Access to Accessories!

You've found a favorite outfit to wear, but it's missing just a little something to add pizzazz to grab interest or to express the mood you're in today. Which accessories will you wear? What if nothing strikes you? Well, the easy answer is to GO SHOPPING, but that isn't always the best answer. I say, "DIG!" Yes, dig in that closet or dresser you haven't audited - in how many years? Look for those forgotten scarves, hats, belts, shoes, and jewelry that got tucked away and bring them out to see the light of day! Okay, okay...I know it's a lot of work to dig, but you have beautiful accessories hiding in your stash!

Earlier I suggested ways to de-clutter your closet so you can find your treasures, and I stressed the importance of making firm and final decisions about those pieces that don't get enough love, even if you still love them. I must make a confession. I have kept things I have never used for more than a year. Okay...for more than five years. ALRIGHT THEN! For more than TEN years!!! I admit it. I'm guilty. Sometimes I like to own things and not necessarily use them. Whew. That feels better now.

I am my grandmother's granddaughter after all. She was notorious for buying beautiful things not because she needed them, but because they pleased her. She had towers of shoe boxes containing brand-new, unused shoes stacked in her closet. Some were so old the soles had curled with their smooth and untarnished bottoms reaching over the tops toward the heels that were too high for her to wear in the first place. She also loved purses, but not nearly to the extent she loved shoes. She gave me one of her purses at least ten years ago - probably more like twenty years ago - when she moved into an assisted living facility. It is a straw purse with pastel green, pink, and yellow accents and a cute little wooden turtle and seahorse hanging from the zipper. I've never used it, yet it has moved with us to at least two different states. Somehow, it has survived the inevitable culling that comes whenever a move is made maybe because it is so pretty, or maybe because it was my grandmother's.

As I browse the style trends for Spring 2016, I see that natural fiber purses and wide-brimmed hats are the accent of choice, along with big, cat-eye sunglasses and strappy sandals. Green, yellow, and orange are also the trending colors brightening the season. What a better time than now to dig through the basement closet to find my grandmother's straw purse and use it for the first time!

The purse is a perfect complement to my Resort Jacket and Flora Scarf from cabi. Plus, it coordinates well with the textured hat I found in San Diego in January. Though my big sunglasses aren't cat-eyed, they will do for this season! Best part? The green accents in the purse match my new "ugly shoes"!

I'm ready for spring, are you?