Thankful #29

How could I not mention my favorite color?  I am thankful for pink.  It is feminine and soft and makes me feel pretty.  I love how I look in the color pink, and I love how I feel.  I love pink!

Pink

The word pink dates back to the 1570s, when to pink was to create a small cut or perforation, such as on a decorated edge (think pinking shears).

The story of pink’s link to color is an incredible story of linguistic conversion. That’s the concise way to say the word started out as a verb, became a noun, and, after that, an adjective.

The Dutch associated pinck oogen, “small eyes,” with the small, delicate flowers of the carnation, whose petals look distinctly perforated or crimped. This lead to pink’s association with two more ideas: the color of the flower and the idea of the flower as perfection. Perfection is what Shakespeare’s Mercutio is referring to in Romeo and Juliet when he says, “Nay, I am the very pink of curtesie."

At the point where scholars pinpoint the first attribution of pink as a color, around 1681, people could not stop talking about it. In Elizabethan England, pink hose were all the fashion for men. Fortunately, Sumptuary Laws which determined the color of clothing people wore by their social status, made pink available to both the upper and lower classes.

In the 1920s pink started to be used for the marketing of products for boys. The color association was considered appropriate for boys, full of energy, not yet mature enough for the full heat of the color red. Conversely, baby blue was associated with girls as a soft, mild color, and one strongly associated with the Virgin Mary. Post-WWII these associations switched, with pink directed at products for girls and blue for boys

Pink

I love the color pink. I always have. But there was a time that I got teased, a lot!, for liking and wearing pink. So I stopped. But a few years ago, I decided that yes, I like pink and that's okay. When I am wearing pink, I feel pretty and feminine, even when I am 9 months pregnant! This picture was taken 1 1/2 weeks before k was born.



One year, as I was putting up my Christmas tree, I was in tears. The tree was a hand-me-down and so straggly and ugly. So for my birthday, Tom bought me a new, full tree and told me to go buy decorations for it. I found the most elegant pink ball ornaments and it blossomed from there. Come over at Christmas time and you will see what I mean. I love my pink decorations!



My family and friends have all gotten in on the act. They all know how much I love pink, and they help me embrace it. Because my birthday is just before Christmas (December 19th), my dad, every year, has bought me a poinsettia. Well, he has even started buying me pink poinsettias. They are so pretty. These are my birthday presents from last year. Notice how much pink there is! I even received a pink cutting board and paring knife!



So of course I was thrilled to finally have a girl and see some pink in the laundry! And k is such a girly girl too. She loves to wear pink and dress up as a princess. I have multiple pictures of her in her pink outfits, far too many to post here. Come on over and I would love to show them all to you! For a long time, that was the only color she owned. I still prefer her in pink, but I now have her in a few other colors, too.




For Halloween, I made her a SuperGirl costume, pink of course! It was so much fun, and she absolutely adored it!
So yes, I love pink. And I love being a girl.