I suppose it's because I love to read so much that I've always had a fascination for mystical lands. I've wanted to travel to Neverland, Wonderland, or the Land of Sweets more than any physical place I could ever visit and I love that I can explore these legendary worlds just by opening my favorite bedtime stories.
This month, it felt seasonally appropriate to retrace Clara's steps in the Land of Sweets from the Christmas classic,
The Nutcracker! This story combines two of my favorite things: holiday sweets and ballet. Though as a ballet dancer I didn't personally perform in
The Nutcracker, I still spun around the living room in my pointe shoes, letting the music take me away. With such an undying love for the performing arts, it's no wonder that a Nutcracker-themed collection was my first choice to design this Christmas!
For this collection, I played with multiple colorways and found that classic red and green was the way to go. By adding a cool grey and light brown to the mix, it gave me a wide scope of hues to work with that tied well with my designs. I looked into various aspects of the Nutcracker ballet (from costume detailing to vintage toys) for early inspiration. But for my final patterns, I was most enthralled with the colorful characters from the story itself and the settings they lived in.
From the the Christmas holiday party to the Snowflakes dance to the Land of Sweets, I revisited each of my most beloved Nutcracker themes. I hope you enjoy perusing my designs and that they bring you as much holiday magic as they did me!
