Colour Collaborative: June




 Birthday

The Colour Collaborative is one!

Yes, it was almost exactly one year ago today that the first of my Colour Collaborative posts appeared here.  It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed already.

So our theme of 'birthday' seems rather appropriate for this month doesn't it?

For me, at this time of year, birthdays are quite plentiful and they are mostly quite pink affairs.  We've had a few new arrivals in the family in recent years and these young additions have been girls with summer birthdays.  So pink cards, pink icing, pink wrapping tends to be the theme.

In fact, these days it seems practically impossible to buy anything for young girls in any other colour, except possibly purple.  Has this always been the way?  I'm sure I don't remember quite such a strong emphasis on 'girls things are pink, boys things are blue' when I was young.  You'd think things would be getting less that way in these enlightened times...




But I digress and anyway, I have to confess to being a bit of a sucker for pink myself.  Although I wouldn't call myself a particularly girly girl, I wasn't called a tom-boy as a youngster for nothing, I do often find that adding a little pink to most things tend to make me like it just that little bit more.

Maybe because I feel it's a happy colour.  Tickled pink, in the pink, they are quite happy associations aren't they?  Maybe that's why I think so.  Maybe because it adds a warmth without necessarily being as bold as a red or as bright as a orange or yellow.




Or maybe it's because it seems so versatile.  It works with bold colours, it works with pastels.  It works with cool colours and the warm ones.  It works with bright colours and I love how it looks with murky ones too.  Yep, I can definitely get onboard with a colour as adaptable as that.

Not everyone is a big fan of pink, I know, but perhaps because it can be used in so many ways and with so many other colours, it's worth a second look?




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Don't forget to check out the other great 'Colour Collaborative' blogs
for more of today's great posts...

Annie at Knitsofacto
Gillian at Tales From a Happy House
Jennifer at Thistlebear
Claire at Above the River


What is The Colour Collaborative? 
All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff.
Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together?
Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too.
We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination 
our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.


S x




Comments

  1. Oooh these are gorgeously pastel pinks!! My favourite kind of colour - sweet looking ice cream colours! I do understand the whole pink versus blue thing - I love bright clothes on young children but they only seem to be available from more expensive brands like boden rather than on most of the high street. I love the photos in this post though... yum! x

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  2. I am one of those souls who are not a fan of pink, but, it does work for me with green ;0)

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  3. Great cakes! My daughter's cakes have a definite pink there going on too. I really like the colour pink - now I think of it there are quite a lot of pops of raspberry or coral here and there around the house. And I love to wear pale pink, it's goes so well with denim for starters, and other neutrals like grey or cream. x

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  4. My father reported that when he was a babe (1911) pink was for boys, and blue for girls. Up until roughly that time there wasn't a color designation, and baby clothes were handed down to whoever was born next. The color/gender thing was invented as store-bought clothing became more common. That way, you needed to purchase all new things if you had a second child of the opposite sex.

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  5. I love pink and purple and lilac and always have. They are my happy soul colours. On the other hand blue of most kinds leaves me cold, literally it is so cool and uninviting it is off- putting. There are exceptions of course but I think I would find another colour if I had a baby boy. I like pink etc. because they make me feel relaxed, they are kind and soft. Pink is a loving gentle colour and appropriate for little children in my view and for anyone who still absorbs its energies as they get older. Boys get the short end of the straw and miss out greatly I think. We tell them many things are artistically inappropriate for them, soft colours being one, flowers being another. They have to wear only certain colours and be surrounded by subdued tones with dull stripes on their duvets and curtains . Natural likes and dislikes are not encouraged for them at all. No wonder men can't appreciate what women wear, we teach them not to!
    However, I love many colours across all palettes except very dark ones like bottle green, navy and black, which I find oppressive . Not a fan of stark primaries either as they have no depth of feeling, just blocky in your face colour. They make me feel uncomfortable, like being screamed at with no inner heart. On the other hand bright burnt oranges, reds, pinks and turquoise I love as they evocate heat and warmth and passionate feelings, pastels because they gently tune into emotions and sensitivities and earthy colours and greens because they are evocative of nature. I would never like or dislike a colour for the 'brand' it has been given but choose it on the basis of how it looks to me and how it makes me feel. How it makes me feel is most important of all.

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  6. I knew there were some of you out there! ;)


    Sandra x

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  7. Yes, I’ve heard that too. I think during the Victorian period too, pink was for boys as pink was seen as a strong colour. It makes sense that the shops would have to think of ways for us to spend more money - that certainly hasn’t changed!

    Sandra x

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  8. I love your descriptions of the feelings you get from each colour, a lovely comment, thank you. I agree boys get a very tough time of it on the colour front, it seems that a lot of the time they are very restricted in what is deemed acceptable and appropriate for a boy. I think we ought to fight back, more colours for boys - yay!

    Sandra x

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  9. Thanks! I’m not a great baker though and the ‘making the cake evening’ is not normally a great evening for me! ;) Funnily enough I’ve only just got a few more pink clothes now, I had a big blue patch for a while, but now the pinks are coming in.

    Sandra x

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  10. Those cupcakes look delicious! And I agree pink is a very happy colour and a birthday colour too. Happy Birthday Colour Collaborative!

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  11. Oh, I love pink! The new additions to our family - my Grandaughters are the colour pink too - the latest one will be here in a couple of weeks' time, though maybe sooner since her Mummy isn't confident she'll hold on for any longer than a week!Yes, pink for me is a sweet colour too and makes a change from all that boyish blue I used to buy all those years ago!Lovely post, Sandra. x

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  12. I loved this post Sandra, you've reminded me how I discovered pink one day after working in black for years. It seemed to me that it went with everything. It was a happy moment! I made a conscious effort to ditch black and find colours, starting with pink. It was my way of leaving the law office behind, which made me very happy. CJ xx

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  13. As Cally said, I like pink and green together as well. I do have some pink "things" my laptop case, water bottle and phone case, chosen mainly to identify them as mine and not hubbys as he would not really like to be seen with shocking pink items. I don't remember pink being such a thing as a child, but for some reason I remember a lot of brown, that could perhaps be due the fashions of the time when I was a child! All things come and go, I expect that pink will eventually fade to something else..... xx

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  14. Happy 1st colour collaborative birthday! I love these posts and this is no exception. I like pink, I particularly like to put it with green, and in my wardrobe there is quite a bit of pink (but only 1 green item). I also like my husband in a pink shirt or t-shirt.
    I love the colour bar on the Hello Kitty cake, although I would be more likely to actually use the colours of the multiple cupcake picture. You've got me thinking again..... I love it!

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  15. Love your pictures of pinkness, nice and cheery for a cold blustery day in sydney

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  16. Seu blog é lindo, tem alguns meses que estou acompanhando suas postagens, eu não sou fluente em inglês, mas só as imagens dos seus trabalhos me encantam, eu também faço crochê, me inspirei muito no seu estilo, penso em breve tentar fazer um blog com meu estilo de crochê. Caso você tenha alguma dica espero ansiosamente sua resposta, ah caso você não consiga saber de onde sou, sou do Brasil. Mais uma vez, Parabéns!

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  17. Hi Barbara,

    Thanks so much for your lovely comments, it’s lovely to hear from you all the way from sunny Brazil! Good luck with your crochet and your own blog. :)

    Sandra x

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  18. Thanks Ali! Yes pink and green is a good combo isn’t it? And yes, my hubs is fond of a pink shirt - I like them too :)
    Sandra x

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  19. Ah yes, good old 70’s brown and orange! You’re probably right, maybe the sugary sweet pinks and glitter will give over to something else as the 'must have' thing for small girls soon. It a way, I kind of hope so!

    Sandra x

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  20. Oh I can identify with that story, I had a similar moment of discovery. It didn’t rescue me from law office black, but certainly from bland office beige, with is quite bad enough!

    Sandra x

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  21. Ooo, congratulations on the new additions! Looks like pink summer birthdays will be in your future too! :)

    Sandra x

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  22. Thanks, but if only you knew how stressful ‘bake the birthday cake’ night gets in this house! It’s a wing and a prayer type time!

    Sandra x

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