(N + O) New + Old.

ha! i missed yesterday, but today i’m back with a double-post, a humdinger of a post, a whapdoodle of a post…

i’m pretty sure that last one was made up.  has anyone heard anything being described as a whapdoodle?

and see, now i’m worried that i’ve hyped it up too much and you’ll just be disappointed.  it’s like what happened to me with the matrix.  back when the movie the matrix came out, it’s all i heard about for weeks.  from everyone.  it’s like occupy wall street.  or twilight.  or, if you’re local, the new logo and tagline for our fair city, which makes it look like we all play for a rest-home-sponsored little league team circa 1993.

and the more i heard about it, the less i wanted to see it. (i wasn’t much of a joiner at the time.  it was/is one of my unfortunate, skinny-jeans-wearing, eye-rolling, hipster traits.  i hate myself.)  i ended up seeing it years later, after all the hype went away, and my mind remained un-blown by the viewing.

so, forget everything i said about this post.  it’s your average, friday post.  nothing special.  nope.

except it’s a little special. you’ll see why.

several months ago, the boy and i went to the denver modernism show.  he had some artwork up there, so we drove on up to visit it and see the rest of the show.  i kind of expected it to be just a normal art show, albeit held in an enormous event center typically reserved for cattle and farm-related exhibitions.  lots of paintings, artists, wine, and we’d be out in about 45 minutes.

whoa.  i was wrong.

this place was packed to the brim with everything modern you could think of: furniture, art, tchotchkes, books, gadgets, and a live pageant of some kind.  (to be honest, the pageant was a little weird).  i should point out that when i say modern, i mean modern in the design sense, not in the time/futuristic sense, so picture more 50’s furniture and less modern dance from dieter.

we spent hours poring over vintage books, pretending to eat dinner at the authentic 50’s kitchen sets, and drooling over the furniture we will own SOMEDAY, right? these people love their old stuff (and i do too).

oh, and the boy’s painting also won an award.

we did find a few things that we loved and that handily fit the capabilities of our wallet, including these lovelies:

and, in action (with some inadvertent side-eye):

gorgeous, no?

and the best part is that the silvery-grey color goes with almost anything, but makes it that much more fun because it’s SHINY.  at first i imagined they would be reserved for dressy outfits, but i’m finding that i like to wear them as a neutral earring for whatever it is that i dig out of the closet to wear.  to prove my point, here’s what i’m wearing my earrings with today:

and that’s why this post is special, see, because of this little picture right here. if it isn’t (painfully) obvious, a fashion blogger I AM NOT.  (gasp! what, you say?  no, never!)  this is why i will never be a fashion blogger, or someone who often posts envy-worthy outfit pictures, or anything close to it — because, i look like an idiot.  from the ridiculous surprised look on my face, as if to say “what ho!  who goes there!  i see land ahead!” to the odd standing-on-one-foot pose (seriously, i don’t remember doing that…maybe people look skinnier with one leg?), my career as a fashion-anything (other than enthusiast) is D.O.A.

but no matter, because the point of this is to show you that sparkly awesome antique earrings have a place in your every day (affordable) wardrobe.  the shirt and jeans are old navy, the sweater is h&m, and the earrings are from a basket in an event center, or what the fashionable people call “vintage”, which just means old.

they are actually vintage, however.  i’m pretty sure that fastening mechanisms have come a long way since the screw-post on these babies.  at first, if we’re being honest, it’s a little pinchy.  but that lasts for about 2 minutes why you admire yourself (on one leg, of course) in the mirror, and by the time you’re done, it’s gone.

they’re my favorite new/old things ever right now, so much so that it made me write a song about them, sung to the tune of the old girl scout favorite campfire hymn, “make new friends” (they hit the chorus at the 10-second mark):

buy new earrings
especially if they’re old.
go for silver
unless you’re into gold.