Color Archives - Page 7 of 7 - Hopeful Homemaker

Shades of White

August 1, 2009 jennifer Color

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Someday I will have a clean house, all the time. Right now I have a clean house, some of the time, and it lasts about 20 seconds or less. Less, usually, because my little ones just go play in the clean rooms while I work in the dirty ones.

So when I’m craving the feeling that things are tidy and relaxing, sometimes I have to take myself on a little tour and just pause to enjoy the spots and corners that are inviting.
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I realized that one of the things I appreciate the most is the color white. I love the way white lets you appreciate texture so much. I love how calming it is. And I love the way it looks with blue. So I decided to snap a few photos of different shades of white in some of my favorite little spots.
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Mirrors, linens, frames… I love the simple beauty of white.
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I think that patterns, texture, lines and so forth all show up better on white, where there’s no color to interfere with my appreciation of it all. This is a vintage runner that I bought for around $5. It’s not a fine linen, but I really like it.
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This star hangs over my front door, which happens to be where my boys most love to throw balls (go figure). So….. every so often, the wonderful vintage star comes crashing to the floor, gouging walls and floor, losing countless pieces of paint, and getting all bent up on the points. At this point there is always much apology, much discussion over the fact that we have bedrooms, basement, toyroom, and, heaven forbid! the outdoors in which to throw balls instead of in the entryway, and I always walk away shaking my head a little at the workings of a boy’s brain. So we’ll just say that I really appreciate what white is left on this star and I sincerely hope we’ve learned our lesson. I suppose I could give in and move it, but it’s really quite perfect where it is, and I’m really quite certain that we can learn to throw balls in more appropriate locations.
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For Mother’s Day, my sweet parents bought us an old, used piano. It is wonderful. Somebody painted it white.
In any other room, in most any other house, it would look out of place. But in this room in this house, it is perfect.
I love it. I love the legs on it. And my kids love to play it.
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I love little spots that are serene and attract light.
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If you were going to wander your house in search of happy glimpses, what color would you pause most often to gaze at?
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For me, today, it was definitely white against a blue backdrop. They’re both lovely colors!

Red Doors

July 5, 2009 jennifer Color, Favorite Things

There are a lot of things I love about our yearly week at the beach.
Seeing my Grandpa would certainly top the list, along with taking pictures of my family playing.
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And it does my heart good to soak up a lot of this.
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I love to watch the ocean. It is continually changing, and I find that I learn many things about life while I watch the waves and allow my heart to be still.

I also love to look at the beach houses. Many of them seem to have such personalities. I love it.

This year my fascination was with doors.
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Let me be more accurate. I loved many doors, but what I REALLY loved were the RED doors.
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Wow. Red with blue trim. Love it.
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This was taken from the car. Not the best shot, but still a great door.
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This might have been my favorite, but the traffic wouldn’t allow me to cross the street and get a shot without the car. Bummer. I love the double doors and the blue awning.
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This one might be my favorite, too. Red door, white trim, blue house. Can’t get much better than that!
I love the windows on it.

There’s just something about red front doors. Especially at the beach.
I might have to paint my own front door red.

Turkey

May 26, 2009 jennifer Color

I know that these guys are usually discussed only at a different time of year.
But I just have to comment on them for a minute.
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Look at the wattle on these turkeys!
Sometimes God’s love of color really catches my attention.
The blue head and red wattle are quite the combination, wouldn’t you say?
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Something about the brightness of the color combination was really beautiful to me.
I’ve always loved red, white and blue. They’ve been my favorite colors for years, but in the past year or two I’ve come to really like the tomato red with a lighter, brighter blue or even aqua color.

It’s not a color combination that a lot of people around me use much. But I love it.
And here I was, staring at it on a turkey, of all things!

For the past year or so, I’ve engaged in a casual observational study that I call Observations in God’s Use of Color. I love to pause and look around and learn a little about how colors coexist in the natural world.
I’ve learned that nature isn’t very matchy matchy. Sometimes it’s very understated. Sometimes it’s anything but. And sometimes the most average seeming things are punctuated with amazing flourishes.

I guess that’s what grabbed me about these turkeys.
We don’t think of them as beautiful creatures. But what a colorful flourish!
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I really love color. Since I’m on the subject of turkeys, I guess it’s ok to say that every Thanksgiving when I ponder the things I’m grateful for, color is always on my list. I’m just so grateful that we have such a simple thing as color to enrich life so much. Being grateful for color reminds me to give thanks that I can see, as well. Simple gifts. It’s a wonderful life, isn’t it?!

If you’ve had an experience when a glimpse of unexpected color stopped you in your tracks or made you catch your breath for the sheer beauty of it, please share. If you haven’t, start watching for one.

You’ll be surprised.

Happy observing!