Capture the Swag: Another Country is Heard From

Stars and Hearts Necklace

Top: XOXO, Macy's

Skirt (a dress!): LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Shoes: a.n.a, JCPenney

Bag: Princess Vera, Kohl's

Belt: Kohl's

Sunglasses: Rampage, Boscov's

  

Turquoise Tuberose Necklace 

Top: Marshalls

Skirt: Candie's, Kohl's

Shoes: Nine West, DSW

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Scarf: A.C. Moore

Sunglasses: JCPenney

Strawberry Lemon Limeade Necklace 

Top: Byer, Boscov's

Skirt: Buffalo Jeans, Marshalls

Shoes: Guess, DSW

Bag: Nordstrom

Scarf: A.C. Moore

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

Gentle Giant Necklace

Top: So, Kohl's

Skirt: Candie's, Kohl's

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Bag: Gifted

Belt: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Mudd, Kohl's

 Boho Blooms Necklace

Top: Rebellious One, Macy's

Pants: Sears

Shoes: Bongo, Sears

Bag: Gifted

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

If you've got something to say (or display!), then you can't find a more ebullient billboard than a flag.  Whether proclaiming love of country, announcing a sale, or gussying up a front yard garden, these colorful rectangles of (often polyester, oh, how I love thee) fabric must be what that guy had in mind when he said a picture's worth a thousand words.  So it should come as no surprise that the only pics I snapped while in New York last Saturday were of the flags flanking Rockefeller Center.  (To be fair, 30 Rock [ahem, the Comcast Building] was one of the few uncongested, and therefore more photo-friendly, spots I traversed, having spent most of the day elbowing my way through the wild terrain of Times Square.)

That's where the flag tie-ins (fly-ins?) end, I'm afraid, as this post's necklaces are a motley tangle of color and randomness.  Not unlike, come to think of it, the melting pot masses crowding NYC's streets.  Which just goes to show that where there's a will, there's a (word/image/whatever/I've-lost-count-by-now-and-don't-much-care) . . . play.

Smurf's Up: New Wave Crave

 Hygiene Hijinks Necklace

Top: Kohl's

Dress: L'Amour by Nanette Lepore for JCPenney

Shoes: Chinese Laundry, DSW

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

Fabulous Felt Sweet Seashell Barrette

Blouse: Target

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Shoes: BCBG, Macy's

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Sunglasses: Michaels 

Cool Crescent Necklace

Top: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Dress: Monteau, Marshalls

Shoes: Christian Siriano for Payless

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Rampage, Boscov's

Tourist Trap Necklace

Top: Self Esteem, JCPenney

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Payless

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: JCPenney

Brigantine's own Root Beer Barrel: one soda shop-sounding surf shop that keeps on rolling (at least, if the for sale sign out front is to be believed, until someone buys it).

A rolling stone gathers no moss -- but sometimes moss is mighty pretty.

Thanks to Ocean Spray, you can't say "crave" without thinking of that other "c" word -- "cranberries!"  This post is all about blue, pink, and the beach, with a splash of 1980s -- which is to say that it's like 95% of my other posts (even if The Cranberries are not only not new wave, but not from the 1980s).  It's got seashells, a surf shop, and toilets -- reminding us not to pee in the ocean.  Also, Smurfberries, perhaps the most magical (not to mention most animated) marriage of pink and blue, if only in abstract.

Ah, the beach.  Otherwise known as Mother Nature's prize box, it offers a boundless bounty of beauty, yielding every treasure that original hoarder The Little Mermaid could hope to squirrel away in her undersea cavern.  Unlike actual mothers, the beach is laidback when it comes to bringing things home, never saying, "You just got a dead crab carcass for your birthday, Bobby; put that back!"  Well, not unless she wages a hurricane.

In honor of the beach (and collecting), I made this week's stuff with souvenir shops in mind.  I'm sure you remember their wares, are perhaps even becoming reacquainted with them this weekend as you stroll through such spots with your own little ones.  Baskets of shrink-wrapped seashells, cheap sunglasses, and screen-printed tee shirts riotous with palm trees and dolphins crowd every aisle.  We have a few such establishments in Brigantine, and sometimes I like to walk through them, if only for nostalgia's sake.  But my favorite beach shop buy came from a store on the Ocean City boardwalk.  It was a plastic yellow scallop shell trinket box that I found enchanting because I thought it looked like it belonged to a mermaid (Ariel being my spirit Disney princess).  Sadly, I've since lost track of it; unlike my faux sumo wrestler trinket box, it never emerged from my parents' attic.  Sometimes I still think about it, and when I'm on the boardwalk, I peer at the passing shops and wonder if anything like it is waiting within.  I never check, though.  There's no point in trying to go home again when your home is already the beach.        

Sugar Rush Gush: Props for Pops

Fabulous Felt All Sorts of Sweet Barrette

Top: Material Girl, Macy's

Camisole; So, Kohl's

Skirt: Material Girl, Macy's

Shoes: Venus

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Sunglasses: Michaels

There are all sorts of fathers out there, and song lyrics are rife with rhymes about bad dads.  Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach," Everclear's "Father of Mine," and Harry Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle" spin stories of subpar patriarchs -- not to mention anything by Papa Roach or Puff Daddy.  That's why it's nice when you have a dad worth singing (a good song) about.  Fortunate to be among this number, I'm celebrating Father's Day with my father's favorite candy in this Fabulous Felt All Sorts of Sweet Barrette.  Speckled with bright stripes and circles, it's bursting with good times and the spirit of summer -- even if the black bits symbolize the dreaded (to me) licorice.  Which makes it just the right dad's day dessert, all the colors of the confectionery masking the unpleasantness.  So, to every dad who ever helped make an algebra test, playground meanie, or just plain bad day go away, enjoy the treat of your choice, safe in the knowledge that you are the rainbow.

That having been said, I can't be held responsible for runs on Lucky Charms, rainbow sherbet, or old-timey lollipops.           

Golden Corral Wow: A Buffet of Baubles

 Rad Rhombus Necklace

Top: Express, Marshalls

Skirt: Rampage, Macy's

Shoes: City Streets, JCPenney

Bag: Delia's

Belt: Marshalls

Leopard scarf: Nine West

Yellow scarf: Boscov's

Blue scarf: Boscov's

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

Kelly green bracelet: Parade of Shoes

Lime green bracelet: Cloud Nine, Ocean City

Sunshine Scramble Necklace

Top: Decree, JCPenney

Skirt (a dress!): Modcloth

Shoes: Nine West, DSW

Bag: Nordstrom

Belt: Gifted

Bangles: Target

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop 

Fancy Fox Necklace

Tunic: Petticoat Alley, Marshalls

Dress: Candie's, Kohl's

Shoes: Chaps, Kohl's

Bag: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Bangle: B Fabulous

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: no outfit is complete without yellow.  Just like food is sawdust without butter, which just happens to be this same sunny shade.  (Coincidence?  I think not.)  Even the word "golden" is a charmer, so nice I used it twice, starting with last week's: Golden Girl Swirl and Three Cheers for Cheesecake.

So, I've added a healthy helping of bright yellow beads to this week's necklaces.  They illuminate everything in their orbit, making the blacks and tans more dramatic, the jewel-toned rainbows more cheerful, and the coppers more brightly burnished, like small, smoldering southwestern suns -- or corn off the cob mixed with colorful veggies.

For the record, I've never eaten at a Golden Corral, and I never plan to.  Buffets aren't my bag unless they're of the brunch or dessert variety, as both offer decadent delights like Danish, brownies, and fruit with whipped cream.  

Speaking of temptations, what I've come to call "the experiment" is still going strong as I enter month four.  My laundry pile is approaching staggering heights as I continue my mission to wear everything in my closet before initiating the next spin cycle -- or shopping spree.  I'm not going to lie; I miss buying clothes the way some women miss eating chocolate -- and incidentally, have since upped my cocoa consumption.    

And now, before I ride off into the, er, sunset, some pictures in the palette of PacMan:

Golden Girl Swirl and Three Cheers for Cheesecake

Key to Kawaii Necklace

Dress: Modcloth

Top: Bongo, Sears

Shoes: Payless

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Belt: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Michaels

Sun, Moon, and Stars Necklace

Tee: Alloy

Blouse: Decree, JCPenney

Skirt: Bongo, Sears

Shoes: City Streets, JCPenney

Bag: Gap

Sunglasses: JCPenney

Oval Office Intern Necklace

Dress: Eric and Lani, Macy's

Blouse: Candie's, Kohl's

Shoes: Payless

Bag: Journeys

Belt: Apt. 9, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Mudd, Kohl's

All that glitters may not be gold, but then gold's not all it's cracked up to be.  Which seems like just the right position to take as a jewelry crafter who deals mostly in plastic.  Indeed, this week's necklaces are flawlessly flashy, illuminated by faux gold metal and oodles of sparkly rhinestones -- well, that and the inner light of their own spunky spirit.  More sedate than my usual stuff yet still respectably sassy, I like to think that they appeal to accessory enthusiasts of all ages.  Which is to say that good time Golden Girl Blanche would probably be game to don the Oval Office Intern Necklace (even if just for the name), and girly Golden Girl Rose would be right at home in the Key to Kawaii or Sun, Moon, and Stars necklaces.  Which, I realize, leaves nothing for no-nonsense Dorothy.  But then, she was never one for frivolity -- not that she had any room for it anyway, what with those ginormous cowl necks she often wore.  Still, frumpy or not, she was one funny lady.  They all were (you too, Mama Sophia), trading life lessons, anecdotes, and yes, sometimes even insults over that panacea of pastries, the cheesecake.  The decadent dessert seemed to magically emerge from an ever-present pink bakery box whenever the quartet was at some kind of crossroads, its creamy rich goodness mending broken hearts, soothing bruised egos, and resolving petty differences, often to the tune of a St. Olaf story.  

Print of original artwork by Etsy's own Elloh hanging above my TV, just right for watching "Golden Girls" reruns!

Never once during these binges did anyone utter a word about heart disease. Well, except for when Blanche's whippersnapper of a grandson said that he didn't want to sit around listening to their arteries harden. I don't have to tell you that he was punished when don't-mess-with-me-Dorothy swiftly brought down the hammer. As for Rose, she administered her own brand of vigilante justice in the form of a BLT with a chocolate cake chaser. Whose arteries are hardening now, whippersnapper?