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Suffice it to say that I love jewelry, ALL kinds of jewelry. Still, there's something special about those vintage and retro jewelry pieces. They take you back to a time when things were a lot simpler. One jewelry maker that has been among the most respected and admired producer of quality costume jewelry for years is Trifari. Trifari was founded in the early 1900's and has designed jewelry that has been worn by many, from Mamie Eisenhower to Madonna. The Trifari Crown pins, made from the late 1930s to the 1950s, were just one of many very popular pieces. In fact, the crowns were so popular that Trifari incorporated a crown into its mark in about 1937. Trifari’s Jelly Belly pins of seals, poodles, roosters, and other animals appeared in the 1940s and were also wildly popular. Nowadays, any of these pins are likely to command a good price however the poodles are especially rare. Also, Trifari's vintage floral pins from the 1930s and the fruit and vegetable pieces from the 1950s are highly sought after pieces.
At Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles we (unfortunately) do not currently have any of these rare pieces of Trifari jewelry however we do have this Retro Vintage Set of 2 Trifari Signed Initial M Pins Brooches...
These actually belonged to my mother, I can distinctly remember her wearing them when I was a little girl back in the 1960s (yes, I know, that makes me old). We are always on the lookout for rare, vintage jewelry pieces however so keep in touch with us...you never know what we might be able to find.
Please stop by and see us at Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles on Addoway for all your jewelry needs and desires. If we don't have what you're looking for feel free to drop us a line, we just might be able to find it for you. While you're there check out our new Halloween and Christmas collectibles. We'll be adding more of those also. Hope to see you soon.
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To The Gypsy That Remains
It must be the change from summer to autumn, everybody is looking for some new, stylish footwear that they can show off. I don't blame them, I used to be quite the footwear shopper myself. I was always on the lookout for new shoes and boots, in particular platform shoes and boots...you know, the kind that Stevie Nicks always used to wear. Of course, after one broken ankle, one broken foot and arthritis in both knees the days of me being able to wear that type of footwear is long gone. I have changed from platforms and heels to flats and sneakers, albeit not willingly. I still love those "way out there" styles and I always will.
Even though I cannot wear that stylish footwear anymore as long as they continue to make them I will continue to sell them. At Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles we offer a wide variety of stylish footwear, both shoes and boots. For instance, we currently offer these Pin Up Couture Pleasure-05 Champagne PF Open Toe Pumps, which many people seem to like...
Also we offer these Pin Up Couture Bella-16 Black Satin & Black Lace Platform Pumps Shoes...
If you're looking for something with a slightly higher platform we offer these Pleaser Dolly-31 Black Platform Ankle Strap Pumps Shoes...
We also have a wide variety of boots in different styles and many more styles of shoes to choose from in various colors and materials. All of our footwear is made by the Pleaser company, a well known and respected manufacturer of quality footwear. The only thing to remember is, as with most designer footwear, the sizes tend to run a tad on the smaller side so please keep this in mind when ordering your footwear. Always order a size up, never a size down.
I hope you will come and visit Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles for all of your footwear needs, as well as your jewelry needs. We carry all styles of jewelry and I'm sure you will be able to find a wonderful piece of jewelry to go along with your new shoes or boots. You can always find us in our Addoway store and we look forward to your visit.
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To the Gypsy That Remains
This is the first time that I have attempted relate my personal experiences of 9/11/01. As I begin I'm not sure that I will be able to find the correct words to describe how my day unfolded or how I felt on that day. I have certainly not forgotten, I will never forget. I just don't know if I can accurately describe my emotions relating to that day, or to my feelings that still linger. I was lucky, I did not lose any family members or friends that day as so many people did. What I did lose was my sense of security, my sense of well being. It goes well beyond that but that's the closest that I can come to putting it into words. I suppose I will just start at the beginning and see what happens.
That day started for me just as most other days. I dropped my son off at school and headed to work. September 11 is my son's birthday, he turned 12 that year. I remember thinking what a picture perfect day it was. The sun was shining about as bright as I have ever seen it, the sky was a beautiful bright blue and the air was so clean, clear and crisp. You don't see too many mornings that are as gorgeous as this one was when you live in the city. As I drove to work my mind was full of thoughts about what we would do to celebrate his birthday. Being a week night I thought maybe we would just go out to eat, wherever he wanted to go, and then head home to have some cake & ice cream. We would be able to truly celebrate his birthday when the weekend arrived.
I had finally gotten through the usual traffic jam at the North Kings Highway & Telegraph Road intersection and was pulling up beside the Hoffman Building which was on my way to the office when I heard on the car radio that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. At that point they really didn't say much about it and I assumed that it was a small private plane that had either somehow gotten way off course or that something had happened to the pilot in mid flight which caused the plane to veer off course. I also assumed that the plane had hit one of those radio towers on top of the building, not slammed into the building. I mean, things like that just don't happen, right? After I passed the Hoffman Building it was only a short drive to my office in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia and it didn't take me too long to get there. Before I knew it I was pulling into the underground parking lot of my building. I knew I would not have a problem finding a place to park. I worked for a small trade association and, except for me, the entire staff was out of town for our annual trade show. It would be an easy day, all I had to do was answer the few phone calls that came in and find things to keep myself busy all day. As a matter of fact, it should have been an easy week, no one was due back in town until the following week. I parked the car, grabbed my purse and my tote bag and headed upstairs.
Once I unlocked the office and went in I did what I normally did every morning, I put my purse and bag down and went into the kitchen to get a glass of ice and a Coca-Cola. I'm not much of a breakfast eater and I don't drink coffee however I always have a glass of Coke beside me. The office was quiet but not in a bad way, a peaceful way. I turned on the copy machine and the postage machine and went to check the phone messages. There were a couple of messages but nothing I had to deal with right away so I proceeded to sit at my desk and get ready for my day. I lit a cigarette (we owned the building so we were allowed to smoke in the office), turned on my computer and then I turned on the radio. That was the last normal thing that I remember. By the time I turned on the radio the second plane had hit the second tower and life as I and everyone else knew it ceased to exist. All of a sudden it was a new world and a new reality, both of which would be very unwelcome and always fearful.
I can remember sitting there in that office which, just moments before, had seemed so peaceful and normal but then turned to being unnerving and deathly still. My first thoughts were of my son. Was he safe? Was he upset? What was going on at the school? I tried to call but each time the line was busy. That really came as no surprise but as each second went by that I was unable to reach them my anxiety level rose. I had no choice, I took a Xanax. My nerves were already getting the better of me. I knew I needed to calm down. It seems like seconds after I took that Xanax the announcement came on the radio that the Pentagon had been hit also. My panic level rose to heights that it had never been to before. My office was roughly two or three miles away from the Pentagon. I sat there at my desk and used every single line that we had on that phone to dial the school's phone number nonstop until I finally got through to them. I knew the secretary that answered the phone, it was the type of school where the staff knew all the parents and the parents knew all of the staff. She assured me that Adam and all of the children were okay. The county police were there and also the National Guard had been called in to maintain security at the school. They already had counselors talking to the children, especially the ones whose parents worked at the Pentagon. She told me of course I was more than welcome to come and pick up Adam however, it was chaos in the parking lot and the surrounding neighborhood at that point because I was not the only parent that wanted to come and gather their children near them. There was only one small side street in and out of the school and cars were already lined up on the street trying to get to the school. I said okay, I will wait a bit as long as Adam was okay.
After I hung up the phone I made a huge mistake. The windows by my desk faced in the opposite direction of where the Pentagon was located. For some unknown reason I decided to go into one of the offices on the other side of the building to see if I could see anything. What I saw out the window is something that I will never forget and truly wish that I had never seen in the first place. I could not see the actual building but I could see the dark, ominous black smoke rising up in the air against that blue sky that had appeared to be so picture perfect only a short time before. I saw the Pentagon burning, I saw the destruction of life as we knew it up to that point. As I stood there just staring out that window I started to shake. Not the nervous kind of shaking when your hands shake, the kind of shaking that starts from somewhere deep inside of you. I can only describe it as shaking from the inside out. And then I started to cry. I sat down right there and just sobbed. I am not a particularly "religious" person. I have my beliefs and I have my own relationship with God but I do not pray several times a day however, I prayed that day. I don't really remember all that I prayed for that day. I do remember praying for those that were at the World Trade Center, for those that were at the Pentagon and also for my son. What kind of a world had I brought him into? What would life hold for him now? I remember praying for this country, for us to be able to get through this somehow. At that point no one knew if it was over or not. I didn't hear about the plane going down in Pennsylvania until after I went back to my desk where the radio was. I prayed for those souls also.
I really have no idea how long it took me to regain my composure. I made it back to my desk and then an overwhelming nausea came over me. I rushed to the bathroom and tried to rid myself of all the evil that had taken over the world that day. Once I pulled myself together it dawned on me how eerily still everything was. Not only inside the office but outside on the street. The normal hustle and bustle was replaced by a stillness that I suppose only happens in the aftermath of a horrific event. There was no traffic, there were no people, it seemed like there was no life at all. Oddly enough, the phone did not ring once up to this point. When it did I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was the husband of one of my co-workers. He wondered if I was going to be there for a while. He worked in Washington DC and was walking out. There was no other way out, the streets of downtown DC were gridlocked. His wife's car was parked at our office and he was going to walk there and then take her car home. I told him where he could find the door opener if I was not there and he was fine with that. Right after he called my co-workers started calling to see if I was okay. They were on the West Coast, three hours behind us and were just waking up to the news.
After the barrage of phone calls it was deathly quiet again. I had the radio on but yet there was a dead quiet that I could not seem to escape. I started to notice a few military vehicles occasionally driving by but not much else was out on the streets. Then I heard an airplane overhead. It sounded like it was flying low, right over the building almost. At first I panicked a little bit, I knew that President Bush had grounded all commercial aircraft. I jumped up and looked out the window and realized that it was a fighter jet overhead. I welcomed the sight of that fighter jet with both relief and fear. Relief that it was not yet another hijacked plane, fear that I now lived in a world where fighter jets flying overhead in American air space were necessary to protect us from harm. About that time the phone rang again. It was Michelle, my daycare provider and also one of my dearest friends. She wanted to let me know that she had gone to the school and had picked up Adam and the rest of her kids, they were safe at her house. I said "Good, I'm on my way".
When I left my office building I tried very hard not to look in the rear view mirror at the still smoldering Pentagon smoke. I made it to Michelle's house very quickly and there, for the first time, I saw the images that most of America had already seen. I saw the planes hit the towers, I saw the live newscasts of the actual events as they were happening. I was sick all over again. I told Michelle that I just needed to get home. As we were driving home I made my usual right hand turn onto Route 1 from Huntington Avenue and started to drive up Beacon Hill. As we approached the top Adam said "Oh my God Mom, look!!". At the crest of that hill you could see very clearly the destruction that had been done to the Pentagon. The black smoke still rising up into the sky was just like something straight out of Hell itself. We stood there for a minute and looked at that smoke rising up into the sky, taking with it a United States of America that future generations will never know. To this day I still believe that Adam and I watched life as we knew it slowly disappear.
Ten years later we as a nation have overcome this tragedy for the most part. The toll on the individuals that were more directly involved may never fully be known. For the families of the people lost in the Twin Towers, in the Pentagon and on those planes life will certainly never be what it once was. For the first responders who were at the scenes of these horrific events and worked tirelessly to save all that they could without regard for their own safety and lives, life will certainly never be the same. For those that were in charge of this country at the time and had to make difficult decisions which were sometimes met with harsh criticism life will never be the same. Then there are also those, like myself, who lived through it firsthand. We were not on the front lines so to speak but we were close by watching the events happen and unfold around us while we sat helplessly in fear and disbelief, watching our country, our cities, our fellow human beings fall victim to a group of then nameless cowards. For those of us that remember and lived through that day we will not and cannot forget. Personally I will forever remember the fear, the uncertainty and the loss of that day. What is even sadder is that people who were very young or not yet born on that day will never know the America that I knew, that I grew up in. The America where you could board a plane without having to take your shoes off and you could take your shampoo on the plane with you. The America where you could attend a large, public gathering and not have to worry about a bomb going off or a plane crashing into a nearby building. They will never know what America was like before 9/11. I forever lost my sense of well being that day and gained a sense of apprehension, anxiety and fear that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It will not change for me, however, my hope is that somehow, someday this country can get back what these people took from us as that would be the true victory...
And the summer became the fall
I was not ready for the winter
It makes no difference at all
'Cause I wear boots all summer long...
Stevie Nicks~1983
As it is every year I am not ready to say goodbye to the summer. Don't get me wrong, I love the fall season but I do not like the winter. But every year the seasons change anyway. As always, there is a good side also. Winter brings Christmas, which I love. It seems like that's the way it always is with change. There is some good in the changes and some bad in the changes and these perspectives vary depending on your own personal point of view.
It seems to me that there has been a whole lot of changes in my life over the last few years. I have a hunch that there have been no more changes in my life than there ever was however I just do not roll with the changes (thanks REO Speedwagon) as well as I used to. In 1989 I lost my mother, moved and gave birth to my son. Lots of good and lots of bad that year. Yet, it seems like more recent changes have been harder for me to adapt to. My life was going along pretty well until September 11, 2001. Although I did not lose anyone close to me on that day I did lose my sense of security and well being. Just being three miles away from The Pentagon when the plane crashed into it was enough to forever change the way I view the world. The horror of what happened followed by the dead still and eerie silence (except for the fighter jets flying over the building) in Old Town Alexandria that day is something I won't forget. The sight of the Pentagon fire rising up into the crisp, clear blue sky is not only something that I won't forget but something that I very much wish I had never seen. I truly believe that most of us, as Americans, lost a part of our lives that day...we will never be the same. Very bad change...but, yet we adapt.
In 2005 I moved from Alexandria to a small town in West Virginia. For me, having lived in the city for most of my life, that was a tremendous change. I didn't realize how big this change was going to be until I got here. Yet again, I have adapted. Earlier this year I got married. I've been married before but, even so, that was another big change. My marriage was a change for the better...the jury is still out on the move, lol. I DO miss the city very much but, then again, maybe I miss my life in the city more than the city itself. Maybe I miss my life there because my son was still young then and it was just the two of us. He moved to West Virginia with me but when he was 18 he moved again to New Jersey. While I miss him terribly I know that was the right thing to do for him. There is nothing for him here, this is a very small town with precious few opportunities unless you were born here into a family that runs a business that has been established here for a while.
So, with all these recent changes, I have become leary of change. When I was younger I looked forward to change. Nowadays I'd just rather things stay the way they are as a general rule however, of course, that doesn't happen. So when Addoway announced that they had implemented changes to their website I just sighed. "Oh no, what am I gonna have to deal with now?" I said to myself. I was almost afraid to look at the site. I did finally manage to muster up the courage to click on my store link in my favorites and I got a welcome surprise. The site has a brand new design, logo and feel to it. Not that it was bad before but it is now so much more bright and inviting. It definitely sets itself apart from the other shopping sites out there and in a good way. Fredrick Nijm and the Addoway team seem to always be one step ahead of the others in innovation and ideas for Addoway. They have definitive goals in mind with the desire to create a safer place for buyers to shop and also for sellers to sell. They get to know their customers and they want their customers to get to know them, to offer suggestions and to express their ideas and their criticisms. In other words, THEY LISTEN! What a refreshing change that is!!!
So, to make a long story short, Addoway has shown me that all change is not bad, in fact, it can be quite good. I would highly recommend that anyone selling online give Addoway a try and also anyone who makes purchases online should look at the storefronts on Addoway. There are a ton of knowledgeable, friendly and honest sellers there who would love nothing better that to have you as a customer (myself included). So when you have a few moments go to www.addoway.com and surf around. I believe that you will like what you see.
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To The Gypsy That Remains...
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