punch it up

Being a Seattleite (read: It rains a lot here), I’m always a sucker for those bright, happy, spring clothes that start showing up in March and April. And I buy them, all the while thinking to myself, If I wear them, it will come. (Sun—not baseball.)

This season, I’m seeing citrus-y bursts of red, yellow, and orange (with the occasional lime thrown in for good measure), which Pantone–the leading authority on color trends–validates, by naming three out of ten of those shades as the hot colors for 2013.

There is probably some logic to my grown-up obsession with fruit-bowl fashion; when I was a kid, my entire room was done up in red, yellow, and orange. I’m talking everything. The rug. The bedding. The desk accessories. The night table. And yes, my favorite stuffed animal from I. Magnin.

Let me take this a step further. When I spent my summers in Armonk, NY, my brothers and cousins and I would walk to the candy store down the street and I would invariably buy—wait for it—Clark’s Fruit Stripe gum.

Romy and Michelle liked fruit, too.

Today, my house is like a Florida citrus grove. Can’t tell you how many people have asked me how I grow such beautiful fruit on my paper mache lemon tree that sits next to the kitchen sink.

So when I saw the Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie wearing the juiciest Ted Baker striped dress (which sold for $124 at Nordstrom, on sale), and then a great doppelganger at JCP for $39, I knew the fruit bug was biting again.

Think I’m done? Hardly…the pickings are plentiful:

Remember floral swim caps (aka “bathing” caps) from the 1960s? They’ve become purses…

And then there are shoes. Lots of shoes…

And jewelry, of course…

Hope spring has sprung in your backyard. As for me, I’m still waiting.

And waiting.

Still waiting.