Sparklier than a tinsel factory

My new Coro brooch and earrings

Ah Etsy, how I love it! All sorts of things that I like are there for the buying, and often not too expensive either. Of late I've been obsessed with jewellery sets, especially from the 1950s and 1960s, and as no-one seems to wear brooches much, brooch-and-earring sets are quite cheap. Sets involving necklaces or bracelets do cost rather more.

Anyway, this is a set I bought last week for about a tenner. It was a practical purchase, honest guv'nor, I needed something in blue and green. It has to be the fastest delivery I've ever had from the US, arriving in just seven days, and the brooch and earrings arrived in a pretty organza bag. I bought the set for myself, but I certainly wouldn't be ashamed to give it to someone either. (Not that anyone's getting it. It's mine now.) The seller was LizonesJewelry and I definitely recommend her.

The clips on the earrings are a little different from the ones on my other clip-on earrings, but from the style of these and the brooch, and the look of a lot of other Coro jewellery I've seen, I'm pretty sure one of the sets I got in a local charity shop (my 'TFI Friday Bling')  is also Coro. It's got no markings on, but the size, cut and set of the stones and overall style make me think they're from the same family.

I suppose it helps my budget that I have a taste for big, flashy diamante brooches that most people wouldn't wear every day. I doubt I'm competing with many people for these items. Wearing diamante is a little like wearing red lipstick. At first it feels odd; you think, "Are they looking at me? Do I look weird?" Then you get a bit Taxi Driver about the whole thing and think, "Are you looking at me?" And then you progress to thinking, "WTF are they looking at, this is perfectly normal!" and stop paying attention to the lummoxes. I have quite classic taste in clothes, tending to stick to very simple cuts, plain colours and streamlined shapes, and the diamante livens this up nicely. On fussier clothing it'd either get lost in the frills and prints or tip you over into the full Miss Piggy - and there is only one Miss P, and you and I aren't going to measure up!