Junk Love Monday: Blue Is Always The Answer

Seriously. Blue is always the answer. In fact, when the other Blackbird says "I've got a question for you," I love to make myself more endearing by always blurting out "Blue!" before she has a chance to finish. That narrow-eyed look that she bestows upon me in return is like butterflies in springtime....

She has always been a red girl, and I've always been a blue girl, and she loves blue and I love red, so our house is crammed to the rafters with both colors. There are many blues in our homemade color wheel, but turquoise and aqua get top honors. Oh, how I love thee! Let me count the ways....

From TheLovelyGreenWall on etsy

For the planter collection, I might need these Bauer bulb pots:

From SproutVintage on etsy

And, of course, we've gotta show some game night love:

From LittleBeachDesigns on etsy

Sparkly sunglasses!

From sunnyspex on etsy

For the deer collection?

From TheYellowWindow on etsy

As previously discussed on this blog, mid-century glass is always a weakness, and aqua makes it even harder to resist:

From Surfaced on etsy

The flower pin collection could use a giant addition (it's not really a brooch, but we could turn it into one):

From ellesh71 on etsy

And if our soulmate was a tablecloth, it would have to be a turquoise Vera:

From SugarLMtnAntqs on etsy

On the Radar -- Blue Balls

OK, so the blog title's a bit vulgar today.  But I had to do it.  Forgive me.
 

Sweet Paul magazine, Winter 2012

When I decided to talk about blue Christmas decorations, I couldn't go with the more obvious (and cliched) "Blue Christmas".  So, I went with the most Blackbird-girls-esque title I could think of -- and there you have it.  Blue Balls.

When we lived in Raleigh, we loved a local newspaper called The Independent.  It's one of the things we miss most about living there, along with Carolina Alehouse cheese fries.  Anyway, there was a hip, modern home decor store in Cary that ran a holiday ad in The Independent.  It read, in large letters, "We have blue balls."  And then underneath, in smaller font, it said, "and red balls and green balls and gold balls..."  It developed a life of its own with us as an inside joke, and every so often you may hear one of us say, "I love blue balls."  Please don't think less of us.  We know it's bad.

And again, sorry for the vulgarity.  But it is what it is.

We really do love them, though.  Our tree is pretty non-traditional (more on that in a later post), and we embrace the entire spectrum of colors.  But blue, especially turquoise and aqua, will always have a dominant role in our decorating for the holidays. 

From christmasdecorated.com

We were really excited to see soooooo much blue this year!  These are just some images to inspire you, and we really hope you give blue a try. 

From centsationalgirl.com

From Pottery Barn

From pampai.com

From Sweet Paul Magazine, Winter 2012

And don't worry, we'll show you our blue balls soon!  Stay tuned!

On the Radar -- Navy Chic

Jil Sander Fall/Winter 2012

If there's one definite thing we Blackbird girls recognize about our junk lovin', is that when we find ourselves buying and picking up certain things while we are out and about, then we're going to start seeing it EVERYWHERE very soon. Not that we're trend savants or anything, but we're pretty plugged in to the design world, both through television (Project Runway, anyone?) and other media, as well as what we see in the antique and junk retail world on a daily basis. And somehow all that we're seeing and hearing about trickles through our subconscious until it just suddenly becomes clear in our mind.

This week's On the Radar post is about our rediscovery of the color navy.  We had just such a moment of clarity with navy recently. We've been absently talking about navy to each other for months and months, but didn't realize until we went on a junk buying trip this summer, that we were buying many navy things. A navy hat here, three navy dresses there -- navy earrings, a navy purse, navy scarves...you get the picture. 

Hanova Pasadena Enamel Dove Bowl from MonkiVintage on Etsy

Navy really is an amazing color.  It looks great with everything.  Absolutely everything.  It seems less scary and less harsh than black; it can be both classic and modern, all at the same time; and it can be super dark and inky, or it can be a lighter, true blue navy.  It looks crisp with white, comforting with cream, sharp with metallics, and edgy with black.  Both of us Blackbird girls grew up with the hard and fast rule of not mixing navy and black together-- you have to find navy shoes to wear with that navy dress to church! -- but mixing them seems easier these days.  We like the combination now.  White shoes after labor day...well, that's another story...

Color Block Stripe Pillow by Jillian Rene Decor

But where navy can really start to shine is with other colors.  Couple a bright color with navy and you get something that is less graphic than black-with-a-bright-color, and maybe a bit more unexpected than black-with-a-bright-color.  Try navy with kelly green or yellow.  Go monochromatic with lighter and mid-tone blues.  It looks a little more like you really know what you're talking about, that you have that fashion know-how and you're not afraid to use it!

1980s Wool Devon Hall by Robert Paul Taboh Cropped Jacket in our shop.

You can find more of our navy inspiration here, in a new treasury we made on Etsy, or in our vintage shop!  You can also follow our pins for the blog on Pinterest!