Hello friends, it is Leslie here with January’s edition of Color Me Pretty. How are you? I hope that you are doing good and I'm happy to be with you for another year on decor8 with my column. I hope you enjoy and look forward to my color stories and craft ideas each month. For January, I find myself thinking about bright fluorescent pink during these long rainy days in the Pacific Northwest. It's definitely a trend, I see it everywhere at the moment - especially in fashion, on blogs and over at Pinterest!

Instead of mixing bright pink with the typical winter grey I thought it would be fun to use Kraft paper brown along with some softer shades of pink and a light blue. It's fun to try something new.

Color cravings can be very fleeting in creative projects and I have a hard time playing in the typical colors of the season. Do you know what I mean? I am like many who tend to want what we can’t have! In the winter I long for summer colors to contrast the dark days and in the summer I daydream about snowy white, pale grey and chocolate browns. I guess it comes back to texture, as any color can look great applied to the right material. Warm cream cable knits in winter and then the same creamy color on linens and leather in summer. These days anything goes if you love it and it helps you feel creative.

I pulled out my watercolors one evening last week and had fun creating triangle and striped patterns in the shape of hearts. I thought they would make a nice card to top off some simply wrapped presents. You can do this with any bright paper. Just make yourself a little template to make things go faster.

Another home craft project I have been thinking about and finally got around to making is this little dreamcatcher. I liked the notion of something catching your good dreams. With a new year upon us it is nice to do something to remind us of what we are dreaming about for ourselves and for others. I wrapped a metal hoop from Michael’s with some cream washi tape. I then tied a crochet doily with some string to the hoop. Finally, instead of feathers I decided to use beads, which I threaded on string and then tied to the hoop. After making one, I now have ideas on how I want to make dozens more! So watch out I may have more featured in the column next month!

I hope you have had a wonderful start to 2012. I look forward to seeing you back here next month. Take good care! - xo, Leslie.

(styling/images: leslie shewring