Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Something New and Sparkly: Kid Couture



 Crazy for Kawaii Fruit Circles Necklace


Dress: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Shoes: Journeys
Bag: Uniquely Different, Etsy

I've always been dazzled by kids' craft sets.  Looking at the color-drenched, glitter-coated supplies parading across the cardboard boxes makes me wish I were eight again so I could shove a whole armful in my cart without shame.  Of course, my eight-year-old self couldn't afford such a spree, but that's neither here nor there.

I was wandering around A.C. Moore (of course) about a month ago when I stumbled upon a clearance table in the kids' section.  A quick scan revealed a box emblazoned with 1960s-themed jewelry marked down to just $5.  I snatched it up, got it home - and promptly forgot about it.  At least until last week when I finally ripped it open, releasing a rainbow of plastic beads onto my living room floor.  Ignoring the "suggested projects" in the enclosed leaflet, I strung most of the beads to make a single necklace.  The result was bold, graphic, and dare I say, groovy.  Still, the oversized flat black plastic disc beads I'd used looked sort of bare.  Although the kit had come with psychedelic peace and love stickers to use to decorate them, I was having none of that.  So, I dug into one of my many supply boxes and unearthed a bunch of fruit-shaped erasers I'd bought at Five Below.  They popped against the black, adding just the right note of kitsch.  A few squirts of Gem-Tac later, and the Crazy for Kawaii Fruit Circles Necklace was born.

As a bonus, the piece looked great against my new ($12!) hot pink and navy striped "skater" (their word, not mine) dress from JCPenney.  As was the case with yesterday's tiger-print number, I ordered it the afternoon of Hurricane Irene, once again demonstrating my near-chronic dependency on retail therapy.  Sure, it's sleeveless and summery, but I think it'll work under a cardigan, most notably my yellow and gray zebra-striped version from Delia's.  This unlikely staple has served as the anchor of many an outfit, a fact made all the more sweet by its $9.99 price tag.

This has been an unusually voluble post.  Mercifully, the prattle stops here.

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