More Than One Way to Skin a Cat (or to wear a necklace)

I recently started receiving Lucky magazine. I didn't subscribe to it; it replaced another magazine I had a subscription to that went out of business. And while I don't usually buy a lot of fashion magazines, I did enjoy flipping through the September issue.

One of the things that caught my eye was this outfit.

(photo)

I have a blouse very similar to the one shown, and I am especially fond of the layers of necklaces and beads and bracelets that seem to be popular this season. I also have several flower pins and I do where them from time to time on days when I'm feeling especially girly. It's the romantic in me. (Or perhaps the artiste, I'm not sure. Tee hee.)

I popped into a department store one day last week on my lunch hour and found some silk rose pins on a clearance rack. There was a navy blue one that had my name on it, and it came home with me.

I already had a string of beads that went with the blouse beautifully. It was really long and I loved it. The first day I wore it, however, I broke it. I saved it, sure that I could fix it. I have a stash of beads and findings from my "beading period" a few years ago, and I knew that I could dig out a crimp bead and put the chain back together.

I worked on it some this weekend, but it proved too difficult. My crimp beads were too small and the chain was too delicate. I was stumped to come up with another idea.

Until this morning. I was determined to wear that necklace. I mean I just had to wear that necklace. So I came up with a couple of other ideas.

Idea number one - duct tape. (Don't laugh.) The color wasn't right - it was way too bright - but I thought I could use a tiny piece to put the chain back together, then slide a bead over the top of it and nobody would even see it. Perhaps good in theory, but not in reality.

Idea number two - Elmer's glue. Fill the center of my one loose bead with glue, then slide both ends of the broken chain into the center and let it dry. I was hopeful, even confident, that this was going to work. Time was running short, though, and it wasn't drying quickly enough. Solution? The hair dryer. It seemed to be working! I picked the necklace up and it held together. But as soon as I put it around my neck, one end pulled loose again. Damn!

Was I to be beat by a string of beads that, apparently, wanted more desperately to stay broken apart than I wanted them to be put back together? Beads, you don't know me very well, do you? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Janet and I'm going to be wearing you today.

(color not great; rose is navy blue and blouse has lots of blue in it.)

I wore them as a lariat. And I gotta say that I like them much better that way. See beads? That wasn't so hard now was it?