Last week was all about Ellen’s love of color and her history as a budding interior decorator. And her concern that Ivy didn’t inherit any of her good taste…

Want to catch up? You can do so HERE.

To be honest, Ellen wasn’t overly concerned with Ivy’s future taste level. She tended to be a glass half full type and preferred to assume that everything would work out in the end. This was something that Carl found intensely aggravating at times since his glass was usually half empty. Not in a morose way though – more along the lines of fatalistic realism.

This tendency toward the practical also led him to be entirely skeptical of Ellen’s budding interest in the healing powers of crystals and her new business venture as a consultant for Color Magic. While the two weren’t at all related, she found a common thread in the power of color. Carl found a common thread in his opinion that both were “a load of crap.”

Ellen didn’t take offense to his wise cracks about the crystals. It was her own fault for taking him to Yes! Bookstore. After a half hour of browsing book titles ranging from tree singing to the lost art of macrame, Carl said the incense was giving him a headache and departed for a cafe around the corner. Ellen had sighed with rueful regret. He probably would have taken her more seriously if she had just brought books home.

She didn’t blame him for dismissing the shop as a throwback to everything he hated about the ’60s. Because there was a large element of that. But there were also some wonderful people there who believed in things that were ancient and solid. These old world traditions spoke to Ellen on a very basic level and she wondered if maybe it was something left over from a past life. Either way, she could sift through the book titles that held no interest for her like organic cooking (after the year of food exile, she never wanted to see a jar of wheat germ again) and numerology (anything that involved math was immediate anathema to her). The books she read about crystals, auras and meditation were fascinating – and she was never one to let embarrassment or stigma get the best of her. She liked to keep an open mind and felt it helped to see the world more clearly than the tunnel vision enforced in the house of her conservative parents.

Carl on the other hand, was more a of a big picture guy. He took in the god’s eyes on the walls and the spiky purple hair of the girl at the register and instantly formulated an opinion. But once he established that Ellen wasn’t actually interested in practicing Wicca, he just treated her new interests with polite disinterest. And he largely ignored the rainbow of crystals she brought home for different purposes. This lack of interest tempered with minimal interference made for an arrangement that like so many others, suited them both well enough.

The Color Magic business on the other hand was a different story. Because that involved a more significant financial investment.

Hopefully I’ll get back to this next Friday. I’ve started skipping weeks again…

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ELSEWHERE:

On Wishing True…

Beautiful Blue on Absolutely Beautiful Things

DIY Silhouette ideas

On Style Key West…

My Favorites from Liberty of London (not Target)