The Hunt

The hunt for cool vintage findings has started for the jewelry line I hope to create one day.  I scoured several yard/garage sales this past weekend, and man....do I have a lot to learn.  Has it really been that long since I bargained for anything?  I found myself taking at face value the price either written or offered, and honestly did not even think to negotiate a lower price.  That, my friends, is the result of too many years of retail shopping!  I found one very cool item that I really loved.....a very old and very large silver framed charm.  The price was originally $300 (at a yard sale folks....really??) and the seller said I could have it for $100.  Still too rich for my blood.  My husband asked why I didn't offer her $25.  I have no idea why!  Because that was the price she told me it was, I guess. Then for the rest of the day I kicked myself for not at least trying to get a lower price.  And you can see that close to a week later, that piece is still haunting me.  Because the family was selling just about everything in preparation to move to Hawaii, they just might be out there again next weekend.  I think I will try to find them one more time to see if their prices are lower and if I can muster up the courage to offer a lower price. Wish me luck!

I did find a few lovelies though.  It is a start for what I hope will turn out to be a great collection of treasures and then incredible one-of-a-kind, wearable pieces of art.

Here is what I found...

I am not crazy about these porcelain beads, but I love the little
brass caps.  I'll be taking this completely apart so I can
look at it from a new standpoint.

I was thrilled to find these older rhinestone pieces.
Love the disco ball beads!!

While visiting my mother over the holidays and sharing this new venture with her, she was off to her bedroom to gather some old pieces.  Some of this stuff I haven't seen in years.  We had a great time reliving some of the treasures we found in her jewelry box.  I don't think she had even been in it in years.  But from that trip, she and my grandmother shared these items with me.  Yippee!!

What a great collection!  I'm so excited to add these
pieces.  Some will just be pieces of chain, while others
will be for their baubles.

I'll have to take some time to see if this awesome necklace
can be dismantled a bit so I can just use sections at a time.
I'm new at this, so the only way to see if it works is
just to try it....right??

I am so in love with this set!  However, it's days as a "set"
are over, baby!!

I have noticed that religious metals, rosaries, and crucifixes play a major role in many of the jewelry pieces I am loving these days.  I have my own collection of rosaries from growing up Catholic, and have acquired a few metals and such over the years as well.  I am really struggling with the taking apart of rosaries to use in my future pieces.  I know it is being done by others and honestly, I love the look.  I have asked a few people who know what a rosary is supposed to represent and mean, and I am getting a mixed bag of feedback.  Because I am using them in what I hope will be cherished pieces that ladies will hopefully wear in pride, I don't feel that I am being blasphemis.  One friend suggested I never take apart the ten bead section where one prays ten Hail Mary's, but otherwise did not feel it wrong to take apart the rest.  I think I can live with that.  I would love to have your input.  What is your opinion??  Please, please share it with me.  I really love the look these pieces add, but want to feel good in my heart about doing it.  I'm going to need your help though.

Here is my collection of rosaries and metals....



I love the back of this Virgin Mary piece. 
A little dap of "terra" from Jerusulem.
I've never seen that in a rosary before.

 And finally, here are a few of my own personal pieces that I've had on hand for awhile.

This pin is truly one of my favorite vintage pieces that I am hoping to include in a repurposed piece soon.  In fact, I love it so...I think I'll wear it to work tomorrow!!



 This old Paris souvenir bracelet is so very cool.  I picked it up at a local antique store a few years ago, but the clasp sticks so I don't really wear it.  However, it will really be beautiful taken apart and used in several pieces or a few in one Paris-themed piece.  Can't wait!!  Also included here are some of my Brownie and Girl Scout pins.  Not sure if I will use them, but thought their truly vintage look is great.  Did any of you feel what just happened????  I said something from my childhood is now considered "vintage."  Uh....how did that happen?  Also included here are two older cameos....will look lovely combined with some pearls I thinks. (Sorry for the sideways view here.)

As the weekend is fast approaching, I am already thinking of the neighborhoods I want to scour for new finds.  Then it is time to get my workspace organized.  I'll share that process with you also.  I feel I am ready to try a piece or two.  We'll see....

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the week.....
Carol

P.S.  I forgot to mention....Adorn Me 2012 in Houston, TX at the end of February has been cancelled.  I am more than disappointed, but hope to go wherever it is in November.  Maybe I can find something similar to enjoy before then.

Vintage Inspired Memories

It is Friday, and a Vintage Inspiration Friday, at that!  I haven't played along in awhile.  Crazy times of late....adjusting to new schedules and such.  However, I was going through some old photos in my computer hoping for something to inspire me and thought I would plug them in and play along.  I know you've seen them before, but I just couldn't help myself.

They are all from the Country Living Fair I went to this past October in Stone Mountain Park, Georgia.  They are coming back this coming October as well.  I'll get the 3-day pass this time so I can relax, take my time, enjoy it at a slower pace, shop, shop, and shop some more!

Spring wishes to you all! 

Newly Sharpened Pencils

Yesterday was the first day of school in the county in which I live.  School busses are back on the streets.  It took me 10 extra minutes to get to work this morning due to the extra traffic.  However, the phrase "a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils" has been playing over and over in my head for a couple of days.  Do you recall it?

   "Don't you love New York in the fall?  It makes me wanna buy school supplies.  I would send you
   a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.  On the other hand, this
   not knowing has its charms."  Joe Fox, a.k.a. Tom Hanks from You've Got Mail.

Okay, I admit it.  I'm a sucker for the romantic comedy.  My mother and I would both say that even though we've seen this movie a thousand times, we have to watch it whenever we run across it on tv.  And what better movie to pop in the dvd player on a rainy afternoon...after the millionth viewing of Pride and Prejudice, that is.

But....I digress.  Back to the pencil bouquet...

Memories of my first days of school arise.  My mother, with her camera (always!), taking our picture in our new clothes to mark yet another school year.  I did the same with my son, although, shamefully, I did not catalogue them.  I find myself longing for just one more school year....mine or his.  I checked in with my granddaughter, Reagan, who started her first day of third grade with her pretty new dark blue glasses.  I started wearing glasses in the third grade also.  I can't wait to see her picture that I know her mom took.

More school memories....high school football games when I was a Lancerette (drill team).  We are all lined up behind the bleachers at "attention."  Our sponsor, Mrs. Davis, and our captain, inspects us all for the proper hairstyle, makeup, panty hose, no spots on our white boots or white gloves.  Me standing there, pre-contact years, without my glasses as I could not dance with them on, so everything was blurry. 

Maybe I'm just longing for fall and the hint of cooler weather.  That could be.  Regardless, I've enjoyed my "school days" reminiscing these last few days.  I hope all who have little ones in their lives enjoy a happy first day of school, whenever that day may come, as we all dream of cooler fall days ahead.

Ode to Dad

It is Father's Day.  I have many in my life who are fathers....my husband, my two brothers, father-in-law, brother-in-law, step-sons, and now even my own son is a father.  They are all very dear to me.  And while my own father has been gone for 15 years now (exactly....tomorrow) I still think of him so dearly on this day.

This is not his picture.  There are a couple of pictures I think of when I think of him though.  A picture of he and I by the front door of our house.  I was in high school with long blonde hair and braces.  He looked very dapper in his tucked-in shirt and white belt.  I can only imagine he was wearing white shoes also.  So 70's.  Behind us on the wall, a string art picture.  Again, so 70's.  I love it.

I also think of him sitting at our kitchen table when we lived in Niagara Falls in a turtleneck and cigarette in hand.  So 60's.

When I was in a school play, he was there.  When I went flying down the driveway on my brother's mini bike with a stuck throttle, he was there.  When I got stung by a bee, he was there to spit on my hand and add dirt to make mud to make it stop hurting.  Singing in chorus--there.  Dancing in Lancerette's--there.  Guarding my sophomore homecoming float all night from marauding seniors--there.  He was also there on the worse day of my life 19 years ago.  In my mind, he was always there for me.  To me, he is still there for and with me.  His laughter is just as present in my mind as it always was.  The way he walked, talked, and even smelled.  All I have to do is visit my brother, Tim, for all of that to come back too.  He is his spitting image.

I love you, Dad.  I always will.  Your words of encouragement have never left me.  When I think of you now, I picture you having a grand ole time in heaven.  I can hear your laughter from here.  Enjoy your day, Dad.

To all the other fathers in my life, I love you all as well.  Never forget to fill your world with love and laughter.

My How Time Flies

(Reprinted from my wordpress.com blog dated June 9, 2010.)

It has been well over a week since my last post. Many, many exciting things have happened in that week. It began with two friends meeting after over 40 years. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? For over 41 years I conversed with who would become a lifelong friend via “snail” mail, a few phone calls, and finally email. Many, many times we referenced meeting one day. Maybe we just thought that was what we were supposed to say. I’m not sure we ever really thought it would happen. We come from very different lands on opposite sides of the world, on opposite sides of the equator, in different hemispheres. Amazingly enough, the time came when, yes, we would meet and spend a wonderful week getting to know each other. What we found was that countries apart, worlds apart, people are the same. We have parents, husbands, children, and friends. We deal with the same situations that having those things brings. We also found that we had an uncommon amount of things in common. Our views were often the same on many topics.

We shared the same favorite things, favorite foods, favorite colors, favorite styles. When we met for the first time, we were both wearing the same color shirts. We wear similar styled glasses. The list continues. The more we talked about our daily lives, the more familiar our stories were. How we looked at our day-in, day-out activities. Why we made the choices we have, how we rationalize things…..so, so similar. The more we were made aware of our similarities, the more we realized that we had not conversed enough thoughout the years to have influenced each other’s thoughts. It is just how it is. A sisterhood that was formed many years ago, came full cirle.

The timing of it all was also very interesting. I shared with her that my favorite musical artist, James Taylor, would be coming to her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. She said she wished we could see him together instead. Then she said that she would be traveling to Canada to participate in an international Dragon Boating celebration/competition. If she visited with me here in Florida the week before, JT would be in my neck of the woods. Another “amazingly enough”……we did just that. We attended the Carole King-James Taylor Troubadour Tour concert last Saturday in Ft. Lauderdale. You’ve Got a Friend never had more meaning as it did that night.

In this high-tech world in which we now live, this story will never be repeated. You will not find two young children who will find each other via Brownies, begin writing….as in handwriting words and thoughts onto a piece of paper, placing a stamp on an envelope, and sending it off into the unknown with great anticipation of a letter coming back in return. Today it will be an instant response via email. We even conversed with her husband and children in real time, with live pictures, via Skype. It was amazing.

A bond that began 40-something years ago is now forever sealed. When we said our tearful goodbyes yesterday at the Fort Lauderdale airport, I told her, “I will see you again.” Her adventure continues with a trip to Toronto, then Quebec. I imagine she will be anxious to go back to her place below the equator very soon. Her family awaits. She will have so many stories to share.

Meanwhile, the next phase begins. The planning of a trip to her land. Maybe in a year or two, but it will now move up on our list of travel priorities. The obtaining of passports, the gearing up for the long flight. I know it will happen. So to Glenda…..until we meet again.

Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend? ~James Taylor