold addict, the kinds of purples sold in stores now (which are mostly of medium shades) do not do it for me. And I must like the papers I own because everything must be (say it with me) JUST SO.
It was an issue.
I scrounged up some decent marigolds for the yellow and used a picture of the sunset and a very gorgeous purple-y brown for the purple, but it still didn’t turn out the way I wanted. All the marigolds looked so orange next to the pale blues and the purple plus brown just looked “dark” (I know it’s not a color, but seriously – that thing is a color black hole) unless you held it in direct light.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my bold flowers so much. They’re going to be gorgeous and give the living room a bit of texture that is desperately needed (stupid white, utilitarian walls that I’m not allowed to paint). But I was going for rainbow, not bold-bow (which the umbrella pulls off quite well, but the flowers do not).
Thankfully, I have a medical excuse for this condition. I’m Bi-Polar, and this is apparently a REALLY COMMON thing with Bi-Polar people. We tend to prefer bold, eye-catching colors to the pastels or the in-between background sorts of colors. A friend of the family is a psychiatric nurse (bless her soul) and when she met my sister for the first time, it came up in conversation that I was Bi-Polar. Her first question, “So what does she have that’s orange?”
My sister explained I had a bright red room that was kind of an orange-y red (technically, the color is Poinsettia, but it is definitely a more yellow red than a blue red). This family friend nodded and said, “Yup!” We Bi-Polar kids like our bold colors. (Okay, so my medical excuse is more anecdotal than scientific, but twenty years of psychiatric nursing counts for something, right?)
Also, I just have that bold, A-type personality. Pastels do not suit me. And those in-between-never-really-pay-attention-to-them-they’re-just-there colors don’t have enough oomph to hold up, either. I like bolds because they match the colors in me.
So, how did this scrapbooking adventure end?
Just under thirty dollars worth of paper later (don’t judge, it’s a lot of paper), I finally have purples and yellows. I worked REALLY hard to only get a few off-program papers (It had books on it! And was this gorgeous russet! I promise, I needed it!!), and forced myself to get some brights (I even got a really clean, beautiful pattern that used neon yellow). Now, I will be able have some flowers that are yellow and purple! Also, I’ll be better prepared for the next project that comes along that requires purple or yellow. And I’ll be happy to do it.
But honestly? I’d just rather stick with the bolds.
~Joie
Thanks, Jessica for letting me play in your blog (and play on your last name)! It was a blast.
