Crave the Rave: Curating Cranberries

Top: Vylette, Kohl's

Three Cheers for Cherries Necklace; You Glow, Girl! Necklace

Bag: Boscov's

Jumper: Current Mood, Dolls Kill

Boots: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Bracelets from top to bottom: Amrita Singh, Zulily; B Fabulous; Mixit, JCPenney; Steve Madden, Macy's

Jumper: Candie's, Kohl's

Top: Current Mood, Dolls Kill

Belt: Dolls Kill; Bag: Circus by Sam Edelman, Kohl's; Shoes: Betseyville, Macy's

Bracelets: Kohl's

Daisy Star Unicorn Necklace

Skirt: Dolls Kill

Bag: Amazon

Shoes: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Top: Macy's Backstage

When the husband took these pics, he said that the thick-treaded boots and loafers looked very monster truck Barbie.  And although he was talking about the shoes, I couldn't help but think that it was a sentiment that also applied to the outfits.  Because each ensemble includes at least one thing from Dolls Kill -- in other words, hints of Bratz, Monster High, and other similarly sinister playthings -- just like a tasty but not-quite-top-shelf vintage.  There are also notes of plaid, stars, and sushi.  And plaid, of course, means the '90s and the lumberjack-meets-prep sweet/tart 'tude that goes with them.  So, we're not just talking cranberry wine, but also -- yes -- The Cranberries.  That said, let's raise a glass -- wine or Ocean Spray, you decide -- to dressing up as versions of who we once were with a spit spritz of somebody else.  In my case, an aging, rave-raging schoolgirl.

Even if I've never ever been to a rave and am terrified of zombies.  

Except for the song "Zombie"  That I love.  It's an anthem that transcends time and produce.  

Especially when Andy sings it on The Office.

The Hairy Truth About Scrunchies . . .

. . . is that they're totally awesome!  I know, I know.  I once vowed to resist this resurrected eighties/nineties trend.  To never fall for its amorphous allure or wind its graffiti-print, calamari-like rings around my precious ponytail.  Because there's something provincial about it that makes you (okay, me) feel like you're admitting defeat.  I blame such snobbery on that episode of "Sex and the City."  You know, the one where Carrie and Aidan argue about whether a scrunchie-sporting woman at a restaurant is a New Yorker.  Carrie says that she isn't; Aidan insists that she is.  When they ask her, she reveals that she's on vacation and gushes that she's flattered to be mistaken for one of Gotham's glamazons.

Then I saw the reboot.  (Of the scrunchie, not "Sex and the City.")  And it's more than just a, as my mom used to say, ruffle wrap.  It now comes in a myriad of colors, prints, fabrics, and even structures.  Some look like old-school telephone cords.  I was really excited about that and snapped up this fluorescent foursome.  Sure, when I tried to wear them in my (admittedly unruly) locks, they got lost and looked like dead jellyfish.  But that only inspired me to string them on a ribbon and wear them as a necklace.

In other updo doodad overhauls, the elastic part isn't even the, ahem, mane event, but a mere anchor for scarves and bows.  They're so pretty, like something you'd see on a bobby soxer or Disney princess.  I snagged two in red and yellow, Ronald McDonald style, albeit in autumnal florals, as well as a hot pink one printed like a bandanna.  The effect is summer fading into fall.  Kind of like an acid rain-spiked watermelon crashing Thanksgiving's still life of corn and cranberries.

That's the thing about trends.  Sometimes, it takes more than a minute for them to make sense to you and secure a place in your heart's true blue wardrobe.  Sometimes -- like the Cranberries -- you have to wait and let them linger.

And also, admit that a comeback can overcome a comment from New York's couture queen.

Smurf's Up: New Wave Crave

 Hygiene Hijinks Necklace

Top: Kohl's

Dress: L'Amour by Nanette Lepore for JCPenney

Shoes: Chinese Laundry, DSW

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Brigantine beach shop

Fabulous Felt Sweet Seashell Barrette

Blouse: Target

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Shoes: BCBG, Macy's

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Sunglasses: Michaels 

Cool Crescent Necklace

Top: Arizona Jeans, JCPenney

Dress: Monteau, Marshalls

Shoes: Christian Siriano for Payless

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Rampage, Boscov's

Tourist Trap Necklace

Top: Self Esteem, JCPenney

Skirt: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes: Payless

Bag: Candie's, Kohl's

Sunglasses: JCPenney

Brigantine's own Root Beer Barrel: one soda shop-sounding surf shop that keeps on rolling (at least, if the for sale sign out front is to be believed, until someone buys it).

A rolling stone gathers no moss -- but sometimes moss is mighty pretty.

Thanks to Ocean Spray, you can't say "crave" without thinking of that other "c" word -- "cranberries!"  This post is all about blue, pink, and the beach, with a splash of 1980s -- which is to say that it's like 95% of my other posts (even if The Cranberries are not only not new wave, but not from the 1980s).  It's got seashells, a surf shop, and toilets -- reminding us not to pee in the ocean.  Also, Smurfberries, perhaps the most magical (not to mention most animated) marriage of pink and blue, if only in abstract.

Ah, the beach.  Otherwise known as Mother Nature's prize box, it offers a boundless bounty of beauty, yielding every treasure that original hoarder The Little Mermaid could hope to squirrel away in her undersea cavern.  Unlike actual mothers, the beach is laidback when it comes to bringing things home, never saying, "You just got a dead crab carcass for your birthday, Bobby; put that back!"  Well, not unless she wages a hurricane.

In honor of the beach (and collecting), I made this week's stuff with souvenir shops in mind.  I'm sure you remember their wares, are perhaps even becoming reacquainted with them this weekend as you stroll through such spots with your own little ones.  Baskets of shrink-wrapped seashells, cheap sunglasses, and screen-printed tee shirts riotous with palm trees and dolphins crowd every aisle.  We have a few such establishments in Brigantine, and sometimes I like to walk through them, if only for nostalgia's sake.  But my favorite beach shop buy came from a store on the Ocean City boardwalk.  It was a plastic yellow scallop shell trinket box that I found enchanting because I thought it looked like it belonged to a mermaid (Ariel being my spirit Disney princess).  Sadly, I've since lost track of it; unlike my faux sumo wrestler trinket box, it never emerged from my parents' attic.  Sometimes I still think about it, and when I'm on the boardwalk, I peer at the passing shops and wonder if anything like it is waiting within.  I never check, though.  There's no point in trying to go home again when your home is already the beach.