Taking a break!

I have just added an announcement to the website to say we are taking a summer break 8th ~ 24th June!
It feels long overdue as we haven't stopped since last September.  I'm planning to have a complete switch off from all online activity so that I can really recharge my batteries and also catch up on some tedious admin....I'm scarily behind on all my accounting so I hope to get totally up to date!
I'm looking forward to breaking up the bookwork with some days out, afternoon tea, national trust gardens....that sort of thing..... sitting out enjoying our garden and maybe have a couple of days away on the coast...who knows?  The world will be my oyster :-)
Enjoy the summer everyone!

Carol x

P.S The website will remain open so you can still place an order which will be shipped on 25th JUNE.  All email enquiries will be replied to from the same date.

Rose pictured The Pilgrim by David Austin Roses.  Announcement bar app hektorcommerce.com

Dig for victory

 

We all love a bit of nostalgia and for me the Era that resonates the most is the 1940s.

Don’t get me wrong! I adore the 1920s and 1930s for the cool Art Deco designs of jewellery, clothes, architecture etc, but the decade that warms my heart is the shabby, homely, handcrafted, fighting spirit of WW2 1939-1945.

I think it is because it was still present in the homes of my grandparents when I was growing up.
The ‘waste not, want not’ thriftiness evident in the kitchen drawer where neatly tied pieces of string and carefully folded paper bags nestled with ancient pairs of scissors, short stubs of pencils and other bits and bobs that always come in handy.

Big flowery aprons, handknits, home bakes and beds of rhubarb in the garden were all carried forward from the 1940s into the ration years of the 1950s and were still going strong in the 1960s when I was a child.

At the weekend we visited Newark Air museum and there we stumbled upon this wonderful Dig for Victory garden complete with a fully furnished Anderson shelter.  The delight was in the fine detail from the little handcrafted aeroplane toys, the abandoned pipe and headline on the newspaper, to the picture of Winnie inside the shelter.  

Whoever curated this evocative little patch of Britain, either lived through those terrifying years or loves the cosy, hearth and home, careworn warmth of all the treasured items and values that survived it, as much as I do.

Who doesn’t love millegrain!

Coming to the Vintage Jewel Box website over the weekend is this beautiful diamond cluster ring. I’m a sucker for cluster rings but even more so when they have millegrain settings like this beauty.

It is packed with 1.00 carat of sparking white diamonds and spreads 1.3cms across the setting so it certainly grabs your attention!

Why not add it to your wishlist 😉 

Make your own wishlist

On the website you can now create your own fantasy Vintage Jewel Box collection with our new wishlist feature!

Each product page has an 'add to wishlist' button so you can add up to 100 items to your virtual jewel box 😄

When you add an item you get a pop up window and you can access your list from the main menu tab 'My Wishlist'  You can share the link via email...... so useful if you want to prompt a certain someone into action!
Later, I hope to add the option for you to add items direct from the collection pages as well.

Its lovely to be able to make a collection on a website that you can come back to time and time again and it is something we all love doing...... I know my Pinterest boards are teeming with beautiful things!

Carol x

Image from Bonhams.  Wishlist from swym.it

Reviving the old blog!

It’s been almost three years since I posted on the blog!

Poor neglected old thing...... where does all the time go? 

Anyway, this week I have revamped the look so it fits in with the design of the website which has had a mini makeover this year.  I have also linked it on the website so it is easy to track back and forth.

I think as it became so easy to share via your phone to FB, IG Twitter etc etc blogging started to seem a little wearisome and slightly old fashioned.... However, sometimes you want to say more or share something you wouldn’t necessarily post up with just a bare sentence, so I’m going to give it another go! 

Carol x