If you know me, you know that this is my 19th year with the same best friend. Her name is Paige, and we have become family after all these years. People used to mistake us for sisters all the time, so finally we just embraced it!
(Me with Paige on her wedding day!)
A little background information: Though we have been best friends for 19 years, our families have known each other for much longer! Our aunts were best friends in college, and our grandparents were in the same Sunday school class for years! I believe this brings us to my main purpose of this blog! I can't wait to share with you one of my very first fashion inspirations, Paige's Mamaw, Sue Thornton!
Sue, a few years before we met! ;)
(Mrs. Sue wearing the lion pearls pictured below!)One of my earliest memories of Mrs. Sue, if not my very first, was seeing her in the church parking lot. I had to be between 6 and 7 years old. I looked at (I believe my Granny), and said, "I want to be just like the ring lady when I grow up!" See, I was certain of something when I was very young: I loved rings!!!! When I saw Mrs. Sue in all her well-accessorized glory, I knew I had no option but to be flashy when I grew up!
Besides being gorgeous and dressing to the nines, Mrs. Sue (or Mamaw #2 as I would come to call her), was such a strong lady! I am still learning things abouther that amaze me! She was such a loving wife, sister, daughter, and mother. She was certainly the best Mamaw that Paige could ever have!
(Me with my Mamaw #2! So glad my bangs are gone now!)
All of that to say, Paige recently pulled out some of her Mamaw's jewelry collection just so I could blog about it! I think you'll see why I was so easily inspired!
(Wearing a heart necklace she liked a lot!)Her collection ranged from costume pieces to fine jewelry. I'll show you a few of her favorites...and a few of mine!
As we were going through jewelry, it was so neat to be able to hear Paige and her mom look at the pieces and recall what Mrs. Sue wore them with! She wore this leopard pin with a certain top or a certain scarf!
This set of lion door-knocker style earrings and lion pearls may be my new favorite! So dramatic and strong, but so feminine!
I researched this necklace and earring set and found out that Kennth Jay Lane did a collection for Avon so that everyday women could afford his jewels!
Lastly, we have the jewels from the Smithsonian Institution collection! I was wowed the first time I saw these pieces! They are flashy, sparkly (swoon!), and clearly something every girl should own! Right? Wrong. I found out that she may not have ever worn them! Hahah. I guess there is a fine line between flashy and gaudy, and she didn't want to get too close to the latter! Maybe there was just never the right occassion!There you have it! A little insight into why I'm so into piling the jewelry on! I saw someone with a ton of class try her hand at it and succeed! When you have the right role model and the right motivation, there's nothing you can't do!
