sparkly bits

my mother was a pretty serious hoarder, though when I was growing up, living in a house w umpteen multiples of EVERYTHING just seemed Normal. It's only in hindsight that I realize she really had a problem.

That said, I think as hoarders go, she was a Top Rate one! She had GREAT stuff, just WAY too much of it. She had drawers and drawers and DRAWERS of jewelry - costume and real, from many eras. Remind me to tell you about the time she accidentally threw out all her "good" jewelry!

But anyway, my favorite collection of hers was the rhinestone jewelry collection, that she kept in a darling lucite box purse, each item individually wrapped in tissue paper (like kleenex, not like acid-free tissue paper). it seemed SO glamorous to me - the dangly earrings and wide mesh bracelets, the little coin purse, the slidey comb and lipstick tube, brooches, necklaces, even a wallet. Some of the things have been lost or sold over the years, but I still have most of her collection intact, and I also keep it safe away in the lucite box purse. I wear things on occasion, and let my daughter wear some pieces to her prom...but mostly it stays wrapped up...until I come across it in the closet...and spend some time taking each piece out, admiring it, remembering how she used to get dressed in the most amazing cocktail dresses to go to fancy parties at The Officer's Club...and the stories these peices could tell now, more than 50 years later...






































































Madison likes looking at the jewelry, too....

feeling a little whiney

I so look forward to vacation weeks cuz it means LOTS of thrifting. I haven't really hit my stride since relocating to Brooklyn. While there are *many* thrift and vintage stores here, they seem to be very picked over and overpriced, and I've found very little here. I do my best shopping by returning to my old favorite haunts on Long Island, even though it's a hike back there. That's what I did on Wednesday...and it's just been full-on thrifting ever since. Sad to say, without too much success! I know there are lulls every year...I hope this is just a lull and not an ongoing decline! Where are the dresses?? Hardly anyplace had any dresses! I got a few nice things (pictured)...I'd just hoped for MORE (please, sir).

 

Yesterday I visited the mythical creature known as Goodwill OUTLET (ooh), where I'd heard they sold clothes by the pound (ahh). It was tres disappointing. Lots of bins of mediocre newer used clothing. It takes a long time to go through the bins...a LONG time...especially to end up with NOTHING to show for it. Then I hit six other shops in the area...nothing. NOTHING. It's just SAD. I even stopped at a house that had clothes hanging on the fence outside...ha. Old guy sitting there w his dog, trying to sell his (decidedly uninteresting) old clothes. Pass.

Today is the last real day of vacation. We hit dog park early...then I tried a couple nearby thrifts. had some success at one small shop up the avenue - for ME. ha. So got two tops for me, and one awesome vintage "as is" dress that I'll use for a photo shoot then try and sell it in its flawed condition.

Then went to a place called "Hit or Miss Thrift." Oh. Yeah. No, definitely MISS. No clothes. Some furniture. A bumpy green florists vase for $20?? An entire wall of glittery cheap import jewelry. Brand new. Only good thing was baskets of drippy chandelier crystals, all shapes and sizes. I wasn't even motivated to ask the price, but now I know where I can get them. If I find I need them.

Last store was a United Way thrift, didn't even know they HAD stores. The two aisles were almost entirely blocked by furniture. To be pushed outside. When he got around to it. Right now he was listening to his buddy's story of a mutual friend's attack cat and how he ended up in the emergency room and how he wanted the "friend" (friends like this I wouldn't want) to have the cat put down. If I could just come back in 30 minutes...or a couple hours?? Then I could see the women's clothing. Pass.

So. An abnormally disappointing week of thrifting. Which hopefully means I'm due to hit the mother lode VERY soon. If I just knew WHERE.

Okay. Time to stop whining and get back to work.