How to Style Pantone's Color of the Year "Very Peri" with Ageless Style

Ageless Style is a monthly style challenge and link up for women "over a certain age".  Each month we pick a different theme and style an outfit based on that theme.  This month's theme is "Pantone's Color of the Year: "Very Peri" and was picked by Daenel


Every year the Pantone Color Institute picks a "Color of the Year".  The Pantone Color Institute is the business unit within Pantone that "highlights the top seasonal runway colors, selects the Pantone Color of the Year, forecasts global color trends, and advises companies on color for product and brand visual identity."(click on the links "Photo Credit" to read more about Pantone).    This year Pantone picked the color "Very Peri" or "Periwinkle". 

This is Pantone's description of the color "Very Peri":

Photo Credit

Periwinkle is a beautiful color, and is actually one of my favorites.  But it can be a tricky color to identify as it is in-between a violet and a blue.

Photo Credit


Even though Pantone has picked this color as the "Color of the Year",  I actually had a really hard time finding anything in new in this color, so I decided to show a couple of old outfits .

First up is a lighter periwinkle.  This is a soft, boxy jersey knit top from Stitch Fix.  Dark Blue and White are my favorite colors to pair with Periwinkle.

For my next outfit, I am pairing a periwinkle chiffon top with white pants.  I love the "spring time look" this color combo brings.

And for a current winter look, I am showing how you can wear periwinkle as an accent color with jewelry.

My earrings are probably more lavender than periwinkle, but there is definitely a periwinkle color in the necklace beads and bracelet.  I thought the periwinkle jewelry coordinated nicely with the lavender sweater.

In the close up photo below, you can definitely see the periwinkle colored stones alongside some lavender ones too.

So what do you think?  Do you like Pantone's Color of the Year?   I certainly do, but like many of the colors that Pantone has picked in the past, I always feel it takes awhile before the color becomes readily available in clothing to purchase.  Hopefully by spring, there will be plenty of new "Very Peri" clothes for me to choose from.

Now be sure and see how the other ladies in the group are styling their Periwinkle clothes.   Hopefully they had better luck than I did in finding something.  And be sure to link up with us below too!

Amy ~ Amy’s Creative Pursuits

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Bo ~ Bo's Bodacious Blog

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Carrie ~ A Simple Lovely Life

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Joanna ~ My Slice of Life

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Jodie ~ Jodie’s Touch of Style

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Leslie ~ Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After

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Marsha~ Marsha in the Middle

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Mireille ~ Chez Mireille Fashion Travel Mom

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Robin ~ Hello I am 50ish

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Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Exploring the Chateau de Mores in Medora, North Dakota

This is a continuation of a travel series to The Great West.  To start at the beginning, go HERE,, HERE, and 

HERE, HERE, HERE,, HERE, HERE HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

This week's travel post will be the final post of my travel series to the Great West.   For my final post I am covering the Chateau de Mores and the history of the sweet town of Medora.

On our last day in Medora we had a more civilized day.  After an early morning hike in Theodore Roosevelt National Park we went back into town to freshen up, grab some lunch, and explore the sweet little town of Medora.  We visited all the sites that were still open late in the season and some of the gift shops, and there was still some time left in our day so I suggested to my husband that we check out the other historic home open for tours in town.  Little did I know that we should have done the Chateau de Mores experience first, because it was far more than just a home tour.  For the price of admission there is a museum explaining the history of the area and the Marquis family including a short film.  By the time we arrived, we only had time to run through the museum quickly to catch the highlights and then tour the house.  We never had time to see the movie.  

The chateau is a hunting lodge and summer home for the Marquis de Mores family and guests.  It was built in 1883 and is a 26 room, two story frame building.

Today the home is now part of the 128 acre Chateau de Mores State Historic Site which also includes Chimney Park and de Mores Memorial Park.

The house contains many of the original furnishings and personal effects of the de Mores family.

The Marquis de Mores was a man of immense wealth so it was a surprise to me how simple the chateau was in both design and furnishings.  After I spoke to one of the tour guides she reminded me that this was the Marquis "cabin" where he came for a rustic getaway to hunt.  When I think of "cabins" most American's have today, I guess this "chateau" was pretty large and luxurious in comparison, especially for the time period.

When the Marquis arrived in the area and built the chateau he named the town "Medora" after his wife.  Isn't that the romantic act ever?  Can you imagine your husband naming a town after you?

The Marquis was a French aristocrat and entrepreneur.  He arrived in the area to establish a new kind of cattle operation.  He planned to slaughter and cold pack his cattle to ship it out east in refrigerated cars.  He built a slaughter house in town which could be seen from the chateau.  It burnt to the ground in 1907 but the chimney still remains to this day, and is now known as Chimney Park.

For three years, the town of Medora did very well.  His family occupied the chateau seasonally from 1883 to 1886.  During the winter months they would go back to their home in France.

In 1886 the slaughter house collapsed due to a drought, competition from other meat packers, and the Marquis lack of business experience.  The Marquis family returned to France when the slaughter house closed.  The Marquis visited the chateau twice more once in 1887 and again in 1889, but Medora and the children only returned after the Marquis death in 1903 and spent six weeks here.

Although there are tour guides in the building to answer any of your questions, it is a self guided tour with plenty of signs to read explaining what room you are viewing, and notes on personal effects within the room.

The bedrooms on the second floor were all very simple and were used for the children, their nurses, and guests.

The front of the house was an enclosed porch.  This space was used for guests to drop off their large trunks and hunting equipment.

The chateau did not have indoor plumbing as you could probably have guessed by all the pitchers and wash basins in the bedrooms above.  The Marquis however did have a make-shift indoor toilet (or shall I say an indoor outhouse if that makes sense).  You can read more about how it operated in the second picture below this one.

Like most wealthy couples of that time period the Marquis and his wife had separate bedrooms.  They were both located on the lower level of the house.  This is the Marquis' bedroom.

And this was Medora's bedroom.

This is Medora's study.  The fireplace in the corner is very unique for it is the same fireplace in four different rooms of the house.  Each room has the fireplace in the same corner and occupies one chimney.

On the other side, is a living space, and you can see the fireplace in the corner.

The home has a beautiful wrap around porch with gorgeous views of the buttes and the town of Medora below.

And finally, see the chimney in the low-mid section of the photo below?  That is what remains of the slaughter house after the fire in 1907.  The Marquis could see his plant from his office window in the chateau.

The Chateau de Mores is open for tours May through October 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.

Admission is $10.00 per person, $3.00 for children ages 6-15, and Free for kids under 6.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Handmade "David & Goliath" Action Figures

I am so excited to share with you today another one of my toilet paper roll creations!  This fall I've really gotten into creating fun toys for kids using toilet paper rolls.  I found all my ideas on Pinterest and created a special board of "Crafts for Kids".    Some of these toilet paper roll craft ideas come with templates and instructions and others have special downloads you can buy.  I never purchased anything to make any of my creations.  If I have a photo to go by, I can usually re-create myself.

If you haven't seen some of my other toilet paper roll creations, I created pilgrims and indigenous people for Thanksgiving and also an entire Nativity Scene.  The kids really loved the Nativity Scene and played with it a lot when they were at my house for Christmas.  I think it will become a Johnson Family tradition every year to illustrate the Christmas story with the Nativity Scene.

Now onto my latest toilet paper roll creation:  "David and Goliath".  

My grandson watched a bible story video of the story of "David and Goliath" and loved it so much he constantly re-enacted it when he was at my house for Thanksgiving.  It was so funny watching him pretend to be Goliath and fall down and die multiple times a day.  I had to remind him that Goliath was not the hero of the story, because he seemed to be enamored with him in particular. 😁. Well, because he was so infatuated with the story of  "David and Goliath" when he was here for Thanksgiving,  I thought "What fun it would be to create  "David and Goliath" action figures for him.  Using Pinterest as my guide, this is what I came up with.

Isn't it great!  Atticus absolutely loved it!  I was able to find a pattern for Goliath but I did make some changes.  I found the pattern for the face, helmet, and arms on this website .  The instructions are in another language but I was able to figure it out.  There is a printable that you can download and print out on the website.  I printed out the helmet, face, and arms, but the rest I created on my own.

The shield wasn't on the website.  I just drew one on heavy grey card stock and cut it out on my own.  I added details with a black marker and even glued a separate oval piece into the center for dimension.

The original creator of Goliath used an old soap bottle for Goliath.  I however wanted to keep true to the toilet paper roll theme so I used a paper towel roll.  I took a very heavy piece of blue card stock, cut a whole just large enough to fit over the paper towel holder roll, and slipped it down the roll (bending it in half) leaving just enough of the top of the roll exposed for a face.  I then trimmed the paper on the diagonal for Goliath's chest and glued the sides together.  Then I trimmed down the rest of the blue card stock and glued it to the paper towel roll and cut some notches on the bottom for the skirt.

I followed the picture on the website and added the shoulder straps and belt, but I used real metal hardware from my stash, in addition to card stock and velour ribbon.

For the face I glued a piece of flesh toned card stock onto the top of the paper towel holder.  The teeth, mouth, beard, eyebrows, and nose are all on the website that I linked above.  I printed them out, and fussy cut them and glued them to the paper towel roll.  I used a black marker to draw two circles for eyes, then I glued on small google eyes.

The helmet was printed twice, once onto white card stock and once onto grey card stock.  I cut the feather portion out separately so I could color it with a red marker.  I added some silver metal embellishments from my stash to the helmet to make it look even more authentic and add some dimension.

The spear is a lollipop stem you would buy in the candy/cake section of a craft store.  I colored it using a brown marker, then I added a tip by cutting a point out of silver metallic card stock and gluing it to the stick.

David was very simple to make.  I simply glued a flesh colored card stock to the top of a toilet paper roll then hand drew a face on.  I then glued an off-white card stock to the roll for his body and added some brown ribbon for a belt.  David needed arms to hold his sling shot to kill Goliath, so I fussy cut some arms out of flesh-colored card stock and glued them to the sides of the toilet paper roll.  I then created a sling out of brown card stock and brown twine.  I cut a triangle shape out of the brown card stock, punched two holes on either side, and tied on some twine.

The head piece is made with brown felt glued to the toilet paper roll and a piece of twine tied around the top.

Atticus was so excited to see his new action figure!  Of course the first thing he did was make him fall down and die.  ha ha!

It is so fun making things for my grand kids.  It's so interesting to me how after years of making cards, my hobby interests have evolved over the years and I'm able to still use my creative abilities and "my stash" to make other things.  I don't make as many cards as I use to, but all my "stuff" still gets used in other ways either with Bible Journaling or crafts with the grand kids.  I didn't have to purchase a thing to make this action figure set.  Everything was something  already owned.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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