Where You'll Find Me Next - Vintage & Made Fair September Edition

Iowa friends, I had so much fun that I'm coming back again! See me Sept. 6th and 7th in West Des Moines!

For the Guys: Keep Your Pants Up!

Suspenders are an excellent way to make sure you don’t accidently moon someone very important! To American’s, the suspender is a set of fabric, elastic or leather straps, with button or clips at the ends used to hold up trousers. Outside of the US, the word suspender has a much broader scope and is often used to refer to items we call garter belts today, the term simply means, any garment used to hold up pants or stockings.

The modern suspender was developed in 1820 by Albert Thurston as a solution to a fashion issue where pants became cut to high for belts to be practical. The first U.S. patent for suspenders came about in 1871 and belonged to Samuel Clemens, more famously known as author Mark Twain.

Suspenders remained popular until the 1920s, but went out of fashion in the 30s because they were seen as “underwear”. Since then suspenders have resurged in fashion from time to time, but they’ve never again out-paced the belt in the popularity race.

Check out the collection of suspenders in our men’s section!

Stunning Sterling Silver

 I’ve always been a fan of silver jewelry and quality sterling silver is elegant and timeless. From the handformed artistic beauty of Native American jewelry to the stunning, intricate details of a sterling art deco piece, there is much to be admired about sterling silver jewelry.

 

First – what makes an item sterling versus just silver? It’s the metal content. Like many metals pure silver, like pure gold or pure copper, can be pliable and to soft to make jewelry with. To counter the metal’s natural qualities it is often blended with other metals to create stronger, more durable pieces. To be classified as sterling, the metal must contain 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metal, often copper.

In jewelry pieces sterling silver is often marked 925 or sterling to signify the metal content. Looking for these marks is a good way to ensure that you’re getting a more quality metal that is likely to hold up better with wear and use.

Sterling, as a metal alloy, was developed in Europe and can be traced back to at least the 12^th century in the form of coins in the area now known as northern Germany. The popularity of sterling silver grew in Colonial America when American silversmiths began using the metal standard in all the pieces they created.

As trade increased between colonist and Native Americans, many tribes began using silver in the making of their jewelry. This process started in the early 1800s and by the 1850s many Navajo, Zuni and Hopi tribes had adopted silverwork into their jewelry. Today Southwestern jewelry and sterling silver go hand-in-hand.

Discover stunning sterling silver selections in the shop!

Where You'll Find Me Next - Huge Sale at Bitterman's Eye Candy

So this is the kind of news I never love sharing, but after a year and a half of trying to give it a go, the Bitterman's have decided to close down the Eye Candy shop. There will be big discounts in my booth and many of the other vendors will be joining in the sale as well.

I had decided at the beginning of the month that this would be my last month as a vendor and had marked down my items 25% off (booth code #24MH) before learning that the shop would be closing permanently at the beginning of September.

You'll have two discount tiers for my items - from now until August 15th everything is 25% off. Then starting on Saturday, August 16th the entire store goes on sale at 50% off. I'll keep my items at 50% off until the end of the month - so be sure to go check it out and get some wonderful deals before we pack everything up!

Hours of Operation - 11-4pm Thursday-Sunday

Where to Find Me Next - Strawberry Swing August 3rd

Come out to Kansas City for a great event! This is the third year for the Strawberry Swing and it's bound to be a good time. Discover more about each vendor on the show's site and prepare to come early, as the first 100 visitors will get a swag bag full of goodies - including these sticky cork boards and cute flower clips with a discount code and our business card!

Where Have I Been?

So I realize I've been pretty absent from the blog lately and I wanted to take a moment to explain why.

I'm a pretty private person despite the amount of social media you see from me around Vintage Baubles & Bits and so even most of my family has no idea of what's been going on in my life for the past two months... so here's the big reveal.

At the end of April I lost my day job, the one that actually pays the bills. As much as I would like the vintage job to be my only job, I'm not quite ready to give up a steady paycheck and take the chance on a fluctuating income just yet.

I was lucky, I got a month of severance and I had some time to hit the job market before things became really tight. You'd think that given all that extra free time I'd have spent it writing oodles of blogs right?! Well I actually didn't achieve any of that type of work, but what I did do was grow my inventory, expand into fine jewelry for the shop and photograph more than 100 new items for you all.

I also raised my Etsy shop inventory from 400 items to 500 items.

But I also took some time for myself. I went on vacation, yes vacation while unemployed. I'd had it scheduled and the money was spent, so why deny myself that gift?

I wasn't slacking on the job search either, in fact within the first two weeks of being unemployed I had four solid leads and at the end of my third week of unemployment I had a job offer. After accepting the position I finally started telling people about losing my position.

It's been two weeks since I started at my new job and I'm going through that phase of trying to learn the ropes, get invested in my new client's business and re-establish a routine. For awhile I'm going to be really busy with the day job and I'm probably going to be a terrible slacker when it comes to keeping up with my blog, but hopefully you'll all forgive me and stick with me as I get into my new groove!

I have tons of lovely new things to show you and stories from thrifting experiences to share. So check back now and then and I promise to be better and not go nearly two months between chats from here on out.

Hugs and tons of vintage love!

Mandy

Item of the Week - April 22

https://www.etsy.com/listing/181269254/vintage-1970s-egyptian-pendant-gold?ref=shop_home_active_13

Vintage 1970s Egyptian Pendant / Gold Necklace / Egyptian Revival Necklace / Egyptian Pharaoh Pendant

This gorgeous goldtone Pharaoh pendant necklace from the 1970s. It has a huge chain and great details in the pendant. Part of the Egyptian Revival scene, very funky and cool!


| MEASUREMENTS |

Pendant: 2" x 1 3/4"
Length: 30"

| DETAILS |

Era: 1970s
Style: Egyptian Revival
Material: Metal
Colors: Gold
Condition: Excellent