It was oh so warm here this weekend.
So nice.
Popsicles were on the grocery list…
I don’t know about you, but warm weather always inspires me to get out my candy colorful bangles.
I have a secret drawer where I keep my bakelite collection.
Only, this stash is different.
This isn’t bakelite, but it’s super fun plastic bangle mania.
(some wooden bangles too)
I have kept them in this big bag, since I left the city house for good last year, and have not 100% found places for everything at the country pad.
Which ones to wear, which ones to choose?
It’s funny, because every time I pile them on folks come up to me and ask, where did you get them?
It’s just fun stuff, and I think it inspires others (who love color and playful attire) to want to have a wild and wacky plastic bangled arm too.
Soooooooooo.
I went through my stash and came up with this big stack of bracelets below, to give away.
Yep, gift away.
Give away.
Freebie.
Right here.
(winner announced at end of post!)
The pile below, plus the ones I am wearing in the photo below, are all for one of you.
I must be insane.
Lots of goodies from my own personal stash.
I have collected these over the years.
Different shapes and sizes.
So, if you loooove colorful bangles, just in time for spring and summer…
Then, jump in!
🙂
All you have to do is leave a comment.
Easy as pie.
If you’d like, you can share something memorable from one of your warm day memories.
I think the summer going into 7th grade was the funnest summer ever.
Neon clothes.
Body glove bathing suits.
Clothes that change color.
(a lot of the fashion in style right now was in that year, neon everything)
Zinc neon sunscreen.
Scrunchies towering in a ponytail.
Bunch up socks and Keds tennis shoes.
Swatches up the arm.
Riding bikes all over town.
Painting on tennis shoes, and gluing pearls and stones all over them.
Tears for fears & A-ha tapes playing in the pastel pink radio.
Tennis.
Tennis.
Tennis.
Swimming all day long.
Tanned as heck.
Feeling like all the dreams and world of pure magic lied ahead in spades.
That is the sumer I really remember well.
Falling in love with 6 boys.
From afar of course.
Okay, so, I best stop chattering.
And let you enter to get a huge goody bag of bright bangles!
Woo hooo!
THE WINNER is….
#5
Woo hooo you won!!
Please e-mail me your snail mail address and I will send you your colorful bangles 😉
Love, V
I adore your playful, plastic, colorful arm! I think Junior high summers were the best…still young enough to have fun but with a little freedom to got with it. Great give away!
Ohhhh … I love color! The more color, the merrier. These bangles remind me of some play dishes I had when I was a little girl. Little plastic, colorful dishes that I used to play house with. You know …. mud pies. Find 2 trees and draw your house out in the dirt. Draw off the living room, kitchen, bedrooms. Use your colorful dishes or aluminum pie plates and bowls to mix up mud pies. It was so much fun! I would love to win some coloful bangles. Thanks so much for offering the opportunity.
I love colors and jewelry, so I`m in 🙂
(the bangles look like candy, so colorful and happy)
I can remember summers almost exactly like the one you discribed, lol. I even listened to the same music 🙂
I ate Mr.Freeze, chewed banana bubblegum, took the bus to the nearest city to shop togheter with my sister, walked down to the river to swim, and had big baggy t-shirts that changed color when someone touched them.
School summer holidays were the best. 6 weeks of playing in the sunshine. I remember one year Dad built a tree house in the willow tree in our back garden. All the kids on our street would come over and we’d play for hours. It was bliss. 🙂
What fun! Colorful bangles can’t help but make a person smile!! One of my favorite summer memories was a Saturday morning. I was on the swim team and we were at a competition. For some reason we all started drawing on any area of skin that was not covered by our tank suits. Colorful body art on everyone. Our whole team was one big doodle. I think it may have intimidated the other team. Of course we won the meet! That became a tradition after that morning. What a fond memory….so many years ago.
Every day I strive to make new memories….yesterday’s sunny warm morning memory: Hanging laundry in the company of my two bourbon red turkey boys. Gobble,gobble, gobble!
I am a sucker for bangles. My girls play with the all the time. :)))
What is not to love about bangles?? Love your pretties!
playing outside til dark….always something to do! Forts, mud pies, lightning bugs……laying in the grass watching the stars…..
Vanessa:
I adore fun, colorful costume jewelry. I’d rather have a stack of confetti plastic bracelets than a diamond!
I remember long, hot summer days in Southern California when I was growing up. Very smoggy too, back then. We lived in a tiny, cracker box house outside of Los Angeles. No one on my block had an air conditioner back then, so we stayed inside during the hottest summer days. One of our tricks to stay cool was to sit in the bathtub and read or look through stuff. (No water in the tub, just the coolness of the porcelain). My friend and I would sit in the bathtub and look through my mom’s jewelry box. This was in the 1970s, so my mom had a lot of colorful and fun costume jewelry. She had bright bangles and a lot of flower pins. We never got tired of trying on her jewelry on those hot days in the porcelain tub!
xoxo
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
Don’t you just love falling in love with boys from afar?
Only from afar that year because I had been grounded all 6th grade for my
boy loving ways and a wrong side of the track boyfriend 😉 My parents even
chopped off my waist length hair to chin length over that whole thing, what
punishment!! So, I learned my lesson. Not. I liked from afar
for a while, but one boy was persistent, and I plunged again. I think I
spent my whole 5 years of junior and high school grounded over boys. Yes,
I did.
What a fun flashback! I think I must be a few years older than you, because while I remember totally loving a-ha and Tears for Fears, I was in high school when I was listening to them. Oh how cute we all thought the lead singer for a-ha was… sigh…
And, Oh My Gosh (already starting to sound like a teenager)… Those wavy, stack-able pink and yellow bracelets – I had a whole set of those back in middle school! Mine were that same pink, along with white and turquoise. Oh, how I loved them, they were so funky – I wore them everywhere. All. The. Time.
I haven’t thought about them, or scrunchies (I had as many different colours as I could get) in a long time. I must still have those bracelets somewhere (I wouldn’t have thrown them away) – now I have to go on a hunt to find them. And I will be singing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” with gusto and style while I’m doing it. ; )
Thanks for such a fun post, Vanessa! (And for the give-away, too. If it were me, I’m not sure I could part with all that colorful fun – you are so generous!)
Such beautiful bangle treasure! The colors are great fun! Yep, this past weekend was Spring time heaven here in Arizona which really took the sting out of a day and a half of plumbing repairs at Hermosa Castile a whole lot easier to with stand -lol- For Queenie this frolicky springtime weather always makes me want to change purses… -Or- better yet, :o) go purse shopping. Yep, a woven soft salmon colored purse is now mine. Yay for Spring!!!
Have a great day.
Always, Queenie
Your bangles are so colorful and happy! That TFF song takes me back to the summer after I graduated from 8th grade. Water slides, Bain de Soleil and my favorite high cut swimsuit (teal with white triangle print – soooo 80’s!). So many good memories, they still come flooding back to me on warm, sunny days. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Sarah
I love your bangles! My favorite summer memory is playing outside with my sister under two huge trees which we dubbed as our playhouse. Our mom would have to make us come inside in the evening. And red Keds…always had to have those.
You are right, bangles are fun. They brighten up anything you have on and make others smile. I love them too.
Love those bangles! Colorful and fun 🙂 I have a few, but compared to that monumental collection, they’re a little dinky…🖤
What beautiful bangles to share! So fun to relive the special memories of yesteryear. My memories include cartwheels in the grass and bike riding (with no hands and no helmet – such daredevils in the 70’s)!
You make me smile, Vanessa Valencia.
You, your bangles and Tears for Fears.
I love bangles! I got rid of all mine from the 80’s. Sad face. I’m a high school teacher and I love color. That’s how my students describe me, lol. I think my favorite color is color. I started reading your blog about a year ago, I’ve been following it more intently since Matty got sick. I am so happy for you that he’s doing so well. Your happy self always brightens my day. I was born and raised in Florida so my warm day memories are too many to name. 🙂
I was waiting for you to say it was warm enough your popsicle crop was ripening on the trees! (There is magic in your garden.)
We are still waiting for temps to get above the 30s. We did have rain, so most of the snow is gone.
Oh my! I love horribly obnoxious loud tacky wonderful bracelets like these!
As far as my favorite warm temperature memories? There are just too many to name. But, I’ll share my most recent one. This weekend, I was able to fulfill one of my gardening dreams. I planted my 3 olive trees! I can’t wait to press my own olive oil & brine my own olives! I’ve lived in my house for five years now, and those olives are one of the most important things that I wanted to get into the garden!
I am definitely a Bangle wearing Girl!!!! Love to mix and match..I think it is super cool that you have kept them for so many years!!! I promise to cherish them for many more if I win…Tee Hee!
xoxo
Dena
Oh…i love love love bangles. And yours are fabulous. 🙂 Hope I get to share.
Summer memories….fudgesickles…garage sales…bike rides….laying on soft green grass looking up at the clouds and deciding who I was going to marry and what I would name all my kids…sleepovers….dairy queen dilly bars…badmitten……..those bangles are delicious!
P.S. Do you still have Wonderland labels in stock in your online store? The ones from a couple of years previously, the sticker labels? I was browsing through the shop and couldn’t find them…perhaps I just missed them.
I’m loving the bright bangles. One of my favorite summers was when I was 12. I was in love with one of my older camp counselors. His name was Miguel. He was 16, I was 12. Sigh. I can still see his face now. He was always nice to me and paid me special attention which made me feel like a star. Years later when I was about 21, I saw him again on the train. Don’t you know he remembered me all those years later. That was the icing on the cake.
PS. My husband surprised me with lovely roses. Once they begin to wilt. I’m going to hang them up to dry and keep them in a a lovely jar like you showed two posts ago.
Oo! Such fun!
I’ve been so sick of cold weather, I’m absolutely thrilled now that it’s finally getting pretty.
When I was little, my favorite thing to do when it was warm was to go play in the ditch at the end of our street. All sorts of adventures happened there. Each area had a different name too (Turtle Crossing, the Enchanted Forest, Gilligan’s Island, The Canyon, Stepping Stone Valley, and several more that seem to have slipped my mind!)
Oh how I loved those days! 🙂
Love..Love..Love Bangles. I have a black one and another pink. So nice of you to offer this giveaway!
Happy Spring!
such juicy colors! would love some bangles from you 🙂
Woo! What a bunch of fun bangles! =D
Let me see… favorite warm weather memories have to be from when I lived in Florida. ^-^
We’d play this kind of cross between volley ball & tennis in the street in front of our house for hours… or we’d swim in my friend’s pool until the thunder storms started. Then we’d go inside when the lightning got too close, wait for it all to blow over & then run back out & jump into the pool again. ^-^
Sometimes it rained hard enough that if there wasn’t any lightning, my neighbor, my sister and I would grab our shampoo and wash our hair in the rain… Best shower ever! =D
You’d never guess from looking at me now (I’m super pale… ^-^) but when I lived in Florida I was golden brown from head to toe. Lots of sun with not so much sun block…
I hope your weather stays nice!
XOXO
Young Love in The Summertime! and what would summer be without toilet papering someone’s house?! (and driving your parent’s car while they were out-of-town without a driver’s license?) Swimming in my itsy bitsy bikini and lying out in the sun listening to the radio ~ those were the days! living on popsicles……cruising the mall…..going to movies at midnight….concerts…..more baking in the sun……bicycling everywhere…..going up the canyon…..bonfires…..writing your name with your boyfriend’s last name!!!!
Oh my gosh! I love these! My favorite
outfit of all time, was a pair of
neon yellow leggings, my hot pink
converse high tops, and a hot pink
shirt with yellow polka dots. Best
outfit EVER!
p.s. love the Miso Pretty bag the bangles are in!
I would love that ice cream bar with a bangle please LOL 🙂
Please forgive…but I just have to say Woweeee for miss cream cakelette 🙂 I started a message for you and will finish asap (trying to get a good shot of her for you) …she’s adorable and lights up my life!!!
xoxo
Deb
COLOR! LOVE!
Favorite summer activity was swimming, still is. Makes me feel like a mermaid 🙂
I love your colourful bangles especially the faceted ones. What’s summer for me? I remember the selfmade currant icecream of my aunt which was the best icecream I’ve ever eaten. We all, I, my sister and my cousins were about ten years. Aunt Liselotte made it in a vintage icecream maker. She put salt and icecubes in an outer bowl and the currants, sugar and cream in the inner bowl and an electric stirrer mixed the icecream thoroughly. Afterwards we got rosy scoops of icecream in cones. Of course we had to help to pick the currants before. When it was really hot our uncle Siegfried put out an old zinc washtub and filled it with water through the garden hose. And we were blissfully springing inside and splashing around with joy. It was a childhood in the 1960s and 1970s when you couldn’t buy icecream everywhere and there was no swimmingpool in every town. It was a really happy time and I meet with my sisters and cousins every year in summer and sometimes we talk about this halcyon days and our dear memories.
Oh! OH! I wantIwantIwant!!!!
Hey—I have that same bag…the Miso Pretty one with the hummingbirds. I love the color scheme so much I’m using it for paint swatches for the studio.
I, too, am a bangles gal. Let’s see….
hot hot summers at camp. I went to the Hermann Son’s Youth Camp in Comfort, Texas every year. We had a mascot that was a skunk, and tons of ridiculous songs and traditions that still baffle me.
All day long we’d take ‘classes’…..trampoline, gold, TENNIS!, ceramics, swimming, horseback riding. I’d AGONIZE over what to sign up for. The best part…there was a talent show and a class competition. I lived to rack up as many ribbons as I could get. I still have my silly pink ribbons for???? Archery, I think?
We were listening to Banarama ‘Cruel Summer’ and the counselors irritated us all by discovering some annoying little ‘treasure’….a girl they forced to sing ‘Maybe’ from Annie. It was so rankling to have them describe her as a ‘treasure’, but she really did have a beautiful voice. Petty, petty. She was probably horrified, too.
Sticking people’s hands in warm water. Mail call. The top bunk. Braiding hair. Those rubber bracelets you wore over Swatches. Def Leppard. Axel F.
I meant ‘golf’. not ‘gold’!
Love, Love, Love your bangles!! The bright and happy colors send me into happy summer thoughts on a gray, rainy Michigan day. Thank you for sharing your sunshine!
Oh, you do have fun, and you like to take everyone else with you 🙂 Your bangles are absolutely fabulous…happy happpy colors.
Well, don’t know if I should even mention this, but I was listening to the Beach Boys during those youthful summers…bah bah bah…bah Barbara Ann…..teehee
I LOVE the beach boys!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 4/9/2013 6:48:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
Your bangles rule my world!!!! What a wonderful give away! Let the summer begin 🙂
I’ve been reading your blog for years, it’s such a wonderful, dreamy getaway! Shame on me that it took a bangles giveaway for me to comment! But, alas, the gorgeous colors of bakelite bangles drew me in! :p I miss the 80’s!!! From the HyperColor Sweatshirts (that I never got to own myself 🙁 ..) to jelly shoes and the lightweight leggings with lace on the bottom and funky earrings.. oh we had fun with colors and textures! It was an artist’s decade I declare! For fun we would ride bikes, swing at the park, Basketball, Slip n Slide, Pom Pom Pole-away (sp?) and Kiss or Kill with the neighbor kids, one of whom was really cute. I remember during a game of Kiss or Kill, I caught him and kept his white comb he carried in his back pocket instead of kissing him! I remember staring at the Aha cassette! at Target wishing I had enough money to buy it. We’re all dying for spring here in Minneapolis, tomorrow’s forecast 7 ” of snow.. no kidding! Very unusual. It better be an Indian summer is all I have to say! I promise to write again, when there is no prize to show how much I LOVE your blog !! 🙂 – Emily
Was also going to mention how much fun we had with those little Origami Fortune Tellers and the M.A.T.H. fortune telling game for which boy you would end up in, and in a mansion, apartment, trailer, or house. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQNJ49ZZBvc … was this popular where you were? – Emily
these are such FUN bangles! in the 70’s… riding our horses everywhere…up and down embankments of clay that were so steep we were petrified; to the pond in our bathing suits only to float off their backs while they swam; to “Porky’s” a hamburger joint and order at the window; to the beach before the town grew too big, race cars to prove horses can start from a standstill faster than any old car (not too smart but we were young.) We’d race on an old clay road…..once a farmer had watermelons on the side of the road and gave us a couple. One survived the ride, the other smashed on the road, us laughing at the sound. We stopped and let the horses take nibbles before going on. Riding while laughing so hard we would “almost” wet our pants or fall off…..oh man, those were the days.
Wonderful memories and look at all those gorgeous as candy bracelets! Summer for me was putting on a light silky slip, French high heeled espadrilles and reading a classic like Lorna Doone while lying in the shade in the hammock in the orchard – summer is still pretty much that, weather permitting!
I’m still playing dress up in this day and age, do pop over to see my Fin De Siecle post when you get the time my dear, I’ve got out the vintage victorian mini cape and my couturier granny’s satin skirt from the 30s! The desire to play dress up never wanes!
U won:(
Congrats to your lucky winner! Those bracelets are so fun and colorful – perfect for spring! 🙂
I love all your bright colored bangles. They’re perfect to liven up a summer outfit. The faceted turquoise with white streaks is my favorite.
Thank you for all the beautiful bangels. I love them. – evening bags