Travel woes? Lighten up with Fluff luggage tags

I fancy myself one of those (sometimes annoyingly) optimistic people who can find the good in everything. Rainy days in summer? I view them as sweet glimpses of the upcoming fall. Traffic on 520? More time to enjoy the amazing views. Lost luggage? An opportunity for a shopping spree in a foreign land.

At least, I used to think that way about lost luggage. Until my luggage was misplaced in Japan -- a fashion-forward country, to be sure, but not exactly a shopping destination for American-sized bodies. Which makes the airline-funded shopping spree a little less magical.

Unfortunately, lost luggage during the busy summer travel season is as inevitable as a rain shower at Bumbershoot, but you can make the baggage-reclamation process a bit more painless, not to mention more fashionable, by sassing up your luggage with Fluff tags.

Created by Los Angeles-based artist Claudette Barjoud, Fluff tags are a girlie combination of vintage fashion and midcentury graphic art. Available locally at Burnt Sugar ($12-$16) or online, the whimsical, oversized tags, in shapes ranging from pinup dolls to pooches (the Shih Tzu is darling), will help your bags stand out in the sea of standard black roller bags.

Of course, the challenge now will be describing your whimsical, oversized, high-heel-shaped luggage tag to a harried Japanese airline customer-service rep. Ah, the joys of travel.