Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage sparkles edition

Hello, friends! It seems like decent Spring weather has finally decided to arrive here in the Denver area! Oh, we had snow and sub-freezing temps last Tuesday, all right--but this weekend the sun came out and the air was legitimately warm. It's enough to give me hope that winter might finally be in the past! Having a snowstorm here in May is not at all out of the realm of possibility, but I think we might be through the worst of it. My kids played outside all weekend long and came in at night, filthy dirty and sunburned but boy, did they fall asleep quickly! I'm all too happy to return to that routine.

I didn't do any junking at all this past week. Still trying to get things OUT--I took another box of stuff to the consignment store a few days ago and I think I've decided to hold a yard sale in a few weeks. Can you believe that in all of the many yard sales I've shopped, I've never actually held one of my own? We're trying to dejunk the house in preparation for selling so now seems like the perfect time. Truthfully, I don't have a whole ton of stuff to sell yet--all of my 'good' discards have been going to the consignment store for months because I can get more for them there. Maren is itching to sell some toys and make some money, and I've asked some friends if they want to send any of their stuff over for me to sell. They'll get the proceeds, and hopefully my sale will look bigger and thereby attract more shoppers--win for us all!

This week's junk finds are all of the pretty and sparkly variety:

This gorgeous vintage brooch is big, about 2" across. It has pretty multicolored gems and part of it is painted. It makes me think "Spring"! It has an 'older' look to me, older than the brooches I usually see. It really is lovely.

This brooch is tiny, about the size of a quarter is all. It's a sweet little birdcage and there's even a wee birdie inside! It's attached with a separate jump ring so it dangles and moves.

I bought this pin because I thought it looked unusual. On the back of the circle there are three teeny screws, and I was curious to find out why it was fastened that way! The only other vintage brooch I have with screws on the back conceals a tiny battery compartment. When I got home and found my itty bitty screwdriver and removed the back, I found that each of those little tiny circles with the blue stones is removable, and there are slots for four more of them. I'm guessing it's some type of service pin, where a circle would be awarded for years of service or some other achievement. I'm wondering if those little blue stones might actually be sapphire chips? Any ideas?

Can't pass up an owl brooch, especially one with red jeweled eyes and rhinestone feathers!

And the last and probably my favorite--a giant, bejeweled lizard! He was tricky to get a good in-focus picture. Guess my hands were feeling shaky that day.

He's 4" long and made of really pretty large grey and aurora borealis rhinestones, with red AB stones for his eyes. There is no marking on the underside so I have no idea of age or origin, but he looks like a really nice piece and it must have been quite a bit of work to solder all of those settings together. I absolutely love it and I've already worn it!

Did you find any treasures this weekend? It looked like there were a ton of garage sales around here this weekend, though I didn't get to go because I was busy throwing a special party--more on that tomorrow!