In Living Color

This past Saturday I had the best time playing along with Ali Edwards in her Day In the Life™ project. Day In the Life is a one-day documentary project with the goal of capturing the mundane details of our ordinary lives. This year we were invited to see our lives through the lens of color which was a fun way to capture the story of my day. And in the process, paying attention to these kinds of little details brought me a whole lot of joy.

Here are the colors of this day in my life.

PINK

Right now pink looks like the neighborhood redbuds showing off with their vibrant magenta flowers and our backyard azaleas just about to burst open with their magnificent ruby blooms. Pink is also the color of my favorite hat (it always makes me think of that line from Steel Magnolias when Julia Roberts’ characters says “Pink is my signature color.”) and my current favorite sparkling water flavor.

RED

Right now red looks like juicy, ripe strawberries for dessert and bold tulips standing tall along the sidewalk that I spied while walking with Daisy. I also put out my hummingbird feeder this weekend – in my neck of the woods the general rule of thumb is to set it out when the redbuds blooms for any of the intrepid scouts scoping out food sources.

ORANGE

Right now orange looks like my first tulip to bloom in the front yard and a ‘spoon full of sugar’ (if you will) for my sweet little geriatric dog’s daily medication. Orange is also the the color of my current favorite cocktail – the aperol spritz! It’s a refreshing combination of aperol (an orange-flavored liqueur that adds a touch of sweetness alongside a balancing note of bitterness), sparkling wine, and club soda, and it was a delightful way to wind down after a very full day.

YELLOW

Yellow is the color of happiness and right now that looks like sunny colored daffodils in my garden and on my kitchen windowsill. It’s also the color of my “Saturday Coffee Cup”. This mug belonged to Tripp’s grandmother and was my favorite cup to use whenever we went to the lake. It’s super special having it as part of my mug collection now.

GREEN

Right now green is the color of the landscape coming alive. It brings me so much joy to see all of the trees and shrubs leafing out and the foliage of late-season daffodils jetting up above the soil. Green also looks like some added crunch to our lunchtime sandwich with a little old-school iceberg lettuce.

BLUE

Right now blue looks like my treasured collection of vintage Ball Mason jars that I display in the kitchen. Blue looks like a well-worn pair of sneakers in which I have probably walked a hundred miles around my neighborhood and nearby walking trails. The color blue also tells the story of a day spent catching up and cleaning house.

BLACK

Black is the color of my all-time favorite pen. Black is the color of the shovel and rich dark soil of the flowerbed that Tripp prepped for new shrubs. Black is the color of a cast-iron skillet full of shortbread biscuits for dessert. Black (along with its kissing cousin, gray) is the color of our adorable fur-babies. So thankful for the happiness and companionship they bring to my life.

WHITE

White has never been a go-to color for me – given the choice, I’ll almost always opt for color in clothes, garden flowers, or home decor. That is except in the kitchen where white is my color of choice for dishes and small appliances. I like how it feels clean and restful. White is also the color of my favorite kind of flour-sack kitchen towel (keeping one draped over the paper towel holder is habit leftover from a few years ago when paper towels were in short supply).

As I was going through my photos last night, a few things stood out to me about this project and the images I captured. Here were some of my observations:

• Observation #1: Saturday was a glorious Spring day which made it especially fun to capture all the beauty of this colorful, wonderful season. After enduring months of a drab, lifeless landscape, spending a day looking for color lifted my spirit and brought me so much joy.
• Observation #2: Except for my morning walk, a trip to the grocery store, and a neighborhood stroll with Daisy, I spent the majority of my day on Saturday in the house or in the yard. After an unusually busy season of travel the past couple of months that had left me feeling a little discombobulated, it felt really good to spend the day at home with no big plans.
• Observation #3: I found myself being stuck in my head alot on Saturday. Between troubling current events and a family friend’s health crisis, my heart was really hurting. And being in this state of mind often translates into me feeling disconnected and checked out. So as it turned out, this project was a therapeutic exercise in grounding which brought some much needed comfort and peace.
• Observation #4: I’ve been having a real go-around with my inner critic lately. There’s always a good dose of ‘my shit sucks‘ in these episodes, but lately it’s more about feeling like I have nothing left to say. Like I have no good stories left to tell. Like I’m a washed up after twelve years of blogging. But these photos and these stories prove otherwise.
• Observation #5: Projects like this are so good for the soul. The act of photographing itself is beneficial – mind, body, and spirit. But it is seeing my life reflected back to me in photos that fills my heart with so much gratitude.

As always, thank you for allowing me to share my photos and my stories with you.

Love, Kelly