Friday Flashbaxx: Everything Old is New Again

Today's trip back in time is a little different.  Two events, one recent and one from before I was born.  For me, a trip to a local shop specializing in vintage jewelry.  For someone else, someone I don't know, someone I can only dream up in my imagination, a trip to France.

I've always loved costume jewelry.  My grandmother -- my mother's mother -- was a tall, striking woman with red hair and more jewelry than anyone I'd ever met.  Most of my memories of time spent at her home in South Minneapolis involve four things: an herb and flower garden in the backyard; a totally awesome turquoise lava lamp; her black cat; and hours spent searching the drawers of her old-fashioned bureaus and the numerous jewelry boxes with velvety interiors and gold clasps, trying on her endless collection of sparkling costume jewelry.

When she died my sisters and I divided up the collection.  I wore that jewelry through high school and beyond -- recently when I resurrected a particularly dazzling set, my husband told me to tone it down.  Too much, he said.

The Grammy Collection

Lorinda Judge Ims, the owner of The Vintage Jewelry Collection, disagrees.  If you've got it, flaunt it!

Lorinda recently re-opened The Vintage Jewelry Collection in a new location, in Old Downtown Rogers, Minnesota.  It's a place of magic and dreams and sparkle.  And it's one of my favorite places ever.

Treasures

Don't you think I need that butterfly pin (lower right)?

A few weeks ago, I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony and grand re-opening of the store.  I allowed myself to choose one piece of jewelry and let me tell you, it was nearly impossible.  She's got an amazing collection from the last 150 years.  Many of the items are out of my price range, but I was thrilled to see the vast number of really affordable - and fabulous - items.

I settled on an unusual, unique piece, unlike anything I've seen or own - a vintage brass gilt and enamel bracelet with crests of French cities with the most gorgeous shade of blue.

I've never been to France, but someone in my imagination traveled there in the 1940s or 50s and returned home with this bracelet as a souvenir.  Or perhaps she was given the bracelet as a gift.  Of course there is a story behind this lovely piece.  I will never know the true story of its journey, but I can dream it.

So I'll switch Pandora over to Crooners Radio, lose myself in the music of the era, and write the story of a girl with a bracelet.

I can imagine her story, I can write it, I can wear it on my wrist.

Ooh la la!
Maybe I should read 
ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS again!

What unusual or unique places or things have inspired you?