Hello and Happy New Year my fellow colour lovers.! This month I was in colourful Australia – talk about a land of many colours. A sellout Sydney book event, exhibition of two iconic Australian designers, my book making it onto a very special top 10 list, another great podcast and of course a colourful Christmas. So come with me as I take you through my colourful month for December…      

The Little Book of Colour event in Sydney

Oh what a night… thank you Sydney! It was really special to have a book event in my home town, back where it all began when I had my epiphany moment ‘Oh my God it’s colour!’.

To be able to look out in the sell-out audience and see school friends, lifelong friends, colleagues from my IT days and colour lovers who had travelled from around the state was something very special.

I knew I was going to be in safe hands being interviewed by ABC radio presenter and journalist Bryce Corbett bringing our colourful conversation to life. And thank you to The Colour Society of Australia for hosting the evening.

Pink Sun in Sydney

This bright pink ball is the sun. It’s what we have been experiencing in Sydney. Doesn’t it look amazing? But this is a colour you don’t want the sun to be. The sad and horrific story behind this colourful wonder is because of the bush and grass fires raging along the east coast of Australia.

I grew up in the Aussie bush where bush fires were common. I can remember as a kid sitting on our veranda and watching the fires but as a nation we have never ever seen or experienced anything like what is going on now.

Colour in Paradise exhibition Sydney

I had heard of this very colourful exhibition whilst I was still in London so I was determined to visit. I was so lucky to get the last ticket for the tour hosted by the exhibition curator, Glynis Jones sharing so many behind the scene stories and their amazing personal journey into colour.

The very colourful exhibition showed the extraordinary body of work by two incredible Australian talents that are Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson who’s careers I have been following for as long as I can remember.

I loved that they didn’t follow fashion or trends, instead they followed their heart and used the Australian bush, the ocean, the landscape as their inspiration. They used the clothes as the canvas for their artwork.

All that was left for me at the end of the tour was to find my friend Beth and take her around trying to remember as much as I could!

Colour in politics

December was also the month that election campaigning was in full swing in the UK. Check out my article published in Balance London magazine (@balanceLDN) where I share what the colours of the main political parties are communicating. Here’s what I shared.

Sunday Times Top Ten Design Books for 2019

Oh what an honour for my book to be selected in the UK Sunday Times list of the Top 10 interior books 2019. And in very good company too!

Colourful Adelaide

After a week in Sydney I flew up to the Gold Coast for what was meant to be a week with my mum before flying to Adelaide to see my brother and his family. However Jetstar has other plans with strikes planned so I was two days on the Goldie before I was back on the plane to avoid the strikes and on my way to Adelaide.

Flicking through Jetstar’s great inflight magazine I saw two places I knew I really wanted to see – the pink lake at Lochiel’s Lake Bumbunga , north of Adelaide and the rolling green hills near Rapid Bay to the south.

The image below is from Jetstar’s December issue and then scroll down to see what I experienced. It’s amazing the difference rain can make.

Podcast

Fellow Australian Amelia Lee of Undercover Architect was researching colour psychology when having found and read my book she decided to get in touch. I absolutely love meeting and chatting to colour lovers around the world and meeting kindred spirit Amelia was a real treat.

We discussed how you use colour psychology to choose colours in your home to create a space that aligns to your personality and those who live in the space, feel great in, enrich our lives and thrive. Here’s the link to the podcast… enjoy!

Colourful Greek interview

Mania Mavridou is an an architect, interior designer and colour consultant who writes for Greek’s first blog dedicated to Interior Design Psychology.

She had first been in touch a few years back having come across my blogs on colour psychology for business, healthcare and branding and we stayed in touch.

On the release of my book Mania wanted to gift a copy of the Greek version to one of her lucky readers – how sweet is that. And when she asked if she could interview me for her Design4happiness blog, of course I said yes!

I’m hoping during 2020 I can go to Greece to do some talks and workshops. Until then here’s the link to the colourful interview and it’s in English… enjoy!

Colourful Christmas

In our family Christmas is always celebrated on Christmas Eve as my parents are originally from Europe – my mother is from The Netherlands and my father was from Austria. We would have the full on European tradition with roast and a real tree that we would have in pot and use every year. It finally got planted after many years of fine service. Oh and we had candles, that would bend in the heat.

And then Christmas Day it was off to the beach or the Royal National Park on the southern tip of Sydney with a picnic and lilos, flippers, snorkels to go exploring. This year with my mum we still celebrated Christmas Eve but thankfully we switched to seafood a few years ago and on Christmas Day it was down the beach for a refreshing dip after a gift from above for much needed rain.

I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with family, friends and loved ones.

Let’s Stay in Touch

So that’s a colourful wrap for December and a very colourful 2019. I’ve stopped short of posting up colourful New Year’s Eve as well, that is really the start of 2020. So that’s all to come in the January’s Adventures In Colour roundup.

Thank you for joining me this month and I look forward to seeing you again for January’s colour filled issue.

Wishing you a colour filled 2020. May it be full of joy, happiness and kindness for ourselves, others and our amazing planet.

If you would like to stay in touch with what I’m up to in our colourful world then join my mailing list to receive your monthly dose of colourful news.

You can also download the First Chapter of The Little Book of Colour for free.

Want to find new ways to bring colour into all areas of your life? Then The Colour Club might be just what you’re looking for.

You can also find me over on Instagram.

Wishing you a colourful day!
Karenx

Want to find out more?

The Colour Society of Australia

Museum of Applied Arts & Science Powerhouse Museum Sydney https://maas.museum/event/step-into-paradise/ is on until 22nd March 2020

Jetstar Magazine December 2019 issue

Undercover Architect podcast

Greek Blog https://design4happiness.com/2019/12/19/interview-with-karen-haller