Colour week - orange sings a happy song

Orange is the happiest colour.

Frank Sinatra

(1915-1998)

Yay for orange day! Orange is oft quoted as being people's least favourite colour but it's one of my three favourite favourites. To me it's vibrant, creative and a colour that sings a bold and happy song.  Which is why it's the colour of my blogging space. I also wear quite a lot of it and it has crept into my home decor too, providing little pops of colour that always lift my spirits. I tend to be drawn towards the richer, golden and amber oranges rather than the bright citrus-y end of the spectrum but wherever it sits in the range, orange makes my heart sing right along with it.

~ open shelves in my new kitchen provide storage for my amber glasses and orange tealights, which make their way down onto the dining table for some meals. I love coloured glass and have a small but precious collection of it - precious only to me, not in actual material value, because for years and years it was a no-go area or one to be argued over. Glass was clear, shirts were white, shoes were black... It's a long story. I won't bore you with it. I just celebrate now that I can have glasses in any colour under the rainbow I like. And I do.

~ I am not a coffee drinker. Tea is my thing. But, whilst living in Italy for some years I did develop a taste for the occasional really good cup of caffè and more especially a little caffè espresso or caffè macchiato. These beautiful demitasse cups and saucers were a gift from a special friend for my fortieth Birthday some years ago.  I love not only to use them when that occasion arises but also to look at them when they are not in use. SO pretty.

~ This little floor cushion in front of the french doors in my living room is one of my favourite spots to sit, especially when the sun streams into the room in the afternoon and creates a sunspot that my feline sensibilities are drawn to. I was hoping to catch it in the sunlight but unfortunately we haven't had any in the past few days, so I'm afraid you'll need to use your imaginations on that one for now.

~ Another section of one of the pinboards in my kitchen. It was not designed to showcase orange, but there it is... in postcards from friends, flyers for upcoming musicalparkpicnic opportunities, an invitation to a wacky wig party that I'm attending on Friday, and even in the sarong that I'm wearing in the photograph of two of my siblings and me on a beach in our home town... happy oranges, all.

~ every girl should have a basic set of tools and these are mine. Thank you Ikea, provider of everything I never know I need until I wander through that marketplace of yours (the orange candle on the coffee table in the photograph above was acquired this way too now that I think about it - that mountain of scented candles near the exit catches me every time). As you can tell, this is not the most sophisticated of toolkits but does most things I need to tinker around with myself and I love that they are encased in orange.

So there we are... orange in my apartment, adding warmth and comfort. Not all there is, but those that popped out when I looked around quickly and a little orange goes a long way. I did look for bits of yellow too - as this is yellow and orange day - but yellow is not really a colour I have in my space... strange.

Off to explore the other colour-weeker's offerings for today. Hope you're having a happy, orangey Wednesday! See you tomorrow for a little purple-shmurple...