in the dark of winter

I am loving this Fossil coat that I got for $12 at the thrift store last week. It's just like new and it is the perfect bright coat for winter. I have a great black pea coat, but I like to wear something bright on those dark winter days like today! 

I hope you're having a good week so far! Halfway to Friday!

brooch organizer *tutorial*

I have a lovely lot of vintage brooches from family members, flea markets, and vintage sales but I always forget to wear them. They are always holed away in my jewelry box, and usually I don't look beyond my earring basket and necklace frame to find my day's accessories. But that's all about to change now that I have made this sweet little brooch and pin organizer, and with this super easy tutorial, you can make one too!

All you need is some fabric, a large embroidery hoop, and a pair of scissors (& your brooches too!)

Start by loosening the screw that tightens the outside ring and positioning the outside (the bigger ring) underneath the piece of fabric, and placing the smaller ring on top, pushing down so that the little ring fits into the bigger one.

While holding the inner ring down with your fingers, pull on the fabric around the edges to tighten it.

Then flip the whole thing over and tighten the screw back down so that the rings are secure. Pull on the fabric around the edges again to get everything REALLY tight.

Once everything is tightened satisfactorily, flip the hoop back over and begin trimming around the edges.

Keep going until you get all the way around.

Your hoop is complete!

This is what it will look like when you're done.

Add your brooches!

Don't they all look pretty together?

To hang, all you need to do is put a simple nail in the wall and 

hang from the screw you use to tighten the frame!

Mine is living below my necklace frame in the bathroom.

Enjoy your easy way to see all your brooches!

peace&love,

Jill

a girl and her satchel

Husband (!) and I went garage saleing (is that a word?) last weekend to find furniture, because it is now inexplicably exciting to us to be all grown up like that, and instead we came home with a huge print of the philosophers at Athens for the dining room and this lovely red bag. 

It was love at first sight. It made me want to come home and clean out my collection of superfluous purses because they would all lose their luster next to this red leather drop of perfection. It has the perfect number of pockets, the perfect depth for a magazine (or small business tax permit forms, as was the case today), and the perfect built in organizational systems. This is a serious relationship we got going on right now. 

Also I felt like wearing houndstooth and velvet together today to the office, so that's fun.

Clearly faces are not important to me... oh well. You know what I look like anyway.

peace&love,

Jill

This is What You Call A Find

This, my friends, is a vintage Dooney and Burke handbag, from the late 1980s as far as I can tell. It was  a new arrival at the thrift store last time I went in. I asked the price on a whim, just because, and then I had to have it.

The lady said, "I'm sorry, but it's $5.00."

Like she was apologizing.

Like she thought it was too much. 

Small towns are not without their charm, I'll say that for sure.

So happy.

peace&love,

Jill