What I Wore Sunday: Resurrection Sunday Alone

by Shannon

"Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives: 

I know that my Redeemer lives!"

~"I Know That My Redeemer Lives"

I didn't intend on posting an Easter review until later in the week, but I have bad news — Cruncher is sick. He's had it coming out of both ends for three days (sorry for the TMI). He's pretty miserable, and we're having a tough time getting him to take in liquids. Stubborn little fella — I wonder whyyyy? This is the third-THIRD-third Resurrection Sunday he has been too sick for Mass. He usually only gets a stomach bug once a year, so hitting the same holiday three times is quite the feat.

Since Ryan is napping (tired from a three-hour vigil Mass, having a brave overnight guest to entertain, and getting up in the night to help a sick boy), and Cruncher is chilling in bed, I have time I didn't know I had today. No cooking a big meal. No traveling around town to visit friends. No having dessert guests over this evening. Too bad I have a big, beautiful cake and no one to share it with.... Aaaaand I'm a Debbie Downer on the most sacred day of the year. Sigh ... sorry.

Ho hum. Here's what I wore this morning to Mass, all alone, while worrying about my sweet little boy.

What I wore: walking into church; during Mass; after I got home; closeup on the veil; closeup on the shoes; and for the rest of the day.

Mass outfit deets:
Eternity veil: Liturgical Time (I feel a little odd posting pictures of me in a veil, but I thought I'd share since it was my Easter gift. The shop was amazing to deal with, her blog is just lovely, and I imagine they've gotten very popular since Jennifer Fulwiler's post a few weeks ago. I was excited to read Jen's post because I had been admiring a lady at church's eternity veil, and could never seem to catch her after Mass to ask where she found it. And I ordered mine before the price increase — woohoo! I had no idea I was getting luxury bridal lace. What can I say? I have good taste.)
Love knot earrings: Victoria Townsend, Macy's
Houndstooth spring coat: Beaubois, Goodwill
Faux wrap dress: Evan Picone, consignment shop in town
Tortoiseshell watch: Fossil
Everyone's favorite oxford shoes: Gianni Bini, Dillards

Mom uniform deets: 
Miraculous Medal: Tonini's (Wanted to wear it to Mass, but was in such a hurry between breakfast, getting ready, and Cruncher being clingy.)
Elegant sack top: Dalia Collection, TJ Maxx
Skinnies: Old Navy
First sandals of spring!!: Not sure. The brand has long worn off. Maybe Report?

Can you tell I'm an anxious mess in those photos? I'm pretty good at faking normalcy. I'll bet my mama can tell.

And now for a slew of pictures for my mama.

This year, I naturally dyed our eggs. My friend Gwenny taught me about red eggs last year, and I used food coloring then. I'm leery of toxins in food coloring, though, so I tried naturally dying from Spanish onion skins this year. I was able to snag a bag of onion skins from Meijer for free, since they just toss them. It was really easy to dye the eggs (lots of time, but not much effort), and I think they look better than last year's. The wreath around the eggs was part of our Lenten decorations, as a crown of thorns, reused for Eastertide as a nest. Sorry no other pictures of our big breakfast. I was too distracted. We had potato latkes with goat cheese, pepper bacon and mustard; baked oatmeal with maple syrup; fruit salad; and local coffee. Luke had Jello, Gatorade and toast.

1. Preach it, sister. This year, I went with Easter lilies, for obvious reasons, and
red tulips, because they reminded me of His Precious Blood. The little nests
were on clearance at Target last year, and I made the runner from some sale
upholstery fabric at Hobby Lobby, running me $6.

For the last three Easters, I have bought a new piece of art for our home. This year, I bought a vintage linen tea towel of the Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban. Unfortunately, the building is not home to Catholic worship, as it's now under the Church of England, but St. Alban is buried beneath. Between the linen, the fabric backing and the frame, I put it together for about $25. Oh, and I got lucky this year and found the Lindt lambs before they sold out. Too. Cute.

The rest of the goodies: books, books and more books; lion and lamb; spring puzzles and a Stow & Go — genius!; and a St. Luke figurine. We gave our overnight guest Robert The Seven Story Mountain and a book of short readings by Matthew Kelly. I was really excited to find a book on St. Francis of Assisi by Chesterton for Ryan, as well as Not Your Average Joe.

The loot in the hidden eggs: St. Francis coin; Sacred Heart of Jesus coin;
rosewood finger rosary; and St. Michael figurine. 

Peek-a-boo egg, hidden-in-plain-sight egg, bookworm egg and sleepyhead egg.

What Cruncher would have worn today. He's pretty opinionated about his clothes, so the last Easter he got sick, we all joked it was because he hated his outfit (because he really did hate it). This year, that's not the case. Oh, well. He'll wear it next week. 

What he wore instead. Or at least one of four outfits so far today, since he keeps getting them ... erm ... messy. Here he is looking for his eggs.

And here he is in outfit two, dueling with Robert. One minute, Cruncher is bouncing off the walls, and the next minute, he's groaning in pain. Such the boy. 

I feel HORRIBLE that I didn't think to get a picture of my handsome husband before he left the house last night. Like I said, he's sleeping, or I'd totally make him put on his outfit for a quick staged photo. I'm that kind of wife.

Linkin' up with Fine Linen and Purple tomorrow and Grace at Camp Patton today. Now I'll continue sitting in Chruncher's beanbag and asking him, "How do you feel?" every five minutes.

Seven Quick Takes

by Shannon

"I have not been called to be successful, but to be faithful."

~Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

This is our blog's first dive into "Seven Quick Takes" with Jen Fulwiler at Conversion Diary. Knowing me, they won't be quick.

~1~

First off, this:

source: Catholic Memes

We will dearly miss him so, but he will continue to be an inspiration, which is such a blessing.

~2~

So, this happened tonight:

Yes, there was beer involved, but not nearly enough beer to justify it.

Speaking of beer, this is my companion tonight as I blog.

Ryan picked it out for me, this being his inspiration. Cruncher pretty much knows all the words to "The Saga Begins," because every 5-year-old Catholic boy should. 

~3~

This week is a break from school, so the before-and-after-school program asked us for $30 extra if we wanted Cruncher to attend a few field trips. I was thinking zoo (if we had a warm snap), art museum, science center. You know — the educational stuff.

Instead, he has gone to an animal shelter (not bad) and Build-A-Bear (pictured), and tomorrow is GattiLand. I repeat — GattiLand. For serious? It's the ghetto Chuck E. Cheese, and they call that a field trip? [Insert snarky comment about the public school system here.]

At least Cruncher likes his new bear, Nolen. (Yes, with an E.)

~4~

Got my boots! The brown ones are going back. But I'm getting the same pair. You see, I'm the type who examines things before I buy them, picking the item that looks least touched, and I refuse to buy something if there's anything that needs fixing. I always pull my groceries from the back of the shelf. So there are a couple things about the brown boots that aren't Just. Quite. Right. So, I'm going to give it another whirl. Kind of a gamble, but here's hoping. 

The black ones are great, though. 

Deets:

Cape: Vintage, consignment shop in town

Skirt, H&M, consignment shop in town

Tights: Target

Boots: Report, Zappos

Since it's the end of the season, I also bought a new coat. It's actually more of a fall-jacket weight, but I prefer my coats light for layering. 

I'm pleased as punch with it, and I've been able to test it out in the cold this week, since we had flurries twice! I was perfectly warm.

Deets:
Coat: Daughters of the Liberation, consignment shop in town

It was $30, and I gather the brand is sold by Anthropologie, so I'm pretty sure I got an amazing deal, especially since it looks as if it's never been worn.

~5~

I'm ahead of schedule on Easter prep because I'm actually using my planner this year. I'm usually scrambling through Holy Week, so I'm feeling pretty confident. We do a family basket instead of individuals, and I always fill it with books, so I went ahead to our favorite local book store yesterday to pick up everything. I can't enter that store without spending at least $20, and I found a couple additional non-religious books to give to Cruncher yesterday:

Cruncher's teacher has encouraged non-fiction stories since November, so the Ben Franklin book for $1 was a good find. Also, Ryan's had his eye on the Merriam-Webster Pictorial Dictionary for Cruncher, but thinks he might yet be too young for it. When I found this Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics book for $1.50, I knew Ryan would get a kick out of it. He actually said, "Oh, yay!" when I showed it to him. There's a key in the back to answer the picture riddles, so it'll be fun to see if we can guess the right words for the rhythms and rhymes. Also, Cruncher should be able to read most of the printed words on his own.

Next items on my Easter Preparation List: Cruncher's outfit (he wants a mis-matched suit), DIY plans for a door wreath and some sort of sacred artwork. I'm hoping for a new Stations of the Cross picture or a vintage icon of the Last Supper. I'd also like to get our front door painted before spring and start working on the garden around St. Patrick's Day.

~6~

It's Friday afternoon, and you realize you didn't plan head for your meatless meal. No worries — if you have a carton of eggs, you can make a frittata! A frittata is a fantastic way to clean out your fridge, getting rid of anything and everything that's about to go bad, or known as "borderline" in our house (commence singing Madonna here). Ryan and I love to serve frittata with tasty things, though, as we did this past Sunday. Here's the step-by-step, but you actually can use just about any combination of cheese, veggies and meat (or no meat) that you please.

Ingredients: Italian mix of shredded cheese, spinach (1 bag frozen or fresh), 9 eggs, 4 or 5 green onions, 4 oz. of goat cheese, 1/2 a cup of sun-dried tomatoes and 4 oz. of mushrooms

Heat an oven-safe skillet with a couple tablespoons of olive oil on a medium heat, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the mushrooms, and slice them (unless you're lazy — ahem! — resourceful like me and bought the pre-sliced ones). Chop the white and light green part of 4 or 5 green onions and about half a cup of sun-dried tomatoes. 

Throw the veggie mixture in the skillet, and sauté until the mushrooms are a little soft. At this point, I added some pre-cooked breakfast sausage, but it's optional. Sauté until everything was warmed through. While this is going on, chop up the rest of your green onion, then throw the spinach and green onion in the skillet. The spinach is fluffy, so I threw a random lid on top to help steam the spinach. 

While the spinach is shrinking down, crack nine eggs in a mixing bowl, and pour in 2 or 3 tablespoons of half and half, milk or cream. Then throw in about 4 oz. of shredded cheese (I prefer white cheeses when including goat cheese), and whisk it up until mixed. 

The spinach should be shriveled up, so pour the egg mixture on top. Use a spatula to pull up the fried mixture so the eggs can seep underneath. No need to mix and swirl it. Crumble the goat cheese all along the top, like your dressing a pizza, and sprinkle some pepper up top. As it cooks, run your spatula along the edges of the skillet to keep it from sticking. When the entire thing is about halfway set (to where it's no longer liquidy, but the mixture still jiggles like jello when you shake the skillet), throw it in the oven for 13-15 minutes. 

Ta da! You'll know it's finished when it's a little brown around the edges and no longer jiggly.

Since our frittata was dinner for guests (though it would make a fantastic breakfast), we served some local truffles and caramels, toasted French bread, blueberries and cheeses. 

And a few pictures of our Sunday guests, Isaac and Tenille with their sweet children:

Our most recently baptized Godson, Little Bear.

I think Isaac was more than a little pleased to see Boo-Boo so enthralled with Cruncher's Star Wars toys.

A couple years back, we first met Isaac and Tenille was with Boo-Boo at our favorite bookstore. As all six of us hung out in the Catholic section, Isaac turned to us and said, "Do you go to St. Martin"? Why, yes we do.

Visit again soon!

~7~

I was talking about veiling with Ryan today, and it's just ridiculous that I care so much about what people think. I'm judging people for judging me, when I should be giving people the benefit of the doubt. After all, "You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could only know how seldom they do" (source). I need to remove the pressure to be successful in everything I do and not claim the power to control things. Trust God, and be the best version of me I can be.

"Blessed is the servant that does not think himself any better when people make much of him and exalt him than when they consider him worthless, ordinary and contemptible. For what a person is before God, so much he is, and no more."

~St. Francis of Assisi

What I Wore Sunday: Transition Outfit

by Shannon

Shameful plug: We've undergone another redesign here at The Sword and the Stein! I hope this one sticks. Feel free to peruse. The About tab is pretty much written, though I'd like to add more old and embarrassing photos. You can get to know us there, so pleased to meet you! I've started on a lot of the other tabs but have lots more work to do. We're also going to try to post more regularly, maybe even with a schedule of sorts (shock and awe!), and Ryan's going to have a sword post every week or so (or heads will roll). I've also started to put together a Facebook page, so I'd love your likes. Feedback is welcome. 

"Your presence, O Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me."

– Psalm 27

Cruncher's project from today's CCD class, a "stained glass" Christian fish.

We had guests again this evening, and I needed to run errands for fabulous frittata ingredients before their arrival, so I wore a transition outfit to Mass. That means I was able to easily change my skirt and dress shoes for jeans and boots so I could get back out the door swiftly.

Deets for Mass:
Periwinkle headband: Goody's, Meijer
Cameo earrings: vintage, gift
Fair isle sweater: LL Bean, gift
Miraculous Medal: local Catholic store, gift
Metallic belt: Target
Plum wool skirt: H&M, consignment store
Boring brown tights: Target
Metallic mom flats: Naturalizer, TJ Maxx

Changes/additions for errands:
Amethyst necklace: gift
Skinnies: Old Navy 
Black boots: Target

No closeup on the cheapo $7 boots, because they'll be donated by this time next week. I've ordered two pair of end-of-season boots for next winter, but I'll probably wear them well into spring. I imagine I'll keep my Born boots, for when I want a grungy, slouchy boot, but I'm really looking forward to having boots that can be dressed up.

You will be seeing one of these two on my feet within the week.

Here's our cute little dinner guests. Check back in a few days for more adorableness and details on the fabulous frittata. 

Boo-boo, Bubba and Little Bear.

Last week, I asked readers to give me feedback on veiling if they do so. Conveniently, two other linking-up ladies wrote about veiling in their WIWS posts, so I had a wealth of new information. I loved Kelly's how-to post (which isn't so easy to research online). And Laura's heartfelt post touched on a lot of my own thoughts.

When I talk to friends who have considered veiling, they often say they're afraid people will think they're one of "those people." That issue doesn't hit home with me. I'm happy to be a good example in life, and even during Mass, when I'm being called to it. Because the Vatican no longer has an official statement about the who, when, where, why and how of veiling (correct me if I'm wrong), discerning to veil is truly a decision of the heart. Veiling is extremely personal, and it's up to each and every Catholic woman to decide if it's right for her and why.

My fear is instead this: My veil will look like just another accessory. I tend to dress head-to-toe, most of my skirts don't reach my ankles, I'm full-time employed, and I only have one child, thus I don't appear like a typical veiler from my parish. I don't want people get all judge-y on me, thinking I don't fully understand the veil and am only wearing one because it's, like, soooooo pretty.

This is also why Kelly and Laura's posts were beyond encouraging. I really needed to see examples of women who are both respectful of the Eucharist, emulating Our Lady, while simultaneously caring about their outward appearances. It seems that up to Vatican II, ladies would seriously wear their Sunday's best to Mass, pulling themselves together at least one day a week, and topping it off with a veil. Where did that attitude go?

There are so. Many. Distractions. The crazier this world gets, the more I want to just pull back and focus on Him. I pray that veiling provides me with a sense of reverence and focus on the Eucharist that I feel I am lacking as of late. I simultaneously long to be an example of true devotion and femininity to others, especially my son and husband, while also creating a sort of spiritual cocoon in which to pray and really meditate on the Mass.

I hope to give veiling a try at a Saturday morning Mass during Lent to see if it really is for me, and I'd love any further feedback on the topic. Now, go on ye to Fine Linen and Purple. Blessings!

Be ... Our ... Guest!

by Shannon


Ryan and I love to have guests. Brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert, nightcap, overnight, daytrip. We don't care, as long as there are more people in the house than just the three of us. With Ryan's love of craft beer, our mutual appreciation of locally-roasted coffee and our amateur-foodie attitude, we entertain with food at least three or four times each month. Today, we had Drina and the kids over for lunch. Her husband John is busy with tax season, so we were happy to get the kids out of the house (and to give Drina an opportunity for some adult conversation). 

By 7:30 this morning, Ryan, Cruncher and I had rolled out of bed and were readying the house for our guests. Per usual, Ryan was responsible for cleaning, with Cruncher's assistance, and I took care of the food. On weekdays, Ryan does most of the tried-and-true dinner cooking, since he gets home from work first. But on the weekends, I like to take over and try new recipes. For lunch, I was featuring loaded baked potato soup and gourmet grilled cheese. 

If you want to follow the real recipe for the soup, I started here. But I didn't really follow the directions.  At all. I more or less used the ingredient list as ... suggestions, if you will. Besides, I haven't screwed up soup in a long time. 

This would make a great meatless meal if you omit the bacon. Of course, bacon makes everything immensely better, but it would still be a great soup without it. For these recipe pictures, the descriptions go clockwise from top left.

I started the stockpot with five teaspoons of Better Than Bullion and five cups of water boiling at a medium-high temperature. Off to peeling potatoes, about 3.5 pounds (or 10 total spuds). I hate peeling veggies. One day, I'll take off a knuckle. I chopped the taters up in different sized pieces, as I wanted the soup to have some chunky pieces and some smaller pieces that basically disintegrated into the broth, to build up the thickness. I ground some pepper on top (I always add dried spices at the beginning), and boiled the potatoes in the broth for about 15 minutes (stirring occasionally), until I could stab them easily with a fork. While that was going on...

I chopped up a single bunch of green onions. Green onions are our family's favorite cooking onion. They add great flavor and color, and they don't make me cry when I'm chopping them. I chopped them up to the light-green part of the stalk and put the dark green chopped pieces aside. The dark green pieces are thinner and cook faster, so I don't don't usually add them until late in the game. In went the white and light green pieces. 

After the potatoes were stab-able, I turned the stovetop temp down to "warm." I took a one-pound bag of frozen broccoli and put it in my food processor with a couple scoops of the soup. (The liquid helps the food processor not hate me.) I pulverized the contents, then adding it to the stockpot. I didn't want the broccoli to scare the kids from eating a bowl, so I wanted the pieces small. 

I then put a couple scoops of the soup, 8 ounces of half and half plus about half a cup of sour cream into a bowl to stir and mix thoroughly. Apparently, it's better to mix the dairy separate from the hot soup, to avoid curdling. Then I poured the mixture back in the soup and stirred. Now it looked like potato soup!

Here's the "loaded" part of the loaded baked potato recipe. Five cooked bacon strips (we always use thick-cut, and Ryan fried them up first thing this morning), four tablets of butter chopped, 8 ounces of shredded cheddar and the rest of the green onion. Stir and eat when all is melted. I did add another 10 ounces or so of water, as this deliciousness had cooked up pretty darn thick by the time we ate lunch.

For the kids, "gourmet grilled cheese" means hearty bread with cream cheese on each slice and shredded cheddar between. For the adults, goat cheese with a shredded mozzarella/parmesan blend on the same bread. Drina supplied the perfectly ripe fruit salad and heavenly butterscotch meringue bars. We. Were. STUFFED.

The kids recovered from full bellies faster than us adults. They fashioned a rocket ship!

Sibling love.  : )  That Ducky — she is such a little mother.

And then they all chillaxed with some coloring. Cruncher took on Transformers, Ducky chose Our Lady, and Mag-Lite tackled Thomas the Tank Engine...

...while we had some adult conversation and enjoyed our favorite coffee microroastery's Tanzanian peaberry (roasted two weeks ago). And Baby Larry tried to tell everyone he needed a nap.

I know. I know. The question on all of your minds is, "But, Shannon, what were you wearing while you slaved over the stove and played hostess?!"

Deets:

Jade stud earrings: heirloom

Porcelain ose necklace: gift from the MIL, formerly Ryan's grandmother's 

Red T-shirt: Old Navy

Wool cardi: United Colors of Benetton, vintage

Skinnies: Old Navy (always stock up on denim in August!)

Loafers: Crown Vintage, DSW

And Cruncher wore his favorite non-schoolday outfit: Darth Vader, brown plaid cargos, snake tattoo and black dress shoes. He's got a look, that's for sure.

And tomorrow, we do it again! Isaac, Tenille and their kids are due over for dinner. May as well have people over again since the house is already clean. I'll let you know how it went in my WIWS post. 

What I Wore Sunday: The One with a Special Guest

by Shannon


Ladies (and any gentleman), this is where I get my style sense:

My mama! 

Mama:
Necklace: Macy's
Black top: Goodwill, Susan Graver 
Sweater: Goodwill, Casper
Skirt: Goodwill, Village from Liz Claiborne
Tights: Walmart? 
Boots: Clarks

(Funny aside: When I called to ask her the details on her outfit for the post, she told me the necklace was silver with chunky circles and the top was black. Thanks for reading the blog each Sunday, Mom.)

I decided to winterize a summer piece again. The skirt is actually linen, and I usually stop wearing it in September. The dark colors make it an obvious choice for wardrobe-stretching, though, so I paired it with a fisherman sweater, my trusty boots and a fun necklace. 

Deets:
Jade stud earrings (not pictured, but shown last week): Grandmother heirloom
Fisherman sweater: Old Navy
Awesome necklace: vintage
Tortoise-shell watch: Fossil
Crazy skirt: hand-me-down, East 5th
Brown tights: Target
Riding boots: Born, Zappos

Another closeup on the necklace because I love it so. 

Hop on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see everyone's Sunday finest. 

What I Wore Sunday: The One Where I Use Self-Timer

by Shannon

If you hang around until the end of the post, you can oogle my accessories collection.

This is why I used self-timer this Sunday.

I think Ryan has tired of taking pictures of me. And, yes, that's the smoke detector on the counter. It goes off when dinner is ready. 

Here are the results from the self-timer session.

It was a difficult decision, but I think this was the best one. Not completely out of focus, and you can see the fun, poofy sleeves.

Deets:
Earrings: Victoria Townsend, Macys
Necklace: heirloom
Jacket: LOFT, consignment shop in trendy neighborhood
Dress: Taylor, TJ Maxx
Belt: Simply Vera, Kohls
Watch: Fossil
Tight: Target
Boots: Sears

I have only been dying to wear this party dress to Mass for more than a year, but it's very ... friendly up top. I've only worn it one other time, to a friend's wedding, for which I borrowed a cardigan last minute. I've been searching for a cropped jacket ever since, and I finally found one this weekend at my favorite consignment shop, running me $12. Yay! I would have liked it to be a bit more cropped, so I don't look so much like a bell from neckline to hemline, but I'm pretty happy with it. In the closeup of my locket, you can see the jacket has a fine dot pattern, which is really fun with the patterned skirt. 

This is my favorite heirloom from my paternal grandmother. She gave it to me when I was 14, and I immediately put a picture of my sister and me in it.

Maybe it's because I've known us, well, our whole lives, but I think it's really funny that we don't look like each other in that old picture, but we look so similarly now. 

Here are the earrings. I'd been on the lookout for two-tone love knots for a while, and these fit the bill. I've had them for a couple years.

No closeup on the boots, as I've done it before. 

Here's our lunch guest's Pinterest hair, which she sported at Mass. She's just got over a bug, so I didn't insist on a picture of her fashion. Check out her scarf, though. Pretty, pretty.

Ever since my post about discovering my personal style, I've wanted to show y'all how I organize my accessories. Accessories are my favorite part of fashion. I started really collecting them three or four years ago. Between gifts, consignment stores and Target clearance, I've amassed so much that I rarely feel drawn to buy anything unless it's super unusual (read: usually vintage). I knew I needed a new (and cheap) way to organize my sparkly things when I could no longer close the jewelry box my father made. 

I decided to use what I had, so I piled up a bunch of pretty things to hold my pretty things.

Left: Peacock plate from friend's Japanese grandmother, teacups from my bridal shower, wooden box regifted to me from my cousin (an ex gave it to her as a wedding gift — heh.), oooold butter container that was one of my mother's first vintage buys (funnily enough purchased to hold jewelry), and a lie — I did not only use what I had around the house. I later bought the egg crate from World Market when I decided I needed more space for stud earrings. Top: Smallish necklaces, now kept in my father's jewelry box. Bottom: I found a couple more St. Francis of Assisi items in our house this weekend — where did all this stuff come from?!

I keep bracelets, brooches and scarf clips with these teacups. 

For my long necklaces, I took an old shelf and screwed in hooks, which came in one of those small divided boxes full of hardware. The heart hanger isn't my style, but it was laying around. Not sure why or from where. I hung the art because it was on the floor in a corner, the music box is from my childhood (plays "My Favorite Things"), and the Cantillon bottle holds silk flowers from our wedding.

Top: The first vintage necklace I ever bought, purchased at the antique mall near our college where Ryan and I discovered our shared love of old things. Can't believe it's been 10 years. Bottom: More pretty stuff. Right: Ryan and Crucher's Christmas gift to me. 

Earrings live here. Danglies are hung on the teacup or put on the plate, and studs are in the egg crate. I put earrings that are broken or missing partners inside the teacup.

Top left: The wooden box holds the extra notions that come with new clothes. Top right: I hang my headbands on the top of the dresser mirror. Bottom: One of my drawers is full of scarves and hankies. 

Eh, while I'm at it, here is the rest of the closet. It's actually a fourth bedroom that we hung Closetmaid hardware in. Our bedroom is closetless. Ryan's stuff is to the right, and his dresser is to my left. My dresser and jewelry are behind me. We also keep linens in here, folded to the left of that hanging sweater divider. What you see here is everything I have for winter, spring, summer and fall, save what's in the laundry and a few coats/jackets in the hall closet.

So, that's how I organize my pretty bobbles and bits. How do you keep your jewelry organized? Do you keep it on display or put it away? Did you need to buy special organizers, or did you get creative? Do you have a spot for extra buttons and thread, or am I just OCD?

Don't forget to go to Fine Linen and Purple for much shorter blog posts.