Let's Talk Color Blocking

Hello friends!

Today we're going to talk fashion. This is actually the second part of a Color Blocking post I started last week. I wrote the first "Intro to Color Blocking" for Fancy Little Things and you can find it  here.

The thing about color blocking that is possibly THE MOST IMPORTANT part, is color combination. There are some colors that should NEVER be paired together EVER. Take red and green for example. This is a color pair that is best left to ugly Christmas sweaters worn by kind teachers nation-wide (I think that teacher wear them, because the kids love them, and I think that's super sweet, so they're allowed the ugly sweater thing). Complimentary colors (with the exception of blue and yellow) such as red and green usually have too high a color contrast, and may look clash-y. Same goes for primary colors. For instance, pairing red, blue AND yellow all at once can give off the "under the big-top" effect...you know, like a clown's costume. However, if you change the hue of one or both it can sometimes work. 

In our example of red and green, you can change that to pink and mint. Or fuchsia and green and you would look spectacular:

WeHeartIt

And by changing the hues from primary to something a bit more interesting, the red, yellow, blue pairing goes from clown to cool in no time:

Atlantic-Pacific

A foolproof way to color block is to stick to one side of the color wheel.

For example: pairing blues and greens, 

Everyday Fashion

reds and oranges, 

via

pinks and red, 

Carolina Prep

orange and yellow:

Lookbook

In my opinion, you just need to play around with it. Find what suits you, and what compliments your skin tone and style. It may take some getting used to, but I'm sure with a little experimenting, you'll get there!

Lastly, there are a couple more color combos that I REALLY like and that I'll bet you'll like as well:

blues and greens (yes, I mentioned it above, but I really REALLY love it! same goes for pink and orange...LOOOOVE!)

Emerson Fry

orange and purple:

Me Edit

baby blue and hot pink:

Une Americaine

purple and yellow: 

The Glitter Guide

and blues and yellow:

trendystyle

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post. I am, by no means, the top authority on color blocking, but I love fashion and do my research, so I hope it was useful!

Another great and short little video on color blocking can be found here. It's not in depth, but it's short and sweet.

Enjoy!

xo, Dorian

Fat Quarter Bundle GIVEAWAY! $45 Value

Hi Friends!You are in for a real treat today! 

My lovely sponsors, the Fat Quarter Shop, have so graciously offered a super sweet giveaway to one of my followers! YAY! You lucky girls, you. I am green with envy ;)

If you don't know the Fat Quarter Shop, I seriously recommend you go take a look at their website, BUT NOT NOW! You'll get lost in the beauty and never come back to enter the giveaway. SO, enter first, run over there after, mmkay?

Besides having beautiful things, they often have discounts over on their Facebook page. And they are so super helpful. You all know that I wanna make a quilt this year, right? Well, I was stuck on what fabric I should use that was non-girly (house full of boys over here) and they were so helpful and directed me to a couple I LOVE.

So now I have to chose between these two:

  

<--Curio by Basic Gray (Seville Quilt) or Curious Nature by Parson Gray (Urban Grange Quilt)-->

BUT, that's not what you wanna know right now, is it!? I'm sure you're dying to know what YOU will be winning, right?

Well, take a look below:

Kim Knight's Blogger Choice Fat Quarter Bundle! 

You may know Kim from her site True Up, and if you do, then you know she has a great eye for beautiful fabrics. And the same can be said about this gorgeous bundle.

I am ABSOLUTELY in love with the colors, I feel like they are so on trend with Spring/Summer 2012. The corals and light mustard yellows paired with the grays and brown make for a striking but neutral-feeling combination, no?. When we (the Fat Quarter Shop and I) talked about doing a giveaway, THIS bundle was at the top of my wish list for you guys. SO happy one of you will get to win this and create with it!

You will be getting a total of 15 fat quarters in 12 prints and 3 solids, valued at $45!
Giveaway wil run from March 1st to March 15th and winner announced March 16th. So, go on, enter! There are 6 ways to win! Oh, and Good luck!


ENTER HERE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy Link Par-tay!

Hello Friends!

Guess what I'm doing today? Go on, guess!

I am co-hosting my first ever linky party!

The absolutely lovely Jamie Lyn from Crafty, Scrappy, Happy is celebrating her blogversary with a linky party to end all linky parties. Seriously girls, it's HUGE. And all you have to do to partake in the celebrations is link up something crafty...or scrappy...or just plain HAPPY (cute, right?)!

So please, let's celebrate! Go on and link up something you're proud of! I'm looking forward to see your fantastic-ness! (what? that's a word! LOL!)

Feel free to link up anything and everything Crafty, Scrappy and/or Happy!  No giveaways or etsy shops please.Check out other links, be inspired and make some new friends!Grab a button if you would!And check Crafty Scrappy Happy for features all next week!!!!

<center><a href="http://jaimelyn11.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/jaimelyn11/button4.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center>

"CREATE"

I've been into making jewelry lately. Which kinna weird to me, because it's something I never, in a million years, would have thought I would enjoy.
This is something a made just before Christmas for little ol' moi. But it's not all about me! I've also made a few others as gifts and what not. Anyway, I wore it quite a bit until I got a necklace from my hubby for Christmas that I have been wanting forever. I'll post about it later...it deserves it's on post :)

So here it is. A very simple "Create" necklace:

Isn't it sweet?

(FYI, Winter makes my skin look a sickly yellow...but trust me, I am not that yellow! I am more a sickly pale, ha!)

I wanted it to hit right between my collar bones and I wanted it to be understated in it's simplicity. I wanted the word to speak for itself,  ya know? Not a lot of embellishing to take away from what I love to do most..."create" Which is what I wanted this necklace to be about. My love for creating..

I also signed up for a Christmas gift exchange and used some of those little word oval things to make my partner some gifts:

This is an e-reader sleeve (but it can also hold a standard size Bible). I added the word "Inspire" because my partner was a teacher and their jobs is to inspire.

It had a top snap closure, to keep everything inside, which I embellished with some quick embroidering. Easy peasy.

LOVE the interior fabric! I found about 2 yards of it at the thrift store and have treated it like gold ever since! I save it and only use it for my most valued projects! I only have a little bit left, I so badly wish I had more :(

The interior has a small pocket.

I also made her a flower brooch:

Which I wanted to keep for me :)

And lastly, I made her this:

A tiny little drawstring bag. For what, you ask?

Why,I'll gladly show you! For this:

Her very own "Inspire" necklace!

This is her gift all together...looking all pretty and orange-y...

And this is how I send it to her, just some brown paper and simple green yarn. I would've used twine, if I had twine. 

She said she liked it...yay!
And, that orange material? That weird, vinyl, faux leather, plastic-y "fabric"? Yeah, it basically the devil. Super hard to work with. So even though I LOVE the sleeve, I may never make one. Ever again. EVER.


Oh, who am I kidding? I need one for my e-reader!


(the pics aren't the greatest. They were taken at night with only my overhead hallway light to help out! Boo to short winter days!)

In My Heart at This Moment

(this has nothing to do with crafting and I understand if you close this window at any time. I am writing what is in my heart and that may not be for everyone. But mostly I am writing what I needed to read)

via History 1900 

Do you ever have moments that your brain runs faster than your voice of reason? Or faster still, than your faith?

Often times my thoughts go off, and don't stop regardless of what I do to distract myself.

They race faster and faster to a place that is wrought with worry and fear, anxiety and panic, and before I know what's what, I'm sitting in front of the computer Google-ing things that are fuel to the flame.

If you're a mother, I'm sure you know what I mean. Every mother can get there with concern over her child. You know the "will he do well in school?" "will he make friends?" "will he be SCARRED for life because he watches TV while I cook dinner???"...and then the late nights "I should have done this..." "we didn't do enough of that..." "I shouldn't have done that other thing"...it never ends, the concern for our precious children. And this is true for all mothers. If you are never like this, I applaud you.and ask you....HOW? Whether the child is sick or not. Young or old. "Typical" or "special".  Mothers worry.  Heck...WOMEN worry.

via Media Cn

HOWEVER, I think that us "special" moms (meaning momma's of children with special needs) can get there more often and with far more speed. And with much scarier Google search results.

THAT'S when I cling to God and His truths. No amount of Google-ing and reading and studying, will cease the race of thoughts. Nor will they change the present or future. However, there is both comfort and hope in GOD.

via spiritual inspiration

I find solace in the words written in my dishevel old Bible. I find strength in the knowledge of having a God bigger than my fears. I find my faith again, in Him. I may not know what tomorrow brings, or what the next year brings...but HE does. And He cares. He cares SO much more than we give Him the credit for. He eagerly awaits for us to seek him, to talk to him, to hand Him our worries! Yet we keep them, hoarding them. Rather then putting them where they belong...they are poison in our hands and minds, but so small and benign in His. 

via There's No Greater Love...

I thank God because my son is progressing well, and is at this moment happy and without any serious concern. I know I am blessed with his health and joy. With his whole little being that is absolutely PERFECT in my eyes. And I know I have no reason to worry that is worth worrying about. Not right now. And even when I have and do...I have a God who is bigger than my problems can ever be.

via Kind Over Matter

JOURNAL SWAP

At the beginning of the year, the very lovely Aleks from Aleks Handmade had the AWESOME idea to do a journal swap! How fun, right? Basically, we would each be paired up (at random) with another lady who signed up and then we would make/embellish/cover a journal in a way that would be all her. The idea of getting a journal customized for me was super excited. HOWEVER...The idea of customizing a journal to perfection for someone else was DAUNTING! 

Anyway, I signed up and got the sweet Laura from Along For The Ride. I began the serious task of blog stalking her, researching her boards on Pinterest and basically being a creeper. LOL! 

THIS is what I came up with:

It was based on this free printable I found on her boards:

found via IROCKSOWHAT

She had at least TWO variation of that saying, and her blog name is similar so I thought to myself "self, it seems like she likes that quote"...so I went with it!

I used a beautiful fabric from one of my favorite fabric "houses", Echino which is now mostly sold out, but you can see more from that collection here. And for the embroidery, I used a fabric pen to free hand the letters in and then went over them with the thread an needle. 

It ties closed, to keep everything neat and tidy:

An inside look:

I also send her a Sharpie in a coordinating color because, really, there's nothing better to journal with! The one I send her was a dual tip...extra thin to write with and the regular one for sketching or what not.

This is what it looks like off:

And in case you wanna know, I bought this generic sketch book at Wal-Mart for under $7...

I was SOOO nervous to send it to her and really hoped she'd like it. She got it yesterday and said that she LOVES it! ( I may or may not have almost made her tear a bit...YES! LOL!) I am so so so happy she liked it...a lot of love went into it and I hope and pray she fills it with wonderful memories.

***I did NOT use a tutorial. I actually TRIED using one and ended up completely messing up my first attempt at the cover. It didn't fit right, or look right :(. So I started again, from scratch, and kinna made up my own way to do it. I didn't make a tutorial along the way, but I had a request for another cover so I could make a tute, if you're interested. (and ps...the first cover I made I will be using...it's not soo bad, just not good enough to give away!)

And know for the best part...WHAT I GOT!

My partner was the beautiful Natassia from Nat's Knapsack. She claims she not an artist, but I think the journals beg to differ! So beautiful!

I got THREE lovely journals, each loving hand painted and recovered by Nat:

The back flap has a slot to store extra papers:

Let me show you them, one by one.

The first (and my fav!) is this yellow and pink one, I am in love with the dainty, artsy little flower!

She even made a bookmark to go with it!

The next one is the blue and green one...I am loving the yellow flowers on it!

And since she's so great, she made me a coordinating bookmark for this one too!

Isn't it sweet?

And last but not least, the one I call the "Love" one...

The inside is decorated as well:

And the bookmark for it:

This is one of my all time favorite verses, so it was really special that she included it.

The best part is that they're a great size!  They're about the size of a wallet, so I can carry them where ever I go without adding extra weight and bulk to my bag! With a baby, I need all the space I can get!

And lastly, the lovely Aleks (the coordinator of the whole shindig) sent us each a GORGEOUS personalized bookmark:

Isn't it so pretty?

And look at what she added just above the flower:

I just love it and will be using it with my bible! 

A huge thank you to Aleks and Nat! You girls are awesome!

I am linking up over at Aleks journal swap linky party here.

Thank you for reading this loooong loooong post! Have a super awesome day!

Linking to these parties! Come on over and join!