My latest self-indulgence is vintage travel shield charms. My dad was talking about them for some reasons, so I started looking at them online, and I fell in love with them. My dad bought me a bracelet of British ones that we came across in a local pawn shop, which is cool and all...and I wear it sometimes because I think it's pretty etc, but I've never been to Britain.

I decided I should make my own bracelet of places I have been, and I bought a Viareggio one which has since fallen off my bracelet and vanished for good... so I've ordered a new one of those, and I have a Firenze one I'm wearing right now (on a vintage 60s charm bracelet).... but I just bought one on ebay that I'm so excited about, I just had to share!

As many of you know, I'm (let's face it) rather obsessed with the Netherlands. So, the fact that I had a wee stop-over in Amsterdam, and it was the first part of Europe I saw, stood on, first passport stamp, etc was pretty much the best thing ever to me! So, this is my latest acquisition (I can't wait for it to get here!):

I have a bracelet of those with shield charms of Germany and Austria. The bracelet and charms are silver. I got them way back in the fifties.

Yeah, my dad remembers them from back then... and says they were popular.... nobody else seems to remember them at all though! The bracelet full of British ones... when we bought it, I called it a charm bracelet... and the dealer we bought it from was like "what? Well, I GUESS you could call it a charm bracelet... I don't know what it is, I've never seen anything like it before." And in spite of the fact that my city is FULL of antique stores etc that have old charms and charm bracelets, I've never seen any others in a store!


My bracelet is sterling, and I think the Amsterdam charm is too... the Firenze one and the two Viareggios are/have been .800