APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS

Hi to all my Gal Pals,

I love this time of year because I love all the color. Everyone is beautifying their homes with pretty flowers and I am no exception. When I lived in my house before moving to the townhouse I think I spent close to $800 in annuals to add to my gardens and to put into containers around my house. I probably bought more than I really needed but the question is can you have too many flowers? Therein lies my biggest problem, drawing the line between need and want. Can you have too many clothes? Can you have too much jewelry? Since moving I have given away 14 thirty gallon size garbage bags of clothes. However, that has not stopped me from buying more. I am a lot like Aunty Acid who said, “As I get older I’ve found I’m always walking into things…mostly shops” but it is more than that. I was worried that maybe I was addicted to buying anything “pretty” but I realized that couldn’t be it because there are many clothes and accessories out there that are “pretty” and I am able to pass on buying them. I then thought maybe the addiction was “pretty” plus “sale” but that can’t be it because I get lots of sale magazines filled with “pretty” clothes and I can easily throw away the magazines and forget about the “pretty” clothes that are in it. I think that my biggest problem is Michigan. When I go up to the cottage with my sister and cousin, the routine is eat, beach, read and shop. Maybe I NEED to shop because I NEED to adhere to the routine. Well, I have realized it is not an addiction after all (whew!), but instead I have an obsessive personality and I cannot break a routine. I must eat, beach, read and shop when I go to Michigan or I suffer from great anxiety! Wow, I am glad I solved the problem! I feel better!

Once again I am in heaven when I go into the clothing stores because big, colorful flowers are trending in fashion. Some trends never go out of style like denim and the little black dress. One of the biggest style statements that remains timeless is the floral pattern print. I recently listened to an interview with designer Diane Von Furstenberg and she was asked “Now that women are able to get out of the house and socialize, what should they wear?” and her response was “Fashion is seasonal. It is spring, they should wear something colorful and something with flowers on it”.

In a past blog I wrote about color and emotions. Today I am going to write about the colors we wear and our personalities. Fashion is about self-expression. The clothes you choose say a lot about your personality. The science behind the relationship between color and mood is extensive. An excerpt from the book “Psychology for Artists, Futurists and World Builders” states that our attention goes to whatever stands out in our visual field, be it glittery gold, luminescent fireflies or bright red flowers. Bright flowers entice us in the way neon spinners entice fish. Bright colors attract us and dull colors put us off. We tend to like bright blue and red insects better than grey beige, brown and black ones. For example, we call the lady bug pretty. That is an unlikely descriptor for a beetle. Think of the words we use to describe dull colors: dingy, impure, muddy and faded. Yuck! As far as what we wear, those who like to wear brighter, bolder colors tend to be more extroverted, and feel more alive and engaged with the world. Those who like wearing neutral colors are more introverted and like feeling safe. I personally love big, bold colors and I am pretty sure that many of my friends would describe my personality as big, bold and colorful.

As you probably already figured out, this blog is about colorful flowers in fashion design but it is also very important in landscape design. I am a big container gardener. I love combining colors and textures. At one time I counted twenty containers around my old property. Currently, around the townhouse, I have three rose shrubs, Shasta daisies, astilbes, hydrangeas and other blooming perennial flowers and shrubs. To have a truly beautiful garden, it needs flowering shrubs, perennials and annuals. But if you don’t have an “in ground” garden you can make one with containers like I did in the above picture. I am fortunate enough to have Little Kim lilacs in that area that are in bloom but once those blooms are gone in a few weeks the annuals are still going to provide color and will be going strong all summer long. Below I am including a picture of containers, which includes the deck box, that I put together for my previous house. I think I posted a similar picture when I started the blog. There are several potted plants in the picture but you only see the flowers. The red chairs add more pop to the design like a piece of jewelry.

Ok, let’s look at some of the colorful, flowery clothes I have in my closet. But before we do let me tell you that my sister and I had to retake two of the pictures. Aunty Acid once said “Welcome to the age where your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either”. In this case neither of us remembered that this was blog #25 not #24 as we had originally indicated on the chalk boards.

Whenever I wear this top I think of my dad who had a poppy field in the back of our house when we were kids. You know how much I love ponchos and this one is so light weight. I think I told you I rarely spend more than $50 on an article of clothing. This top was originally $99 and it was on sale for 40% off at Chico’s. Since I am a club member, I got another 5% off and I had a gift card for $20 (most family members know my favorite gift is a gift card from Chico’s). In the end I got it for $39. The black pants are “Jams” and they are so light weight. In fact, I have them in 5 different colors because they are great for the hottest of weather. They are so light weight I used to wear them for gardening on real hot days to keep the mosquitos off my legs.

I am not sure why but I love to wear hoop earrings and bangle bracelets when I wear a poncho. The red flowers on the cloth hoops look great with this outfit as does the green watch which pulls out the green of the leaves on the poncho. I just bought this ring at an antique store in downtown Naperville. The owner did not know what the stone was but it looks like a vibrant coral amber.

Instead of taking these pictures in front of my bedroom closet I decided to take them in my dinette area since my kitchen/dinette areas are both garden themed. I moved out my table so you could see the whole outfit. As I have previously said, flower patterns never go out of style. To show you how old this outfit is, I just recently cut out the shoulder pads that were attached to the underneath top. This three piece outfit is over 20 years old. The red is not a ruby red but more of a pinkish red. What I love about it is that there are three contrasting patterns on the jacket. The stripes are under the flower and I think you can see the diamond shape patterns on the lapel. On the back of the jacket is a large block of the flower pattern. I always try to match the color of my shoes with the color of the pants for a slimming look.

The dark red watch, earrings and garnet ring compliment the red outfit but the emerald ring and the green and mustard yellow bracelet help to highlight the other colors in the outfit.

I love the tropical look and I love wide leg pants. They just flow when I walk. The pants are the star of this outfit, but as I have said in past blogs, you have to find a way to bring the eye back up to your face so I matched it with a beautiful coral scarf on a simple white top that is loose fitting. This is an outfit that begs to be worn with flip-flops because it reminds you of Hawaii and the beach.

I am pretty sure you have seen many of these pieces before but they were made for this outfit. The large, gold leaf necklace goes so well with the large leaves of the pants. So in keeping with the leaf theme I am wearing a silver and gold leaved bracelet. I needed to add a little black to the upper part of my body so I am wearing a black and gold watch along with black leaf earrings. The yellow and coral stones of the ring also are in the leaf shape. One of my favorite summer necklaces is the one I got at Chico’s that says “chic”.

Well that is it for another month. As for my weight, I am now gaining because I am footloose and fancy free and able to go out and socialize with my lady friends. As Aunty Acid says “Finally my winter fat is gone ….Now I have spring rolls”. My diet, because of so many severe allergies, is limited. In fact it is easier for me to tell you the few things I can eat than those I can’t. It is getting expensive because the one thing I can usually eat when I am out that doesn’t contain any allergens (like herbs and spices, grape products, preservatives, etc.) is lobster. I hate buying anything that doesn’t give a price and says “market value” but it is better than the alternative which is usually the inability to breath. One of the foods I can eat is chocolate. It is a good thing I have clothes that hide all the side effects from eating quite a bit of it. Well, until next month stay safe and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do (but be careful because I am not very inhibited).

So remember, God loves you and so do I.