Two Ads I Loved from Super Bowl Sunday

I had an ideal Super Bowl Sunday for me. Too much really poor food, but it was all tasty. A game that was interesting, because the players just weren't able to actually score much until the final quarter of the game. A couple of cups of tea with rum in the later afternoon, and even though DH was crabby, he just stayed quiet instead of trying his best to pass on his mood to me. All things considered, despite the fact that I gained three pounds from poor food choices, it was a glorious day. 

Although there was more than one Bud Light Corn Syrup commercial,
I really loved the one where the King and his top dudes go from
brew to brew to find out where the syrup was supposed to be
delivered. 

There's something freeing about not caring which team wins. It lets the observer ignore teams and concentrate on plays and players, and that was a lot of fun. Some of the commercials were excellent. I loved the Bud Light corn syrup delivery commercial as well as the combination ad of Bud Light Knight's defeat at the tournament and the flaming dragon from Game of Thrones burning the arena up. The Stella Artois commercial was sweet and had a kick, and the Microsoft "equipment for everyone" commercial wasn't bad. On the other side - the worst commercials were the "Chunky Milk" and the "Buble" commercial which starred Michael Buble. Just my opinion, though. 

Carrie Bradshaw and "The Dude" both shocked the restaurant by
foregoing their usual drinks in favor of Stella Artois. It was
a very well done commercial. 

Driving our roads is supposed to be a bit rough this morning, so I'm going to wrap this up a bit sooner than usual. I don't want to be rushed as I head across town to my bi-monthly Chiropractic appointment. I can hope the weather didn't actually make the roads icy, but I'd rather not be rushed into making poor decisions. 

Have a totally excellent Monday and I'll return tomorrow. 

Sleep, NaNoWriMo and Get Ready To Vote Tomorrow

Did all of my US friends enjoy their extra hour of sleep on Saturday/Sunday? I managed to indulge in about 30 minutes of the additional 60, which for me is pretty good. Then I settled into resetting all of the clocks that don't auto-set and started a long day of football, LOTRO, working on my holiday cards and more football. All in all, it was a really nice day - even when I temporarily broke the downstairs television by pushing some unknown button or combination of buttons. It took DH about 20 minutes to get it working properly again. I guess I can work with computers, but TVs mystify me. 

I wish I was doing NaNoWriMo this year. I've had a story perched in
my brain for a few months now and NaNo would help me flesh it
out and see if it could go anywhere. But November is way too
hectic to indulge in writing. At least it is this year. 

I know several of you are doing NaNoWriMo this year and I wish I was joining you, but no. I'm not that much of a fool. My time in November is always so constricted and I have too many things on my plate to indulge in writing 50,000+ words during the month. I enjoyed it during the years I was a participant, though, and I still enjoy the daily NaNoWriMo comic which arrives in my in-box every morning. I hope all of you participating succeed in your personal goals. 

Sales of e-books have been increasing annually while those of
print books have been decreasing. In 2017, the sales of e-books
surpassed that of print and audio formats for the first time. 

Writing usually requires some imagination and the ability to put characters, scenes and occurrences into a coherent form for an end reader you've never met. Not so easy, really. I think most authors write because they have to - there's a bug under their skin that becomes unbearable if they don't write. But the audiences they target with their words are different. Not everyone is interested in every genre and not every author's words will resonate with everyone. That's OK. With e-book formatting and self-publishing working alongside the more traditional publishers and hard-copy with the additional format of audio available for all, there's a book out there for everyone and an audience for every author. 

The ads are obnoxious and non-stop. At this point, I think over 90% of
the ads on TV are political. SO ANNOYING! 

So, I hope you all have a wonderful Monday. Don't forget to build voting into your schedule tomorrow if you live in the US. My morning will be totally messed up because of voting, but DH and I want to be at the polls when they open tomorrow morning and just get it out of the way ASAP. I'm hoping we get some time away from political advertising on the television. It's been non-stop and I hate them all! I'm going to swim out some of my election ad frustration and then try to have a good day at work. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Colors that Pop - Working With Color in Your Life

I had so much fun looking at the Pantone colors with all of you yesterday, I thought I'd take one more day to explore color in a slightly different manner. Color can influence so many things in our lives; primary among those for me is mood. I can change my mood by changing the colors I'm wearing. I make my living with color and I'm very, very good at bringing disparate colors together into harmonious palettes. I watch customers struggle with color every day. I have some suggestions for those of you having difficulty with color palettes.

Step away from your screen and look at this. The colors strike in the order
of that rich golden yellow, then the red which also has an orange undertone
in the car, and finally the green shirt on the driver. Everything else is
neutral and background. The ad, although it has vintage elements, is from 2013. 

Look through the magazines. Don't care about the items or what is being pictured, you're looking for colors. See an ad you like? Tear it out and keep it handy. You don't have to like or recommend the product to love the colors that appear in the ad. People go to school for many years to learn high levels of design which are then used for advertisements. Take advantage of their skills and use them in your own work and wardrobe.

There were many different paintings I could have chosen for color - there are
quite literally millions to choose from. But I chose George Seurat's "A Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" because the colors are so wonderful.
Look at his choices in the lilacs shades closest to the front. Then compare those cool
colors to the warmer reds, oranges and yellows of the sun baked grass
farther back. It's a masterpiece, and it can help you choose complimentary colors
of your own. 

Do you see a painting that you just love? Maybe it's not just the image, but also the colors used that are pulling you to it. Often an artist will be able to differentiate different levels of color than the viewer. Again - take advantage of his or her expertise and use their palette for your next choice.

A wall of paint chip samples just makes me drool - they are so beautiful
and so well organized and orchestrated. It's like looking at a box of unused
water colors or pastels *sigh*. A lot of people are making 'art' from cut
paint chip samples. To me that's a bit more like kitch than art, but to each his own. 

Can't decide on a shade to go with that perfect blue? But you know you want a lavender or a pink (or choose any other color you desire), visit your local hardware store. Do you see their paint department? It's color heaven. Choose some of the paint chip color cards to take with you. They're free and the colors are bright and vibrant - pure colors, in essence. Often they will help you decide between similar shades when you put them up to your clothing.

The newest colors introduced a month or so ago are Tangerine and
Iridescent Green. Why do they title them 2015 colors when we're
only in year 2014? Because they always position themselves a year
ahead. This gives designers a chance to get the colors into their
pieces and lines well before the color hits the fashion world. 

What to do about your jewelry? I run into this dilemma twice a year when Swarovski introduces their new crystal and pearl colors for Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer (plus - they always announce them a year ahead of when they expect those colors to hit popularity). But after all this time, I've also grown to understand the company. They work in triads. It might take a year or two (or even more) for the triad to become complete, but it always comes together in the end. The newest colors for 2015 Spring/Summer were Tangerine which works beautifully in the Sun to Red Topaz group, and Iridescent Green which shines with Lumine Green and either Light Olivine or Khaki. I'll be recommending these triads to my customers, and when it comes to your clothing, having that third color in a scarf or blouse can sometimes really make the grouping sing.

This lovely cartoon by Marty Coleman, the Napkin Dad, fully expresses
my general feelings about shopping. Thank goodness my own shop deals
with color, technique, and creativity.  

So, on that fashionable note (from someone who actually abhors shopping so much that I don't do new clothes until old ones die), I bid you a wonderfully colorful Thursday.