What in the world is it?

I love it when readers comment, send questions and otherwise interact with the Grunge Queen! Today I have a couple reader-related posts, both to do with silver!

The photos and the text below are courtesy of River-Rose, who has a wonderful "What in the world is it?" question re: a thrift find that I'm throwing out to all you savvy thrifters there!
Here it is:

Dear Grunge Queen,

I found this pretty piece at the local thrift store. It seems old and I just love the Acorn insignia at the top. "From small seeds do big trees grow", came to mind and thought it would make an interesting and lovely birthday present to my mother. My only question is- what in the world is it?

It has a wonderful design and separates in the center. The lower half has 4 oval openings.

The mystery deepens as I cannot find a similar image on the Internet. I have also taken the object to my county's museum and at the time they did not have a similar item, but guessed that is was, perhaps made in the 1920's and resembled an incense burner. There are no burn marks on the interior.

It was also taken to an antique shop and although the owner wasn't in at the time, a young employee guessed it is an ornate toothbrush holder. Finding this piece has been a fun experience! If anyone out there has any guesses, please let me know.

What a beautiful piece, River-Rose! I'm going with incense burner, but like your Mom I would use it as a pretty decoration.

Please post your response here if you want to guess what it is; you can also email River-Rose at snakeriver.rose@gmail.com.

Speaking of silver, my gal pal Sarah over at East End Pioneer dedicated yesterday's post to Grunge Queen, showing off her fab silver Value Village score and thanking yours truly for inspiring her in the thrift decor department!

Right on, Sarah, I love the silver and I love that Value Village too! Please check out Sarah's blog as she celebrates all the wonderful things in the community just east of Greektown - my 'hood too!

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By special request

Thanks to Cath, grunge queen reader, pal and colleague at The Town Crier group of newspapers www.mytowncrier.ca

who graciously took this photo of me at work today sporting my totally-tubular snake-like necklace with Tribal influence and crossed with a semi-Industrial look that I thrifted for $3 yesterday! (see post below).

Fashion and jewellery pieces always look better on, agreed.

Normally I wear necklaces long but today I decided to wind it twice around my throat - much as some lethal constrictor snake would - so it goes with my outfit.

I'm posing in front of my editor-in-chief's new painting in his newly painted office! Thanks Eric!

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The dress that won

I'm flattered so many people responded in such short amount of time, and all I have to thank you with are these crappy photos of me in the dress that eventually won out - sorry, I took pics of everyone but myself so had to crop existing photos.

Thanks to every one who weighed in on the New vs Thrift dress decision! It was an agonizing process marked by flip-flop manic dressing in front of my mirror one hour before the event, but I ended up going with dress number one. At the time of my getting ready the two dresses were technically tied, though two offline votes put the black thrifted dress in the lead and made my decision all the more difficult.

The tie breaker? Simply put, the first dress was elegant chic and I felt more comfortable in it. The ruching and all the strategic folds around the tummy would hide dinner tummy, I figured. The back dress will be better for cocktail parties where people just stand, drink and look beautiful.

After checking my blog comments this morning two more comments were added in favour of this dress, dress number one, so it was the winner afterall!

I wore it with nude fishnets, Spanx (!), a necklace thrifted for a buck and wound twice around my throat, pewter BCBG pumps found for $20 in the clearance aisle, and my silver John Hort retro purse, shown in a previous post below.

Thanks again for helping me out. The black thrifted dress will have its day in the sun soon...

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New dress vs thrift dress

Fashion alert, fashion alert - I need your help!

I was all ready to wear this sassy A.X.L (new) dress, found at ENDS in Toronto for $39 (regular $200), to a journalism awards event tomorrow night.

It's got sweet ruching in the front, slits up the inside of the sleeve, and a plunging neckline that I will fasten closed with a safety pin.

It looked totally sexy with my silver pointy shoes, silver retro purse (below) and thrift store chains wound around my neck.



Enter Goodwill today and a $6.99 TeenFlo Little Black Dress.

Dang.

It's short. (Shows off long legs).

It's sassy. (Goes with new raison-hued hair and short cut).

It's flattering. (Especially with new thong Spanx underneath).

AND it goes with my vintage red three-strand beads (Goodwill-ed today for $3.99) and REAL patent leather belt (99 cents at my thrift shop).

I could wear my red clutch with it too. (Below).

Reader, dear reader, I'm being swayed by my thrift outfit! Which would YOU recommend I wear?? Reply as soon as you can 'cos the event is Friday p.m.!

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