Four or five years ago my mom randomly decided to add a paper bag full of rolls of ribbon to us kids' art supply collection. My sisters being who they are, they almost immediately started working their way though the box, cutting the ribbons into weirdly shaped pieces. Sometimes they glued or taped these pieces to paper and made something (although I couldn't possibly tell you what it was they thought they were trying to make) but most of the time they did it just for the sake of cutting it into little random pieces. (I've seen both of them, separately or together, doing that to colored paper too. It bothers me; if you're going to cut it into little shreds, you have to have a reason for it. Otherwise it's just a waste of materials. And a lot of the time they'll use the colors I was about to use, and don't leave enough for me.) 

So I went through the bag to find what ribbons I liked, and I rescued them. I think I wound up taking two, but only one really stood out. It was a color somewhat like this (but only somewhat).

I liked it so much that I resolved to save it to use as decoration on a dress for some important occasion, such as "prom" (whatever that was; I'd only ever heard it mentioned vaguely in books at that point, I'm pretty sure) or even my wedding. It would be the most beautiful dress in the world. 

Well, guess what? I was at a store yesterday, looking for costume pieces for an event I'm going to in a couple of weeks. And one dress caught my eye. 

It wasn't anything like the dress I had imagined, so long ago. But it was a color that I knew as well as my own name, and it was beautiful, shimmering velveteen with matching silky ribbons and buttons. 

And it fit me. Not perfectly; it was maybe a bit longer than I'd have liked, and it was certainly a bit too wide, but the ribbons, once tied in the back, made it the perfect width, so that didn't matter. 

So I took it, and I went home, and I compared it to the ribbon. And just as I'd thought, it matched. Now I have an amazing dress, and a matching ribbon to tie up my hair, and a story to go with them. Maybe it isn't the dress I wanted to make--- but it's as good, or better.