Life is a Bowl of Cherries

We are enjoying another string of summery days this week – so much for autumn – and what more summery way to celebrate that than to wear a sparkling cherry necklace?

I had to go to market today to buy not cherries, but coffee beans, and I wore this necklace along with some other cheerful red accessories and a checked navy and light blue 70s cotton sundress. The enamel and crystal necklace was an op shop (thrift store) purchase quite a while back, and it really is the cherry on top when it comes to accessories.

The lady serving at the coffee shop no sooner clapped eyes on me than she complimented my outfit, insisting I was the best-dressed person at the market today. “Are you going somewhere special, or do you always dress like that?” she asked me. I laughed, and answered, “I always dress like this.”

But even a trip to the market can be special, and why not? Life’s too short to dress dully: stop to smell the roses, and eat wear the cherries!

Good Enough to Eat

What are these delicious little trifles – bonbons or sweet treats for ears? These are the kind of earrings to keep far, far away from infants because they do look good enough to eat!

The green ovals I call my peppermint patty earrings – they look just like they are wrapped in green foil like the classic chocolate bars. The sparkly blue pair is imitation druzy, but they sparkle almost as much as real ones would, and the purple pearls are like grapes dangling from my ears.

All of the earrings were bought in thrift stores, and happened to be sitting together on my bathroom bench because I had worn the green and blue pairs in the last couple of days, while the pearls I only bought yesterday. They make a great colour combination, don’t they?

Photo: Today

Cockatoo Butterflies

I have short hair. So short I can’t even make a pigtail let alone a ponytail. But that did not stop me from cooing over these vintage 80s white cockatoo butterfly clips when I spotted them in a Salvos op shop recently. And at 75¢ each, they were laughably cheep (ahem) and altogether irresistible. They are so cute I would even consider growing my hair long again just so I could wear them!

Twin Leopards

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly have anything more to say on animal prints (as did I!), I came across this little trifle in my collection of unpublished stories: a leopard print hat made from sinnamay. I’m not quite sure what to call this shape, except perhaps a modified trilby, with the narrow brim folded up on one side and down on the other.

I bought this in a thrift store for around $4, and what delighted me was that it is like the fraternal twin of a hat I bought many years ago (at a much higher retail cost, I may add), only in a more refined shape. In the shop I also thought the print was exactly the same, but when I pulled the other out I saw they were quite different. They still do look like they came from the same milliner, don’t they? The trilby is by Italian label Caterina Lucchi.

I’ve pulled a picture out of the archives of the other hat, which is in fact by Jendi, an Australian brand. This one is quite definitely a fedora as it has a broader brim (you can see other angles here). Now that I have both to compare, I’m not sure which I prefer after all – I’ll keep both!

Photos: March 2017, January 2010

Recycled Plastic

Not all plastic in the world is evil. For example, these 60s-inspired hoops are quite charming. They are black with white edging and possess a nice lustre, shiny like lacquer.

On a whim, I picked them up a little while ago in an op shop, along with a pile of other costume jewellery, and they ended up being the item I bought. They were just so swingy, and big and bold and graphic – I love how the two hoops swing independently.

Some plastic recycles just as nicely as when it was bought new.

Photo: Last week