the jewelry box

While Loopy was laid up last week with the flu, we watched the Home Shopping Network - I was fascinated with the Jacqueline Kennedy Collection and the stories of the pieces (now reproduced for sale), their provenance and how Jackie felt about each one of them. 

Those of you who know me personally know that on a daily basis I rarely divert from my standard pieces: my Tiffany tag bracelet, my Tiffany bangle, my diamond Anne Klein watch from Veto (the first gift he gave me), and the simple pearl stud earrings that I borrowed from The Fan around the time of my sixteenth birthday, never returned, and now call them my "Sweet Sixteen" earrings... funny how that works, isn't it?

But like Jackie, I have a few pieces in my jewelry box that are of great sentimental value to me. I will never part with them and thought you might like to see them.

This is the pearl ring that The Secret Weapon brought back for my grandmother from Europe in 1957 - I think from Germany. Somehow it landed in that vintage Birks box and there it stays.

Here is a cute story... do you see, if you look very closely, (you might want to open this picture in a very large window) the diamond chip in this ring. I feel a little silly admitting this, but it was a gift from my ninth grade boyfriend. He was such a sweetheart. It was my birthday and he very ceremoniously presented it to me at my locker before school. He'd taken a job stocking groceries at the neighbourhood market and I think it set him back a grand sum at the time of one hundred dollars. The Fan, she was not amused... she attempted to set her foot down and insist that I return it. But I couldn't bring myself as it was the sweetest gesture, and I'm so glad I didn't. It's just a little reminder as I grow older of those sweet innocent days when a handsome boy asked if you would wear his football jacket or maybe his class ring. 

For my 21st birthday, The Secret Weapon designed and made me my first dinner ring. A statement piece with a beautiful triangular stone set in 14 karat gold. Did I ever tell you that The Secret Weapon was a famous jewelry designer back in the day?

I cannot remember quite what that blue stone is, but the Secret Weapon will know, and I will let you know.

I have the watch that my grandmother received from my grandfather as an engagement/wedding gift. After the Great Depression, it was not uncommon to wear a watch instead of an engagement ring... it was much more practical.  It is from the 1930's and I wear it on very special occasions.

From my era, I have the charm bracelet that my grandmother put together for me in the 1970's. She often brought back charms from her travels for me. I also had her bracelet, but an unsavory houseguest lifted it a few years back, that's a story for another day. Luckily, that houseguest didn't snip my Great Aunt Mary's charm bracelet (that would be Sassy's grandmother) and I dug it out and made sure McDreamy could have it repaired for Sassy in time for her first Mother's Day last year.

Sassy and I, we just lurrve our charm bracelets, and now you know why.

This amber pendant also has a very funny story: it was gifted by The Secret Weapon to a lady friend that knew before he met The Fan. Years later, that "old girlfriend" (if you want to call her that) contacted The Fan and insisted to return the pendant to her, she was the wife now, after all. I'm not sure what to think about that, and of course The Fan, again, she was not amused, and she gave it to me. I've never worn it but it must be over fifty years old now. 

And if you think I will search out my ninth grade boyfriend and present that little diamond-ette ring to his wife, if he has one, you will wait a long time for that. It's mine, a little treasure from my high school days and I'll not part with it.

Here, a silver cherub. A reminder of someone special who slipped through my fingers but lives in my heart.

This might be the silliest story of them all: when I was about ten years old, I had a tropical aquarium filled with angel fish and I just adored each and every one of them: Margaret, Flossy and Lucy were the ringleaders. Harold was the bully, he chased the girls relentlessly around the tank in circles. The fishes even ate right out of my hand.

One day after school, my parents gave me sad news: Margaret had passed. I was devastated. Rather than perform the standard "burial at porcelain sea" where pet fish find their final resting place, The Secret Weapon swung into action and carefully made a wax mold from her tiny corpse. He cast her in sterling silver and made a beautiful chain for her to hang around my neck, so I would never forget my first pet that I loved so dearly. 

You might think it a little odd that I wear my dead pet fish around my neck, but what a conversation piece it is.

The last sentimental piece in our jewelry box is Loopy's engagement ring from Veto. When we were engaged on the shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec City, we decided to search out an engagement ring for her before we searched for mine. When we returned home, Veto asked Buddy and Loopy if we could all get married and become a family, and Loopy was presented with her very own "engagement ring." She was ecstatic.  It is so tiny and now she can only wear it on a chain around her neck on special occasions.

And so there you have it... not as dramatic or priceless as the Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis  Collection, but priceless to me nevertheless.

Friends, what pieces do you have that hold sentimental value to you?