Yellow (April A2Z ~ Misty Memories)

 

My mom, my daughters, and me, around 1996

Welcome to my April A2Z posts! This time, I am officially signed up on the challenge sheet and will be visiting other bloggers on the list. My theme is "misty memories," which will include a bunch of rambling about old stuff in my life, and hopefully some of it will be accurate, but if not, there's no one around to contradict me. Today we continue with Y for Yellow on the penultimate day of the challenge!

When I was little, I didn't like yellow, orange, red, or pink. I loved blues, greens, and purples, in all their various shades. I liked to combine blues with browns, as this reminded me of the earth and sky, the sand and sea. I even had light blue glasses frames for a while. My first serious office job at age 18 required an update to my wardrobe, but I didn't have much cash, so I bought all mix-matched items in blues and browns, with coordinating shoes. Of course, this was February in Chicago, so it was all covered up in a big huge coat, scarf, and boots until Spring. 

Fast-forward to (a) California and (b) motherhood. I discovered leggings... in a rainbow of colors! It was fun to match with my girls sometimes, and also I began a hobby of painting tee shirts. For a while, I thought I could turn it into a business, but it would have been like Lucy's salad dressing, if you know what I mean (supplies costing more than the product price). Luckily, before that happened, I ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome from painting all day because I became a wee bit obsessed. Anyway, it was fun for several months, and we all ended up with a bunch of unique shirts in vivid colors. Even my mom got into the act.

The main takeaway here is that I discovered I loved all the colors, especially lime green, hot pink, and sunflower yellow. I even did my kitchen over in a sunflower theme because they were so cheerful and pretty. As the 1990s came to a close, and I started working at a law office, my daughters convinced me that perhaps it was time to retire the lime green leggings and hot pink tees. (Not to mention all the boots and shoes in kooky colors.) That made sense at the time. I rediscovered blue and brown, added in black and beige, a smidge of cheetah, and that was my admin “uniform.” 

Sometimes I sneak in a pop of yellow or pink to liven things up though. And on weekends, anything goes!