Rainbow Swirl Summer: Revolution Ablution

 Trendy Tortoise Necklace

 Kitsch Corner Earrings

Top: Elizabeth and James, Kohl's

Skirt: Wild Fable, Target

Shoes: Worthington, JCPenney

Bag: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Neon stretch bracelets: Amrita Singh, Zulily

Royal blue bangle: So, Kohl's

Turquoise bangle: Burlington Coat Factory

Turquoise stretch bracelet: Cloud Nine, Ocean City

Pink flower bracelet: Belk's

Ring: PinkBopp, Etsy

Barrettes: The Tote Trove

Whenever I go to ShopRite, I always stop to look at the books.  They're at the end of the juice aisle, and as soon as I spy the Ocean Spray and V8 Splash, I feel a bubbling of anticipation.  Granted, most of the titles aren't interesting.  But just seeing the covers makes me happy, and there's usually one that I've been wanting to read.  Although I can get any of them cheaper on Amazon, tossing a paperback into my cart along with my Cheerios feels decadent.  Because books are soul Oreos.  Which is to say, one of life's simple pleasures. 

My latest grocery store score was Elin Hilderbrand's Summer of '69.  After buying it, I immediately abandoned the snooze of a book I was reading and dove right in.  

Like 99% of Hilderbrand's novels, Summer of '69 is set on Nantucket and features the familiar theme of family drama.  Only, this particular tale is tie-dyed with the turmoil of the times, touching upon civil rights, women's rights, the moon landing, and Vietnam.  Add a healthy dose of coming-of-age, broken hearts, and good old-fashioned kleptomania, and you've got a bestie for the next couple of days.  This time, the family is the Foley/Levins.  Kate is the mom, and her husband David is the lawyer who handled the case of hubby number one's suicide.  A dashing lieutenant who served in Korea, the first Mr. Kate was charismatic -- but also problematic.  David is his opposite: ordinary, unassuming, and steady.  He's also Jewish, which unnerves Kate's aristocratic mother.  Kate's offspring have their issues, too.  Big sister Blair is married to a troubled MIT professor and is enormous with his twins in Boston, wild child Kirby has defected to rival island Martha's Vineyard, and former high school football star Tiger has been drafted, leaving Jessie, who has just turned thirteen, all alone.  As if entering her teen years isn't tough enough, Jessie has the distinction of being David's daughter, setting her apart from her siblings.  A sensitive bookworm, Jessie reads Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl and suffers through tennis lessons at her grandmother's club.  It's the kind of summer that makes her a woman.  No, she doesn't lose her virginity -- she's only thirteen! -- but she does get her period.  And a boatload of wisdom. 

Although Jessie is, in many ways, the main character -- indeed, the glue that holds the Foley/Levins together -- Summer of '69 isn't just about her.  As always, Hilderbrand gets into her characters' heads with her time-honored technique of devoting whole sections to each one's point of view.  Which is ideal because I get to find out what everyone's thinking and feeling.  That's what makes novels great, after all, pulling back the curtain on characters' facing-the-world facades to show who they really are.  And in this case, the historical angle only heightens these revelations.  Hilderbrand wraps her story in all the music, fashion, and tension of the 1960s to paint a portrait of Americana.

Hoodie: Gifted, Tee: Candies, Kohl's

At one point, Kirby sends Jessie a tie-dyed Martha's Vineyard tee shirt with the hopes that she'll wear it to tennis and scandalize their grandmother.  In the not-quite spirit of that, I posted this pic of the tie-dyed hoodie that my parents brought me back from Newport, Rhode Island.  I love it.  Although the image of the dog is ironic, seeing as how I hate canines.

And that makes for a nice segue into today's crafts.  Although not tie-dyed, I present the neon-studded Trendy Tortoise Necklace and Kitsch Corner Earrings to you on a hippie-happy backdrop of tie-dyed sweatshirt and faux leather fringed bag.  The necklace was a Target clearance rack item, and the charms for the earrings were vintage bits I got when my sister cleaned out her craft room.  They look more '70s or '80s than '60s (they subtly scream disco fever, if subtly screaming is a thing), but I was drawn to their clean lines and aged cream enamel.  Anyway, as they say, time is an illusion, and fashion traverses it all.  It's an anchor in an uncertain ocean, a light on the long, dark road home.

Like a serving of chick lit amidst cardboard Kind bars.

At ShopRite, the granola bars are by the books too.