Brooches

I've briefly mentioned there is a lot going on at home just now and that it has been a really difficult past few weeks. I don't want to get too morbid because this blog is a little bit of an escape for us all (me included), but my Granny is very, very ill with cancer and doesn't have long to live. It's been incredibly hard to see her like this when she's always been so healthy and strong in mind and body. Anyway she's obsessive about cleaning and tidying (she dusts and hoovers every day even although she lives alone and there's no dirt and she's usually up at 5am cleaning her doorstep) and so her immediate reaction to the news was to start clearing out her house. Some may think that's a little drastic, but she insists it'll be less for my Dad to deal with once she's gone and honestly it's what I would expect from her. We're slightly freaked out by the fact she'll be living in a shell with no belongings, but it's something practical to do and a slight distraction to what's really happening and we're able to joke about it just now. We've long mocked her 'cupboard' which is a little like a Mary Poppins bag, holds everything and anything you could ever need. Whatever you ask for, Granny will have it in her cupboard!
So this week, she gave my Dad a huge box of jewellery for me. She's often done this when she's clearing out, it's nothing particularly valuable (not that I'm looking for that), it's just items she hopes I will like as I'm more keen on that type of jewellery, than my sisters are. We tend to have a contradiction of tastes at times though, the 'decent items' she thinks are really lovely aren't really 'me', so she was a little surprised that I went gaga over the brooches. I've long had a fascination with brooches, which I think stems from my Great Granny (completely unrelated-on my mothers side) who always, always wore a brooch at her neck. As you can see there are lots of really unusual ones here.
I saw huge butterfly brooches like this in Primark last week!
My favourite two are below; the first really reflects lots of pretty colours and it's so cool, you can twist the centre (and brooch fixing) so it can be worn horizontal or vertical. How fab is that? (Missed opportunity for a video methinks!)
This next one is totally like something Great Granny would have worn and has a real vintage feel to it.
Granny also included lots of beads which weren't really my thing, but my Mum likes some of them and a long string of real pearls. I'm excited about those because I adore pearls. Mum mentioned this to Granny at the time, so I'm sure I'll inherit some more! Thankfully she included a large box too that's perfect for storing jewellery in, as my collection is out-growing it's current home as it is. I have a couple of jewellery hauls for you coming soon from Primark and Accessorize. Also I'm hoping to start up The Shoe Girl Diaries again next week-there's been many reasons why I haven't been able to post lately (mainly the complete lack of space to take photos in my room and also I've only been out and worn shoes once in the past few weeks).