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Lookie, lookie what $3.50 bought me today! A whole 2 bags of broken jewelry and buttons. You may not be able to tell from my pic, but a couple of those strands are from an old rhinestone necklace and the old broken bracelet near the upper right hand corner has green rhinestones for the leaves and purple rhinestone flowers. The big, big, big broken necklace (which is not as old) is decorated with silver pearls, black, clear and amber rhinestones. Considering that I was only looking for some old strands of pearls (which were also enclosed), it was a great haul. At a splendid price!!!
You might think that my love of "junk" (broken) jewelry stems from my crafting obsessions and that I love it because I can make things from it. You would (alas) be wrong. I believe that I actually took up making things with it so that I could justify my need to collect it. I love it because it is beautiful, vintage and (God love my Scottish ancestry) cheap! These are three of the qualities I hold nearest and dearest in my heart.
All of my grandparents were born in the 19th century - yes, that's right, in the 1800's. (Don't infer too much about my age from that because I am the next to the youngest grandchild on both sides of a family that does not turn over a generation very often. All of my great grandfather's fought in the Civil War.) I associate my love of old things with my maternal grandmother's "junk" drawer. I used to love to go through every inch of her bureau drawers (for my sister, the white one in the kitchen on the right of the bathroom door). They contained broken jewelry, old campaign buttons, milk caps, bottle openers, note pads, discarded perfume bottles and old cracker jack toys. When I was lucky she would give me something from those drawers. And those are still some of my favorite treasures to find when I go knicky-knack hunting. After all, aren't we all trying to buy back our lost childholds?
And today was a good day!
2 comments:
Can you still smell Papa's tobacco when you think about that drawer? I can! Love, Sissy
I already knew we had a love of dance in common, but today I found out that you too have a group of friends you've known since the early 80's. And you too say "lookie"! I love that! I made a frame once (I need to find it in storage and take a photo), where I glued on childhood trinkets. I laid down a layer of Aleene's Thick Designer Tacky glue, then into it set childhood pins, Bluechip stamps, a Disney eraser shaped like Goofy, a Nixon Now button, etc. So many items that no grout was necessary. In the frame I put a pic of myself as a little girl. I told all the moms I knew this would be the perfect thing to do every year to commemorate the year--to use that year's Happy Meal toys, etc rather than throw them away. No one made a frame, and I never did understand why not.
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