PINK ❤❤

May 05, 2014

I have always been a real girlie girl. For as long as I can remember, I have been a devoted ballet dancer (still am!), had long straight hair (still do!), loved flowers, tea parties, and particularly LOVED pale, delicate pastel colors over bright colors (still do!), so it is amazing to me that I have never liked the color PINK! Until now...

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Decades ago a little shop opened up in Malibu, the beach town I grew up in, called Shabby Chic. I went inside one day

to check it out and my whole world changed, I had found my Holy Grail. The store was filled with beautiful delicate

vintage floral patterns on fabrics, sheets and bags, there were pale pastel colors everywhere, ruffles, flowers, vintage furniture, and whitewashed beach white (aka “distressed”) on tables and chairs. I had found Shangri La. For me, Rachel Ashwell created the perfect blend of feminine beach style and vintage, that suited my girlie girl personality, and I LOVED IT! I spent many hours in that shop in Malibu (and Santa Monica),

and many paychecks too, buying sheets, rugs, fabric, pillows, and even saving up for the perfect –all-white (natch) loveseat. Of all the things I bought at the Shabby Chic Stores, my favorite item was a Shabby Chic Beach Bag, which I still have and worship today, and I consider it “Shabby Chic Vintage”, since I bought it in the 90’s. Ever since that first day I stepped into that store in Malibu, my personal style had a name: SHABBY CHIC. But amazingly enough, even though my home was now covered in Shabby Chic , I always stayed away from the color PINK which wasn’t easy to do either, since that pale PINK color is practically Rachel Ashwells Signature Color. But, since green is my favorite color, I was drawn to the lovely honeydew pale green colors that Shabby Chic had, as well as the pale blues and yellows. Never PINK. If I think about it, I’ve never had any PINK clothing either. With my dark hair and perpetual beach tanned/sunburned skin (back then…) it just didn’t look good on me. But last year I had a change of heart. I don’t know what exactly came over me but I began to think PINK. I think it must have begun with my ETSY Shop, Wandering Mermaid, when I started to get a lot of Special Requests for PINK items, usually for a wedding bottle or Faery item, and I realized I did not have any PINK at all on anything in my shop! I started to make several special request PINK items, and they looked really lovely so I decided to give PINK another chance. Slowly but surely PINK began to show up in my wardrobe too, first a nice pale PINK cardigan sweater and then a cute little PINK peasant top for summer, and then… the big turning point happened this past Christmas while I was in San Francisco with my good friend Joy.

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Joy and I were doing a little shopping in Union Square and popped into Macy’s to take a look at some bags and purses. I went straight over to the Kate Spade counter. Kate Spade is the only designer I really like and I think I am drawn to her as a kindred spirit as she is a watercolor artist and a mom and VERY fond of purses! A perfect match for me! As I entered the Kate Spade counter at Macy’s there it was….a beautiful pale PINK bag. It was love at first sight. I went right over to it, saw the cute striped interior, noticed it was a perfect size for me, and I decided and had to have it. And so my PINK obsession begun.

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So, of course, what happens in my life always spills over into my work, and off I went to the art shops, vintage shops, and fabric stores for inspiration and supplies. Now my studio is filled with PINK! So watch out for the new pale PINK faery things popping up in my ETSY shoppe. At the moment everything is Prettier in PINK!