Just a thought....
Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Raw umber


Not my photo - photographer unknown


One of my most treasured childhood possessions was my box of Crayola crayons. As I sit here, I can feel the textured paper clinging to the silky-smooth wax. My box of crayons was always perfectly arranged in colour order. I loved the colours, but, I think, more than the colours, I loved their names. Aquamarine, Indian Red, Prussian Blue, Forest Green, Raw Sienna, Brick Red... names that fire the imagination. So many of my colour references today are from Crayola. Raw umber and burnt orange were my favourites. I loved the way the names rolled off my tongue.

Now I'm no shopaholic. In fact, I don't like shopping, especially when it's for myself. Where I'm sitting, though, is a shop boasting a cardigan in a perfectly exquisite burnt orange. Good thing that it's about four sizes too small for me.

I finally managed to finish my Worcestershire sauce book today. That is, after the smell dissipated enough for me to be able to carry it with me onto public buses and into classes.

If you could have one super power, what would you want? I would love the ability to heal or comfort with just a touch - where words are superfluous and reasoning an unnecessary extra. On the other hand... the ability to teleport would have been very useful today *sigh*

13 comments:

  1. Hmmmm...food for thought! Very colorful blog! hahah, bad pun, I know.

    Raw Sienna always bothered me a bit, not sure why.

    Super power...hmmmm....flying. Is that a power? No? Um....exploding pedophiles with laser vision.

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  2. Crayolas!!! I still love a full, new box. Every year for Xmas, I sent my nephew the "big box" of Crayolas. It was something he expected and looked forward to, which I found endearing. I sent other things too, but my sister told me that was the one thing he looked for, every year.

    I can also identify with the names...a blast from the past, Tint. A full box of sharp crayons was feeling RICH!

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  3. I remember in first grade being in love with magenta and turqoise. Great fat crayons that made me feel rich when they were in my hands. Burnt Sienna was one I just loved to say too.

    A super power.....healing powers would be grand. I would like to read minds. I feel much too trusting, too gullible and know that people don't always share their needs or what's most important to them.

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  4. *LAUGH* Oh man this was awesome. hahaha. A lesson in packaging. :)

    I really love the way you write, Tint. You have a beautiful style that is so easy to read and to allow oneself to settle into as if they are the writer.

    One superpower. Hmm. To communicate with animals. Does that count? :)

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  5. LOL I still have a box of perfect crayola crayons I cannot bring myself to use so I can just drool over the colours. Funny the things we carry with us. They were so expensive and such a big treat and I think my Mom used to tear her hair out at me because I used mine up. My brother could never be bothered. I always used to steal his reds because those were the colours I used up first. I still have a thing for red! :-)

    Superpowers.... Your 2 sound pretty cool ones to have, though sometimes I would love to read minds and become invisible man so I can check things out without anyone knowing I am there. I suspect that though is a superpower that would do my head in. Too much information is not always a good thing! :-)

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  6. I love crayons, and am a little sad that my kids aren't using them much anymore, so there's not a need to buy a new box at the beginning of the school season.

    I would love to fly, or breath underwater.

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  7. Mmmm Crayola!!! There isn't much better (though there are these totally cool pixelated lookin' crayons that are scenteeeed and they make SUCH cool designs!) and I love love love a box of new ones. It's like opening possibilities! Small Thing loves new crayons too, even though she has scads and scads of used ones. *laughs

    I had this case of crayons (it was an old plastic suitcase that used to be a "play doctor" kit from aaages ago) and I always remember the waxy smell and the weird designs the unwrapped crayons would make on the inside. So cool!

    Superpower? The ability to generate the perfect cup of coffee with a single twitch? (though it'd have to be a unique twitch, or I'd be leaving cups of coffee everywhere)

    No, uh, really... hmmmmm.... maybe if I could fly, I would get over the whole vertigo thing?

    i think I'd want to have a magic wand though, more than a super power. To have an utterly Fantastia-esque Mickey Mouse moment!

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  8. Nanna always had a massive butter tub filled with Crayolas and colouring in books for us. We always used to fight over who got the metallic ones (which were always disappinting when you used them). I still remember my horror at seeing a friend peel the paper off and sharpen the other end! Unbelievably heinous.

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  9. ONLY ONE superpower? I'd like the ability to never NEED to sleep...but to sleep only when I wanted to, and for as LONG as I'd want to as well. Some days, no sleep-others, oh maybe 18 hours or so. I suck at sleeping in (if you've noticed with my wish)... I can't go past 8:30.

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  10. Super Power, I'm not sure about but maybe an extra dose of confidence trying new things but then confidence grows from stepping out in faith . I would like to be able to transport to Marquette MI where I grew up at any time. I get so homesick for family and the place..I love it

    I love the crayons. I still love crayons and artistic things. Worcestershire sauce book ? :-)

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  11. Gosh, I've been slack with keeping up with blogs. My excuse is that it was a crazy week.

    Sandy, I'd like to fly. I have a broom. I just need to know if there's parking on the other side.

    Kat, what a great idea for an annual gift! I loved, and still love, a box of new crayons.

    Jules, just the word 'magenta' has a certain magic to it... and 'turquoise'. I'm not so sure I want to read minds. I may learn things I don't want to know =/

    Kippy, I thought you'd enjoy the Worcestershire sauce saga ; ) Your super power comes as no surprise, but then, I think it's a power you may even have already without knowing it.

    Eileen, you still have a box? And red, yes... using that one up comes as no surprise too ; ) I agree on the 'too much information'. I don't think I *want* to know.

    Faye, that is so true... the kids today don't colour in much. Thankfully, Tatiana has inherited my love of colouring in. She still prints off pictures to colour, which reminds me, I must send her pencil crayons over to her. Flying I can see, but what makes you want to breathe underwater?

    Jaime... pixelated looking crayons??? Don't you just love all the scented pens, pencils, crayons and such you get now, though I do love simple wax. Ah now... auto-coffee... there's a plan! *wonders if there are birds with vertigo* I know where I'd direct that magic wand first!

    Katey, you're a spring chicken! haha! We had no metallic colours. I remember when they came out though. The gold always looked fake, but the silver was better. Never, never peel the paper off a crayon!

    Only one, Kat : ) I love sleep too much to want to wish it away. I can sleep in, though I'm losing that. Getting up at 4:30 daily is totally messing with my snoozability.

    Cheryl, confidence is a good thing and is sometimes needed to step out. I really would love to tele-transport or something. I totally understand homesickness *sigh* The book? A friend sent me a book she thought I'd like to read. She packaged it with a bottle of Worcestershire sauce... the bottle broke and soaked the book. Now I love Worcestershire sauce, but not a whole bottle full on a book. It reeked! *laughing*

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  12. Tint, I love to swim. Being able to breathe underwater would enable me to swim wherever I like, and see neat things in the depths, and not have to come up for air :)

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  13. your post made me thinking, if I would like a superpower which would be rather helpful for other people or just for my personal gain. Somehow the more egocentric and not all that useful thought of super power eventually took hold ;) But, well, when one does not feel totally safe in one's present, how should one dream of someone's else future, eh?
    So my super power would be the ability to sleep in advantage. Like on some boring days you could sleep like some 18 hrs per day, so that on some awesome ones you could go on like 72 hrs non stop

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Tint~