Style Reboot: Baubles I Need to Wear, Part II

I'm a lucky girl. I have stylish women all around me. My grandmothers, my mother, my mother-in-law... But even luckier? The fact that I inherit their baubles, sometimes without even knowing it.

I literally don't know where this piece came from. No idea at all. I assume my mother-in-law, who has stashes and stashes of fantastic costume jewelry and vintage clothing, just put it in my jewelry box one day. Who knows how long it's been in there. But methinks I need to find a simple dress of undetermined color (black is the obvious choice, but that just seems, well, boring) and plop these sweet bangles atop.


I've only met her once, but I hear stories about her all the time. H's godmother is quite the accomplished woman, running a legal practice specializing in helping immigrants. We visited her right after we got married, on a whirlwind tour of western PA and Ohio. She gave us red cut glass goblets, , and this fantastic, massive, almost collar necklace. I've been intending now for 5 years to wear it. And I really need to find the right occasion. I used to have a one-shouldered, simple black gown (enter goddess). It would have been perfect. But it went the way of all $19.99 sale dresses. Yup.

I miss my Mom-Mom. I miss my Grandmom. Grandmom had very little in the way of shiny things. She just wasn't that kind of girl. The few pieces she did have are in my mom's jewelry box. prettyinpink and I have already assigned dibs.


I don't remember Mom-Mom as particularly stylish, though she was always put together, as women in her generation are. That being said, she apparently had a taste for pretty little things that she collected along the way. When she passed, my cousins and I literally went through the last bits of her drawers after the services. We're a very efficient family that way. My take? Bow pins, stick pins, brooches, clip earrings, and the fanciest little purse I've ever seen. As much in love with it as I am, though, I need to be deliberate and carry it soon. To an event with H, where he can carry Everything Else I Need. Yes, it is as small as it looks in the picture. It'll hold, oh, cash and a credit card. No phone, and a lipstick would probably ruin its line.

This is my closet. So what's in your closet?

Style Reboot: Baubles I Need to Wear, Part I

Now that I have a clean accessories cabinet, it's a Whole New World [cue Disney music]. I've got all these baubles I want and need to wear. Granted, I've also got some that I probably could do away with, but there are memories around many, and most I want to incorporate into upcoming ensembles.

Some take me back - I'd even forgotten some of these favorites - to places, and to places in time.

For my 30th birthday, I celebrated in New Orleans. I organized a room block then, sent an email out to all my friends and family. Not everyone could come, of course, but we ended up with this delightful group of people that made the celebration truly special: my mom and stepmom, H and his mom, my brother and his girlfriend-now-wife, a friend from Vancouver, WA, and a friend from DC and his Brand. New. Boyfriend. Our parents are still madly in love with said boyfriend. Oh yeah, and the friend. And we shopped. In between Preservation Hall, dinner at the now defunct 201 Decatur, and beignets, we shopped from the artisan to the funky - and I came home with both in bracelets and rings.

Just after H and I tied the knot, we "celebrated" Labor Day in South Beach with BlueSuitGirl. We shared a room one block back from the beach in a classic Art Deco hotel, dined at Cafeteria, and did Nikki Beach and the Delano in one night. And we shopped. In addition to 2 pair of shoes, I fit in last minute purchase - then and now one of my favorite pieces - of a Alexis Bittar stone pendant. When I wear it, I think of those carefree times. A couple of months later, H had a business trip back in Miami, and went to a little boutique we'd visited, bringing me back a jeweled chain that I've worn both as a looped necklace, a lariat, and a belt.

Then there's Austria. As I've said before, it was a life-changing 9 months. I made friends, I perfected my Austrian - ahem - German, drank coffee and wine, and was lucky enough to have 3 host families I adore. In the first, I had 3 sisters and a mom and dad who were just, well, Austrian. She made me schnitzel and knoedl on my first day, and sat with me every day after school, listening to my developing German and teaching me how to cook her Tirolean fare. When I left the country at the end of the year, they gave me a traditional Austrian pewter, brass, and garnet necklace.

My second family was a husband and wife - and their dachshund. He's first-generation Austrian from Czech parents, raised in Salzburg. She's one of the most elegant women I've ever met. At the time, she worked part-time for a dermatologist as a medical esthetician. She was never without her lipstick or a scarf tied at her neck. Can we say "intimidating" to a just-graduated-from-high-school-and-not-sure-of-her-style-at-all 18 year old American? They, like my first family, truly took me in, taking me all over Europe (Christmas in Salzburg, New Year's in Maastricht), teaching me to ski (after laughing at what I called "skiing"), and treating me like the grown-up I wanted to be - when I behaved like one. They love the States, even considering it as a retirement location for a while. He's often here on business, and on one of his trips, he brought me the ultimate Austrian sparkles: Swarovski. Even though they're clips, I love wearing the brushed gold with crystal "polka dots."

I have a little habit. A few, really, but the one relevant here is picking up something sparkly and pretty where ever I travel. It's easy, it fits in the suitcase, and often won't break the bank (though somehow my eye keeps inching its way up the dollar scale recently. not good. not good at all). There are certainly more travel purchases in my closet, but these are the ones that somehow, in some way, just take me...

Style Reboot: Finally Bringing It All Out

Way back in March, I posted about rediscovering what's already in my closet.

It's August.

I finally got around to cleaning out my accessories cabinet. Two weeks ago.

The day H and I were planning a Sushi Ko date (and on which I debuted my new Oscars), the afternoon was stormy. We were also planning a Big Dinner at a Fancy Restaurant for The Bean as a belated birthday present, so we unabashedly deployed the DVD player and on-demand to show movies and keep her quiet and rested. We hoped it that would yield a not-over-tired-child for her Marcel's dinner.

But I digress.

I dashed out to Ace Hardware, then The Container Store while they were napping and resting, and brought back what was probably intended as a hobby or hardware case with drawers. I wanted clear drawers so I could see what baubles were in there, but needed it to fit inside of our IKEA cabinet where I store my accessories (and my baking supplies. Yes, we live in a condo with limited storage space.). Fingers crossed. Because why would I do something logical, like measure the cabinet and its shelves? Caution, meet wind.

Home again, and young active things scrambling at my feet, I tried to distract them from the Pretty Sparkly Things emerging bit-by-bit from the shelves. I de-jumbled my chains, matched up my earrings, and remembered long-lost favorites. To The Beans' delight, I ditched every single one of the boxes in which my jewels had lived. I emptied out purses of the last bits of change, mints, and lipsticks I thought I'd lost. I wiped down the shelves. (Yes, Mommy, I am your daughter.)

My hobby-bins-turned-jewelry-box works perfectly. I can see what I have, and am unexpectedly enjoying, oh, I don't know, putting on different pieces each morning. Because I can now see what's there, and don't have to dig, I can easily find something different than the same 3 cuffs and 2 necklaces I'd been sporting for the last 4 years.

My Newly Organized Accessories Cabinet. And The Bag's Place of Honor, moved happily from atop my shoes in my closet.

Then there's The Bag Shelf. I've already carried 3 more purses than I had in those same 4 years: Mom-Mom's vintage monogram clutch, an adorable wicker Fornash clutch, and my beloved Furla (as H brought it to me from Italy, after my inability to shop while In. Italy., he was thrilled to see it again) all made it back into the rotation.

Next up? The Baubles I Need to Wear (Discovered in The Big Cleanup)