All That Glitters

As a little girl, I loved glitter.  I would smear gobs of glue across strips of construction paper, and sprinkle them with this beautiful, sparkly dust that embodied the very essence of all things girly and feminine.  Even though I had tomboyish tendencies (choosing snake hunting and softball over tutus and tiaras), I still was enchanted by the way that glitter made everything look more magical and otherworldly. 

You could spruce up practically ANYTHING with a container of glitter, turning a lackluster, boring project into an eye-catching masterpiece that was sure to score an A for presentation.  When my mother brought home a variety pack of glitter for a school project I was working on, I was almost paralyzed by the prospect of having to choose just one to use on my poster board.  As far as I was concerned, glitter was an absolute game-changer.

I Just Cleaned That Floor!

Flash forward about 20 years, when glitter and I had grown apart.  Sure, I had used it occasionally on the crafts I had made for my dance team girls (door hangers for our hotel rooms when we traveled for Nationals, posters for rah-rah raiding and to cheer them on during competitions, etc.).  But I really had little use for it beyond that.

My first child is a boy who had no interest in dance, so we didn’t really encounter glitter too much as a young family.  Once, he had received a birthday gift in a bag with glitter, and that stuff got ALL OVER the floors I had just cleaned when we brought it into the house.  I remember thinking, “Ugh, WHO gave us him this bag?!  I mean, really – GLITTER?!”  Annoyed frustration washed over me, and I threw that bag out just as soon as I could.

Sugar, Spice, and Glitter

About three years later, I had my twin girls.  After my baby shower, I could have stocked a glitter factory with enough pink and silver glitter to last a year.  A part of me acknowledged that, more than likely, glitter was going to be a part of my life again for the foreseeable future.

And then, the girls entered dance when they were two years old.  Little trinkets, posters, accessories, and other items came home with them from dance school, and I started to see it speckle my floor once more.  

It didn’t stop there – I was called to school one day to pick up Thing 2 because she had squirted glitter glue in her eye accidentally, and it took gallons of water (and many tears) to flush it out.  Glitter had officially become my nemesis.

It Adds a Certain Something

Dance costumes are often bejeweled, bedazzled, and be-glittered (not a real word, but go with me here) to pick up more of the lights on stage.  If all of those adornments stayed on the costumes, we would have no problems with each other.  However, when they start coming off (and landing in my kid’s eyeball), I have an issue with it.

This past year, I made my daughter’s hairpiece for her solo costume and I unwittingly bought glitter-infused tulle to make it with.  I cursed myself inwardly for about an hour but resolved to fix the issue (the glitter began to fall off the tulle almost immediately).  Even after hosing it with clear adhesive, the glitter still separates from it.  That hairpiece now permanently resides in a Zip-loc bag when it’s not on my daughter’s head, for obvious reasons.

Making Peace

Thankfully, our studio does not use costumes with much (if any) glitter.  But I have seen costumes that really benefited from glitter embellishments, and I begrudgingly accepted that it could be used for good (and not just evil).  

To some extent, I have made peace with glitter and its current role in our lives. But if it gets on my floor, all bets are off.

Work hard, have fun! – Danielle

For another item that tends to multiply, check out Literally Everywhere!

For tips to keep glitter from spreading like melted butter, try Sparkly Dance Costumes: How to Keep Glitter on Dance Costumes.