A Little Bling Never Hurts

I think I may have mentioned in the past and for those who know me personally I’m stating the obvious here but…I have a small obsession with vintage bling. 

I’m not generally drawn to really fine jewel vintage pieces (although I do certainly admire them tremendously) but a little rhinestone pin or bracelet calls me every time!  I scour the shops and sales for just the right piece at just the right price.  I am always so excited when I find a bargain that is such a great deal that I just can’t believe it. 

Unfortunately, often what appears to be too good to be true generally is just that with missing stones, a damaged fastener or tarnished edges. And of course you never see the flaws until your heart is all aflutter with the beauty of the piece and you pick it up for further inspection.   Now I’m not a girl to discount beauty just because of a little flaw but really as much as I may admire them do I really want to regularly wear jewels that are very obviously missing stones?  Given this, I’m always trying to come up with ideas to use these pieces since they really are in many cases truly spectacular.

Several years ago there was a mention in a magazine (along with a spectacularly eye catching photo) for a new venture Christina Ferrare had started creating picture frames & mirrors with crystals & stones.  The pieces were so stunning; I immediately stored it in my “I must do this” file.  My thought was it was a great way to repurpose some of the beautiful vintage pieces I had seen that are beautiful but not quite perfect enough to wear.

Ferrare & Co have so many fab
blingy things!

Well, this turned into easier said than done.  I totally underestimated the number of pieces that would be needed to fill the piece I wanted to do.  So now I had a collection of slightly imperfect vintage jewelry pieces and needed to find a more doable project to use them on.  Enter House Beautiful…

Jewels I have collected over the years...
(see Provence Cottage Antiques post)

Maybe two years ago I picked up a copy of House Beautiful Magazine and in it was a picture of a pillow that was all blinged out with vintage jewels.  Now that’s what I’m talking about…

Well, of course I had a spare accent pillow that I had picked up at Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Target or some such place that was just waiting for embellishment. 

I'm now wondering why I ever bought this...

Now I had to spend my requisite several weeks (ok, maybe months) analyzing, assessing & contemplating the best most clean way of applying the jewelry. 

Some pieces still had their fastenings, some did not so I knew that I would need to either glue or sew some but others I might just be able to pin to the pillow.  The pins that I could pin did I want to cut a small hole in the pillow so they were flush with the surface or did I want to go through the exercise of sewing a button-hole type of stitch so it would not only be flush but look finished?  Did it matter?  Would glue be an appropriate option for those without pin backs or would a simple stitch be better?  Did I want to break up the necklace pieces into smaller pieces or leave them as is and attach them?  Did I want to even use them at all?  So many possible ways of executing this I really had to just sit down and give it a shot and see what worked and what didn’t.  End result was no glue, and just simple holes that the hardware could meld into.

Trial and error....this ended up being the most balanced
placement

And here is my finished product.  I’m so pleased to not only be able to repurpose jewelry that appeared to have been destined for destruction but also have a unique pillow that looks just fabulous in my living room!

I think this is why I bought the pillow!

Provence Cottage Antiques

Last year I came upon a fabulous pillow in a magazine that was decorated with vintage baubles of all sorts.  It of course made me stop immediately so I could study it and figure out just how to replicate it.  Well, I had a several pieces of slightly flawed (missing stones, bent pins, etc) old jewelry that I had been saving for just such a project but not enough of just the right thing to fill a whole pillow. So for months I have been on the lookout for nice inexpensive pieces that I could add to my collection of “broken bling” and create my own fabulous pillow (soon to be seen in an upcoming post). 

Sneak Peak....

In my search for the perfect bling at the perfect bargain price I happened upon a lovely little shop that specializes in cottage style vintage items in…you guessed it…Wells Maine.  Provence Cottage Antiques sits behind a sweet little grey house with a white picket fence on Route 1.  

Provence Cottage Antiques
752 Post Rd (Rt 1) Wells, ME

When we visited Provence Cottage last year the porch and the front rooms of the house were open, filled with interesting pieces and what I remember most was the truly splendid vintage chandeliers hanging everywhere.  There were also 2 back buildings full of fun cottage style items, one mostly gardeny type things the other just fun decorative vintage items.

The Garden items....dislayed outside

This year Provence Cottage was another stop on our 4^th of July extravaganza…still great stuff but much smaller this year.  The front house was not open at all nor was the first building that had the gardeny things last year so it was just the far rear building…less stuff, still well worth the stop! 

Last year I found a few slightly damaged jewels priced right for my pillow but still not enough to complete the project…this year I found exactly what I needed to finish it off along with so many other things. 

No, as much as I wanted to I didn't purchase the
whole tray full....now that's restraint!

Now this is a “ladies who lunch” kind of shop but if you love vintage linens, clothing, jewelry, books, teacups, etc this is your place!  There was a vintage 1960’s dress on a dress form next to the front door…so Mad Men…if it was my size you had better believe it would have been in a bag in my car!  I’ve been contemplating having a Mad Men themed party and it would have been just the perfect thing..not meant to be this time though.

Always up for an antiquing adventure...now that we
have her husband convinced not every antique is
old & smelly.  The Mad Men dress is the aqua one
to the left behind Kate.

There were several of these chenille bedspreads that just made me think of spending summers at my great-grandmother’s cottage on Sennebec Pond.  I hated these spreads when I was a kid because it was so hard to make my bed neatly, they were constantly wrinkled, uneven or just not laying right.  Now I definitely have fond memories but then if I had known any curse words I would definitely have used them!



Do you remember these spreads?  My grand-
mother had them in an aqua color.

Provence Cottage Antiques is really one of those places where I can always find something to accessorize with…either myself or my house.