Weekend 3-way: digging for gold

Although I wholeheartedly agree with Mahatma Gandhi who said, ~ It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. ~ I still love jewelry.

Who doesn’t?

Jewelry’s been around forever, or almost forever anyway, 100,000 years or so. Clearly, it’s part of being human, this desire to adorn.

Some people just do it more enthusiastically than others. Or better.

Take for instance our First Lady. Surfing the net today, I came across an interesting blog, Goddess Findings, Jewels for the Spirit, via the post titled Michelle Obama Jewelry: Adornment is Merely a Reflection of the Soul. Now Michelle can do jewelry.

And I’m sure you can too.

So are diamonds a girl’s best friend? You tell me.

I want to know about your very favorites. Diamonds? Pearls? Some funky recycled pin?

Jacquie:
I’m not a huge jewelry person. I have my ears pierced, but earrings drive me crazy. I have a beautiful engagement ring, but I only wear a plain gold band on my go-to finger (not that finger, my left ring finger). I do have two rings that I love and wear on my right hand, but those come off the minute I change into play clothes at the end of each day. My wedding band is the only thing that never comes off. Well, that and my sunny disposition. I wear a necklace most days, I like all of them. As I told Beth when she suggested this subject, I can’t currently find the one I would consider my favorite. I know I saw it somewhere, I am forever taking a necklace off in the car while racing to the gym and I am always careful to put it in a very safe place and then not see it again for months. So, no photo of that pretty stone pendant. But here are my right hand rings. This photo erases any doubt that I missed my calling as a hand model.

For one of those before shot, old lady, fading and/or firming creams.

Hey, guess what I found while digging through my purse for the camera? Bonus time! .

Ellie:
Ooh, pretty Jacquie.

I wear a wedding ring and an engagement ring and a claddagh ring stacked up on my go-to finger, and they never come off. Well, okay, they came off once -- the mean nurses at Yale/New Haven wouldn't let me wear my wedding ring into the OR for my dad's kidney transplant. Har-umph. I also have 6 ear-holes (they can't possibly be called that) and 4 of them have small earrings that never come out, either. I put gold hoops in the other 2, frontal, ear-holes every day. Every. Day. Hmmmm. Maybe it's time to update my look? Oh, and I wear a watch that Bill gave me before we got married -- so like 47 years ago? That never comes off either. Unless I'm in the shower. Or raking leaves.

My most unique piece of jewelry, however, is this ring:

Cool, huh? I inherited it from my aunt Uffie when she died. She left it to me in her will which I think is just so cool - I had never been left anything in anybody's will before, and she specifically left me this pearl ring. I've been thinking a lot about Uffie this week: my niece Colleen - aka Chapel Hill Girl - and I have been emailing about Uf after Jacquie's blog about autumn leaves care packages. Uffie and Colleenie had a really nice thing together. (And as an aside? Nothing, nothing I tell you, warms an auntie's heart more than emailing with her Chapel Hill Girl niece.)

Anyway. The ring is big and bold and unusual and not something I would typically wear or choose for myself, but I just love it. I don't wear it that often, but when I do, I feel like I have Super Powers. I'm going to wear it today. After I rake Mumsie's leaves.

Beth:
I love it, Ellie. It looks terrific.

Well I love my wedding and engagement rings too, and they don't come off either. I was pleasantly surprised that they did NOT make me remove them during my c-section, but they did not so they remained on my go-to finger. My engagement ring is especially special because it was my husband's grandmother's wedding ring. She was married in 1933, and her marriage lasted more than 60 years, until her husband's death. This seems like good marriage mojo to me. Plus she was wearing this ring on visits to the white house (and I'm not talking for the public tour here, folks), and to Rome, and really everywhere her life took her until she passed on.

My other favorite ring is this amethyst beauty, which was passed on down from my maternal great grandmother. I love it. Completely. It's kind-of a timeless art deco style, that is both 1800s and now, if you get my meaning.

But really I'm more of a earring person. I love earrings. These are currently my new favorites: