Some brooches, a book, and a dog!

Well, I've seem to have had caught a slight case of the 'brooch bug' this weekend. I went by a local antique show in town and came away with several lovely brooches ^-^"

In my defense, I was lured by the very nice vendor with the words, "It's Victorian." The small part of my brain that usually says, "don't buy" switched over to "yes, you must have" at those few words!!!


This brooch isn't Victorian, but I fell in love with this cute pin when I saw it. It's just fun with the round opal in the middle and the stars shooting out around it. The picture doesn't do the opal-like stone any justice at all because when it catches the light, it sparkles like a little fire. Sadly, it is missing a purple stone, but my aunt said it gives it character. I have to agree. Jewelry pieces deserve to have a history so I will not get a new stone put in...because in all honesty I didn't even notice it was missing one until my aunt said something about it.



A gorgeous cameo stick/hat pin. I thought this one was beautiful and since I didn't have a hat pin in my collection so far I decided to pick this one up. ^___^ As you can tell, I love cameos and I tend to buy them when I can find them. The vendor had some cameos done in 10k gold, but I didn't have a lot of money with me so I opted for the costume jewelry pieces instead ;) I'll have to be good and save up for some nice gold-timmed cameos in the future. While I was at the show, a vendor there was selling 10k, 14k, 18k cameos......they were so expensive O__o" I mean they were worth it because they weren't your typical profile cameos, they actually had mythological themes on them.......I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one of them ^__^*



Yet another cameo that I couldn't leave the show without buying!! A red cameo surrounded by white rhinestones. This one isn't Victorian, but it is older than the other two brooches because of the pin backing. My aunt loves this one!! She said it would look lovely on a felt hat, I quite agree :) I thought the red color of the cameo was beautiful, usually you see pink, green, blue, onyx or lava/gemstone types so I grabbed this one for being so unique in color!



A beautiful brass lady's hand holding a pearl. (Sigh) This is the one that lured me.....tempted me towards the dark side! LOL I was debating on this one after I heard the vendor telling another lady that it was Victorian. I thought no, I won't buy it....but then the vendor asked me if I liked pieces from that time period....sigh!!! I said yes and she showed me this little brooch. She showed me the back of this brooch and explained that if it had a safety pin backing, it was older and dated around the Victorian period. (sigh) And so, I came away from the show with four brooches! I won't complain too much because you can't help what you fall in love with.

LOL The vendor asked me if I was collecting. I said no. I just like to wear brooches because I'm finally working at a job where I can wear them. So I have several antique pieces, contemporary ones, and a Kirks Folly brooch....9 pieces in total so far. I'm slowly becoming a brooch addict!!! ^__^"

With my mind on antiques and such, I remembered that the book I bought from eBay came in the mail a couple of weeks ago! Sara Crewe - Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories by Frances Hodgson Burnett.


This book was published in 1910 by Charles Scribner's Sons NY. It isn't a first edition, actually it is a fourth edition. It has illustrations by Reginald B. Birch throughout the book. Since I have a small collection going of Frances Burnett's books, I bought this one on eBay. I got it for $8....you can't beat that for a book that is almost 100 years old and doesn't look it. Don't you just love the cover!! Two little cherubs playing the harp and the title of the book surrounded by ten gold elephants. I was looking on eBay and Scribner's published several other titles of Frances Burnett with the same cover ;) Wouldn't it be neat to have the whole collection?!?!

Sara Crewe was the original title of A Little Princess. This edition has several other stories:
1. Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Minchin's
2. Little Saint Elizabeth
3. The Story of Prince Fairyfoot
4. The Proud Little Grain of Wheat
5. Behind the White Brick

I can't wait to start reading these stories ;)

In addition to being a very well behaved bunny and dutifully taking photos of my brooches and book, I got another JBW design started and finished on Saturday!!


Design: JBW Designs, 'French Country - Dog'
Thread: DMC 111, variegated
Fabric: 28 ct Cashel antique white Zweigart
Finished: 8/16/08

My aunt suggested that I stitch this design in a variegated brown so we looked through my thread stash and picked DMC 111. I think it looks cute ^__^

LOL I have several JBW designs stitched up so far....now I just need to save some money and have them framed!!

Have a great week! Happy stitching ;)