My love for vintage velvet millinery leaves is well documented, but I also adore these gorgeous, old metallic foil leaves.
The silvery, pastel colors are breathtakingly beautiful.
I believe they were orginally used as millinery accents for ornate hats and for making festive holiday corsages, but I love how they look simply tied to a gift with some pretty ribbon.
:-)
Jessica
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve a simple bottle of Elmer's glue and a tube of sparkly glitter.
Few things were more satisfying than the pure delight in squirting out those scrolly lines of white glue, dusting them with glitter, and then shaking off the excess to reveal an instant work of art. Even as an adult, I still like to glitter things. :-) No doubt you can find a myriad of different glitters at your local craft store, but have you ever considered vintage glitter?
I adore vintage craft supplies and vintage glitter is even prettier than the modern variety!
Ebay, Etsy, and tag sales are great places to find it at bargain prices - often in unsealed, unopened tubes.
Multi-colored varieties are my personal favorite, as I love how no two mixes are exactly the same.
In honor of the upcoming holiday season (and my love of all things that glitter), I will be beginning a new series after Thanksgiving that will feature a month's worth of glittery finds and sparkly projects - from the prettiest polishes and handbags to glittery cookies and crafts! Stay tuned...
XOXO
Jessica
Just thought I'd share these pretty vintage plates that I found on my hunt for Fall-themed dinnerware...
Love the happy colors and fun fruit motifs!
:-)
Jessica
Hello! Yes, I am alive (and thank you to all of you concerned readers who wrote to check up on me!). I didn't intend to take a month-long blog break. I truly didn't, I swear. But it somehow just crept up on me. :-) The Autumn is super busy in my household and it seems like we've been going non-stop ever since September. But I am back and have lots to share. In between carpools, dance classes, volleyball games, and homework, I have somehow managed to start thinking about (and shopping for) the upcoming holidays. I love to plan out my tables and color schemes way in advance and I am always on the lookout for pretty china or little treasures that will add just the right detail to my table setting. In the Fall, I like to incorporate my favorite pastels with the golds and coppery browns of the season. Case in point, here I've combined some of my pale aqua and gold china with brown toile prints.
Here are just a few simple ideas that I am considering using for Thanksgiving this year. The first one uses these lovely vintage walnut composition ornaments that I found on Etsy. They are quite old and I just love their patina. Paired with some vintage velvet ribbon, they make an elegant presentation.
You could use real walnuts or acorns as well - just paint them an antique gold color. I am also thinking about using mini-pumpkins. I bought these sweet little white ones...
...and sprayed them with some edible gold food coloring. Them I sprinkled on some edible gold glitter. We won't be eating these, but I like to use food-safe ingredients on fresh veggies and fruit.
My third option is to use these lovely vintage forget-me-not millinery flowers.
I was fortunate to find an old stash of these while antiquing recently and I thought that their faded pastel colors were true perfection.
So, what do you think? Which would you choose?
XOXO
Jessica
I think my official motto should be that almost anything looks better in a glass jar.
My pretty baking and entertaining supplies look even prettier when stored in simple glass jars.
They keep everything so nice and organized.
And they allow you to display things that are way too pretty to hide away in a kitchen cabinet.
I find most of my glass jars at Target, The Container Store, and HomeGoods - they all have an excellent selection at very reasonable prices.
Happy organizing!
XOXO
Jessica
The Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, CA, is one of my favorite flea markets. It is only held on the second Sunday of each month, so I try to plan my CA vacations around it whenever possible. What makes it so fabulous? Well, for one, it's HUGE! Typically over 2500 vendors! And regardless of what I am searching for, I can usually find it. So, this trip, we (yes, I always drag the family along with me) set out super early in order to get the best stuff - armed with our floppy hats, sunscreen, and bottles of cold water. We had good traffic from L.A. and managed to get there right when the gates opened.
I was so excited to hit those stalls. I was on the hunt for vintage millinery hats and flowers. I can just never get enough of them - plus, they are small enough to fit in my suitcase. :-)
Well, the party was over pretty much before it even started - within five minutes we we absolutely melting! MELTING!!! It was soooo hot! We are talking well over 100 degrees with the sun beating directly down on us.
We had barely made it down one row, when I realized that the girls had to get out of that sun ASAP. Luckily, the husband volunteered to take them back to the air-conditioned car while I forged on. I am such a trooper. :-)
I was completely miserable - I have never experienced heat like that before. I think my face must have been the color of a ripe tomato and my tank top was sopping wet. A normal person would have probably left immediately, but I had come so far and I was determined to find those flowers! So I tried to walk quickly (if you can even walk quickly in that kind of heat) down row after row, my eyes scanning for anything remotely millinery-esque.
Nothing.
Lots of really cool stuff, but not a single hat. Not one petal to be found.
I was just about to give up (i.e., faint) when I finally spotted them. There they were - piled up all prettily on a table - my millinery flowers! I nearly cried.
I scooped them up and made a bee-line for that air-conditioned car. I love you, Rose Bowl, but next time I'll be checking the weather report first!
XOXO
Jessica
If you live in the Los Angeles area or find yourself there for a visit, you must make the time to explore California Millinery Supply.
Located in downtown L.A., California Millinery is a jewel of a shop. It is one of those rare places that seems to be fixed in another time - a time when millinery flowers were hand-made petal by petal, where hats were decorated with exotic, colorful plumes of feathers, and vintage silk ribbons from France were a must for any garment.
This past visit, I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with the owner, Irene Arroyo. Irene is such a lovely, lovely person and she's an expert when it comes to her stock. Whether you are in need of some delicate veiling, a very specific color of vintage grosgrain ribbon, or a buckram hat frame, Irene is there with friendly help and advice.
The shop itself is incredible. Just the sheer amount of inventory (much of it vintage) is not to be believed...
Digging through the treasure trove of boxes and bins will be rewarded with a bounty of beautiful velvet bows, tiny millinery fruits, and silk flowers.
There are fabrics and feathers and trims everywhere you look.
And you don't need to be a professional milliner to appreciate this shop. Anyone who loves vintage trims, fashion, costume design, or crafts will find something wonderful here. If you do get a chance to stop by California Millinery Supply, give yourself plenty of time to explore...after all, that's the best part. :-)
XO
Jessica
I have always had a special love of vintage handbags. It began as a young girl when my grandmother gave me some of her beautiful old beaded evening bags. Hers were the kind that were so delicate and so intricately woven with teeny, tiny beads that they resembled a tapestry fabric. I will have to get them out and show them to you sometime, but today I am sharing these lovelies with you.
They actually belong to "Mini-Me" and she, too, has been collecting them since she was a very little girl.
She has amassed quite a collection over the years and I just love how they all go together so beautifully. Quite a sophisticated color palette, don't you think?
Many of them are from the 1950's and 1960's. The Italian beaded ones are my favorites. This one came from our recent trip to the Paris flea markets.
I've found that having a child start a collection of their own is a wonderful way to get them involved in antiquing trips. It gives them a way to participate in the activity and they also get to learn from an early age how exciting and thrilling "the hunt" can be!
I especially love the handle on this gold and white one and, if I'm lucky, "Mini-Me" may let me borrow it. :-)
XOXO
Jessica
One of my best finds while shopping the Paris flea markets were these pretty vintage paper roses.
They are very, very old and it's amazing to me that something so delicate could have survived all these years.
I love the faded, crinkled petals on the roses.
And the pale pink buds. Someone clearly took their time to carefully hand-wrap each wired stem.
How beautiful would it be for a bride to carry a bouquet of these down the aisle?
Happy Tuesday!
:-)
Jessica
OK, so after our lunch, we continued to shop the fabulous flea markets of Les Puces de Saint-Ouen.
As we went up and down all the little alleys, following various twists and turns, we came to what is perhaps my favorite market of all: Vernaison...
It is by no means the fanciest, but it is (in my opinion), one of the most fun. Here, you can dig through boxes of old millinery flowers,
search through stacks of vintage fabric,
and maybe - just maybe - find yourself something spectacular.
I love the "hunt" and this market provides that to the nth degree!
Here's just some of what we stumbled upon...
Now, I am by no means an expert when it comes to the Paris flea markets (and there are plenty of good guides out there that can give you plenty of advice on the specifics - like directions, transportation, etc..), but I do have a few tips...
1. Don't try to see all the markets in one day. Honestly, it's not even really possible. If you have the time, try to spend several days exploring them.
2. Bring cash (Euros) and haggle! I didn't pay full price for anything I bought and neither should you. Just be polite and make it a reasonable offer. I don't speak French (only took one semester of it in junior high before switching to Spanish!), but most dealers are pleased if you just greet them with a nice "Bonjour". Many do speak some English, but if not, you can still communicate by writing your offer on paper - so don't forget a small pad of paper and a pen.
3. Dress nicely, but not "expensively". In other words, leave the Louis Vuitton at home. If you don't, you won't get as good a deal. Plus, it's important to note that the area surrounding the markets can be a bit sketchy.
4. Bring a large tote to carry all your purchases. This seems obvious, but it's a must. The markets are vast and lugging your precious finds for hours on end can become a bit of a pain - literally!
5. Consult your travel guide and plan where to stop for lunch ahead of time. All that shopping and walking will undoubtedly leave you hungry for a snack and you don't want a bad meal or a bad experience (see my last post).
6. It's another no-brainer, but wear comfortable shoes! Seriously! One summer, I wore what I thought were a really comfortable pair of flip-flops to the markets, but by the end of the day I was limping and had to practically use an entire box of band-aids just to make it back to the hotel.
7. Don't get too frustrated. If you're like me, you'll want to take everything home with you and this will not be possible. Unless you plan to ship a container home (how fantastic would that be!), you will probably be limited to what you can fit in your suitcases. So, shop "small" and plan ahead. We always travel with either an extra empty suitcase or a large duffel bag that we can use to transport our treasures back home. And sadly, no, that beautiful French armoire probably won't fit.
:-)
Jessica
