Umbrella death & the antique show at the piers

Broken umbrellas on 1st avenue—5 in a 10 foot radius.

Ashley and I ventured out finally on Sunday—after the rain storms had finally settled—to check out the annual antique fair at the piers here in New York. I get super excited for shows like this and having never attended, I didn't know what to expect.

Well it was certainly worth the treck to the west side. I was overwhelmed with amazing collections of all sorts. I wanted to photograph everything, but after being told by a vendor "NO!", I put the camera away and feared pulling it out again...

I was lucky to have taken these 3 pictures to remember the day...
1. the funny life-size dogs in basket—mommy and pups. There was an amazing taxidermy bird shadow box that I wish I got a picture of. It had a sold tag on it and whoever purchased it certainly got a treasure! It had about a dozen small birds in it, beautiful old hummingbirds, and various large moths, all mounted around a tree shape—quite exquisite!

2. enormous ruby earrings—so much amazing jewelry I want to throw up. Jewelry really makes me happy. I hate to sound so generic, being female and loving expensive jewelry, but I really appreciate the craftsmanship, quality, and the earth's natural gems in jewelry. It's a combination of earth's work and man's work—truly impressive, and can never let me down.


3. and my absolute favorite piece of the day, a Georgian double band engagement ring that I absolutely couldn't resist trying on. Circa 1860, I have NEVER seen any antique diamond ring like it. I fancy antique diamonds but this one was truly unique. It caught my eye and I asked the vendor why she had two of the same ring stuck in a single ring cushion. Well what looked like two rings was actually one! The diamonds were all set in sterling silver settings (unusual) but the band was 14k yellow gold. Really the most bizarre yet amazing ring I have ever seen. Worth the trip to the antique fair alone.