Weekend Winging-It-Win

The trouble with leaving me alone with a bunch of clothes that you've told me are on sale is that I'm going to try them on. And the trouble with me trying things on is that I'm either going to hate everything I put on, or I'm going to love everything I put on. Both of those situations are good and bad.

What I mean to say is: I was waiting for my turn at my esthetician's salon on Friday afternoon. She sells clothes as well, and she had a bunch of them on at 50% off because she is clearing them out. They're generally not the sort of thing I wear, but I'd had a rough day, and I thought I'd play around a bit and see what I liked.

I was heading towards the hating-everything-I-put-on stage, which I was ok with, when I saw this dress on the hanger:

It was unremarkable to me when I first looked and it, but I approached it, lifted the skirt, and thought it was a lovely colour: a wine red with a ruffle down the front that opened into a slit. All of her clothes are a bamboo-cotton blend, so I tried it on. Long story short: it came home with me.

I tried it on again when I got home, and I thought it needed something... something around the neck...

I woke up the next morning and lay in bed thinking about it. I got up and started looking around online for some inspiration. Later that morning, I made a trip to the yarn store and came home with some silver crochet cotton and a couple of small steel crochet hooks.

After a few false starts and a lot of thinking, I made this:

I winged it from a few photos on line and with a little help with a crochet motif book I picked up last year.

If you look closely at it, there are some glass beads in each little "leaf." I wanted to give it just a hint of glitter:

I tried it on and wasn't sure about it, but then I put on the dress and put my hair up, and I knew it was exactly what I wanted:

Now that's what I call a winging-it-win.

The leaves kind of stick up sometimes, and sometimes they are turned inwards and outwards, but I don't mind that so much. I just like the trailing look of it along my neck. I'm pretty proud of it, and it was a nice little weekend project.

It wasn't the only weekend project, but we'll get into that another time: