FROM MY FAVE COLORS TO THE POWER OF PURPLE by Lois M. Valentin
Throughout my life, color has played a role in my attitude and inspiration. When I was a child, I had light blue walls in my bedroom . My fave color was from the rays of sun combining with the dust particles on the sun beams shining in my room and reflecting on the wall and floor. They glistened.
I also like the colors I see when my eyelids are closed yet I am looking at color.. Seems like psychedelic patterns emerge. Often it reminds me of my hippie pants that were blue, green, orange, pink, and white stripes.
I made a purple and lilac bedspread for my 1st new bedroom set when I was 16. Unfortunately years later , a fire caused by neighbors children playing with matches caused me to lose most of everything just weeks after I moved from my mom's to my 1st apt. and weeks before I had my son.
When my children were very small, Sam, my wonderful landlord, let me paint or paper as long as I paid for it. The living room was the focal point. One time I painted the walls salmon orange, then put a mural of an orange tree in one corner of the room. Orange was my fave color- at that time.
Since my red sofa clashed, I made sofa and chair covers . One time all yellow. Another time brown and yellow print with flowers that matched the salmon orange on the wall. I even made vinyl plastic slipcovers. That was my 1st and last time. Never sit on them in the heat of summer.
One time I had a black vinyl sofa . I put up wallpaper with medium green ferns with a beige background. I made a gorilla costume for me which I used on Halloween. But at that time, the gorilla sat on the couch in front of the ferns so he looked like he was in the jungle.
My bedroom was medium blue and white which matched my floor.
As time went on as did places of living, my room became a haven of lilac and white. Besides working , going to school, raising my children, and volunteer in the community, I did find time to sew.
Moving seems to have been happened way too many times in my life. I always wanted a Campbell Soup kitchen with the Soup kids on the wall as cup holders .Black and white checked floors so I could create large checkers and play on the floor with my grandchildren. .. But that never happened. The closest I got were mugs and decorations. Now things are beige - very boring, not inspiring. Been like that for the past few years no matter where I lived.
My dream is to have my own place. A place that has storage and is filled with color. A place where I can get my grandchildren's swing set out of storage, paint it a new bright color, and place it next to my colorful house. . A place where I can have veggie and flowers gardens filled with color- almost like taking Farmville 2 and putting that into reality.
Years ago a fortune teller told me that someday I would have a large place with each room a different color. I am still waiting. I am also waiting for the green.
My blogger page GrammieLois'sOffice is lilac and white. I love lilac. Inspiration to a point.
Just days ago , an unexpected inspiration came along. Now I am all fired up to create again. On Facebook, a wonderful person posted a pic of a super large kitchen of bright purple, white and silver. My heart danced. I felt ALIVE. I felt powerful. I felt like ME . Me who used to have so many creative messages on my answering message that a certain Lawrence politician used to call just to listen to the new one of the day.
Now I wish I had a large pic of that kitchen sitting on my desk or at my sewing machine. Now I have to just find the post and look at it every day .
Now that I am more inspired, maybe I can figure out how to get that green paper that we all are looking
for . Or the pot of gold. That way I can get that powerful kitchen of purple.
Until next time,
Lois
