6.20.2010

Treasure trove

The town where my parents' live had a 'Kick-off to Summer' thing yesterday. It started with an amazing breakfast at the local firehall, prepared by the volunteer firefighters. For $6, steak, eggs, potatoes, beans, toast and drink. Six dollars...I think I could buy the eggs and bread for $6.

Anyhoo, after breakfast, we went around town checking out the various yard sales to see if anything piqued our interests. First stop, a little desk for Maddy for $5. Now she'll have somewhere to put everything else but what should be on a desk, like laundry soap and tape measures (like mine:) ). We also managed to find a little phone for her (not the Fisher Price one, but a vague facsimile) and a stuffed Cookie Monster, her third, because you can never have enough Cookie Monsters.

I wasn't looking for anything specific, but I had said months ago that I wanted to check out sales this summer for old jewelry and fabrics. I didn't find any fabric, but jewelry... oh, boy.
This box? $5. That's Maddy's hand, grabbing one of the many dozens of clip-on earrings. All of the jewelry I bought was from the same sale, and there's no doubt that it all belonged to an older lady (the telltale 'older lady smell was pretty obvious) who had taste. For the most part.

Like I said, for the most part.

A lot of lovely brooches. If I had anything to wear them with, I'd wear these brooches all the time. But I live in t-shirts and sweats... don't think this would go with anything like that.

One of my favourite pieces. A Celtic knot in sterling silver. Definitely keeping this one.

I'm debating what I can do with a lot of this stuff - some of the necklaces and strands of beads I may end up taking apart and using in other projects. There are a lot of really nice pieces that use some absolutely beautiful stones, too...keep them for costume jewelry for Maddy or attempt to sell, either as a whole piece or as part of a new project? Like I said, quite beautiful.
See? Nice, eh?
There are a lot of green stones in this collection. I don't know if the green relates to her birthstone or if she just liked green... I would have preferred that they were all sapphires, but I'll take what I can get for now :)

Many strands of "pearls". I have two real strands - one from my grandmother as a confirmation gift and one willed to me from that same grandmother. (I'm Anglican, BTW.) I honestly don't know if any of the strands I bought yesterday are real. The only ones that might be are the ones in the photo above - they came in a box from Eaton's, so the chances are probably better that they're real. The closure for the strand, at the very least, is quite nice.

I am definitely keeping these zirconium pieces, if only to let Maddy have them one day. The choker does not even come close to closing around my neck, but it is a unique setting. And the case is blue velvet... that alone makes them pretty special.

This is my favourite piece. There's Scottish blood in my family, on both sides, so it's nice to have something you can wear to declare your heritage. And they're just beautiful. The workmanship is quite lovely and they have probably never been worn, as the clasps have tarnished so much they're black. I don't care if it's vintage or a replica, it's nice. And I will definitely be keeping it.

I did manage to pick up a pretty full grab bag of sewing notions for only $1 - zippers, ric rac and lace - that will be a a welcome addition to my already-full sewing toolkit.

And who can turn down a jar of buttons, beads and other little bits? No one, especially if it's only 50¢.

And a sewing box. My embroidery "kit" - and I use that term really loosely - is a pencil case right now. That means the floss is basically a big knot that I have to go through anytime I want a new colour. Not fun. This sewing box, which I will explore in a future post, is perfect. I may have even stolen it out from someone else's nose. Oops.

I paid for all the jewelry I bought at one sale and was walking away when I saw this box. My mom gasped when she saw it and I carefully opened it.

Vellum writing paper. About 50 sheets.

And vellum envelopes.

This little writing set is in pristine condition. Only one envelope - the one on the left of the last photo - is slightly discoloured. The previous owner must have stored it in a chest or wrapped tightly in a blanket or something to keep it in such good shape. I love this set. I certainly do not plan on using it and have sealed it into a plastic bag for the time being, until I can get something a bit more non-plastic to put it into. It's beautiful and something I want to give to Maddy in the future. Cost: $2. And I can't find anything to do with "Barber Ellis Cameo Deckle Edge". If anyone knows something about them, please let me know.

I'm probably going to spend the day looking at everything, doing a quick inventory...hopefully coming up with ideas for some of the pieces that don't quite scream 'Keep me!'. If you have any ideas, feel free to drop me a line...I have little-to-no experience with stones - real or artificial - and would rather leave pieces alone than mess them up completely.

1 comment:

  1. what treasures!!!!!
    i can't believe all the wonderful jewelry you found....and the sewing basket with wooden spools....it really would be like christmas morning for me :)
    michelle

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