Something I Bought In August

Above you see some of my rings which once fit me like a dream. In particular my favourite triangle Mystic Topaz. Thanks to protein shakes I am 25kg lighter but that also means many of my favourite rings no longer fit. I have one ring that used to fit on my pinky finger which now fits on my middle finger. Most of the rings I used to wear on my ring finger are too loose to wear.

I can still sometimes wear my Mystic Topaz on my middle finger but only if my hands are puffy from water retention. The green one seen above does not fit on any finger, even at my most puffy. For the most part I have no rings to wear and that is SO NOT ME.

In fact there was one occasion – the Take That concert, where I put a ring on right before leaving. Then once I got into the car, I realised I must have lost it in the process of getting into the car. We looked everywhere for that ring. I thought maybe it had fallen into one of my bags and I would find it when I unpacked.

When I got back home, I found it sitting on my dresser – I had decided it was too loose and took it off, then in the rush of getting out the door with all my stuff, I totally forgot about having that little conversation with myself in my head. If I am out in the world without a ring, I feel a bit strange.

I had intended to buy one at the start of 2019 at the end of the year of buying nothing, but out with my Aunt in Berry on the 13th of August, there was An Incident. An Opal Incident. It began with this ring –

I liked it and wanted to know more, but it did not fit me. In fact none of the rings in the entire cabinet fit me. The lady in the store said she had some not on display and she pulled out a box filled with rings – most of them did not fit me, but *one* did, and it turned out to be a very fiery gorgeous opal, which had many colours in it.

Greens, blues, reds, oranges, yellows.

It depends on the lighting which colours fire up.

The ring does have a flaw in it but for me that makes me love it more.

Sometimes you even get pinks, purples, and aqua. For me, one of the reasons I will treasure this ring was the time spent in the store with my Aunt choosing it. It was a special happy moment after trying on many rings to find one that actually fit me, too.

Our wanders to the shops always include a special lunch – on this day we chose croissants with smoked salmon, a poached egg and avocado and cucumber salsa from the Milkwood Bakery. Special time spent with a special person who we very nearly lost a few years ago. There really are no words for that.

family, jewellery

Swarovskis

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If you have been a reader here for even a short time, it will not come to a surprise to you that I love me some bling.

This is my official Swarovski phone case. I first saw it while on an escalator down to the bottom floor of Westfield in Sydney. It was sitting in a case of a phone shop. I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it, because I love me some Swarovskis. It came with a certificate of authenticity.

I did not know then the reason why – when we dropped over to Paddys Markets, there were so many knock off phone cases with crystals in them. And I bought a knock off for my next phone purely because there were no official ones to be found.

About Snoskred, jewellery, sparkly, yay

Another Favourite Thing

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Years ago I scored this gorgeous mosaic mother of pearl pendant via the TVSN jewellery clearance area for less than $15. I wrote about it on the blog, here – Mosaic Kingdom.

They sometimes have amazing bargains in the clearance areas on TVSN. I check them every so often for new stuff. I’ve scored some bargain outfits that way, as well as other stuff. The bargains can be especially good at change of seasons time..

I also keep an eye on the Ezibuy clearance area. Some of their stuff you can find in David Jones for 2-3 times the price, especially the Sara brand which I like. They often have gorgeous tunics on there for $15 and they keep sending me free delivery codes, so I’ll keep shopping there.

Is there anywhere you shop online?

Any places you find to be awesome? ;)

jewellery, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Blingtastic Bling!

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So yesterday we were talking about one of my favourite things – Bling. Let us take a closer look..

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Watches, brooches, bracelets, oh my!

brooches

It occurs to me I have quite a few reptile brooches – here you see one lizard, and two turtles. Obviously the turtles originated in Hawaii, turtles are a bit of a Thing over there.

You also see my favourite Peacock Crystal Flower Pin which you can read more about on my Headless Fashion post, and there is a dragonfly brooch, and the Heaviest Brooch Of All Time. I never met a brooch I did not love, they are my kryptonite.

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My ring collection.

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My blingy watches.

Do you wear any jewellery?

If yes, what kind?

About Snoskred, brooches, jewellery, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Favourite Things – Bling!

Over the past few months, we have been working on de-cluttering, tidying, and making our house more of a home.

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When I was working, I created this blinged up box – which I would use to take all my “stuff” to and from work. I am a high maintenance girl. I need stuff, during the day. So the box is pretty large – it is 15 litres and measures 40cm x 28cm x 19cm.

What kind of stuff do I need when I work? This box – without the lid – used to carry the following to and from work –

– A box of tissues
– A roll of paper towel.
– A bottle of Soda Water.
– My plastic cup for the day.
– An apple, a plastic Ikea plate to cut it up on, and a decent knife.
– A 2 minute noodle snack with a container to “cook” it in, and a fork.
– Hand sanitiser
– Lip balm
– Hand cream
– My handbag would sit on top of the “stuff”.

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Now, it has become a home to my bling. The lid keeps the dust off and the bling shiny!

Please to note, none of my Bling is expensive – the most costly item here is likely my Michael Kors watch at just under $200. The other two watches were less than $100. Everything else is below $30. They are doing some amazing things with crystals these days.

More on my BLING tomorrow.

Do you have bling?

If yes, where does it live?

About Snoskred, jewellery, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, work

The story of my Sun Brooch.

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One freezing cold Friday I was booked to go and have a lunch with a couple of girlfriends. It was *icy*. Seriously icy. As in people nearby were getting snow.

Brrr!

I went looking for something cute and warm to wear and pulled out a velvet jacket from the closet. I bought it in Adelaide many years ago from the 1626 clearance store, before they were known as Autograph. The jacket was a little big for me at the time I bought it, being a size 22. It is now several sizes too big but I can still rock it – it is better if I have the other half at home because then I will wrap it around me and belt it. But in this case I just wore it like a normal coat, put on a scarf and my favourite sun brooch, and out the door with me I went.

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Lunch was awesome if a little delayed – an hour from ordering to receiving the food. Probably will not be going back there any time soon. But the company of two of my favourite ladies in the world was awesome and we hardly noticed the wait, until our tummies started growling and we checked our watches!

It wasn’t until a couple of days later when the other half and I were heading out and I wore the velvet jacket again that I noticed the sun brooch was no longer on the lapel.

Oh no.

I actually have two sun brooches – one I bought in 2011, one I bought in 2013, both from Macys at Ala Moana in Hawaii. The first one got accidentally washed and it lost a stone, then it got accidentally washed a second time and lost another one. The top one in the below photo is the broken one, can you see the missing stones? One is very obvious, one is right in the centre and a lot better hidden.

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I had put on the new, unbroken one, to go to the lunch for the first time in ages. I’d been wearing the broken one as it felt a bit safer. Now that the new one was missing, I used the broken one to close my coat at a higher spot than the buttons and headed out.

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So as I opened the gate for the other half to drive out I was having a sad, lamenting the loss of my poor sun brooch and thinking maybe me and this sun brooch were not meant to be..

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Then I got in the car and sat down, and saw the other half had pinned my sun brooch to the sparkly thing that hangs from my rear vision mirror. He found it on the passenger seat. Yay my brooch is saved!

The back pin is bent, which is why it fell off. I’m not sure it is fixable. But when I put the two together to take photos, I noticed they are actually different colours. You can best spot it from the back –

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See how the top one is like a bronze shade, when the lower one is silver? Also the bronze one has a different back where the silver one is smooth. They might look alike from the front but they are totally different bases.

I’m so glad my brooches are both here. I don’t know what to do with the pin of the broken one, if it can be fixed or not. In the meantime I will keep it in a safe place.

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This brooch always makes me think of the Queen and the Jardine Star Brooch.

Not that it looks much like it in reality. I’m still looking for my imitation Jardine Star. :)

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I am such a huge fan of the Queen. She is the main reason I began to wear brooches. I am also a huge fan of Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge – I love that she has taken to wearing brooches lately. It gives them a new coolness.

brooches, Fashion, jewellery

Headless Fashion

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So, I read a lot of fashion blogs across the inter webs. I’m a bit of a fashionista myself – I rarely wear makeup but I like clothes and I like finding bargains and awesome outfits. Until now I have not felt comfortable sharing any of that on my blog for various reasons – most of all I like to stay a bit anonymous on the web..

But if you can be cool with my headlessness, I can be cool with sharing some pics. And today I want to talk a little bit about brooches.

I wear brooches a lot, in various different places. This one I am wearing at a spot on the dress where there is a meeting point for some gathers. Sorry this pic is a little blurry but it gives you an idea of why I’ve put it where I have.

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I loooooove brooches. It is a great and simple way to bling up an outfit. Today I am showing you the Charter Club Gold Tone Peacock Crystal Flower Pin – which is still available on the Macys website.

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I bought it when in Hawaii last year for a ridiculously cheap price – it was under $20.

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Macys have a great range of gorgeous brooches at cheap prices *and* they ship to Australia now. Happy moments for all!

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You can see there are a large amount of different coloured crystals in the brooch – and many of them are similar to the colours of my blog design, so it is fairly obvious why I chose it, I love these colours.

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I also am wearing the Fossil Jesse watch. It is Blingtastic. :)

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brooches, Fashion, jewellery

Blingy

So, one of the things I’ve done while MIA was to take another trip to Hawaii. I picked up some new bling while there..

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This by no means does any of the rings justice but most especially the triangle Mystic Topaz there – that ring is stunning. The amount of different colours it throws under various light conditions.. it really is a rainbow version of the Mystic Topaz. Some you will only get purple and green – the triangle gives you red, pink, purple, several different shades of green, orange, and also yellow.

jewellery, travel

Retail Therapy

Today we did not plan to go shopping, but with KRudd’s $900 bonus burning a hole in everyones pocket, who could resist?

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We bought us a great spicerack spinner thingy, a new oil burner for the other half, some excellent value scented tealight candles from my favourite candle shop which work out to 50 cents a candle, a jewellery rack for my earring collection, a new knife set as our old one was ageing ungracefully, and a knife sharpener to keep the knives sharp..

jewelsSome of my earrings checking out the new home. The pink ones in the middle were sent to me by Charcoal Sniper P, one of the mods on The Mudflats, they are sooo pretty and they also arrived with some maple candy which I had always wanted to try. Char gets married in like a week and a half, too! :) Congratulations on the impending nuptials Char – and a welcome end to the stress of wedding planning. ;)

Of course, it is a pity that we only spent a tiny amount of the billions monies KRudd is throwing around, the rest will go to pay off debts which probably won’t do the economy any good..

Happy Snoskred, jewellery, shopping