This does not mean, however, that I have made no purchases at all. In fact, jewelery has been something that I have purchased a great deal of: With accessories, such as jewelry, you can see it online, judge the length, width, size, etc, and as long as you fit that measurement, you know it will look good!
The most exciting purchase has been my eternity ring, which I got ahead of our 10th Anniversary, which is next month. I actually received it in April, and DH has received his (a different style) as well. Unfortunately, he has to resize it (NOT our fault), but it is a lovely ring. The ring I got was a narrow (2m) rounded yellow gold band, with 15 tiny white sapphires embedded inset into the gold, i.e., not channel set. I personally am opposed to diamonds, although DH got diamonds (tiny ones, very discrete) in his ring. Anyway, here is mine:
This ring seems so much prettier to me than the standard diamond channel set ones. I love it, and I wear it on my ring finger with my wedding ring. These days, because our anniversary is a month from tomorrow, I have also been wearing the ring DH got me for our 5th anniversary, a blue sapphire in a gold art-deco style setting.
Plus, this ring got me excited about white sapphires. Sapphires are my birthstone, and I know that they come in all colors, but I had never thought of white sapphires as a work around for my dislike for diamonds, which is based on my political beliefs. And the quality of stones is better, because it is not as expensive a stone in the first place.
Now these were more "fine jewelry" purchases, which I admit to wanting because an engagement ring was not financially in the cards when DH and I were engaged. I am so glad we didn't wait, but if we could have afforded one, I would have liked one. So this is kind of my overcompensation for that.
Let me recommend Etsy for fine jewelry: You don't have to pay the retail markup, and even though my ring is "fine jewelry," it cost about half of what it would at a "real" jewelry store.
The rest of my purchases were costume jewelry, including a lot of 50 bracelets I bought from the online shopgoodwill.com site. That was like having a corner of a Goodwill shop in my home, and I found a lot of vintage, and even a couple of antique bracelets! One of the antique bracelets I saw online for $125!
Aside from that one foray into the world of mixed lots, there have been many Etsy purchases. I am Etsy's bitch. It has almost been like I have been using purchases from Etsy to make me feel better about how lousy I feel so much of the time. Well, actually, it isn't "like" it; I have definitely been using purchases to cheer me up.
One of Etsy shops that was not only the first store at which I made a purchase, but that I have returned to most often, is Wychbury, which is in the West Midlands of the UK. I have purchased hair pins, brooches, necklaces, and bracelets, they just seem to feed into my obsessive anglophile-ism. One recent purchase was called an "herbal tea bracelet." Of the many things I have purchased from them, this is my very favorite:
I also recently replaced a pretty necklace of theirs that I wore to pieces; my original one was more "english garden" themed, but this one is definitely "bluebells:"
They also sell hairpins made of vintage fabric and buttons. Since my migraines have become so incredibly bad, I have had to start relying on hairpins. Barrettes, or even the weight of my hair pulled back into a pony tail, is enough to give me a "hatband headache," which is lovely melange of both a migraine and tension headache. Yes, you can have more than one type of headache at once. Joy.
So I have also been active with a kind of strange charity, April's Army, which is a spin off of the hysterical site, Regretsy.com, which scours Etsy.com to put a spotlight on some of the more questionable merchandise. One of the advantages of being a member of this charity team is that people often give discounts to other team members for no reason other than to be nice. One instance of this was in the case of WrensEye. She had an "Apocalypse Sale" the week of the Apocalypse that wasn't on May 21, and I swooped in and snatched up two items I had been eying covetously, at 50% off!
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| Coin pearl necklace |
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| Blood drop earrings |
Both really pretty. I wear the coin pearl necklace a lot, it is just very simple and elegant. And I love the somewhat baroque look, even though they are freshwater pearls.
The final purchase I am going to show off for now is some more fabric hairpins, that I really love. They are simple, and come in all different colors. I got this set, as well as a set in neutral (white, black, brown):
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| These are made by PaisleyMoon |
Oh! Just one more purchase, a bit of a surprise for DH, in honor of the theme of our wedding, the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, as well as the Jabberwock Inn, where we honeymooned, celebrated our first anniversary, and are scheduled to celebrate our 10th!
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| Alice In Wonderland Light Switch Plate |
Now this seems like a ton of stuff, but I have purchased it over the last 4 months, so it isn't as dreadful as it seems. The big (exciting) expenditure was on my ring.
The last week has been better than the week before. If this week is as good or better, I might finally be able to go thrifting for the first time since December!
