Z is for Zaffre #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

Well, I've finally made it to the letter Z! I've chosen the colour Zaffre-a deep blue pigment made from oxidised cobalt. The word comes from the Italian zaffera, which in turn comes from the Latin word sapphrius, meaning 'sapphire' (a deep blue precious stone).

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see my Polyvore creations.

Y is for Yellow #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'Y' I have chosen the colour Yellow.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, see a piece of my artwork and some polyvore creations and listen to my 'Yellow' playlist!

X is for Xanadu #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

Oh no, the dreaded 'X' post! I had to rack my brains and do a bit of research to think of a colour for this one, but I finally discovered the colour Xanadu, a greenish gray that takes it's name from the philodendron plant, whose leaves are the same colour. The plant was in turn named after the ancient Chinese city of the same name.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see the post I hashed together for this extremely difficult colour!

W is for White #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'W' I have chosen the colour White.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, see my Polyvore creations and read my white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake recipe.

V is for Violet #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'V' I have chosen the colour Violet. Violet is a bright, vivid shade similar to purple that takes its name from the violet flower. Unlike purple, violet is a true colour because it has its own wavelength on the spectrum of visible light, while purple is only a composite colour (made from mixing red and blue).

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and read a character spotlight.

U is for Umber #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'U' I have chosen Umber-a range of earthy brown shades, some of which are more yellow toned, some more gray and some more reddish (like burnt umber). It's named after a natural earth pigment containing iron oxide and manganese oxide. In Italian this pigment is called terra di ombra, or 'earth of Umbria' (a mountainous region in Italy). It may also relate to the Latin word umbra, which means shadow.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour.

T is for Turquoise & Teal #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'T' I have chosen two of my favourite colours- Turquoise and Teal. Both colours are somewhere between blue and green, with turquoise being a brighter, bluer shade and teal being a darker, greener hue. Turquoise is named after a gemstone of the same name

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind these colours and see my Polyvore creations. 

S is for Scarlet #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'S' I have chosen the colour Scarlet-a very bright shade of red. It's a colour often used in uniforms, royal dress and religious clothing.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, see my Polyvore creations and discover my recommended reads based on the colour scarlet!

R is for Rose #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge! This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'R' I have chosen the colour Rose-a lovely medium pink named after the flowers. Rose is the name for pink in most European languages, for example 'rosa' in German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, 'rose' in French and 'różowy' in Polish.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, see my Polyvore creations and listen to some beautiful music.

Q is for Quartz Grey #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge! This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!  

Today is the dreaded letter 'Q'. There are very few colours starting with this letter, but I eventually found one called Quartz Grey. This is a kind of stone grey often used to describe dark silver coloured cars. It's named after the mineral quartzite, which is commonly used in kitchen counter-tops.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour.

P is for Purple #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge! This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'P' I have chosen the colour Purple. Purple is the colour you get when you mix red and blue, but it can describe many different shades, including violet, heliotrope, lavender and lilac. One of it's main claims to fame is that it doesn't have any true rhymes.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, read about the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker and see one of my favourite poems.

O is for Orange #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'O' I have chosen the colour Orange. Orange is a bright, warm colour between red and yellow, named after the juicy citrus fruit. Orange was one of the first colours used by man, made from ochre pigments mixed with animal fats.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see some beautiful orange paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries.

N is for Neon Green #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'N' I have chosen the colour Neon Green-a bright, fluorescent shade which is a popular fashion statement during summer and on the clubbing scene. This Pinterest board shows some examples.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see my fashion and beauty tips.

M is for Maroon #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'M' I have chosen the colours Maroon. Maroon is a rich, deep reddish purple colour. It's named after the French word 'marron', meaning chestnut.

This Pinterest board features lots of maroon fashion ideas.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and enjoy some cool tunes :)

L is for Lavender and Lilac #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'L' I have chosen the colours Lavender and Lilac. Both colours are a similar shade of light purple, and are both named after plants. Lilac is slightly more pink toned (like a lighter shade of heliotrope) and lavender is slightly more blue toned (like a lighter shade of violet). This Pinterest board has some lovely examples. 

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind these colours, see some lilac artwork and learn more about how lavender is linked to the LGBT rights movement.

K is for Khaki #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'K' I have chosen the colour Khaki. Khaki describes both a light shade of yellow-brown similar to beige and a drab green military colour. The word comes from Urdu and means 'soil-coloured'. It originally came to English via the British Indian Army.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and learn more about the khaki fashion and beauty trend.

J is for Jet Black #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'J' I have chosen the colour Jet. This is the darkest shade of black, named after a mineraloid similar to coal (not a true gemstone as people sometimes think). This Pinterest board has some amazing jet black inspiration.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, see my Polyvore creations, learn more about jet carvings and listen to a little music :)

I is for Indigo #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'I' I have chosen the colour Indigo. Indigo is a deep, bright shade of blue, named after the blue dye derived from the plant Indigoferatinctoria. It's quite a popular colour in fashion, being the traditional colour of denim, and is the most common colour of ink used for writing.

This Pinterest board has some beautiful examples of indigo.
Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and read my indigo poem.

H is for Heliotrope #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'H' I have chosen the colour Heliotrope. This is a bright purple colour named after the flowers of the heliotropium plant. The name comes from the Greek helios (sun) and trepein (to turn), as the plant is known for turning its leaves towards the sun throughout the day. This Pinterest board has some examples of this beautiful colour.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, meet the Heliotrope Flower Fairy and listen to a little ragtime music.

G is for Gold #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'G' I have chosen the colour Gold- a warm, metallic yellow named after the precious metal. It is long associated with wealth and prosperity and extremely popular in fashion and jewellery. These Pinterest boards feature lots of beautiful golden imagery.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and learn more about the colour gold in Literature.