Something New and Sparkly: Orange You Glad

Crazy for Kawaii Simply Citrus Bib Necklace

Crazy for Kawaii Citrus Sensation Bib Necklace

Top: Mudd, Kohl's
Skirt (or rather, a cleverly concealed dress!): Never Too Spoiled
Shoes: Nine West, DSW
Bag: XOXO, ROSS Dress for Less 

A couple of weekends ago, I made the above Crazy for Kawaii Citrus Sensation Bib Necklace. To my utter amazement it racked up more than 600 views in my Etsy shop! That never happens, so I went into my Etsy site activity report to investigate and found that I was getting direct traffic from Twitter. I guess someone must have posted a link to my listing there. I had plenty of fruit slices left over, so I thought, why not make a new but very similar neckpiece? This Crazy for Kawaii Simply Citrus number (pictured above the first one) was the result. Note the absence of the glittery buttons and rhinestones. I'd thought those were a little too much the first time around anyway. But you know how it is. You get all caught up in the groove of crafting, slapping sparkly stuff on willy-nilly only to step back at the end and realize you've gone too far.

Something New and Sparkly: Strawberry Storm

Crazy for Kawaii I Heart Strawberries Bib Necklace

Caftan: Mudd, Kohl's
Skirt: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney
Bag: Journeys
Shoes: Madden Girl, DSW

Six necklaces, one caftan, and a boatload of toys make up my new six-part Crazy for Kawaii bib neckpiece collection. What's that you say? A six-parter? Yep. I've decided to go easy on myself (and on you) and blog about these one at a time.

So, where did I find that realistic-looking strawberry plopped in the middle of this beautiful mess? Michaels. I was there Friday afternoon stocking up on glue and wire while everyone else was scouring the superstores for water and batteries in preparation for Hurricane Irene. (Not that I'm totally frivolous. I didn't need to hunt down anything crucial because I'd been evacuated from Brigantine and was staying with my parents.) I spent Saturday afternoon and evening happily holed up in the basement making Crazy for Kawaii bibs. Well, at least until that first tornado watch came exploding onto the TV. That was enough to make me drop my glue bottle and dive under my craft table. Thankfully, the twister, and for that matter, the hurricane, were no shows. I'm not ashamed to admit that when I finally emerged from the cellar my arms were full of my creations to stow upstairs where flooding was unlikely.

But let's not dwell on the serious stuff. Let's talk about caftans! I found the one pictured here at Kohl's for a mere eleven dollars. I figured it was a good staple piece (in a trendy new shape!) and was delighted to use it as the anchor of this spread. Once I saw how striking all those colorful thing-a-ma-bobs were against the black backdrop I knew I couldn't subject my other collage-like collars to prints that'd obscure them.

Something New and Sparkly: Confection Obsession

Fabulous Felt Dessert Decadence Necklace

Top: Xhilaration, Target
Skirt (actually a dress smashed down): Kohl's
Shoes: Guess, DSW
Bag: Uniquely Different, Etsy

Crazy for Kawaii Strawberry Dessert Cup Necklace

Top: JCPenney 
Skirt: Kohl's
Shoes: JCPenney 
Bag: Glamour Damaged, Etsy
Necklace: The Tote Trove

Crazy for Kawaii Banana Dessert Cup Necklace

Top: Mudd, Kohl's
Jeans: Delia's
Shoes: BCBG, Macy's
Bag: City Streets, JCPenney

As always, I'm delighted to deliver a fresh batch of sweet stuff. (Clearly I spend more time crafting than ironing, as evidenced by the state of my pants in the last picture.)

Movie Moment: Crazy Stupid Love

Nine times out of ten, the trailers spoil the movie. Yet when I went to see Crazy Stupid Love I was surprised to find that it offered more story and more layers than the previews had promised. Part romantic comedy, part drama, Crazy Stupid Love centers around Cal Weaver (Steve Carell), a nice-guy insurance salesman who's just been dumped by his wife (Julianne Moore). Depressed and alone, he starts haunting bars and spouting his sad story to anyone who will listen. Enter gorgeous, confident trust fund case Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Taking pity on Cal and his lack of game, Jacob revamps Cal's wardrobe, brings him to a salon, and shows him how to chat up women in a My Fair Lady-style transformation. (Well, if My Fair Lady were a bromance.)

But then Jacob meets Hannah (Emma Stone), the "game changer." Just jilted by her dweeby lawyer boyfriend (Josh Grobin), a guy whose only charm was his security, Hannah sets out to do something reckless only to soften Jacob with the allure of her naivete.

Had things ended here, this would've been a different kind of movie. A more surface kind of movie. But Love isn't about easy hookups or black and white relationships that can be saved on the strength of grand gestures. It's about the gray areas and the complications and the parts that get left in between.

If I say too much I'll spoil it, but this cast of characters, which includes Marisa Tomei and Kevin Bacon, is unexpectedly intertwined, creating plot twists that are not only entertaining but that deepen the story. And although the ending is marked by a grand gesture, it's more a culmination of the many false starts that came before it than an out-of-the-blue deus ex machina.

Tender and thought-provoking, Crazy Stupid Love is about all the stuff we have to go through to find and keep our soul mates. Yet it's spiked with just enough humor to prevent it from taking itself too seriously.

Something New and Sparkly: Chaos and Color

Crazy for Kawaii Lemon Fun Stuff Bib Necklace

Dress: Rampage, Macy's
Shoes: Material Girl, Macy's
Bag: Gifted

Crazy for Kawaii Lime Fun Stuff Bib Necklace

Dress: XOXO
Shoes: Paris Hilton, Marshalls
Bag: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Crazy for Kawaii Citrus Sensation Bib Necklace

Dress: Macy's
Shoes: MetroStyle
Bag: XOXO, ROSS Dress for Less 

I've had these plastic fruit slices for awhile. I thought I knew what I was going to do with them, but then some unforeseen technical difficulties killed that dream. At first I was annoyed. But them I thought, fruit slices, you were meant for more. A few cabochons, rhinestones, and some industrial-strength glue later, and I had a trio of neckpieces worthy of a carnival outing.

Speaking of carnivals, I was watching TBS as I made these (as always) and that Amanda Bynes movie She's the Man was on. For those of you who've seen it, there's that scene where they're at the carnival (for those of you who haven't, don't worry; it's not that important). Everything was nice and clean and cheerful and candy-coated (well, everything except for the creepy kissing booth), and I thought, hey, this is the kind of carnival I'd want to go to, the kind I'm always alluding to in my blog and jewelry listings, as opposed to the dirty, seedy, nightmare-inducing kind that exists in real life.

But enough about the empty promises of movie magic. I'm really liking these necklaces. Especially because they gave me an excuse to pull out my bubble dresses.

How Great is this Magazine Cover?

I don't usually read jewelry-making magazines. Partly because I'm not good at following directions, partly because I'd rather come up with my own ideas. But this cover was so fun and tropical (That necklace! That flower! That dress! ), that I couldn't help but leaf through. A lot of jewelry-making magazines tend to be kind of, well, stodgy (which, come to think of it, is another reason why I avoid them). But not this one. The pages explode with colorful pieces crafted to appeal to the artsy fashionista.

Still, I couldn't be cajoled into committing to any of the projects. Too exact. Too many details. Too many opportunities for me to hurl my pliers at the TV.

Something New and Sparkly: Kawaii Not? Part II

Crazy for Kawaii Pink Unicorn Necklace

Tee: Alloy
Skirt: Ellen Tracy, JCPenney
Shoes: Baby Phat, Macy's
Bag: Pink, Victoria's Secret
Hat: JCPenney
Sunglasses: Fred Flare

Crazy for Kawaii Rainbow Ostriches Necklace

Dress: B&B, Ocean City
Flip Flops: So, Kohl's
Bag: The Tote Trove
Sunglasses: Rampage, Boscov's

Crazy for Kawaii Banana Bow Necklace

Tee: So, Kohl's
Skirt: City Streets, JCPenney
Shoes: Nine West, Macy's
Bag: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Something New and Sparkly: Kawaii Not? Part I

Crazy for Kawaii Rainbow Cherries Necklace

Tank: Macy's
Skirt: Kohl's
Shoes: Candie's, Kohl's
Bag: Candie's, Kohl's
Sunglasses: Fred Flare

Crazy for Kawaii Rainbow High Heels Necklace

Tee: So, Kohl's
Skirt: Marshalls
Shoes: City Streets, JCPenney
Bag: Betseyville, ROSS Dress for Less
Belt: Everything $10 Tournier store
Sunglasses: JCPenney
Sunglasses case: ROSS Dress for Less 

Crazy for Kawaii Blue Unicorn Necklace

Top: Kohl's
Skirt: Xhilaration, Target
Shoes: Burlington Coat Factory
Bag: Eleven Peacocks, Etsy
Belt: Wet Seal
Sunglasses: Rampage, Boscov's

Before I started selling on Etsy, I'd never heard of the word "kawaii."  But after exploring the site I soon realized that it was a style describing my favorite type of jewelry: colorful, childlike, and exploding with hearts, bows, fruits, desserts, flowers, cute critters, and other girly treasures. Little by little I began incorporating these themes into my own jewelry.  But it wasn't until I started making necklaces with my new Neon Narwhal supplies that I decided to launch a Crazy for Kawaii section in my Etsy shop.  I went back through my stock and renamed a bunch of old necklaces that seemed to fit the bill, then housed everything in one gloriously Technicolor portal.  It's not perfect yet (and probably never will be), but it's mine, and I'm pretty darned excited about it.

That's about it.  Back to craft headquarters.

Nice Neat Necklaces

It's a slow news day here in blogland, so I'm scraping the bottom of my idea barrel to bring you this hard-hitting story.

I've been wanting to organize my hanging necklaces for ages. They used to be tangled in uncooperative jumbles, a half dozen or so tumbling into my hands when I was after only one. But a couple of weekends ago I finally got around to remedying that. I tossed a few pieces that were beyond help and dismantled a few more to use in future jewelry-making projects. But for the most part, my collection remained intact.

As I examined each necklace, I realized that my taste has gotten bolder over the years, so much so that I rarely wear these more delicate pieces, instead going for the chunky beaded numbers nestled in my hatboxes or my own oversized creations (see below for a [small] sampling).

Funny how our stuff says so much about us, huh? What does your stuff say about you? (It's completely fine, by the way, if you don't want to answer. It just sounds so much friendlier to end this kind of post with a reader-oriented question, don't you think?)