Fabulous Felt Strawberry Banana Orange Barrette
Top: Express, Marshalls
Skirt: ELLE, Kohl's
Shoes: Betseyville, Macy's
Bag: Modcloth
Sunglasses: Michaels
Modern life moves at warp speed. Pressures bombard us from every direction, smartphones and smarter screens only adding to the struggle. (Although, to be fair, there's nothing easy about the old school practice of hacking a chicken to bits as opposed to, say, picking up some Perdue. Ah, the good old days!) That's why people say "keep calm and carry on," or "I'm going to my happy place." I can't hear that last one without thinking of the end of Happy Gilmore when Adam Sandler daydreams about his grandmother hitting the jackpot, Chubbs alive and playing the piano, and a lingerie-clad Julie Bowen serving up pitchers of beer -- all meditations that help him win the big tournament. My happy places are The Tote Trove, anywhere the husband is, and inside a good book. Also, any of my favorite stores, although I've recently been making an effort to rely on those particular havens less often. Not that I don't still love shopping -- let's not get crazy now! But I'm trying to do the most I can with what I've got -- a goal, it seems, that applies to much more than stretching one's bead supply.
In this spirit of simplicity, I have only one piece to post this week. And while I'm on the subject, I think I'll stop calling them "pieces." It's so pretentious, like I'm hammering gold instead of cutting felt. No, this week's craft is most certainly a "barrette" - a lovely, nostalgic, and very French word that evokes memories of allowance splurges on adornments for long, undyed hair. In other words, the hallmark of less tress-stressed times. Maybe that's one of the reasons I've clung to my girlish-meets-sister wives 'do for more than a decade -- it reminds me of when life was simple. That, and more sophisticated hair care can be a real bitch. (Yep, I used the b-word. Because sometimes keeping calm and carrying on means sprinkling a little salt on your soup.)
Nevertheless . . . I'm considering cutting my mane. Because I suspect that there really is something therapeutic about getting rid of all that dead weight. Haircuts are no stranger to women in transition. "The Big Bang Theory's" Kaley Cuoco cut her hair to skullcap proportions shortly after getting married -- and before getting divorced -- in real life. And when Scarlett (Clare Bowen) lost her mom on "Nashville," she chopped her waist-length locks to an ear-skimming pixie. But perhaps it was Sheryl Crow who, albeit breaking free of the coiffure coterie, said (er, sang) it best with her all-purpose and all-powerful mantra: "a change will do you good."
On a lighter note, briefer strands will be an even better canvas for showcasing -- what else? -- barrettes.