Silver jewelry: My ever expanding collection

Good evening, friends! As a result of a crazy second (or 347th) wind, blog-wise, I decided to tweak the layout and make some resolutions as to where to take these internet shenanigans. Some exciting things have been happening and it feels like life is sort of falling into place with me and my guy finally officially living together. Our apartment is looking better than ever and even though there’s still a lot to be taken care of with some furniture that needs to be swapped for a more practical counterpart, we feel so much more at home now that we have a small dining nook instead of my clumsily big drawing table – the latter now resides in my mom’s attic until we move to a two-bedroom apartment so either of us can have an office.

I just have this feeling 2016 might be a really good year for me (and us), which is so motivating!

On to the purpose of the post: My collection of jewelry! After reading Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I decided to part with a lot of my old, oxidised jewelry and stick to a non-faux policy from now on. I’ve been especially disillusioned by my “upscale” gold plated pieces from House of Harlow and Ottoman Hands. Granted, I should’ve known better than to assume the overlay would hold a little longer than H&M’s pieces, but alas: Most of what you pay goes to the design, not the quality of the materials used (though I must say Ottoman Hands uses beautiful stones).

Unlike what you’d expect, a lot of silver pieces are pretty affordable! I took a few pictures of my collection:

All of these were gifts from my boyfriend, from one and the same shop (my favourite brick and mortar jewelry shop): Nepal Handicrafts in Antwerp’s Hoogstraat. He paid around €50 for each of the pieces, which is very reasonable. I can definitely vouch for the quality, the bracelet I’ve worn almost every day for about a year and a half, the ring on the right I got for my 24th birthday a year and a half ago and is my favourite statement piece. The left is new and needs to be made smaller before I can wear it out.

These are my stacking rings. The middle is from Accessorize, I got it on sale for like €11 when the shop in Antwerp closed. I’m still a bit sad about that because even if most of their silver jewelry is rather on the safe side, you can definitely find some treasures here and there!

The rings left and right are from eBay. I’ve had them for quite a while before I actually started wearing them. The crystal ball ring is one of my favourites (those colours! the mystique!), but it’s a little big so I wear it stacked with rings that do fit snugly. Usually it’s these three but I’ve been a busy eBay-exploring bee so I’m sure I’ll be mixing it up a it soon.

I’ve written about my coin necklace before on my old blog: A phaistos disc I got as a souvenir on Crete, back when I went on holiday with my family shortly after my dad passed. I paid about €11 for the disc and €18 for the silver necklace, which is a slightly longer length.
The middle stone pendant was actually an earring. I bought a pair at Nepal Handicrafts (I’m not endorsed I swear), two necklaces, used the earring hooks to make little connector rings with a pair of pliers, and boom, matching necklaces as a Mother’s Day present to my mom.
The necklace on the right is the constellation Libra – my star sign (and my mom’s as well… maybe I have just found another Mother’s Day gift haha). It’s a very on-trend piece actually, being really dainty. Hip or not, I love it, I got it for €22 off of eBay. The seller’s name is beneros-design and the object ID is 201302488319.

And lastly, a few items I completely forgot about! Starting top left: The day before (or was it the same day? I don’t recall) James and I left for our disastrous trip to Bulgaria we popped by Accessorize and I bought this dainty little necklace on a whim. I wish it was longer though, the length of the chain feels a little 90s to me, and it’s not very flattering.
Top right necklace is from Twice as Nice, a Belgian chain of stores. Especially their sales are amazing – I got this for about €11. Insane! I’m going to start wearing it a little more again.
Bottom left (Nepal Handicrafts) and right (from my mom’s jewelry box) are pendants and they’re actually hanging on the same necklace (photoshopped two photos together, haha). I still want to get a slightly thicker, longer chain for the turquoise pendant because now that I’ve rediscovered it, I really want to wear it again.

Until next time!

Vicky