Charming

I have always loved jewelry.  Pretty shiny things really speak to me, I guess!  Maybe it's because of how they feel, or rather how they make me feel.  One of my earliest memories of jewelry was of having a pretty birthstone ring - maybe I was around four or five.  I took it off to admire in the bathtub.  Oops.  I watched it drop down the drain never to be seen again. That was the first of many rings lost, including my mother's wedding band from my father, and 2 high school graduation rings.  Not to mention necklaces...and many, many earrings!

I've lost plenty of bracelets, too over the years - a sterling charm bracelet with enameled black cat charm that my mother gave me for Christmas when I was about 13.  A 14KT gold bracelet with multicolored jade and semi-precious stones linked by the Chinese symbol for lucky (ironic, I know).  A sterling Greek key bracelet.  A bracelet of gold heart-shaped links. A couple of simple 14KT gold chain bracelets.  What is it with me and bracelets?!

 

But this one - I vow to never lose.  I guard it carefully and I have it cleaned regularly so they can check the links.  it's a James Avery charm bracelet with 12 charms so far.  Two more and I will have no more empty links!  Putting it together has been an exercise in sentimentality.

This is the only charm not from JA - a Tab trailer charm for Mabel.

Each one of these has meaning for me.  I purchased them with someone or something very specific in mind.  A Christmas tree for Grayson.  The state of Texas for Spencer.  A cat to commemorate Sugar.  A double heart for Chloe.  A bat for Dylan.  No baby shoes or tiny heads on this bracelet for me!  No engraving either.  A store of people and things purely remembered.

A heart within a heart, and an infinity charm for Mark and I together.  A sand dollar for Galveston, horned toad for Lubbock.  A snowflake and a butterfly remind me of friends and the changing of the seasons.  Just two more charms to choose, but no limit to nostalgia and memories and love.