Opening the Box

Our lady friends love their Pandora charm bracelets.

My wife and I were intrigued, but she seldom wears bracelets, I have too many already and we were both turned off by the high price.

My sister discovered affordable Pandora knock-offs on eBay.

My wife and I were intrigued, but she still seldom wears bracelets and I still have too many already.

Recently, Avon began selling their own Pandora knock-offs; $9.99 for the bracelet, $3.99 for each charm.

(Did I mention that I am an Avon lady?)

My wife relented; she bought the Avon bracelet and some charms they had for sale.

I resisted again because I still have too many bracelets.

In the last Avon new products catalog, Avon introduced some new Pandora knock-off charms including two charms that are exclusive for Avon representatives: one, a miniature tube of lipstick and the other, a miniature perfume bottle.

I could no longer resist. After all, a girl can’t have too many bracelets!

 

Actor Jared Leto (right) femulating in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club.

 

Wearing Kohl’s.

Bringing Bling

With my packing list in hand, I will begin packing for Fantasia Fair this evening.

Most of the packing is easy --- just pack exactly what I have on my list.

Jewelry is more difficult. Let me explain why.

My packing list indicates that I should pack a silver necklace, earrings, and bracelet to go with a particular outfit, but does not specify which silver necklace, earrings, and bracelet. I usually don't remember what jewelry worked with an outfit I wore before and if it is a new outfit, I am not sure what jewelry will work with it.

To complicate matters, I have a lot of jewelry.

As an Avon representative, I can buy with a discount and over the years, I have amassed a lot of Avon jewelry. Also, I bought a lot of Napier jewelry at a big discount when the Napier factory closed here.

Funny story. When they were having their close-out sale, I was visiting the Napier factory store a couple of times a week during lunch hour. The sales staff got to know me and helped me match earrings with bracelets with necklaces, etc.

After one shopping spree, a sales woman commented that my wife was a lucky girl because I was buying so much jewelry for her. Although I did buy some items for my wife, most of it was for me!

So tonight, I will wade through all my jewelry and pick out items to pack.

And here's a tip: I store my jewelry in clear plastic boxes intended for storing fishing lures. They are inexpensive (Walmart sells them in a variety of sizes) and they permit you to instantly see their contents. And if you fill one up, just buy another. (I own 12.)

By the way, I use a huge fishing tackle box to store and transport my makeup. (My parents' hobby was fishing, so I attribute my storage skills to their avocation.)

Accessorizing

I mentioned here that I bought a new dress at DressBarn that I was attracted to when I walked into the store and saw it on display on a headless mannequin. (The "headless mannequin" also lacked legs and arms and I have since learned that such a mannequin is known as a "torso mannequin.")

Anyway, I forgot to mention that the mannequin was also wearing a beautiful necklace that perfectly accessorized the dress. On my way home after buying the dress, I regretted that I did not purchase the necklace, too.

Today, I had to go to the grocery store to replenish the food stuff that I eat for lunch at work. My favorite DressBarn is next door to the grocery store, so I stopped in to see if they had the necklace. (This was a different DressBarn than the one where I purchased the dress.)

I perused the jewelry racks three times, but could not find the necklace. I gave up looking and asked a saleswoman if they had the necklace in stock, while showing her a picture of the necklace that I had grabbed from the Internet.

She found it buried behind some other necklaces on the jewelry rack and now I have a nice new necklace to go with my nice new dress. Isn't that nice?

Accessorize Me

Packing for extended stays en femme is not a big deal. I always have a packing check list, annotated from the previous trip, that helps me avoid forgetting anything.

However, there is one sticking point that comes up every time I pack for an extended stay: what jewelry to pack?

When I get dressed, I often change my jewelry because I am wrong about what I thought would look good with the outfit I am wearing.

It is easy to change my mind about my jewelry when I dress at home because I have my vast collection of cosmetic jewelry on hand to pick and choose from. But I can't take my whole jewelry collection on the road, so I have to guess what will look good with the outfits I plan to wear.

If I already wore an outfit, I have a good idea how to accessorize because I know what worked (and/or what didn't work) last time out. But if I am wearing an outfit for the first time, I am not really sure what will work.

So, I always overpack jewelry-wise.

This is a big "problem" for my Fantasia Fair trip. I will be wearing five new outfits, so that means five unknown sets of accessorizing jewelry! As a result, I really overpacked my jewelry for this trip.

On the plus side, I don't wear as much jewelry as I used to wear. When I was a younger woman, I made sure I always wore earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, a ring or two, and a watch.

Now that I am a mature woman, I usually do not wear that full set of jewelry. I almost always wear earrings, but the necklace, bracelet, rings, and watch are optional depending on the outfit and whether or not I have to be aware of the time.

new bling-bling

Most of my jewelry is of the inexpensive costume variety. However, I recently received a gift certificate for LuShae Jewelry and I was able to add some real bling to my jewelry box.

After peruring LuShae's online catalog, I chose a pendant called Cluster of Ruby. Here is its catalog description:

The Cluster of Ruby CZ pendant is beautifully designed with ruby red CZ and round clear CZ all clustered together for that indulged look. It draws attention and adds style with elegance to your favorite top or dress. White Gold Rhodium Bond is achieved using an electroplating process that coats the item with heavy layers of rhodium, a close cousin of platinum that costs three times as much, which gives our jewelry a platinum luster.

The pendant arrived one week after I placed my order.

In this fashionista's opinion, the pendant is drop-dead gorgeous. It is one of the prettiest pieces of jewelry I own.

I look forward to wearing the pendant, but first I have to find earrings to go with it. And when I do, I plan to wear my new bling to a fancy occasion, probably to one of the formal affairs coming up in this spring.

borrowing

My best friend Patty offered to lend me some things for Fantasia Fair, so yesterday, I took a long lunch to visit her and see what she had to offer.

In addition to providing an excellent lunch (soup, salad, and freshly baked bread), she presented me with a half dozen outfits, coats, and jewelry that I could borrow. The outfits included beautiful formal and semi-formal dresses and a pants outfit. The coats came in an array of colors and styles.

I hauled my haul home and tried everything on today. Two of the dresses fit perfectly including my favorite of the bunch: a long beaded grayish-blue sleeveless crochet dress that I now plan to wear to one of the Fantasia Fair banquets. The other dress that fit was a long black velvet dress with see-through short sleeves and I plan to wear it out to dinner at Fantasia Fair. The other dresses and the pants outfit were lovely, too, but they were too tight in the chest, so I will not be packing them for the trip to Provincetown.

The coats all fit and I will be taking a selection of them to Fantasia Fair and the jewelry accessorizes the beaded dress, so that will be coming along for the ride, too.

Thank you so much for your generosity, Patty!