It's another jewellery post

Because that's what's on my mind, but first:

This is a crummy photo because my camera is never too happy about yellow, but it had to be here.

I took this photo yesterday.

That crocus? The first flower I've seen this spring.

I guess that means that I have to officially call it spring, right?

I can live with that. Just please let a few more of them actually flower before the next snowstorm, ok?

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Yesterday I spend part of my afternoon sitting on the floor of my father's living room surround by jewellery cases. It's not a habitual thing with me, I can assure you. In fact, none of the boxes has had even a cursory glance from me in well over ten years.

They were my mother's, you see. And there's also one from my paternal grandmother. Speaking of which:

I have a feeling that one of these must have been her wedding band. I don't recall her wearing one, which isn't surprising considering that my grandfather died a long time before I was born, and my dad doesn't really remember much about it either way. Still, married in England during the war -- you've got to figure plain gold band, right? My vote is for the lower one in the photo, but that's purely a guess.

And yes, I should remember to use my hand lotion more often.

Anyway.

The reason that I had the boxes out goes back to those pendants I bought a couple of weeks ago from the Rock and Gem Show at the nature centre. After I got them, I obviously had need of chains to wear them with. That equals slim pickings in my world. Oh, I have chains enough, as you'll see in the continuing series of Garbage That Lives In My Jewellery Box photos, but mot of them are either too short (because I've had them forever), too fine (because I'm cheap) or a little too decorative for a pendant (because I never used to wear pendants with my chains. Which is weird, because as I rummaged through my own stuff I found enough pendants hiding in the cubby holes).

I was figuring on making a trip to the jewellery store (THE jewellery store. Get me, will you. We only have one jewellery store in the whole city, of course...) at some point for a plain silver chain that might be more suitable than the this'll-do-in-a-pinch choices I'd made from my own stock, when it occurred to me that it might make more sense to check through my mother's (and grandmother's) things to see if there was anything usable before shelling out unnecessary funds.

I meant it when I said I was cheap.

So that's what led to me hauling the boxes out of my father's closet and having a sort through. I'd never really done that before; hadn't exactly been in the mood right after Mom died, which I think is understandable. And what did I find, after all of these years?

Well, no one's getting rich by robbing this family. We're apparently the Queens of Costume Jewellery.

It made me laugh, some of the things that were kept. I won't bother giving you an inventory (even if it includes old diaper pins, of all things), although at some point I might take yet another pointless jewellery photo so that you can see what I decided to salvage for myself and have a giggle at my own taste. I do think it's a shame, though, that out of so many dozens of pairs of earrings I took very few. My mother was fond of teeny tiny studs that sort of made it pointless to wear earrings at all, come to it.

One thing I suppose I should put out there: if for some reason my brother is interested in his academic medals from junior and senior high school (which I can't imagine he is, but just saying), I know where they are now.

Surrounded by a dozen shell necklaces, for some reason.

Ah well.

We'll end with another look at my own collection of junk, I guess.

The middle drawer of my jewellery box is apparently an earring black hole, where old earrings disappear and are never heard from again. I'm particularly fond of the gaudy Halloween ghosts (which, admittedly, do come out on occasion. Generally on Halloween), the teal telephones that are missing a fair amount of paint, and the leather... um... totems? I dunno. I was given those when I was a teenager, and I don't think I've ever worn a one of them.

Up for grabs, if anyone's interested.





Oh, and I did end up finding one or two chains that might do. I guess I forgot to mention that, didn't I?