Orange

Orange adds a fabulous punch of color to almost any room or design.

I was at a friend's recently renovated cabin where she kept the orange pendant light from the original decor. It stands out against the white and pale blue walls, so retro.

Another friend's house is mostly white; walls, furniture, accents, but she has a great orange library chair from Pottery Barn.

I too have embraced the orange. Bathroom and storage benches add interest in our otherwise white environment. When we were in Paris we went to Musee D'Orsay and bought a couple of postcards. This one by Meijer de Haan has the exact same color of orange that is in our bathroom. Love the coincidence.

Meijer de Haan

I think of how my dad's orange snowboarding coat stands out against the powdery slopes.

Mes parents et leur quilt

When I was making a quilt for my parent's 60th birthdays, I had to throw in a punch of color, orange of course, to offset the earthy blues, greens, and browns. Just like the lichen on the rocks in the valley.

Nature & Fashion

This summer Daryl & I went hiking with my dad in the Frenchman River Valley close to where I grew up. I was struck by the starkness and beauty of the hills, rocks, and foliage. The thorns on the Russian olive trees, the brightly colored lichen clinging to the rocks, the smell of sage bushes as we brushed past transported me to another time and place; the wild frontier or even the days of the dinosaurs.

It was the lichen though that twigged my memory to furniture and house decor from the '60's & '70's. The use of brown, orange, yellow, and green, sometimes to excess, enveloped a room. I came across a blog posting that sums up the 1960's design quite nicely, Retro Planet.

It is interesting to me how nature gets it right. The elements & principles of design, such as color, line, shape, texture, contrast, harmony, & dominance are inherent to nature or rather God, who is the masterful designer of it all. When I go to a lake, I don't think to myself, "A taller and bushier tree on the right shore line would balance out the picture" or "The birch tree trunks are too white and they don't compliment the coniferous trees." The delicate and intricate design of a butterfly or the flower clinging to life in the crevasse of a rock cause me to stand in awe of the Creator.

Ocean waves

This has been a camping summer so far. D & I are preparing to hike the West Coast Trail which has compelled us to be active. Neither of us have done multi-day hiking trips, so we have been doing our best to get in shape and test all the gear before hand. Our outings have taken us mainly to northern Saskatchewan and the 10  flights of stairs in our building. Several sections of the WCT takes you along the beach looking out at the Pacific Ocean. I am looking forward to the challenge and beauty of hiking 75 Kms of the WCT. More to come...

Thinking of the ocean and the water reminds me of the quilt that I made for my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. The bargello pattern creates fluid waves that tempt me to sail away on the ocean.

Coral sea quilt 2010