Analogous Color Harmonies
Perhaps it was growing up visually in the 1960s, but I have always favored the analogous color harmony. Blue and green, pink and peach, navy and lavender; these are some of my favorites. I love them in homes! While I recognize that monochromatic is a good look for me, it feels boring; when I’m not wearing my typical personal coloring based palette, I gravitate toward colors next to each other on the color wheel.
Last spring, it was navy and grass green. For summer, I combined yellow and coral. As we enter fall, I’m thinking alot about purple, wearing purple and navy to church last week.
What are your favorite color harmonies: monochromatic, analogous, complementary or something more unique? Any new favorite color combos?
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Regional Casual Uniform
Originally posed by Jody, this question is so much fun:
Suppose you stepped off a plane in your neighborhood, city, or country. Could you tell you were home by how people were dressed? Is there a Regional Casual Uniform? What do people (and you may narrow down to a specific segment of the population if you like) wear when they are going out, during the day, going to be seen, but not needing to dress up?
Bottoms Up.
- Here in the Great Northwest, while the bottom may be a skirt, shorts, or pants, there will be something “outdoorsy” about it. If it isn’t denim and/or it doesn’t have cargo pockets, no doubt it is tree-colored.
- No such variety in tops, though. One MOPS meeting, when I was trying to point out a particular mom, it went something like this: “See the lady in the black shirt? Well, behind her is another lady in a black shirt. Then there’s so-and-so, wearing a black shirt. Well, the lady you’re looking for is the next one. Wearing a black shirt”.
So there you have it, the Great Northwest Casual Uniform. What do the streets look like in your neck of the woods?
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5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Children’s Intelligence
These days, there’s alot of talk about being “intentional”. Well, when we went TV-free, it was almost completely unintentional, as many of the most profitable things we’ve done have been.
Adapted from Pick Your Brain, Feb 15th, 2007 (courtesy of Mercola.com)
Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate.
Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.
1. Minimize Television Watching – This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You don’t even have the energy to read a book.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.
2. Exercise – I used to think that I’d learn more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate more easily.
3. Read Challenging Books – Many people like to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky suspense-thriller.
4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise – Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience the early morning hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you more productive hours and maximizes your mental acuity all day.
If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.
5. Take Time to Reflect – Often our lives get so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing it. It becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t. The unimportant stuff won’t bother you anymore and your mind will feel less encumbered.
Recently, I’ve been hearing that spending alot of time on the internet is bad for children’s intelligence. Any thoughts on taming the Facebook Monster?
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Fashion Lab: Jean Pocket Placement
My theory on the principle behind “mom jeans”:
high and/or small pockets make whatever is below or around them look bigger
(Christopher Hopkins recommends pocketless, but they kinda make me feel naked.)
I know lower pockets are supposedly a no-no for me, with my shorter legs, but I’d rather look like I have my legs look shorter than make my butt look bigger. Or wear high heels.
When buying jeans, what do you look for in back pockets? Besides money. 
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Fall Wardrobe Planning Begins With a Budget
Going back to this previous post, in which I dealt with a dangling question regarding semi-annual shopping & budgeting, the further question of how to “wrap your spending plan around all the items you need” remains unanswered.
Some thoughts:
- Many years ago, when I did my initial cost per wear calculations, I concluded that half of my spending went toward fashiony uniform template items and the other half toward such necessities as coats, shoes, and under-garments.
If you are going to have to have a new winter coat this year, I would definitely take that money and set it aside. The best sales and selection are available in October.
- Do you have a method for figuring out how many of any wardrobe piece you need? If not, I describe one here.
- Identify your needs. You may find my post Creating the Spring Shopping List helpful.
- Now the hard part: you must assign a portion of your “spending plan” to each item on your shopping list.
One final thought: you could just budget the same amount for each piece. That would work for me, since I buy most of my stuff thrift. But realistically, if you are shopping in a real store, with real money, that method won’t work too well.
Consider that jackets are often double the cost of pants or skirts, and basic tops can be very inexpensive. If you split the money evenly between those three categories, you could potentially buy one jacket, a pant and a skirt, and maybe 5 tops.
Yes, I think I like it.
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Building a Personal Color Scheme
I’ve been asked a number of times for more detail on building a color strategy based on one’s own personal coloring. Currently my best thoughts are these.
Step 1: choose a frame neutral or two
If you were a man and building a simple, formal business wardrobe from scratch, I’d first advise you to buy a suit in a color which blends with your hair color (Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion
- if you have dark hair, look good in black, and need a business wardrobe - by all means, choose black!
- for me, it’s not quite that simple. The main thing is to choose a flattering color in the right value (light vs dark).
- It’s not necessary to choose a neutral. One young lady I know, with auburn hair and green eyes, uses purple as a wardrobe staple.
Step 2: identify the color range you can choose more freely from
- For many this will be the eye color.
- Alternatively, hemoglobin color is an especially good option for those with brown eyes. This is what I do, using a range from peach to coral pink on the light end to coral as my bright to a burgundy as dark as my eyes.
- With gray eyes and hair, and lips so cool in tone as to be almost purple, I have another friend who could choose a range from lavendar to deeper purple.
Step 3: choose your accent color or neutral
- This could be black or white
- It could be your eye color, if you haven’t already used it.
- Do you have something specific to your idiom that you want to use as an accent, such as a collection of turquoise jewelry?
Beyond these basics, everything is chosen for its ability to blend with your basic skeleton of colors. For additional variety, you could use a different color scheme for each season.
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Fashion Lab: Color Value Placement
Next week I’m going to be talking about how to develop a personal color palette. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about what I consider the Great Northwest casual uniform: black top, army green pants, slip-on shoes. Or some variant thereof. And how, while I’m not so crazy about the ubiquitous black top, it is a good formula for some. Especially those who are curvier on top.
Which leads me to the general principle of wearing lighter colors where you are smaller and darker colors where you are larger. Let’s play with that using Gap cords, currently $15 off.
(I threw that last set in just for fun, but I’d love to know if you have any thoughts on neutral vs bright also.)
Speaking of cords (or perhaps I should say “speaking of body image“), I normally avoid them simply because they always made me feel fat, but when Spokane Discount had a deal where any pair of brown pants in size 6, 8, or 10 was so cheap it was almost free, I bought a pair of dark brown, trouser style, corduroy Dockers. For $3.
Application principle: aside from monochromatic outfits, I am focusing on darker bottoms with lighter tops. How do you employ color value placement?
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At What Age is Body Image Set?
Christine brought up this provocative question, during our conversation on apparent body size:
One interesting thing I did read was that your body image is set at age 10 for girls. So, if you were a heavy ten year old you could be a very slim adult and still “see” yourself as heavy. In reverse, you could be slim as a ten year old (me) and always see yourself as slimmer than you are (I’m always looking for belts and fitted dresses that don’t work with my expanded waist.
Does anyone else find that to be true?
My own random observations:
- I must have been a pretty normal sized 10 year old. Mom?
- This theory might explain some things. Slim girls who complain about being fat are the ones who get the attention, but I’ve wondered why it seems there are some who are overweight and don’t seem to realize it.
- OTOH, there are some ladies who I think might be packing around an extra roll or two, who are actually quite slim.
- Most importantly, I advise highly against introducing fashion magazines until a young lady’s body image is well established, say in the later teen years.
How does your current body image compare with your size as a ten year old?
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Apparent Body Size
It’s hard to tell how big somebody is just by looking.
In this post with picture, I noted that when I wear these particular jeans a frequent comment is that I look small. To which Maria Palma said it was hard to tell from the picture that I look small. She’s right.
But even in person, looks can be deceiving. I have one friend who is about my size, but somehow she appears to be a larger-scale woman. Presumably her larger scale features and exotic appearance create a greater “presence”, making her seem larger-than-life, so to speak.
So what goes into apparent body size?
- Height
- Width
- Supposedly that’s all. I wonder. That in no way explains why gifts to my two daughters are invariably smalls while mine is medium.
Selecting the everyday purse is the primary reason to identify apparent body size.
What about you, do people tend to guess your size wrong?
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Friday Fashion Lab: Effect of Print
I’ve been thinking about how it sometimes seems that pattern can break up an area and make it look smaller. Not certain how or why or whether it really works. So, just for fun, I thought we’d look at maternity swimsuits in solids and prints!
Any hypotheses concerning (slimming effects of) prints?
