Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. ~ Gore Vidal
Everytime I visit the library I come out with at least twice as many books I had been intending to leave with. It's been this way since I was a little girl and it will be that way until I am an old lady. At the last visit I grabbed Romantic Style off the shelf as I flew down the aisle - with a cover like that, how could I not? I would never have that much white, or that many roses, but flicking through the pages does feel a little like visiting a favourite Aunt who wants to sit me in the comfy chair, fatten me with cake, and tell me what a pretty wee lass I am.
Not coincidentally I had been reading Sam Gosling's book Snoop, in which he explains his research about the connections between people's personalities and their stuff. Bedrooms and bathrooms are the best places to find the truth, apparently. I loved the book, not least because of how it expanded my understanding of the people around me, but also because of the questions it asked me about my own personality. What would you say about me if you snooped around in my bathroom, my bedroom?
Not a lot. Quite disorganised. Decidedly boring. The love of books would sneak in, a teeny slash of colour here and there, but otherwise my house is the house of someone who wishes to make no mark at all. In all the many places I have lived my whole adult life, I have rarely, if ever, decorated anything inside of any of them. Given my love of colour and design, this is pathetic. Beyond pathetic to pathological. Am I afraid the style police will show up and imprison me for crimes against humanity if no-one but me approves of the shade of green I paint my living room walls? Probably. It's a concern.
It's a little bit gutless to try and make yourself so invisible that you offend no-one. And, as my friend Deborah likes to tell me, it can't be done anyway. I did know that. I just wasn't quite aware of it.
All of which to say, I quite like certain shades of green and purple, and lots of the pinks, blue in the right spot, and a very little bit of orange and yellow. Off white, some greys, teal for sure, but very rarely red or black. Also chandeliers. Just so you know. Just to give fair warning.
