Image: http://www.polyvore.com/color_story/set?.mid=embed&id=4712883

What is your color story?

Imagine walking into your favorite boutique. Everything in the store harmonizes with everything else in the store. There’s a consistent message, and it feels like home.

Now imagine walking into a flea market. It’s a graveyard of passing fads. There’s neon over there, gothic lace over here, and does that blazer have orange shag carpeting elbow patches???

Which one does your closet look like?

A color story is a tool that designers use to plan their color choices. A personal color story acts like a visual style statement, helping you make decisions when you’re faced with a sale rack. It’s a palette, but it also speaks to emotional tenor of your colors.

Your relationship to color is emotional, and intensely personal. There’s no rhyme or reason to why paint chip #4259 looks like springtime to you and vomit to me. (And yes, a professional color consultant once told me I was a “Spring” and I should be wearing that vomit color. No, thank you.) In short, no one can do this for you.

Here’s how to find your color story…

Talking about color is like writing down dance steps: besides the point. When you set out to find your colors, use the proper tools: your eyes. You have to look at colors. Closing your eyes and daydreaming might point you in a general direction, remembering the color that everyone says you look great in is a boost, but you have to see color to feel color.

You can look at colors in any number of places: the paint store, the mall. You can get wild with some art supplies or rip pictures out of magazines. But since you’re sitting at your computer reading this anyhow, hop on over with me to polyvore.com.

Start a new set and get going with a tab. Tops is as good a place to start as any. You’re not looking for shape or fit or even any particular item of clothing. Take a look at the random pile of teensy pictures over there on the right. (On a PC, press Ctrl and + a few times to make those teensy pictures bigger. For some reason, on a mac, Apple and + make the text bigger but leave the pictures tiny.) Let your eyes go into soft focus—you can see color more clearly when you’re not looking at detail. Does anything pop out at you? Anything hit you in the gut? Anything call out to you and sing the song of your soul? No? Ok, click next, and keep browsing.

If you hear a little hum, drag that thing over to the left. Drag a bunch of stuff. Don’t question it, just drag. When you’ve got a pile of goodies in your set, take a look. Do you see any themes? Dusty Sunday in the country colors? Pop-art fizz? Neutrals and more neutrals? Keep blurring your eyes! Delete anything that seems out of place. Notice that the big ugly buttons ruin the cute pink cardigan. Notice that the color you think you ought to like doesn’t go with the colors you actually like.

Compare coral to pumpkin to tangerine: is one saying “yes!” while another says “meh”? Do you want to explore a particular color more deeply? Wonderful Polyvore lets you filter by color. Look at all those turquoises! Who knew there were so many variations on turquoise? Which one is your turquoise?

Look at what the colors are doing together. Does sage give rose a little pop? Does brown balance your sky blue, but bring your teal down? Does a tiny bit of yellow go a long way?

Keep going: blurring, pulling, assessing, editing, noticing, until your set starts to sing a little song. Say your style statement out loud: are you seeing it?

Here’s what I found out when I did this exercise: My colors are red and blue: petal pink to ripe strawberry, men’s dress shirt blue to soft cobalt to indigo. I’m a color fanatic, I’ve taken courses, I’ve read books…but until the other day I could not have said with conviction “My colors are red and blue.” (But it does explain why I get so giddy for the 4th of July!) I also discovered that while a little black has a lot of oomph, a lot of it is too harsh with my reds. Midnight blue—now there’s my neutral. True white makes my other colors pop, while off-white takes the energy down several notches. And though you’d think that purple would be the best of both worlds: “meh!”

So what can you do with your colors once you’ve found them?

* Paint a wall
* Buy ink or stationary to write your dreams in your colors
* Knit a sweater (and don’t be surprised if it becomes your favorite!)
* Or, go whole hog: wear nothing else

My next steps: turning my closet into the red and blue boutique, and resisting teal, even when it’s on super-sale.

Go look for your colors. And then make sure those colors are in your life.

image: My husband’s color story.

Every knitter has one: a stash.

I’m talking about that trove of gorgeous, luscious, irresistible yarn that you’re not exactly using right now. If you don’t have one yet, it’s inevitable that one will develop. After all, what are you supposed to do—wait until you’re finished with one project before you buy supplies for the next? Puh-lease! You had to snap up that blue merino the instant it went on super-sale. And you can’t throw out the half-ball of cashmere that was left after you finished that hat for your mom—that stuff costs a fortune! Then your cousin Mabel decided that her arthritic fingers could no longer handle the needles…well, the stash grows and grows. Exponentially. Mine occupies a box that comes up to my hip.

Knitters aren’t unique in their hoarding ways. Beaders collect beads, and cross-stitchers stockpile embroidery floss. I knew an avid quilter who moved 14 boxes of fabric to her empty-nest condo.

Reclaim and Purge

But if it’s all tidied away, it’s not doing any harm, right? Not quite. According to Karen Kingston, even hidden clutter (and that’s what you stash is, darlin’—clutter) affects your chi. How? First of all, anything in your house that’s stagnant (like, say, a box of yarn you haven’t looked in for a year) gathers stagnant energy. Eventually, your whole life starts to feel slow, muddy, muddled…and stagnant.

Secondly, anytime you encounter the stash—when you open the closet door, when you stub your toe on the box, when the balls so cleverly stacked on a high shelf start to fall on your head—it sets off a cascade of thoughts that may lead you down a nasty path.
Oh, I’ll get to that as soon as a I finish those socks.
I never finish anything. I’m a failure.
I’ll be giving this stuff to my niece when I’m too old and arthritic to knit . . .
You started out looking for a belt, and now you’re thinking about old age and death.

So here is my challenge to you: Reclaim your chi. Purge your clutter. Use up your stash.

Imagine walking into your favorite boutique. Everything in the store harmonizes with everything else. There’s a consistent message, and it feels like home.

Now imagine walking into a flea market. It’s a graveyard of passing fads. There’s neon over there, Gothic lace over here, and does that blazer have orange shag-carpet elbow patches?

Which one does your closet look like?

Tell Your Own Story

A color story is a tool that designers use to plan their color choices. A personal color story acts like a visual style statement, helping you make decisions when you’re faced with a sale rack. It’s a palette, but it also speaks to the emotional tenor of your colors.

Your relationship to color is emotional and intensely personal. There’s no rhyme or reason to why paint chip #4259 looks like springtime to you and vomit to me. (And yes, a professional color consultant once told me I was a “spring” and that I should be wearing the vomit color. No, thank you.) In short, no one can do this for you except yourself.

Here’s how to find your color story…

Get Inspired About Color

Talking about color is like writing down dance steps: beside the point. When you set out to find your colors, use the proper tools–your eyes. You have to look at colors. Closing your eyes and daydreaming might point you in a general direction, and remembering the color that everyone says you look great in is a boost, but you have to see color to feel color.

You can look at colors in any number of places, like the paint store or the mall. You can get wild with some art supplies or rip pictures out of magazines. But since you’re sitting at your computer reading this right now, hop on over to polyvore.com.

Lose weight. Exercise. Eat more leafy greens.

Resolutions can be less than inspiring. No wonder so many of them fail. Even the word resolution connotes musty courts of law, not the fresh promise of a new year.

So this year, I have a suggestion. Two, in fact.

First, make a choice, not a resolution. Instead of passing a law with your superego, reach out with your heart.

Second, choose to honor you. And what better way to do that than to focus on your Style Statement?

How To Honor Your Style Statement

Write down your Style Statement, and spend a few moments contemplating each word. These words name your foundation and your creative edge. You need them both. What can you do in the coming year to bring more of both into your life?

The mole sisters were thinking.
“Who are we?”
“Good question,” they said.
–Roslyn Schwartz, The Mole Sisters and the Question

Human beings are complicated. We don’t fit easily into buckets, literal or metaphorical. And yet, there’s something appealing about saying “I’m part of this group over here. Here’s my little pigeon-hole. This is where I belong.”

I can still remember my very first Seventeen magazine. I was thirteen. “What’s Your Style?” read the headline. I examined the photos carefully. Punk just looked ugly to me. Glam was way too sexy for a teenager who was hoping her boobs would stop at an A-cup. As the least athletic person I knew (I once found an honest-to-goodness four leafed clover while playing outfield in a baseball game), I definitely wasn’t Sporty. So, the answer: I was Preppy. I felt the warm glow of belonging as I studied Jennifer Connoly’s walking shorts, headband, and ankle socks. I had found my first bucket.

As I grew up, I found more buckets. Magazine quizzes, self-help books, psychological tests, all offering to give me insight into my true self after answering a few questions. If you answered B to 4 or more questions, you’re a…. ‘nother bucket dweller.

None of the buckets helped me that much. Sometimes they gave me some insight into one aspect of myself or another, but they rarely gave me the soul-knowledge I was looking for. I always found myself wondering about my bucket mates: how similar were we, really?

I love bead stores. I love the colors, all the sparkly, glittery, glowy bits and pieces. I love the sense of endless possibility.

Usually, I know exactly where I’ll gravitate: Oh! that cobalt! Mmmm, this glows like a ruby. Ahhh, sparkly crystals like snowflakes! And… this looks exactly like the necklace I made last year. Oh.

Listening to My Intuition

Something different happens when I’m making a gift. Before I go into the store, I’ll pause to think of my friend: the last chat we had, that long night in college when we drank too much wine, the way she walks down the street, the flea market finds she ogles but won’t let herself buy. As I walk around the store, I try to hold her gently in my mind. And then I see what jumps out at me.

Huh. Funny. I never noticed those cloisonné beads before. And this Venetian glass pulls out the turquoise in the cloisonné. I wonder if she likes turquoise. I can’t stand turquoise. Wait, aren’t her eyes turquoise?

Why are those frosted flowers singing at me? Those must be the palest pink I’ve ever seen. They look spectacular with the glass. Does this hematite work? NO! Maybe add some gold spacers, and… Wow. That looks like Rebecca.

How do you get through the dark spaces in your life: writer’s block, limbo, your own personal version of a little black cloud over your head? How do you find your way when you’re lost? How do you keep on keeping on, when you’re really not sure of anything?

Recession, Depression, Schmacession

Times are rough, all over. Whether you’re watching your retirement savings collapse, you’re one of the half-million people in the US who lost their jobs last month, or you’re just having a bad week, the atmosphere of doom and gloom these days can be pretty overpowering.

My calculus is this: I simply cannot afford to let the negative voices get going in my head. I’ve been down that path, and it goes nowhere good. As tempting as it is to just curl up and pull the covers over my head, it’s not a viable long term strategy. There are bills to pay, lives to be lived, and in my case, little mouths to feed and little psyches to nurture. I must keep on keeping on. So the question is, how?

I have two answers.

When Times Get Tough, The Tough Get Silly

When I’m mired in simple frustration, when I feel like I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall, when everything I produce seems like crap, or I’m simply boring myself, I like to take a step back and make a conscious decision to have fun. I ask myself “How can I make this bigger? wilder? sillier?” It’s a creative jolt, and I get excited again.

Midwinter is the perfect time to gather with friends, family, and loved ones. Whether you’re gathering to share warmth or spread joy, your Style Statement holds the key to your celebration style.

My style statement is Creative Joy, and the celebration I’m most looking forward to this year involves making stuff: specifically, making cookies with my family. I plan to blast the carols, roll out the dough, and let the three year old man the cookie cutters. Joy to the world!

What does your style statement say about your favorite way to party?

• I want to go to Sensual’s cocktail party. I’m sure the jazz will be muted, the mohair throw will coordinate with the velvet upholstery, and the mulled wine will hit my nose long before it caresses my tongue.
• I also want to attend Elemental’s Winter Solstice ceremony. We’ll gather in the snow, invite the blessings of the elements, tell our troubles to cedar boughs and toss them in a bonfire, and then dance in the new year.
• Of course, I wouldn’t miss caroling with Traditional—especially the eggnog-soaked after-party for kids and grownups!

How do you translate your Style Statement into your holiday celebrations?

[photo by ||!prliignore9||]

Nearly every culture in the world has a celebration of light in the darkest part of winter. Today I’m focusing on decorations, and how your Style Statement can help you decorate your home in your style.

My Style Statement is Creative Joy, so the decorations that mean the most to me are the ones I made myself. Over the years, I’ve knitted stockings for my family, cross-stitched pillows, and covered the house with huge and easy snowflakes. Hint: Ted Naos cards make great needlepoint designs!

We celebrate Christmas in my house, and my interpretation of the season focuses on Joy. Lots of fabulous holiday music, lots of cookies, and a whole lot of red: red berries in the wreath, red linens on the table, red ribbons just about everywhere.

How does your Style Statement shape your holiday decorations?

* I would imagine that a Refined spirit would have a carefully edited cache of exquisite objects: a pewter wishbone for her coffee table, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired ornaments.
* Cherished would certainly hold onto decorations that remind her of celebrations past, perhaps even of her childhood holidays. Mixed in with the keepsakes, ornaments featuring beloved photos would warm her heart.
* Natural can decorate easily with Mother Nature’s bounty: a wreath made of pine cones, some evergreen boughs on the mantle, and garlands of cranberries and popcorn. Gorgeous.

How do you translate your Style Statement into your holiday decorating?

[Photo by ||!prliignore8||]

Gifts form a bridge between the giver and the givee—truly inspired gifts contain a bit of both. When you’re thinking about Style Statements, try this approach: let your Style Statement affect how you give, let your friend’s affect what you give.

You may be noticing a trend in these holiday posts: as Creative Joy, I like to make stuff. Holiday gifts are no exception. I knit scarves and purses, I create necklaces and earrings, and every year I bead a comb for my mother-in-law and make an ornament for each of my nieces and nephews.

My Joy side wants to watch people open my gifts—I hope to see the joy in their faces. That’s what I picture as I’m making the stuff, and that’s one of the best parts of the holidays for me.

How does your Style Statement speak to how you love to give?

• Dramatic wants to make a big impression! No gift cards in an envelope from her. The spectacle of the giving is part of the gift.
• Cultivated has spent a long time mulling over your gift. She seeds ideas all year long, lets them germinate, and gently brings forth the perfect gesture when the time is right.
• Understated is likely to slip a little something into your palm—a little something that makes your throat catch with its thoughtful simplicity.

What does your Style Statement say about what you want to get?