Wow, this brought back several college memories!
This was another unused gift from the 80s that I couldn't part with until a couple of months ago. For some reason I keep all gifts used and unused, however I seem to have hundreds of unused gifts!
Here is the story:
This is a very nice cameo, the face is striking. Thank you for your great packaging and prompt response. Thanks also for your note and compliment. I wear it as a brooch and I look forward to shopping more with you.
I am so happy to hear it's being used as a brooch. Interesting, I've never noticed how striking her face is until this moment. She does appear to be very peaceful. She may be even dreaming or napping! Maybe it's because I need one at it's only 11 am.
I used to think cameo models were chosen over their hair styles, but after further reading about cameo history, they are chosen for their nose!
Other interesting facts I noted in the description from wiki:
1. Left facing cameos are more unusual, since most cameos are right facing.
2. Cameos were very popular in the Victorian era (which lasted from 1837 until 1901), through the early 1950s with many pieces being classified as mourning jewelry.
Speaking of Victorian times, during my college days, I used to collect clothes from that era and wear them with my other clothes collection from the roaring 20s! I love flapper dresses, so comfy and unique! Anyways, I used to wear a Victorian blouse over simple plain flapper dresses with this collar pin:
photo via Hoarder Rehab, Coming Home brooch available here.
Unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know which one at the moment, I don't have either collection of clothes. However, I can say "unfortunately" that I did not keep the trunk that stored my Victorian and Roaring 20's clothes collection because it was a large Louis Vuitton travel trunk. The kind I imagined was taken on ship voyages with hangers and drawers and stood upright!
I found a photo of one and it's called a "Steamer Trunk"
photo via ebay, Louis Vuitton steamer trunk here
Mine wasn't as nice as the one pictured, many of the drawers pulls were broken and the outside was really beat up, but the inside was clean to hold my antique clothes collection or maybe in the 80s it was considered vintage, not antique.
It's drawers were not wood, but some type of sturdy fabric and it only had two hangers left in it. I used it as a coffee table for many years, but I like to use my coffee tables to write on and this one was not suitable for that because it has leather stripping on it.
Anyways, I bought it for a song, if I had to guess $10 or less because that was my college thrifting budget back then. And even worse, I have no idea what happened to it!
photo via ebay, Louis Vuitton steamer trunk here
Back to the story on hand, so I had the cameo brooch to match my Victorian and 20s clothes, but never used it for some reason.
One of my dear friends from my college days, M lived in Los Angeles and would pick me up in Long Beach and take me back to his house and I'd wait in the kitchen nook while he got ready and then we'd go to all our favorite dive bars. While I waited his Mom would fix me a little something to eat and drink and tell me stories. Some of which I wrote down some where in my hoard.
One of the days she came out so happy because she had just returned from a trip to Central America. She showed me her complete vacation stash! It was beautiful, mostly 14k gold and garnets, which back then I was very much into garnets and amethysts. Also, if you've been to any of my Etsy shops, you've seen a lot of Mexican Folk Art since the beginning, especially Taxco jewelry. I've even been to Taxco in the 80s! but that's another story....
I was oohing and ahhhing and doing everything I could from drooling on her souvenir jewelry! She even let me choose M's girl friends souvenir gift! She had three pieces: a heavy filigree gold chain anklet and a gold garnet tennis bracelet and something else I can't remember.
Since his girl friend roller skated a lot and wore boots, I chose the simple garnet tennis bracelet for her. As M and I were leaving to go bar hopping, she ran out of the house to give me this cameo. I was delighted!
This cameo brought back the memory of one of my favorite yet defunct bars in Los Angeles, The Firefly! Talk abut vintage! M and I and his friends would go dive bar hopping all over LA, but they knew my favorite was the Firefly and they knew I wouldn't want to miss their FIRE show! This was a unique dive bar!
It still had it's old neon "Firefly" sign with little neon fireflies flying around it and it had twin brothers running the bar! Twin brothers who sometimes wore light blue big lapel 70s tuxedos with dark blue velvet cumber bunds and bow ties! And it had the craziest diverse juke box I'd ever heard from Led Zeppilin to crooners to songs from World War 2 and more obscure artists that only had one hit song in their lifetime.
It was my favorite to get their a little early before last call, hit the jukebox, order their daily special of an 8 oz bottled Bud light with a shot for 3 bucks and wait until the twins put the bar on fire! Yes, they would literally put the bar on fire and it was over as soon as it started and was easy to miss. And I mean light up the bar with huge flames that could singe some eyebrows! It was a trough kind of bar and had matching smoke streaks on the ceiling as evidence of all the lit rivers of fire!
Also one time we lost one of his friends at the Firefly. He came bar hopping with us and suddenly he was just gone! We looked all over for him inside and around the block and finally decided to wait for him to return, but after the Firefly Fire show, which usually happened during last call, he still hadn't shown up.
I remember feeling a little panicky about him missing for so long and being in the parking lot wondering what we were going to do while M was yelling out his name over and over.
I don't know who found him, but good thing someone did before we left because he was sound asleep under M's car!
photo via Hoarder Rehab
I think now that 539 hoarded items have found new lives and better homes, it's clearing my mind a bit and some memories are returning to me without the trigger of someone else telling theirs, however, I still have a difficult time letting the piece go and in some cases deactivated them from their current listings at all the shops.
I think it might be due to holiday stress. I've never done well during the holidays and I used to think it was due to my teaching schedule. I was on the year round track schedule that started it's holiday vacation on the 23rd, depending on which week day it fell every year. And I'd be doing my family holiday shopping on the 23rd, until I started to get it done by October and now give an annual gift they just love and look forward to every year.
However, it still hasn't made the holidays less stressful for me and I'm not even teaching anymore. Another mystery to figure out. It might run in the family since several relatives take long vacations during this time and others skip it due to the holiday blues.
What I Learned:
1. I suppose I'm getting closer to the reasons why I save many unused gifts, even the gifts from my students. Personally, I don't mind if someone returns, exchanges or recycles a gift I've given, so I'm not sure what that means.
2. I've noticed that during the holidays I have a more difficult time letting go of my stuff and will go out and try and replace it with something else to feel better about it. I'm not sure what's up with that yet.
Although stuff is leaving at a much faster pace than last year, although I still had three of the shops, so I don't really know what's going on and feel as though I'm not going to recover until after Valentine's.
Yesterday I lost count at 12 packages to get ready to ship, so I deactivated some items to slow down orders and give myself more time to sit with my issues and process them. It's also why I haven't been around the past couple of days.
3. I am still sleeping and catching up on decades of lost sleep, but I've also lost a lot of weight without notice, so it appears I need a more balanced schedule again. Also I need to reevaluate my retail therapy during stressful times and desperately need some easy less expensive alternatives, however the hustle and bustle of the holidays seem to cloud my mind to the point I just want to get the tasks on hand completed before they pile up again.
Anyways, I have plenty to be thankful for and my health is much better than it was last year and believe it or not, so is my thinking process. I am much closer to a dehoarded home too!
How do you deal with unused gifts? What about really nice unused gifts, like this large sterling hair jaw clip? I haven't been able to give this one up for decades! I am trying, but the attachement seems to be one messy tied up complicated tangled up knot!
The kind that if I start cutting it up to untangle it, it just may never be the same again! or maybe that's just a fear I need to waive and get past to move on while make something new of it. Any other thoughts?
Thank you Etsy buyer for leaving a few words that went such a long way for me! I wonder how much longer I'll need the trigger of someone's story to start mine!
Thank you Etsy for giving me the best Hoarder Rehab outlet ever! I think orders are going out as fast as I can package them, so thank you!
Thank you US, Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Poland and any others I may have missed the past several days from not having the time to check. I appreciate all the visits and support towards my Hoarder Rehab and The Destiny of Things!
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab, The Destiny of Things and VintageToGoEtsy and now JunkDrawerLoveEtsy! There are about 107 items listed on JunkDrawerLoveEtsy and will resume new listings in a few days and will continue to relist 1-2 items at the other shops! Thanks for looking! Maybe you'll find something to take home and share your story too!
Related Stories: Items I've had from my college days....
1. Not My Favorite Red Cashmere Coat!
2. Not My Favorite College Mugs!
3. My Louis Vuitton Eyeglass Case
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