Monday, February 29, 2016

A Bevy of Brooches, Part 3

Today's post is the final installment of Emily's Excellent Broochstravaganza (…for now…), featuring the Sparkle Bakery, Summer Blue Jewelry, and VivaLaLux!
Glitter and hearts and Vader, oh my!


The Sparkle Bakery

I went a little crazy when I first discovered the Sparkle Bakery's Etsy shop, ordering four hearts in various colors and sizes. The hearts were all very nicely made, though I think I like the glitter hearts a bit more than the ones filled with sprinkles, which are more of a Valentine's-specific colorway. While Christmas offers a year-round color combination, I'm not quite as keen on red and pink as I am on red and green, though I do adore it during February. These brooches are priced quite reasonably, and offer good value. They're all nice and smooth, have locking pin-backs, and are generally just very well made.

My second Sparkle Bakery haul arrived this week, and I scurried to take photos of my new pieces so they'd be included. I thought the Valentine's hearts were fab, but they've got nothing on the awesome Vader brooch. It's basically a 3-D clear Vader head, with a bit of the classic Star Wars poster embedded in it, and I'm sort of obsessed with it. 

The Aurora and Prince Phillip brooch seems to have been made in a similar way, and it's a nice big heart that I can't wait to wear! I've already worn the Tinkerbell out, and I love her. Even though Tink has a lot of pointy bits to her, the brooch is smooth and doesn't get caught on anything, nor does it get turned upside down while I'm wearing it. I also really dig the fabric button brooches: they are lovely, detailed, and even a bit understated. I already know what I'll wear when I debut Snow White!
I'm waiting for her to restock a design I saw on her Instagram: a large heart featuring the colorful Disneyland-print fabric pictured above in the round brooch. Hopefully that one will come back!

Aside from the lovely designs, good quality, and reasonable prices, the best thing about the Sparkle Bakery is the candy she tucks into the package! I waited an entire week to eat the lollipop and Nerds that came with my first order, but the second order's candy was devoured on sight ;). The woman behind Sparkle Bakery is very conscientious and concerned about customer satisfaction, too, so I heartily recommend this seller!

Summer Blue Jewelry

My Holly brooch from Summer Blue Jewelry is one of my absolute favorite accessories. I think it's just perfect for just about every outfit, even if it's clearly a Christmas item. The wires are just the right length to make the piece look balanced, and there are just the right number of beads for the size of the 'leaf.' I wore it nonstop last December, and still bring it out for the occasional outfit even though it's February.
See? This was only about a week ago!

I ordered the pineapple brooch at the same time, and am waiting to wear it until the weather allows me to bust out my Hawaiian-print dress. It's nice and big, and has crosshatching detail to mimic the texture of an actual pineapple.
Stock photo, since the real thing is in New York and I am not.

I also ordered a third brooch when I got the holly berry and the pineapple, which I gave my sister at Christmas. It was absolutely gorgeous, and she loved it! After a while of thinking about how awesome it was, and wishing I had kept it for myself/wishing Ronnie and I could be rainbow heart twins, I actually messaged the shop owner to ask if she could do a custom order, but unfortunately, this design had been discontinued. I was pretty sad about that, since I loved this confetti and the shape of the heart so much! I haven't seen that many brooches that use this type of confetti, either.

I've had my eye on a few brooches in Summer Blue's shop, as previous Wishlist Wednesday posts would suggest, and definitely intend to get more of her lovely designs!

VivaLaLux

I'd had my eye on VivaLaLux's Etsy shop for quite a while, and finally took the plunge when I saw a promo advertised on Instagram. I thought that the purple, pink, and green brooch would look nice on my pink Birdie dress, and had fallen in love with the gingerbread-man brooch, too. I combed through the shop and picked out a couple other things to make me feel better about paying for international shipping, and settled in to wait.

When my parcel finally arrived (all the way from Scotland!), I was super pleased with my picks. The purple brooch was exactly what I'd hoped it would be, and the elephant and the gingerbread man were all smooth edges, straight sides, and lovely glittery fun! The heart was quite unique, and almost reminds me of a cake with the raised, glittery scalloped detailing around the outside of the heart. The boomerang is delicate and went very well with my green Voodoo Vixen cardigan. I'm sure I'll order more of their wire, bead, and resin brooches, since there are so many lovely color combinations and the shop is updated all the time.

Well, that's my brooch collection!! What are your favorite novelty-brooch companies? Also, has anyone seen any brooches around that are similar to the Summer Blue heart I gave my sister?

3 comments:

  1. An impressive and admirable collection! Thanks for all the new shops to check out! :)

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    1. Aw, thanks! I can't wait to see what you pick out!! Did you order the Atomic Lucite cupcake that you commented about on IG?

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