I'm Obsessed.

I grew up with a mother who wore rhinestones to cut the grass. I also grew up being dressed by my mother in smocked dresses through 6th grade. And, alas, I grew up with a signature of bows and ribbons as large as my head in each of my yearbook photos. I was a peanut through middle school, so it wasn't too far fetched. Notice I didn't say it wasn't far fetched.

Anyways, before I left for college my mom took me to the fabric store to get a new supply of bows for my big trip to college. I had a plethora of striped, polka dotted, plain, and even themed bows.

So, when headbands and hair baubles got "big" or "trendy" <-- eek bad word ... I thought to myself how sweet that was. Because for me, they never went out of style. At Miss America I wore a LOT of headbands. Kate and I actually named them and plugged them into my excel chart describing the outfits I would wear to each event. My personal favorite was the "Cleopatra", Paul's was the "Deco". Unfortunately, a few people told me my headband during talent prelims made me look like I was going to play softball. Oddly, I don't think softball players also wear 4 lbs of makeup and a Stephen Yearick gown. Fortunately, the judges thought differently. And more importantly, I did, too. MOOO-ving on.

Yesterday as I was parousing my weekly email from Daily Candy (if you don't get it, you should ... www.dailycandy.com to sign up) I came across a really cute headband company under the Locks and Loaded headline. Then I started thumbing through the New York Nat website and as I looked at her "About Me" I discovered the following:

Nat was a representative for the Miss America Organization and has competed for the title of Miss Michigan two times earning the Miss Michigan Swimsuit Award, the Kaye Lani-Rae Rafko Wilson Community Service Award, and the Miss America State Community Service Award. The MAO has taught her the importance of being a positive role model and has helped her gain valuable public speaking skills.

So I shot Nat an email (like the creepy stranger I am) and congratulated her from one Miss America sister to another on her overwhelming success. She's selling here in the city at Bendels and has been in every mag from Glamour to Seventeen. NEAT-O.

One of my favorites.

CHECK HER CUTE STUFF OUT! www.newyorknat.com

And, the coolest part? She emailed me back stat. And bizarrely enough, she had been at Miss New York the year I won.

Welp while you buy lots of festive hair pretties, I need to go do some work with some background music. Perhaps a choice of "It's a Small World" would be quite fitting.