January 11

“A quest is more fun than a jaunt.” I took Craig and Jack to the art museum last Sunday afternoon. I joined and plan to go once a week – ideally by myself, but for logistical reasons kid carpool reasons they came this time. There is a special exhibit all about glass I was looking forward to seeing. To forestall whining and boredom, I decided to give Craig a quest – I pulled up the Pantone color swatch website and chose a color, then asked him to find that color in the art. This worked surprisingly well – he jumped right in. It also sort of DIDN’T work to my advantage because instead of me browsing pieces and getting lost in their gorgeousness, I was constantly being tugged from one corner to the next by my excited kid: “Hey ma! Look I found Desert Flower right here!” “Hey look in here! Chambray Blue!”

If bored, I sometimes try to find the Pantone color of the year wherever I am, in whatever I am looking at. The 2025 color is mocha mousse, a light brown. Not as exciting as Viva Magenta from a couple of years ago, which could be VERY hard to find sometimes.