the importance of colour

Current work: revisions on Med book
Listening to: Kansas
Reading: Louise Allen, The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst (fantastic, so far – but then again, Louise never disappoints. Maybe should’ve saved this one as a carrot for doing revisions.)

Took the kids to see G-Force yesterday. Not bad, but we won’t be rushing out to get the DVD.

When DH came home, we went shopping for paint and I discovered to my dismay that Homebase no longer stocks Soft Jade. It’s still on the Dulux website; however, it’s not one of the ‘new’ colours, so I suppose that was why it wasn’t on the shelves. Too much of a faff to have the colour made up for us, so we picked another shade, which is a little darker (‘Blue Reflection’ – a pale teal) and came home to check it out: it’s also in the ‘calm blues’ section, so it should be fine (and, more importantly, work with my new duvet covers).

I could be a bit flaky here and talk about colour psychology. I did some quite interesting research on the subject for magazine articles, a few years back, and how colours can influence mood. I discovered a couple of articles yesterday which claim that yellow is not a good colour for walls. Apparently, babies cry more in yellow rooms, and people are more likely to argue in yellow rooms. There wasn’t any research in the article to back up the claims, though it’s probably linked to the idea of yellow being a mental stimulus. (Hmm. Had it been my article, I would’ve had an expert quote to back it up, and/or a reference to a research paper, because that statement needed qualifying. It’s also too sweeping, because the effect of the colour depends on the shade of yellow and the quality of the daylight in the room – whether it’s morning or afternoon light, plus the room’s orientation. Not to mention the fact that it looks different again at night, and that depends on the way the room’s lit – whether it’s harsh overhead light or muted by table lamps/use of uplighters. And it also depends on the colour of your furniture and flooring.)

We’ve chosen ‘Egyptian Sand’, which is pretty much what it says on the tin: a soft, sandy yellow. I think it makes the rooms feel large, warm and welcoming during the day, and cosy at night. (White ceiling, light oak flooring, terracotta soft furnishings with cushions to match the walls.)

Also arranged to swap the paint DH bought: the dreadful indigo is no more, and son chose a more sensible shade. (DH is trying to brazen it out, but he knows it was a mad decision and it will go down in family legend.) I guess I’m lucky son didn’t spot the metallic shades and ask for one of those. (Hmm. They were just starting to be trendy when I used to write for First Home, at the beginning of the decade. Am a bit surprised they’re still in.)

Other than that, lovely ed came back to me with revisions. It’s nice to be getting back to work; however, I must ignore the fact that I know she’s on holiday next week, or it will tempt me to be a lazy mare and do absolutely nothing for a few more days. I know it would be far more sensible to ease myself back in to work (and start using Lotus Organizer again, working to schedules and timetables - otherwise, tasks expand to fill the space and you don't get as much done). Just as I’m tweaking bedtime to get the kids back to sensible school bedtimes by Sept 4...

Plan for today: think about how I’m going to restructure the book, and maybe take the kids bowling. And I’m going to try a slightly different way of plotting – the sticky notes on a blank wall thing. Except I lose bits of paper (dog brushes against board, wags his tail, and sticky notes go missing), so I’m going use text boxes in Word. If I use a highlight on the text, I'll be able to see what I’m doing in two-page view – i.e. the same effect as using different coloured notes – and be able to shuffle things round. Not sure if it’s going to work for me (my instinct tells me it's likely to make me structure things with my head rather than my heart), but it’ll be good for me to work outside the box and try something different. And if it doesn't work, that's fine: I'll go back to my usual way of plotting.

Question of the day: how do you tackle plotting?