By Lindsay Martell– I’m decidedly unfancy.

And yes, that is partly due to being a mom, as my focus is getting my kid out the door in the morning, and all of the things that come with multitasking as a work from home parent. But opting for simplicity is also just a zillion times more my speed.

Except when it comes to sparkle. I love sparkle.

Things that glitter, shimmer, illuminate … I love it all. So, when Fred and June’s Books held a book bedazzling event, I was over the moon. I mean, books and sparkles in one event? Yes, please.

I spent an hour and a half painstakingly applying tiny beads to the cover of my current read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (five stars, btw).

Who knew there was an art to bedazzling? Start small, pick one spot to focus on, and go slow. Seems like a great approach to most things in life but especially when wielding tiny tools and trying to make art.

The result? A few smudges, a lot of pink baubles and sooo many laughs. I cherish making imperfectly pretty things.

Which leads me to another moment of all things pretty and pink – the angsty teen classic from forty years ago, Pretty in Pink, which I enthusiastically bought tickets to for a one night showing at Regal Birkdale.

I’m more than a little obsessed with films from the ‘80s, and I will always hold John Hughes movies close to my heart.

It was wild seeing it in a theater again – the unfiltered realness of the actors, simple sets and brilliant soundtrack. The characters’ grit and heartache as they inch toward adulthood feels so familiar and so impossibly long ago.

Going way, way back is always a bit of a trip. Especially when you feel like you’ve time traveled back 247 years, which is what happened when my daughter and I explored the Hugh Torance House and Store –one of the county’s few surviving 18th-century structures.

Purchased by Hugh Torance (an Irish immigrant and Revolutionary War soldier turned merchant) in 1779, it is North Carolina’s oldest surviving store and a national historical landmark.

We visited on a day so cold we could see our breath as we walked along creaky floors strewn with dust.

It’s one of those places you pass on Gilead Road about a hundred times a year and never really give it much of a thought. But it’s worth the 45-minute guided tour. It’s mysterious and captivating in an old-timey way.

Speaking of captivating, at Davidson Playhouse, I listened to a handful of storytellers take the stage with tales of love, romance and human connection as part of Lake Town Stories – an event inspired by The Moth – an organization that hosts live storytelling events in cities around the world.

I was mesmerized by the candor of the participants who spoke openly about finding and losing love, and seeking connections in a fragmented world.

They were shimmering examples of all that’s imperfectly perfect. Sparkles and all.

---

Milling About is a column about life around Lake Norman, written by Lindsay Martell. The column name is a nod to life around the lake and our town’s mill history.

Lindsay Martell lives in Birkdale with her husband, daughter, and a scruffy mini mutt named Dug.