All Creatures Pink and Beautiful

I have noticed I often pick out juices, sodas, and even foods that match my clothing colors.   If you were to take a look at my pin boards on Pinterest right now, you would see an awful lot of pale pink.  Enough to ward off boys forever.  I have a strawberry yogurt cake recipe, pink mixing bowl bakery labels, a strawberry lemonade bathing suit, and even a board devoted to cotton candy hair inspiration.  I am clearly pink-obsessed and should probably try to become BFFs with a five year old girl so I can borrow (for keeps) from her extensive My Little Pony collection.  Okay, I just took a moment to look up My Little Pony collections and I'm pretty sure I still want to own all of them.  Is 29 too old for that?

Poesy Pony

By the way, does anyone remember how good these ponies smelled?  Like sweet magic plastic.

My hair is now a visual testimony to my current obsession:

I dyed it pastel pink.  I'm pretty sure this isn't a midlife crisis.  Those happen at 50, these days, right?  It may look like a unicorn threw up all over my head; but, I can live with that .  Before I did it, I asked my Facebook friends for objections and only got one.  From my mother.  And I am old enough to know that when mothers say "no," they really mean "yes."  A mother saying "no" is the best form of encouragement she can give.  So, I suggested that my mother dye her hair pink, too.  

My dog is so lucky she's black.  

So is my cat.

Please don't let me do this.

This isn't the first time I've had a color & flavor obsession.  There was an incident a few years ago when I came home from grocery shopping to discover that nearly every single thing I bought that day was either orange scented, flavored, or colored.  I bought orange scrubbing bubbles, a big bag of naval oranges, mandarin spice tea, orange-vanilla scented candles, and citrus dish liquid.  I should probably also mention that I loaded all of these things into the hatchback of my brand new spicy-orange Chevy.  True story.  The cashier must have thought I was insane.  Did I have a vitamin C deficiency? Was I subjected to subliminal messaging at a movie theater?  Or, did I just wake up in an orange mood?

I don't think this phenomenon is only happening to me.  I've spent more time working in coffee shops than I probably should admit.  One thing I began to notice as I was banging out portafilters and tapping away on cash register buttons was drink choice and how it correlates to clothing choice.  The first time I noticed this was when I was ringing up a sale for a woman holding a bottle of Nantucket Nectars cranberry juice.  She was wearing a cranberry colored ruffle blouse and a large faux garnet ring.  I couldn't resist pointing out her color-coordinated drink and asked if she had chosen it to match her outfit.  She gave me a surprised smile and admitted that she had been unaware of the synonymous color when she had selected her beverage.

That's when I began paying attention to juice sales.  There were bottles of nearly every color in our beverage case, so all I had to do was wait and see.  I was excited to find that nearly everyone who came through the line carrying a juice bottle wore colors to match their flavor choice.  I wonder if this means we love fashion so much, we want to drink it?  Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?  Have you ever gone on a color & flavor bender?  I was telling my friend Julie about this and she wondered if goths only like burnt toast with their coffee.  I think it's an excellent question and worthy of investigation.  But, they probably wouldn't tell me about it.  Not with my Poesy Pony hair.

  

Maybe I have this pink itch because it's strawberry season and every food blog I see has posted something that looks like strawberries-and-cream in big beautiful, mouth-watering, melty ice-cream and fluffy pink frosting photographs.  I salivate just thinking about them.  Here are some that I've noticed lately:

Roasted Rhubarb Honey Cardamom Ice Cream

Rhubarb Vanilla Bean Curd

Rhubarb Ginger Lemonade

Noticing a theme here?  That's right, I've been paying attention to my pinks and the color of the season is rhubarb.  I will be making something with rhubarb by the week's end.  And I promise to share.