Charm Alarm: Flash Flood Warning

 Bicycle Bites Charm Necklace

Sweater: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Jeans: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Shoes: a. n. a., JCPenney

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Sunglasses: Relic, Kohl's

Bugging Out Charm Necklace

Sweatshirt: Bongo, Sears

Skirt: H&M

Shoes: Worthington, JCPenney

Bag: Nahui Ollin

Sunglasses: Party City

Panda Excess Charm Necklace

Top: Lily Star, Target

Jeans: Princess Vera, Kohl's

Shoes: Guess, DSW

Bag: Nordstrom

Sunglasses: JCPenney

Will these Flash Charm puns ever get old?  Probably, if the ever-dwindling clearance rack at Michaels is any indication.  Last year at this time, Flash Charms were the new kid on the jewelry making block, and I, awestruck and smitten, started buying them up like an extra on Hoarders.  Now there are a precious few relegated to an endcap between the American Girl doll clothes and the googly eyes, shamefaced in the glare of those perky new pompom charms.  Sure, I dedicated a whole post to the wonder of the pompom trend just two months ago and have since even purchased one (in case you're wondering, it's from JCPenney and looks like cherries), but that won't stop me from rolling those scene stealers under the bus if Flash Charm shelf space is threatened.  

So here's (perhaps) the last and latest Flash Charm trio.  You've met the critters and takeout under other names and incarnations, but the bicycles are first timers.  When I bought them, I thought that they were bicycle repair kits.  I thought that the box with the bicycle picture on it was for storing tire patches and -- well, honestly, I don't know what else -- and that the cylinder thing was a pump.  Then the husband told me that they were lunchboxes and thermoses.  And I realized that that made more sense.  Still, I think a bicycle is a weird choice for a lunchbox when there are so many cooler things like ponies and rainbows and cupcakes.  At least a cupcake is something you could put in a lunchbox. 

Take note, Flash Charms CEO.  It's gaffes like this that made room for the pompoms.           

Circles of the Circus

 Piece of Cake Corsage Necklace

Blouse: Merona, Target

Sweater: Mossimo, Target

Skirt: Metaphor, Sears

Shoes: MetroStyle

Bag: Nahui Ollin

Belt: B Fabulous

 Gingerbread House Corsage Necklace

Top: JCPenney

Skirt: Forever 21

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Bag: Burlington Coat Factory embellished by The Tote Trove

Candy Shop Corsage Necklace

Top: Olsenboye, JCPenney

Skirt: Marshalls

Shoes: Not Rated, DSW

Bag: XOXO, ROSS Dress for Less

Scarves: A.C. Moore

Fruit Delight Corsage Necklace

Sweater: Delia's

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Ami Clubwear

Bag: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Pretty Pastries Corsage Necklace

Tank: Boscov's

Sweater: Delia's

Jeans: City Streets, JCPenney

Shoes: Alloy

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Scarf: A.C. Moore

Like many avid collectors, I can be messy.  Not in a "Hoarders" kind of way, but in a I'm-having-too-good-a-time-making-necklaces-to-refold-that-leaning-tower-of-skinny-jeans kind of way.  Factor in my preference for a costume closet-explosion aesthetic, and I often have a real mess on my hands.  To be sure, as I sifted through my considerable (but clean!) clutter in search of clothes to complement my erstwhile creations, I couldn't help but wonder about the sartorial sanitation of other clotheshorses.  (Okay, so "sanitation" may not have been the best word choice, especially given that brazen declaration of cleanliness, but the allure of alliteration was just too much for me.)  It is, after all, human nature to wonder about other people, especially those most like ourselves.  I like to think that there are style bloggers the world over living in bedrooms decorated with bottomless crazy shoe caches and sweater-carpeted floors and scarf-strangled dressers.    

Speaking of colorful chaos, these polka dot backdrops make me think of life lived under the big top.  Just as the tie-dye swirls make me think of a sweet shop.  Notice I didn't say candy store or even ice cream parlor.  I almost did, but both seemed too banal.  Sweet shop has just the right retro ring for which I was searching.  

And now it's back to finishing batch number two of my tissue box trinkets.  Er, necklaces.  See.  Alliteration gets me every time.

Something New and Sparkly: A Cupcake and a Word on Collectors

Fabulous Felt Cupcake Headband

Dress: Kohl's

Jacket: Material Girl, Macy's

Shoes: Madden Girl, DSW

Bag: Harajuku Lovers, ROSS Dress for Less

I like to think that this outfit encapsulates all that is fierce and feminine about the cupcake.  (To those who quibble, "Fierce, huh?" I recommend CBS's cupcake-themed, anything-but-sweet "Two Broke Girls.")  The poufy pink skirt sort of looks like a pastry, meshing with this purple Fabulous Felt Cupcake Headband in a way that would make Barbie proud. 

In the spirit of creating and collecting and buying fashion items, I got it into my head that I wanted to address reality TV's love affair with people who like to accumulate things (a tenuous connection if ever there was one, but I'll go along with it if you will).  The bf was watching the History Channel's "American Pickers" the other night when he said, "This is like "Hoarders," except for with men in garages," to which I (good-naturedly) replied, "Yeah, except those guys get a pat on the back and a wad of cash while the women get reprimanded and tossed into therapy."  It's true.  I recently caught a few minutes of a "Hoarders" episode in which some poor Tupperware-happy woman was being forced to part with her considerable spatula collection.  Now, I didn't watch the rest of the show and so cannot attest to this woman's overall living situation or mental stability, but I couldn't help but be unnerved.  Because really, what harm can a few spatulas do?  Certainly no more than a heap of hubcaps rotting in some dude's backyard.  'Nuff said.