I'm joining in with The Colour Collaborative for the first time and feeling quite honored to do so. This month's theme was Faded or Decayed. At first I chose Decayed right off the bat. I had intentions of writing about phases and stages, death and re-birth, renewal and all such heady stuff. However, due to an unfortunate misunderstanding with my photo card, you have been spared shots of crumbling stumps, rotting apples and my compost bin.
As I wondered what on earth I would do instead, I thought about the theme of Faded, then looked out the window and saw my old blue jeans on the line drying in the crisp November sunlight. Faded indeed!
And from this vantage point, staring out at my old pants, the line "feelin' 'bout as faded as my jeans" from the song Me and Bobby McGee came to mind. Then I hummed more songs to myself, like Faded Love.
It got me to thinking. Faded feels familiar; like music and songs that you have known forever. It makes me think of something well worn and comforting, in a way. Like my old blue jeans.
It takes a mighty long time to develop this sort of symbiotic relationship with a pair of jeans, one that makes them your favorite, makes them soft as cotton flannel, makes them fit as no other jeans have fit, makes them as cherished as jeans could ever be. This particular pair is giving up the ghost, yet I can't bear to toss them out. Surely with a bit more mending, a couple of extra patches, they might last another 6 months!
So for me, along with the blue tint that seems to permeate the light as evening comes on in late November as the day fades, blue is the color of my faded old jeans. Soft, familiar, and loved.
Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, including three from November's guest bloggers, just click on the links below ...
Sandra at Cherry Heart
Annie at Knitsofacto
Nina at Tabiboo
Gillian at Tales from a Happy House
Lori at Lori Times Five
Madelief at Madelief
What is The Colour Collaborative? All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.
11 comments:
this is really lovely and made me nod my head in recognition, i love your faded blue jeans hanging on the line and all your thoughts that go with it.
giggling about your photocard mishap too, oh not the mishap, hope it's okay, but sparing the rotting things. hee hee. :)
Hi Gillian,
It's my first time on your blog and it made me smile to see your old jeans hanging on the washing line. Your words sound familiar.
Like Lori, I don't mind you show us your jeans and not the rotting apples :-)!
Madelief x
Isn't it just the saddest thing when your favourite jeans 'give up the ghost'! It takes a while to get ones jeans to the correct level of faded -ness!
V x
Nothing is more perfect than a well loved, worn pair of faded blue jeans....lived in and sometimes (maybe just the once) slept in.
I love this take on 'Faded' and 'hello' a warm welcome to the colour collaborative.
Nina x
You've got me thinking of songs with the word fade in them now! 'Fade To Grey' by Visage came to mind first.
A song from the depths of my youth (that's fading away too). I'm hanging on in there though - a bit like your lovely jeans. Do what I did and make cushion out of them when they truly fade away. That way you'll have them always!
I've hopped over from other colour collaborative posts, and have started to follow you!)
Leanne xx
The problem with jeans is they only reach perfection moments before they die.
Your jeans look so comfortable.
Lovely, lovely faded jeans. I have a pair just as loved.
The thing I really love about the Colour Collaborative is the way we all find something so different, and yet always so instantly recognisable, to say about the same thing.
Loved this post Alex. It was an honour to have you guesting this month :)
I've visited your beautiful place before, but arrived here today via Annie, as I wanted to explore the various responses of the Color Collaborative.
I so identified with your response. Good fabrics in well made clothing (with or without designer labels) get worn a lot, and become more cherished as time passes.
Isn't it difficult to even think of not being able to wear something that has shared lots of days, weeks, months, even years with you?
It's been a delight to hip hop amongst the links to the Collaborative that Annie provided.
I look forward to returning here again.
You are so right about clothes that are faded but comfy, I to was nodding my head. It is really difficult to throw them away cos a new pair just doesn't fit the same does it.
Love your take on faded and how comfortable it is and what better than a favourite pair of jeans to illustrate that?
S x
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