My birthday gifts

My birthday was almost three weeks ago, but these days seems very difficult to do things just for fun, so I kept postponing taking photos of all my gifts this year. But I really wanted to have a post about my birthday haul, because I enjoy looking back at these sort of things and I always like reading about other people’s gifts, too. So, finally I post about my gifts, even if most of the photos are blurry phone pictures.

For one year already, I have a closet for my art and embroidery supplies and other such things where I had only one shelf. The rest of the closet was one huge pile of stuff, of boxes built on top of each other. I was ok with it for a while, but lately it was driving me crazy. When I needed something in a box below, I had to take out the whole pile of things and then put everything back. So, one of my birthday gifts this year was shelves for my closet. I don’t have a before photo, but this is how my closet looks like now (even with the shelves it looks kind of cluttered, but now I know where everything is and I have easy access to all my things.)

And here it is my friend Maria installing the shelves for me.

She also gave me a nice, vegan and organic hand cream (that I didn’t take a photo of) and this great black Dala horse for my collection!

And tiny succulents. 🙂

The fluorescent nail polish is from Oana, who also gave me this bunny watch that I am wearing these days.

Rodica made me this beautiful pencil wrap, were I keep my Policromos pencils. Souris likes it, too.

I also got a lot of clothes this year (from Rodica and Alina).

Oti gave me this nice notebook, with drawings of flowers inside.

I kept watching online this Edwardian bangle for a few year now. It is hallmarked for 1911 and it’s really beautiful. I bought it with birthday money from my mother. I think it belonged to the same person as my other bangle from the same period (I bought it from the same seller).

And finally, my uncle bought me these very expensive watercolors. I already started using them a bit, but I hope to find time in the second half if November to really paint with them. The colors are so beautiful and vibrant. The pocket brush was included and I was relieved to see the hairs are synthetic.

I was got chocolates from my friend at work, but those are long gone before taking a photo of them :).

 

New old things

I went to the flea market this Saturday and it was a very good day for finding some of my favorite things.

I wanted such a celluloid bangle for a long time now, I kept seeing them online but never at the flea market. This one is a bit too large for me but the other vintage plastic bangle keeps it on my wrist. I really like how the paint faded in soft pinks and greens.

This beautiful antique souvenir silver brooch has a damage to the first “e” from Venice, but it was to interesting to leave behind. And I have very nice memories connected to Venice, so it makes sense for me to wear it. The dangling letters are more sparkly in reality than in these photos.

This silver wolf pin looks a lot like our dog Souris.

This antique brooch is not silver, although it really looks like silver and it is very detailed. I like the snakes and the tiny jade figure (Buddha?).

I don’t know if this woven wallet from Peru is vintage or not, but it’s really nice.

My favorite find is this big amber ring in an Art deco setting. It has some interesting hallmarks, that I didn’t have the time to research yet. I keep staring at the luminous stone these stressful days.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage charm parties.

 

Sparrow

This is a very early birthday present. It’s a French silver hand etched cuff, most probably from the late nineteenth century. Hard to photograph, but so beautiful.

Snake

This metal bangle used to belong to my mother, in the late sixties.

Dried flowers

I’m not sure how old are these brass and dried flowers in resin pendant and bracelet (found in different occasions at the flea market). Maybe they are from the sixties or seventies? The delicate silver ginkgo leaf is definitely older.

Early plastic

Bakelite and celluloid are some of my favorite things to find at the flea market. Also, I like the ritual of smelling them under hot water :), of never being completely sure. But as long as I don’t plan to sell them, I don’t care so much if all of these pieces are really bakelite (celluloid is much easier to recognize) or just some other type of early plastic.

These pendants are all celluloid. The smallest one with the flower and the oval one with lots of flowers belonged to my mother in the sixties.

This pendant is reversed carved lucite mounted in silver. Also the brooch is from this material and technique, but I think the brooch is older.

This small cameo is bakelite. Not really my taste :), but still funny to have.

I’m not sure if I will wear this as a pendant, but it’s really nicely made with a soft texture. And it’s a lizard!

But this heart pendant goes really well with the rest of my jewelry, I’m actually wearing it while I type this.

I have lots of brooches that are early plastic.The French celluloid one with the deer is really old, I have seen online similar ones dated as early 1900.

I have found this one in an old button tin.

This really strange bakelite and silver Art deco brooch is one of my favorites.

All these are celluloid.

This huge brooch that is copying amber is lucite, with a very pretty depth to it.

I’m always looking at plastic bangles at the flea market. My favorite find is this celluloid snake from the 1920s.

These bangles are Chinese, copying cinnabar. I have different things with this pattern (a pendant, beads, clip on earrings). Although these are still produced in China, mine are older and they definitely smell like bakelite.

These are bakelite and celluloid.

I only have one bakelite ring, although I’m always looking for them.

Bakelite clip on earrings.

I have a few celluloid hair barrettes, but I don’t really dare to wear them, they could easily slide away from my hair.

I keep all of these in pretty tins from the twenties.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays. 

Signet ring, brooches and dog

These are just part of the things I have found yesterday at the flea market.

My favorite find is this really small size signet ring, that probably was made for a child. It only fits my pinky from my left hand. It’s silver with a gold plated part, and it is kind of roughly made. I have not idea about the period, but it’s definitely vintage.

This rhinestone bracelet is from the fifties and it’s really well preserved, without missing stones. I really like that the stones are not that sparkly anymore. The marcasite brooch is not a perfect match but they look really nice together.

This brooch, from filigree brass, is marked Czechoslovakia on the clasp. It’s really nice and old (from the thirties or forties), but most of the rhinestones are missing. I’ll try to replace them with some matching old ones, when I find some.

A small celluloid pendant.

A copper thing that I don’t know what it was supposed to be (part of a necklace? a key chain?, although it’s maybe too delicate for that). Anyway, I liked all the details on this fifteenth century lady.

The vendor, which is my favorite at the flea market, gifted me this pretty silk coin purse to put all my finds in.

This dog is nothing special in itself, just a plastic toy, but it has the exact posture that my dog takes when frightened. “Better to look really menacing than afraid…” :).

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

A sunny day at the flea market

It was such a pretty, sunny day yesterday. My friends and I went to the flea market. (We also met there by accident some other friends and for a short moment, in the beautiful light and the laughter and the excitement of the searching through stuff, I remembered how it used to feel like to go to field trips with the class :).

Here are some of the things we have found:

An art deco ring. It is gold plated brass and the stone is a bluish black. I like it a lot.

A wooden bangle representing a whale (I wanted such a bangle for a long time).

My friend found this treasure and she hid it from me till we got home. They are celluloid buttons (and also some glass and mother of pearl ones). The off-white celluloid ones (that are shaped like carved mother of pearl) are really thin, I have never seen such buttons. The huge ones are real mother of pearl.

They were in a bag on which it is written “thank you” in different languages. “Thank you” to my friend, indeed :).

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesday.