random thoughts – Day 1,698 – (Sunday) – blingy

New dance veils and hip scarves are always exciting and today we got our new tri-color veils, which incorporate the colors of our individual aqua, lilac, and rose troupe hip scarves. Now, in addition to a new choreography, we have a fresh costuming look for our performance in December.

To tie things up with a bow, as soon as practice was done and before dealing with the weekly chores at the grocery store and gas station, I bolted to the nearby local antiques co-op. There is a booth there with a wall of costume jewelry where I have bought some great pieces. Today's mission was to find something in a deep pink color to go with my new rose hip scarf. Preferably blingy. 

Yes, I already have lots of clear and colored sparkly rhinestone jewelry from Mummu and my great aunts Julia and Mary, but not in pink. And something was pulling to me to the store.

Dance bling.

The store was busy. No matter which aisle I went down, there were two shoppers loudly talking (yelling) to each other from separate aisles. At the booth with all the jewelry, I jockeyed for space with two other shoppers to paw through the vintage and near-vintage trinkets. 

One of the other shoppers, in what seemed like a baby talk cartoon voice, was narrating to nobody in particular, everything she touched. “Oh, blue. Hmmm. This is long. Oh, shiny. I used to have something like this.” When her kid came over later to look at jewelry with her, it seemed the cartoon voice was her regular voice.

Meanwhile, while the jewelry shopper was conducting the cartoon voice inventory, the loud talkers were also in the vicinity. One pawed through videos and yelled to the other, “Do you like Adam Sandler? Do you like Jim Belushi?” “Have you seen [movie name - movie name - movie name]?” I focused on the trinkets, gathering a small load of potential contenders. 

Chainmail belt.

By the time I got to the other side of the wall, I had several clear rhinestone necklaces and a multicolor one, and a collar of dark pink faceted beads. That is when I discovered a real treasure – a chainmail belt in a pattern of larger and smaller rings that is more complicated than the European four-in-one I used to make. My knuckles ached just looking at it. I had to have it.

The necklace choices were narrowed to the pink bead collar, the large rhinestone piece, and the belt. With the two “new” necklaces, plus the existing pieces still to be dug out, I felt set for the show, but the dark pink beads are more red when near the pink in the veil and hip scarf. Which means I will probably keep shopping and buy 15 more pieces in the coming weeks. And what about bracelets and earrings? It’s all good. still have a few weeks.

Tonight, “How to clean costume jewelry” was my online search. I love asking a question and having a slew of instant answers. The most popular recommendation was warm water and dish soap. Easy peasy. Cleaned and done.