jewelry Archives - Black Cat Lies

I LOVE GOLD! Necklaces

2019-02-12 No Comments

You ever go through phases where you’re completely obsessed with something? Well lately for me that something is gold necklaces. Ever since I officially entered my thirties two years ago I’ve had a strong desire to amp up my personal style. To make it more simple, chic, and curated. I’ve been searching for more quality basic pieces and trying to build a smaller wardrobe with a bigger impact. A wardrobe with the tenants of a capsule but not necessarily the size. In doing so I’ve realized the importance of accessories. I’m learning that it’s the little details that can really elevate a simple look from basic to chic. While I love a good statement piece I already have good amount of those and lately have been drawn to simple dainty jewelry. Subtle pieces that don’t necessarily yell “LOOK AT ME!” but still add interest and glamour to an outfit. The number one thing I’ve been drawn to in the this quest is the elegant, dainty, gold necklace.

Here are some of the gold necklaces I’ve been coveting for the past few months:

bauble bar, ear crawlers, ear jackets, jewelry, target

Obsessed: Ear Crawlers and Ear Jackets

2016-03-30 No Comments

I’ve recently become obsessed Ear Crawlers and Ear Jackets. Every few years I get really into jewelry and this seems to be one of those instances. I’ve recently been into more delicate simple jewelry and have been steering a bit away from bigger statement pieces (though I still love those as well). I think simple jewelry is just easier to wear and kind of chic for everyday. Anyway I have a small but growing collection, thanks in part to a Bauble Bar sale, so I figured I’d show it.

Most of the earrings above are no longer available online but all were found at Target or on Bauble Bar so those are great places to check for alternatives.

Aries, ashtray, brooch, bust, chair, chalkware, geode, haul, jewelry, lane, mug, nefertiti, skull, thrift, thrift haul, vintage

Vintage Christmas Gifts / Thrift Haul

2015-01-27 2 Comments

I haven’t really been thrifting much lately. Christmas always burns me out a little and thrifting (and shopping in general) tend to fall to the wayside as a result. But I did find some cool vintage items before Christmas, received some as Christmas gifts, and found a bunch of cool stuff at the MLK thrift sales. After the MLK sales I figured I finally had enough to do a little thrift haul. So here are my little haul of thrift finds and vintage gifts from the last few months.

1. Vintage chalkware figures

My mom gave these to me for Christmas. I have a similar pair that are “bookends” but one was

decapitated while hanging out on a shelf, so It was nice to get a new and very cool pair. I’m especially in love the detail on the sleeves of these guys, so pretty.

2. Italian made Vintage ashtray

No I’m not a smoker, I’m actually asthmatic so I can’t even really have people smoke around me, but I do like a cool vintage ashtray for decorative purposes. This one I again got for Christmas from my momma and it’s pretty cool, I love the gold marble-ish pattern.

3. Lane Dining Room chair

I randomly came upon this at the thrift store one Sunday and it was $3.00 so I kind of had to get it. My cat Tang is very fond of it and it’s got great lines so I think it’s a win. I eventually want to change the seat upholstery but I gotta find some nice fabric first.

4. Vintage Brooches

a. Vintage Flapper Brooch

b. Floral Brooch

These are more Christmas presents from my mom. I’ve always admired brooches and thought I should buy some, but they’re one of those things I can easily talk myself out of and thus never buy. So I was excited to get some from my mom. I really love the 1920’s/30’s flapper one, isn’t it cool? The flower one is pretty as well and kind of reminds me of munchkin land from the Wizard of Oz.

5. Nefertiti Bust

This is another Christmas present. I love this bust but it’s had a hard life. When you see it up close you notice that poor Nefertiti’s head was definitely glued back on after what I can imagine was a terrible tumble. I was thinking of maybe spray painting it to hide the “work” it’s had done but I really like the green color so I’m still on the fence.

6. Jewelry

A. Small faux diamond earrings

B. Gold Hoops

C. metallic block necklace

D. Skull Bracelet

E. Metallic stud earrings

F. Geode necklace

I got these all on MLK sale day at some of the thrifts. I sort of stumbled into the jewelry section at one of the thrift stores I visited and found a ton of great stuff. My favorite piece is the skull bracelet, but the geode necklace was also another great find. I’ve been lusting after similar pieces on sites like Shop dixi for awhile now but never got around to ordering one. So I was super happy to find this one, even though I may still buy some stuff from the site. I’ve been needing to accessorize more and now I’ve got some great motivation to get accessorizing!

7. Vintage Aries Mug

I’m not an Aries but this mug was too cute to pass up. I figure I can start looking for the others in the thrifts and eventually get to my sign as well as the other signs of the zodiac. As you can see it’s a bit cracked but I got it for .40 so I couldn’t really complain.

** As always I linked up with Thriftasauraus over on Sir Thrift-a-lot’s blog. Go check out his and other bloggers cool thrift finds.

ASOS, collar, fashion, favorite things, few of my favorites, gabifresh, glitter, jewelry, Julia Sarr Jamois, modcloth, nasty gal, nicolette mason, pineapple slicer, shoes, sneaker wedges, star trek, waffle iron

These are a few of my favorite things (this week)

2012-05-26 No Comments

1. Gabifresh’s striped dress and sneaker wedges. When sneaker wedges first hit the runway I was skeptical, way skeptical. I like sneakers and am OK with wedges but the look of a sneaker with all the reduced comfort of a wedge didn’t really sound amazing. Then I kept seeing them and when I saw Gabi’s take I kinda fell in love. I’m still not sure I’ll be plunking down the cash to participate in this trend, but It has inspired me to dust off my sneakers and incorporate them into outfits outside of pants.

Image via Gabifresh

2. Nicolette Mason’s shoe collection. I’ve followed Nicolette’s blog for a couple years now and love her style. I knew her shoe collection was drool worthy but when I saw all the glittery goodness in one photo I’m even more envious of her awesome shoes. Check out her interview here with Glitter Guide.

Image via The Glitter Guide

3. This fabulous lady’s street style via the ModCloth blog. I saw this image on pinterest and immediately loved it. The cat eye glasses and the mint and polka dots, this lady has some serious style..

Image via ModCloth Blog

4. Star Trek Decor. I’m kind of a trekkie. I’m not a super serious I speak Klingon and go to star trek conventions one, though I’d totally go to one. But I do like star trek. I’ve watched a lot of the original series and some of next generation. So I kind of love all the star trek paraphernalia I’ve found via pinterest. Most notably this awesome vintage light and these cool pillows.

vintage star trek light, image via Retro Renovation

star trek pillows via Yellow Bug Boutique

5. The coolest waffle iron ever. Waffle chair anyone?

apparently it’s a prototype, Image via google images and pinterest

6. This pineapple slicer. I love pineapple but don’t like paying extra for the pre-cut stuff and aren’t a huge fan of carving it manually. So, when i saw this I was kind of in love, I think I need one.

Vacu Vin Pineapple Slicer, image via pinterest

7. JULIA SARR JAMOIS. Her style, her hair, I love it all.

*all images via google images

8. Jewelry from Nasty Gal.

All images via Nasty Gal

9. This collar from ASOS. My mom has a vintage collar that I thought I could wear but it has some stains, tears, and is in need or repair. I will attempt to fix it but in the meantime this collar from ASOS is a close match to it and I’m kind of in love with it.

Image via ASOS

image via ASOS

cleopatra, collar necklaces, earrings, elizabeth taylor, gold, grecian, jewelry, knit

Dress Like an Egyptian

2011-12-02 No Comments

While trying to figure out a Halloween costume this year the idea of being Cleopatra dawned on me. I’ve been slightly obsessed with ancient Egypt for practically ever and somehow managed never to dress up as Cleopatra for Halloween. This probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve never been that big a fan of Cleopatra. My favorite Egyptian Pharaoh has always been Hatshepsut , because let’s face it she was a bad ass. But, Shakespeare never wrote a play about her and no one made a movie about her badassery so though I could (and may at some point) dress up as her I have to imagine most people wouldn’t get it. So when contemplating my possible Cleopatra costume I didn’t want it to be the run of the mill Halloween store costume, I wanted to be Cleopatra a-la Elizabeth Taylor. Why the Liz Taylor Cleopatra? Well it’s all the ancient Egyptian makeup, hair and jewelry you could ever want with amazing ancient Egypt meets the 50’s/60’s fashion, behold:

Alas putting the ultimate Liz Taylor as Cleopatra costume of my dreams just wasn’t in my budget, so next year I’ll totally be Cleopatra. In the meantime I’ve been inspired to work some of Cleo’s style into my everyday rotation. So, I’ve been obsessing over gold jewelry, especially collar necklaces, and 50’s/60’s style knit and Grecian dresses. So far these are my favorites:

Cleopatra Comin’ atcha by cleopatrajonez featuring a metal necklace

And since I can’t get this song out of my head whenever I think of the name Cleopatra here’s a little late 90’s throwback.

chairs, estate sale haul, estate sales, furniture, garage sales, haul, jewelry, Thrift Finds, thrift haul

A sale-ing we shall go

2011-07-11 No Comments

I don’t know about you but in my neck of the woods summer means a lot of things but mostly it’s prime sale season, garage and estate sales that is. While technically estate sales go on all year their prime time, at least in northern states, is definitely during the summer. My mom has always been a sale junkie but this addiction has reached new heights since she found estatesales.net, a website that e-mails you all the estate sales listed within 100 miles of your zip code. It’s a great tool that not only lets you know where the closest estate sales are but also provides pictures and descriptions of everything for sale. I find the pictures the most helpful as you can automatically eliminate sales. This allows you to save time and gas money only visiting the sales with stuff you actually like.

Estate and garage sales are a great way of finding lots of cheap goods, but when it comes to clothes they can be a crap shoot. Sales are a fairly easy goldmine for housewares with tons of dishes, kinck-knacks, furniture, bedding etc. But when it comes to clothes things are a bit more tricky. Since your generally looking through the stuff of one family, couple, or one person sizes and styles can be fairly limited. I look through the clothes anyway since, generally, there aren’t many for sale and you can sometimes find great vintage clothes at prices lower than vintage and even thrift stores. Jewelry and other accessories, though, are plentiful.

If you’re searching for deals garage sales are probably your best bet. Estate sales are great but a lot of them are put on by companies that research and know the worth of the items, unlike Joe blow who just wants to get rid of some stuff. This isn’t to say you can’t get a good deal at an estate sale, just that you may be able to get better deals at garage sales.

Since I don’t have my own place, at sales I usually focus on clothing and accessories first then browse the housewares for good finds. This year I haven’t found a ton of stuff, partly because of low funds and partly because I’m not really in the market for lots of housewares. Anyway I did find some cool stuff so I figured I’d share my sale booty thus far. First up is this vintage 60’s (I think) chair. We got this chair at a garage sale we stumbled upon while driving back from a rather disappointing estate sale. It was only 5 bucks and it’s in pretty good condition. I haven’t decided what I want to do with the chair. I could clean it up and keep it as is or paint it, I’m still undecided. For now it’s become colonized by the kitties who have taken it up as one of their favorite new napping spots and coated the seat with a good spread of cat hair. Eventually it will go in my room but I just can’t bare to move this new cat obsession quite yet, so it stays rather randomly placed in our living room.

Second up is a random haul of cheap 80’s/90’s earrings. Recently I’ve been kind of into slightly over sized gold-ish studs that I think are sort of 80’s/90′. So imagine my luck when upon walking into an estate sale the organizers announce that in order to get rid of as much stuff as possible they’d take 5 dollars for everything you can fit into a paper grocery bag. After grabbing a paper bag I headed immediately to the bedroom and straight to the jewelry where I threw any earrings I found remotely interesting in the bag. The result was a rather impressive haul of cheap earrings that, along with the other stuff my mom later added to the bag, cost me less than 5 bucks.

All the jewelry I got at the sale

My favorites

Since sale-ing is sport I often participate in I figured this segment will morph into a regular feature on the blog showcasing my good sale loot. Also, though I named estatesales.net this is not a sponsored post, that just happens to be the website I use. I’m sure there are other great sites out there so if you use a different one let me know!