The Power of Flowers and Then Some

 Fancy Footwork Necklace

Top: Wet Seal

Skirt: H&M

Cardigan: Merona, Target

Shoes: Chinese Laundry, DSW

Bag: Bueno, Marshalls

Belt: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: JCPenney

 Fabulous Felt Spider Barrette

Fabulous Felt Lily Pad Barrette

Tee: Merona, Target

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Sunglasses: Michaels

 Thunderbolt Jolt Necklace

Tee: So, Kohl's

Camisole: So, Kohl's

Skirt: Material Girl, Macy's

Cardigan: Delia's

Shoes: Qupid, Alloy

Bag: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Belt: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Sunglasses: JCPenney

 Plum Princess Necklace

Skirt (a dress!): JCPenney

Tank: Hollister, Marshalls

Bra top: Macy's

Shoes: Chinese Laundry, DSW

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Belt: Candie's, Kohl's

Back in grade school, when they taught the five kingdoms (which have since then, Google tells me, burgeoned into six; never take a sick day, do you, science?), my favorite was always the plant kingdom.  Oh sure, I might have claimed that it was the Protista kingdom in an earlier post, but that was probably just to set the stage for an ode to JELL-O or to hawk the Fabulous Felt Mad Scientist Necklace, which featured an amoeba.  Those unicellular splotches may have inspired a funky fashion statement or two, but it's stamens and pistils that bring out the big glamour guns -- or should I say Tim Gunns? (no, it seems clear to me now that I shouldn't).  After all, we plant flowers, we bring people flowers, and perhaps most prolifically, we splash flowers all over our clothes in an infinite and ever-dizzying array of nature artfully distorted.  Also, when's the last time you brought a sick pal an amoeba?

So, it wasn't as surprising as it might have been when I broke my no gardening streak.  That's right, I started a garden.  Sort of.  If filling boxes and pots with annuals counts (which I suspect it does not, at least not with the bulb and pruning set).  That having been said, I had nothing to do with the specimens in flower photos 1, 2, and 4, all of which were planted by some more ambitious previous tenant.  Still, my marigolds, hibiscuses, and petunias transformed my porch into a mini rain forest (well, okay, into a porch in Florida instead of one in New Jersey).  True, a few dried up.  But most are still thriving, albeit a little more untamed and sun-bleached than they were back in May.  But then, that's most of us by Labor Day weekend.

Thankfully, felt flowers require a lot less maintenance than live ones (you didn't think I'd wrap this up without sneaking the crafty angle in there somewhere, now did you?).  Ever crisp and colorful, they forge on through the fall and winter, cozily entrenched in beds of life-sustaining, once-gelatinous glue.  The same goes for the factory-fashioned pastel pumps, luxe lightning bolt, and cameo queen that grace the remainder of this post's pieces (in terms of heartiness, that is, not glue.  It's not always about you, glue.).

Those, by the way, are the "then some."