Glitter Butterflies vs. Gypsy Moths

Lately, I've been on an unplanned butterfly kick. I suppose it may have a lot to do with color and pattern — two of my favorite things! — and the natural beauty of these two attributes you often find in butterflies.

I recently started coloring butterflies in my newest square coloring book. Each page is one-sided and approximately five to six inches square.

The first one I finished on my lunch hour at work, using Tombo markers in warm hues of red, orange, yellow and pink. I cut it out and clipped it to my Joe Fresh shopping bag.

For the second, I used Prismacolor pencils in all purple hues.

It was more difficult to stay between the lines, but I like the contrast of the lavender and darker purple and violet.


      Now, onto the gypsy moths...

As many of you New Englanders may have noticed lately, the gypsy moth population has reached plague-like proportions. Fortunately, the caterpillar stage is over, and now thousands of gypsy moths are fluttering around and flying into everything, including people.

I attended the July Brimfield Antiques Show this past weekend, and they were impossible to ignore. There were so many hovering inside of tents and in the open fields, you couldn't help but comment on them to total strangers.

Amongst the gypsy moths, I did find a few butterflies. These happened to be made of cardboard paper and wire, with lots of glitter covering them.

On the backs of each one, there's a label that says Wolin in script lettering, then below it "JAPAN" in all caps. I suspect these date from the late 1960s. I bought the bag of six for $5. (I checked on ebay and found a similar set of eight for $45.99 – yikes!)

 Moving from sky to land, I found a few other vintage Brimfield treasures, including this faux tortoise flower necklace, which I'm giving to my sister.

Three of the flowers contain large, sparkly rhinestones. I didn't see any markings on the piece. Perhaps it's from the 1970's?


Serendipitously, I also found this goldtone tie clip for $2. I already had the matching cuff links.

The back has a copyright symbol, followed by "SARAH COV," (short for Sarah Coventry) which, according to my online research, means it was made sometime from 1953 or later.


Being away from the city for a day, I was feeling a bit country, I guess, so I went for this vintage gingham western shirt with pearlized snaps.

I'm planning to wear this with my favorite jeans and black and white saddle shoes.
Maybe next time I can find a vintage Sears faux sherpa vest to go with it – yee haw!

The label at the back neck says "Craig Andrew."
There's another small tag that says 65% polyester, 35% cotton, Permanent Press, Made in Korea. I'm guessing this is probably from the 1970s – a bargain at $10.










Finally, here are a few more visuals from an all-around fun day out, despite the gypsy moths.

I took photos of these concrete swan planters because I remember my grandparents had a pair at the end of their front stoop. 

One of my aunts also had one at the end of her driveway capping a stone wall.

 I'm guessing these might be from the 1940s? I'll have to do a little research to be sure.

And it just wouldn't be Brimfield without a little Christmas in July...