inviting rainbows

i've always loved color but there was a time when i wouldn't admit this. well, i mean there was. like in kindergarten. i loved the color red and the color pink and probably purple and orange and green, too. then one day my mom sent me to school outfitted in brown. dark brown cords with a matching shirt and light brown sweater vest. i thought it was the most hideous outfit and i got into trouble that day thereby associating the color brown with being grumpy and sad and other unpleasantries. by the time i was in fifth grade two very extreme ends of the spectrum became popular: pastel and neon. hated them both.

pretty soon i was old enough to wear black, almost entirely, save for stripes on my stockings or streaks in my hair. when i grew up or out of that phase i still heard, from many people, that i needed to add color to my wardrobe. i started small by incorporating earth-tones. my wardrobe was suddenly very full of olive green and who would have guessed? brown. brown became my new black but it gets boring, going on nearly a decade of being a brown and green girl and i am slowly adding a variety of colors back into my wardrobe. okay, not a variety, mostly teal and purple, really, but i do have some fuschia keen mary janes and some rust orange born flats that i wear sometimes just to brighten things up.

it's in my home that i feel i can really express myself equally in the small details and the big, bold splashes of color without feeling like "they're all going to laugh at me."

it is in my home that i invite rainbows. not gonna lie, rainbows make me smile and the older i get the more i need to surround myself with things that make me smile inward, as well as outwardly.

when i was younger there used to be a little gift shop that sold rainbow painted ceramic hearts.
my grandma bought me one when i was really little and i still have it.

it is now hanging in my bathroom window.

our playroom is generally full of color but we recently added a 10-drawer rainbow cart to the mix and it pulls one side of the room together quite nicely, adding a happy touch to storing paper and other homeschooling supplies. there's just something about bright rainbows that's so cheerful.

for christmas i picked up two happy eyeshadow kits from stila and tokidoki, a big jewelry box to store my make-up with rainbow-colored circles all over it (my plan was to cover it all up with scrapbook papers but it's totally growing on me...you can see it peeking out from behind the eyeshadows), some pixi endless silky eyeliner (LOVE them!) and some pixi mascara (not a fan). i had all this new pretty eyeshadow with no applicators but a few days after christmas i found a rainbow colored set and of course i had to get them. now, even if i'm just applying brown or green eyeshadow, it feels more cheerful :)