Hope Notes: Bling Around the Collar

Blouses: Candie's from Kohl's except for the chambray one, which is Bongo from Sears.

What do you get when you combine clip-on earrings, colorful chains, and the spirit of speakeasy glam?  (And while I'm asking ridiculous questions, why do I, a teetotaler, make so many references to alcohol on this blog?)  The answer (to the first question; the answer to the second is best found at the bottom of a Dr. Pepper bottle) is collar clips!  Until now I've owned exactly one, a clear rhinestone affair from Hobby Lobby.  But I've long admired these adorable adornments and wanted to grow my collection.  Not quite brooches and not quite necklaces, they're the outliers of the jewelry world dangling, albeit dazzlingly, somewhere in the balance.  Despite my earlier tip of the newsboy cap to the 1920s, they make me think of the 1950s.  Something to do with sweater sets and Peter Pan collars, I guess.

Clip-on earrings, by the way, aren't easy to find.  The black teardrops were my mom's (although I added the crystals), and I stumbled upon the other three pairs on a Kohl's clearance rack.  I considered wearing the new ones as intended for like a minute before remembering that those little metal chompers are murder on the earlobes.  Far better, I decided, for them to grip the unfeeling flesh of a polyester button-down.

At first, I was a little leery that the clips and/or chains wouldn't lay right, but these turned out to be some of the easiest accessories I've ever made.  Also, working on them was kind of addicting.  (So much so that I went ahead and spangled a bargain brooch with Swarovski too.)  I can't help but daydream about finding an estate sale full of '80s earrings in rainbow rhinestones and plastic (bonus points for any with petrified ear wax.  Hey, if that kid in the Cottonelle commercial can say that she feels "as clean as a crystal castle," then I can, ahem, wax poetic about this.)  And who knows?  Maybe some Cyndi Lauper superfan's castoffs will embellish the blouses of today's Panic! at the Disco devotees.  Speaking of which, I feel as sparkly as a sequin serape (Google it, it's a thing.  Sort of.) whenever I hear "High Hopes."  Especially this part:

"Mama said
It's uphill for the oddities
The stranger crusaders
Ain't ever wannabes
The weird and the novelties
Don't ever change
We wanted everything, we wanted everything"

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but this song speaks to me because it says that it's harder to do what you want when you're different.   But that you can't let that stop you, that you have to keep going and hope all the harder.

Which is a lot more get-it-girl (or guy) than that Sandra Bullock-Harry Connick, Jr. romance Hope Floats.  But then, I don't think that this '90s summer snoozefest was meant to be anything more than a fling.  Still, it wasn't Sandra's fault.

As always, I think I'll blame Harry.   

Fresh Fruit and Fresh Prints: Panda-monium at Nabisco

 Random Rose Necklace

Tee: So, Kohl's

Pants: Macy's

Shoes: Guess, DSW

Bag: Target

Sunglasses: Target

Fabulous Felt Panda Bear Brooch

Top: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Skirt: ELLE, Kohl's

Shoes: 2 Lips Too, JCPenney

Bag: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Belt: Wet Seal

Jacket: Worthington, JCPenney

Hip Hippo Hooray Necklace

Blue blouse: L'Amour by Nanette Lepore, JCPenney

Yellow cami: Bisou Bisou, JCPenney

Pants: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Betseyville, Macy's

Bag: Target

Sunglasses: Target

They say that rap and rock can't make beautiful music.  That they're too different, too diametrically opposed to share the same stage.  But sometimes it's the differences in things that make them stronger, adding layers and contrasts to illuminate new points of view.  Take these outfits.  They've got a kitchen sink aesthetic and should look like uncurated graffiti.  But instead they're harmonious and eye-catching, unified by the very elements that set them apart.  With fruit slices, bold bling, and loud pants-a-plenty, they hit all the right style notes (at least to this admittedly awful singer).  Especially the pants.  A little bit MC Hammer, and a little bit zuma, they're like a time machine back to pre-Jersey Shore MTV.

The skirt outfit was challenging.  I wore it last week, leopard trench coat and all.  I felt like a schoolmarm who moonlights at McDonald's and also, maybe, the zoo.  And I thought, what would make this look even more wonderfully wacky?  An animal pin, something cute but uncomplicated, and then I had it -- a panda.  Also, a shot of some animal crackers, which would require a trip to Target.  But that was no hardship, because I love scoping out the Dollar Spot.  I always find the best stuff there -- seasonal stuff, cheap stuff, and stuff that no one else wants.  This week it was the fruit clutches (which are really bathing suit bags, although they'll hold my lipstick and license long before a bikini) and party sunglasses, the likes of which I've seen only on Pinterest.  Why do people wear "fun" sunglasses only at parties, anyway?  Why not rock them at the DMV or grocery store?  (Well, maybe not the DMV; those people would probably taze you.)  Because errands need a dose of adrenaline more than an already off-the-hook rager.

And yes, I know that no one says "off-the-hook" anymore.  Or, for that matter, "rager."  But I love words, so much so that I use them past their sell-by dates.

That's why you'll find me at ShopRite.