Leavin' on a jet plan

I'm flying out today - I may even be on the plane as you read this.Since I don't know how much time I'll have to blog once I get there, I scheduled this post on the weekend to share a little story to keep you all entertained.

When I bought the polkadot dress the other week, I knew it was going to be packed for the Chicago trip. It's nice and professional, I look fabulous in it - and it won't wrinkle in the suitcase! Triple win!

Back in the depths of winter, I bought a pair of strappy red shoes that were on clearance. Because of the weather, I haven't had a chance to debut them yet - but the more I looked at the polkadot dress, the more I thought they'd be the perfect compliment, when paired with the red cardigan I'd planned for it.

I toyed briefly with the idea of attempting to knit the cardigan in time for Chicago (it was almost two weeks to the trip when I got the yarn) but quickly came to my senses.

But I could still pull of the shoes with dress if I had the right jewellry to tie it all together. Now I've got 25 years of ammassing a ginormous jewellry collection (many in which I was actually making jewellry) - do you think I have anything in the right shade of red? No. Of course not.

So the hunt began. I looked in every store I could think of  accessory stores, department stores, clothing stores - even thrift stores. Red was hard enough to find (everything being coral, mint and aqua this season) and when I did find it, it was outlandishly expensive, or just plain ugly.

After almost two weeks of searching, I finally happened across something workable... at the dollar store of all places!

 Now, it was a little long, and not exactly my style, but I'm crafty (not to mention desperate by this point.) I grabbed it up, brought it home and got out my trusty jewellry pliers.

10 minutes later, I had the perfect necklace and a set of earrings! Best $2.50 cents I ever spent! Now I've just got to slip into my shoes , throw on my dress - bring on Chicago!