Looking through the internet for what to do with my grandmother’s vintage trunks (post for another day), I came across quite a number of vintage-inspired suitcases and boxes that are once again fueling my wanderlust – like almost everything these days. Coupled with the fact that Downton Abbey is one of my favorite TV shows, I’m totally sold on upgrading my travel bags to these retro/vintage inspired trunks. And my favorite one so far has to be from the Nappa Dori collection.

Nappa Dori (literarily means leather and thread) is an Indian based intimate fashion house and artisan brand. With its distinct designs and fine craftsmanship, this brand reinvigorates the nostalgia of vintage India, blending it into contemporary lifestyles.
These trunks! Oh, this is what one needs to see the world in.

“The thing about kindness is that it isn’t a spectator sport.”

I love the quaintness of repurposed things: an old chest/trunk as a coffee table, your grandmother’s favorite tea cup as a planter, old castle door as a dinning table top. There’s such an eccentric charm that I can’t get over, and this is one of the things that won my heart with The Giving Keys.
The Giving Keys is a Los Angeles based jewelry company founded by singer-songwriter and actress Caitlin Crosby . Working to repurpose old keys into modern jewelry and accessories, The Giving Keys engraves inspiring words on keys and then creates necklaces, bracelets and rings with the engraved keys.

It started with a New York hotel room key. The Giving Keys founder, actress and singer/songwriter, Caitlin Crosby, wore the key as a necklace and had the idea to start engraving old, used keys with inspirational words. Realizing that in a way we are all like these keys – unique, flawed, scarred, and at risk of being discarded – she wanted these keys to have their purpose renewed over and over again. 

If I had to pick just one accessory that I would wear everyday for the rest of my life, it’d have to be the hat. Rings will probably put up a good fight, but hats win, I’m quite certain. Don’t you just love the way they add an instant “cool” to any outfit?
+ Am I the only one who gets super excited seeing photos of a well worn hat over oh-so-gorgeous kinks? I can’t explain it really, but in my head, I’m screaming, “RAD!!!!!”. It’s warm fuzzies and shivers down my spine and giggles. It’s beautiful, that ‘fro + cool hat combination. Oh man!!
Whether it’s the fedora, the panama, the trilby, the porkpie, the floppy hat, the newsboy hat, the fez, the derby, whatever… It just works.
Now this is how you put a hat on it…

I can’t explain how excited I get whenever I find something that feeds the minimalist in me. When it comes to jewelry, please give me barely-there pieces. While I may occasionally fancy the over-the-top, in your face designs (on other people, at least), I don’t want to be burdened by the weight of my accessories. I mean, we already have to deal with wearing clothes (I’m looking at you, Adam and Eve).