I have a large Op-Shop box in the hall and when I put anything in there, it stays. (unless Miss Lucy Tartan is blogging to Bendigo and would like the 70s dress patterns)
So today I threw in 6 brooches and 12 pairs of earrings. I'm in shock.
I also threw in the recycle bin 4 empty boxes. That was enough, I couldn't throw out the other six.
They were velvet. No-one gets jewellery in velvet boxes these days. It was essential to keep them for historical research.
That was quite a cull of the earring drawer though, a real walk down memory lane. I remember every dress that matched each pair of earrings. OhLaLa was the best shop for costume jewellery and I think I singlehandedly kept it from bankruptcy for years.
I look at the rubbish being sold now and it's not made to last more than one season. It's the reason I won't buy anything unless it's on sale because that's about the true worth of the shoddy glitter. I get home and the first thing I do, is go through and make sure all the connecting rings are connecting and not lying in wait to rip your throat out.
So while I'm remembering this and that dress, I realize that I can't remember what I was wearing on several very important days in my life. Now it's really bugging me and I've made a list of days and I'm trying to put a dress to each one.
The wedding doesn't count, him leaning on my re-embroidered linen trying to look sober is etched forever in my memory circuits. It always amazes me how people get so much detail into an autobiography when I can't remember a dress.
15 comments:
"It always amazes me how people get so much detail into an autobiography when I can't remember a dress. "
Obviously you haven't been to my "Bombay Sapphire Repressed Mammary Recovery Seminars" recently.
BTW, as I recollect it was a Mary Quant muumuu with Laura Ashley gussets and Zandra (Brownie's doppelganger) Rhodes darts.
Remembering what you wore when? Geebs, my brain hurts even beginning to contemplate such an elphantine tusk. I'll just try to remember not to wear the same thing I wore yesterday and today, which right now, I can remember. Shorts. They sit dishevelled and in need of a bath, as do I. 9.40 and still 35 degrees in da house. I'd sleep outside on the lawn, but its a jungle out there. And while I'm contemplating the cool green lawn but deciding against it. Have you seen the price of swags? Couldn't run me up a swag couldja? Not sure where you get 2 metre zippers that go around corners though.
MiLord, so the rumours are true, you do have an eye for a frock.
Caroline, swag? Do you mean sleeping bag? What you need to do is tether the horses and sling a hammock between them. Do not sleep in the grass, snakes, remember.
I was a bit gobsmacked to read that 2008 New Year's Eve the temperature didn't go below 30 degrees so this year's chill was welcome.
velvet boxes? frocks?
Lucy Tartan's having a garden wedding!
Baz is Best Cat, the Chickens are flowergirls ...
70's dress patterns? Any caftans in there? I'm planning a different sort of move for my earring collection. I don't have many, but I also have several of my mum's brooches. I'm going to put them all on black velvet, then mount the whole lot in a double depth photo frame. They'll be out of the way on the wall, look nice, be easy to dust, and I can pass the whole thing to my grand daughter.
A garden wedding, romantic unless one of the chooks is laying another egg like the last one.
River, do that with the earrings. I have my butterfly brooches from my son and my 40th birthday present which my mother picked out and my father bought the matching earrings. I have a photo somewhere which I'll post.
Yes, I do have a caftan pattern which I've never made because it has a waist belt which sort of defeats the purpose of a voluminous caftan.
I remember swanning around the house in various caftans, so loose and comfortable. And they doubled as maternity dresses, very handy. I wish I'd kept mine now.
I still have my OohLaLa velvet boxes. They are going to come in handy any day now. Happy New Year and all that, Copperwitch!
River, a caftan pattern is unbelievably simple. I'll sketch it for you and publish it webbily somewhere - you don't really need measurements, it's that easy.
Basic swag (my kingdom for)
And so on
Only joking about the kingdom bit obviously. But for the lazy, last minute camper they're great.
Embarrassing confession.
Back in the 70s I owned (and actually wore on far too many occasions) a black dyed cheese cloth caftan.
I blame Demis Roussos who spiked my Passiona with Stone's Green Ginger Wine.
Thankfully (as far as I know) there are no surviving polaroids.
I never thought this would happen but MiLord you have rendered me speechless but not imaginationless.
Groaning with the thought that I'm going to have to live with that image forever.
Helen, I can't imagine your tinyness in a caftan. I see you've taught your son the lesson of what goes on the internet stays on the internet.
Bella, you've surfaced and a fellow traveller on the OhLaLa highway. The hours I dreamed away in that shop. I intend to be like Barbara Hutton and go wearing my emeralds and pearls.
River, floaty maternity dresses instead of jeans, t-shirt and bare belly on show.
Caroline, they look very nice but do they come in brocade and a hotel room?
Memory will happen when it wants to... can't be drummed up...
Would have had to be a few layers of black cheesecloth, Lord S, or you would have been sharing a lot with the world, especially in full sunlight! Yikes...
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