vintage 1950s 1960s coro necklace, earrings, brooch white lucite thermoset jewelry set

A few weeks ago, my Aunt from Colorado was in town so we gathered at my grandma's house for pizza and hanging out. After dinner, Grandma, Aunt Robin and my mom presented me with this beautiful grey train case, filled with beautiful things that belonged to my Great Grandma Alma.

scarves: some are very old chiffon or silk scarves


 white gloves: Great Grandma didn't hang on to many old things so these white gloves must have been special to her. Grandma Alma was very petite so I'm thrilled that they fit my hands!


Grandma's vanity mirror: when I was a teenager, spending summer vacation with Great Grandma, I always admired this gorgeous vanity mirror. I was nearly brought to tears that they decided to pass it on to me.
vintage vanity hand mirror


Later in the evening, Grandma surprised us all by bringing out Great Grandma's jewelry boxes. Since all of us girls were present, she wanted us to sort through them and pick out what we wanted. My mom, aunt, sister and I all had the best time having our little jewelry party on the dining room table. We busted out the ancient family photos from the early 1900's and looked at pics of grandma as a girl. I fell in love with some of her outfits from the 30's and plan on re-creating them in the future.

vintage cinnabar carved hat pin

I really do know how to spell, I promise!
As a side note, I hate to write the word "jewelry" or "jewellery" on my blog because it is spelled differently depending on where you're from. In the U.S., it's generally spelled with one "L" but the rest of the world generally spells it with two. What's up with that?! Since I'm in the US and my spell check says I should spell it with one "L" I'm going to stick with it but honestly, I think I like it more with two. Anyway, moving on.....

Hawaii in the 1940's
Great Grandma Alma moved to Hawaii in the 1940's. She packed up her life and her 3 small children (including my 6 month old Grandma) and traveled to California where she boarded a ship bound for Hawaii. She said that the ship was absolutely miserable. It was a VERY long trip and the ship was packed with mothers and their small children, all traveling to meet up with their husbands who went to Hawaii for work either with the military or some other branch of government. They lived in Hawaii for many years. During that time, my Great Great Grandma, Florence would come to visit every once in a while. During one of her trips, her and my Great Grandma picked up these matching sterling silver spoon brooches from Honolulu. When Great Great Grandma passed away, Grandma Alma inherited her spoon and now they have both been passed on to me. These silver tropical flower brooches and silver hand mirror brooch were also from Hawaii in the 40's.
vintage silver hawaii 1940s tropical flower broochvintage 1940s silver hawaii spoon brooch and silver hawaii hand mirror brooch

Very Vintage Brooches
We don't know the history behind any of these brooches but some of them are quite old. My grandma remembers her mother having many of these in her jewelry boxes when she was a young girl. 



vintage mini mosaic brooch


Precious Pearls and Gold 
Every year for Christmas, my Great Grandpa Pete bought her a really nice piece of jewelry. She kept them safely tucked away in a cream satin wallet. These brooches and pendants were passed on to me. The gold monogram pin has her initials, AVF (Alma Florence Leaver).  I keep these in a separate jewelry box so little hands don't get into them.
   Earrings Galore
 I think Great Grandma and I were the only people in my family to wear clip on earrings. She had a ton of them so I sorted through and picked these ones out for myself. I also found a few pairs of plastic or wooden ones for Olivia. She -loves- to wear my clip-ons so now she has some of her own.


We all had a lot of fun with our heirloom jewelry party. Most of all, I think it was good for all of us to be able to celebrate Grandma yet again. Her remains were cremated and we'll all be taking a trip to Springfield, MO to lay her to rest sometime soon when we can get the whole family back to St Louis again. I think we're all looking forward to partying and telling great stories about her again!