Shades of Gray

I love shades of grey. I love the word gray, and I love the name Gray. I love it when people name their daughters names like Mary Gray. I can't decide which spelling of gray I prefer: gray or grey. Considering my affinity, affection and fondness for gray, this is something I should have an opinion on. I do now, after thinking about it for a moment. Grey is for slate, steel, charcoal, pewter, gravel and all the hardest, darkest shades of grey. The "e" makes the word harder and more steely, I do believe. Gray is for softer shades, like dove, heather, feather, blue-gray, seaspray (that's a West Elm color), winter-sky gray, pebble, pussy willow.

By the way, is there anything prettier than pussy willow? Hardly. Hydrangeas, tulips, peonies, orchids and gerbera daisies take my breath away, but the pussy willow soothes me like nothing else. I could fill this post with 100 images of beautiful gray things and pussy willows. And put it all to a David Gray soundtrack, because I like him too and it's just so perfect that his last name is Gray.

Fortunately for you, dear blog reader {I keep that singular because I think there may be only one or two of you, maybe three on a high-traffic day}, I do not have time to post that many pictures of gray things. But I will toss out a few. I'm bedding-crazed right now, probably because I can't afford to buy any and I've decided it's time to even though there just ain't the budget for it right now. Here's a set I'm drooling over:

 This is BlissLiving Home's Ashley Citron bedding, available online. It kind of takes my breath away.

Maybe I should just stop there, for maximum impact. I forgot to mention how much I love gray with mustard yellow, or any yellow, really. Let's just call it citron from now on because citron has such a lovely, Frenchy ring to it. Why say yellow when you can say citron or dijon? But yellow's a pretty word, for English.

 I own this tablecloth, but I purchased it for a table I no longer own and my current table is too big for it. It's folded on top of my linen armoire because it deserves to see the light of day and it makes everything prettier. It's the Williams-Sonoma Marseille tablecloth in dijon (not citron). ;-)

Okay, back to bedding after that brief detour to table linens. Three "hellos" in a row, all from West Elm.

 Sadly, I have to go to bed now in my so-not-gray-and-citron/dijon bed. But at least it's cozy and white. I leave you with some pussy willow as my parting gift:

 From Le Papier Studio, a lovely online shop that is a sponsor for SouleMama, a favorite blog.

photo credit: http://www.isledegrande.com/giimages15/cook-pussy-willow-closeup4-06.jpg

photo credit: http://www.isledegrande.com/giimages15/cook-pussy-willow-closeup4-06.jpg