Thrifting in Color

When I did my full wardrobe inventory last month I thought a lot about why and how thrifting [=thrift store shopping] works for me and what I love about it.

My first realization is that my color palette facilitates thrifting for me. Knowing what colors you will and won’t buy streamlines everything. Afterwards you will be able to mix and match your wardrobe pieces with little effort. Note there will still be some effort for most due to proportion balancing and climate variables. I love things that save me time and effort.

Several things led me to the colors I buy currently.

Some years ago I thought about the color black, which I had a lot of because it is so easy to buy. Did it made me look tired I wondered? [Maybe] Is my skin is becoming more olive as I get older [I think so] and do I like how I look in black? [Hmm, kinda] The result: I stopped shopping for black.

Then I thought about what colors I liked and which ones would go together nicely. I realized I loved deep warmer autumn colors and felt good in them So my new neutrals became browns [espresso to chestnut], olive and burgundy. When I can find them I will use aubergine and rust.  This is my base.

In smaller amounts I might buy charcoal, lime, corals, plums, slate, dark teal, cream or prints with combinations of the above. My goal is to have options along with coherence because you never know what you will find second-hand. The colors I do not buy: black, pastels, cool whites, blues, pinks, cold bright greens, neons, most greys. I avoid colors with a cool undertone.
 
It is amazing how quickly I can go through the racks at a thrift store, there is so much I can ignore. Sometimes the ‘right’ colors practically leap out at me since that is where my attention is focused.

Then I have to question the style, cut and fabric, but those are other posts.

Of course this works when shopping retail but for some reason it went hand in hand with thrifting for me. I think there are more colors second-hand than during one season retail.

Happy Thrifting!

post gloom

The title is not quite accurate there is still plenty of gloom to go around.

But the sun today was the opposite of gloom. It was bright and kind and showed off every coloured leaf on every gorgeous tree with a golden haze.

It was hard to stay on the road when I wanted to gawk full time at beauty. Have the leaves ever hung around this late before?

Olive and Bronze and Brown

I love colour and patterns. This comes out in my knitting, clothing, home decor -- I get joy in noticing and playing with colour.  Even when it's temporary -  play doh with the little ones.

Recently I noticed some colour weirdness.  

The first was my 'new' trench coat. It's brown, it was brown when I bought it at a local consignment store. I wear lots of brown and autumnal colours and it goes with everything. It stays brown except when I am out in natural light, then it turns olive.  It's a synthetic fabric.

Then I got my new shoes, adorable olive green herringbone suede flats. I love them. The lining is olive green as well. They go with tons of my clothing and they are comfortable. When I wear them out in natural light they turn brown.

If I am in a mixture of natural and artificial light then both are a bronze colour. In-between.

Yet I have lots of brown and olive pieces of clothing and shoes that never change shade. Why do these?

It's the strangest thing.

green and purple

It is a colourful time right now.

On spa day I fell in love with a pine green nail polish. I don't usually paint my fingernails but I figured why not. It was gorgeous then it drove me crazy for a week.

My toenails I can paint in any wild color and I never think anything more about it. I just enjoy them. I even paint them blue sometimes even though I hardly ever wear blue and just enjoy mermaid toes. [you know if a mermaid had toes] But those pine green fingernails! I had nothing that 'went' with them. I kept trying but hardly anything I owned looked good. Very frustrating. Finally I removed it all. I have to wonder if it had something to do with my skin tone.

Still this didn't keep me from another foray into new colour. I wanted to deliberately create a ritual spaciousness for my time in Michigan this year. So inspired by a fabulous server last April [dining out for life] I decided to dye purple streaks in my hair.

My hairdresser bleached streaks in my hair, I let them rest for 36 hours, then I applied the purple. It is wild, much bluer than I thought it would be. And I keep forgetting that I did it, catch sight of myself and give a start of surprise. But it is a very 'taking a break from the regular life' kind of change. And it's only been a few days but I think people react to you differently when you have purple hair...

I'll report back in after I put more time in as a 'purple head'.

something's going on around here

But I am not sure what. I am bothered by the fact that it is review time at work. Not only do I have to do my 'self' review but nine 'peer' reviews. Do most major companies do reviews this way now? It seems so.

I admit I am not crazy about this. I have been doing it for 1o+ years and I am not a supervisor. I suppose I am very skeptical about the usefulness of the whole process and when you are as busy as I am at work it's hard to not feel resentful about stuff that takes up time that you don't really have. As it is I will probably spend a good chunk of the weekend writing these reviews.

Distraction is certainly needed, sometimes living in the moment is sucky, you know, when it's a rather cruddy moment.

How about:
It's 3 degrees F, above zero. 3 above! It's like a heat wave.

How about something frivolous like seasonal colours? I have always been fascinated with various types of color work. It's one of my favorite things to play with and I know I approach many things like knitting through colour. I am a 'Deep Autumn' or maybe a 'Deep Winter'. I really don't know much.

Ok, I give up. The truth is I am just bummed and it's over a rather silly thing. I had an amount in mind that I was willing to pay for a lake cabin. Let's call this amount X. The mortgage payment from this amount I felt would be really reasonable especially at today's interest rates. Carolyn's comfort amount was half again higher. X + [x/2] but she was willing to come down closer to my comfort level. We assumed that the amount I would "pre approve" for would be more like 2X due to great job and great credit score.

I heard today, it's not 2X. The amount we got pre-approved for is right around X. But am I happy, relieved? No. I feel kind of ashamed that the bank didn't want to give me more. I feel 'less than' and uncomfortable. sigh

Although the mathy geekiness is helping. Better tomorrow I am hoping.