I Love – A Birthday Gift to My Mom

So for the past month I have wanted to pass this link along to everyone but I had to patiently wait until we gave my mom her birthday gift before I could do so….didn’t want to give away any spoilers to her!

Now thanks to our dear friend and fellow blogger Kylee over at TwoPretzels, I was given the link to this lovely ladies shop on Etsy. (Thanks again Ky!!)  Her name is Christen (bio below) and her shop is bddesigns. You MUST check it out HERE.  She does “precious metal art jewelry, uniquely customized for you”.

My sister and I found this necklace for our mom and it is awesome!  We added our names, one to each circle, and then on the circles had it engraved with what was already suggested for this necklace…Our Mother, Our Friend. This necklace turned out beautifully! Yeah, I know….wish I had a picture of it too. In my excitement to give this to my mom I totally forgot to take a picture of the necklace. Boo.  But I will see her again in a few weeks and as she is only allowed to take the necklace off when she showers and sleeps (mandated by the contract she signed before opening said necklace), I will take a picture when I see her again! :)

The pictures on her website do not do the necklace justice.  It is sterling silver and each circle is maybe the size of a quarter and very shiny and lightweight.  It is simple in the sense that it is a classic piece of jewelry that our mom can wear with anything and would look good when she is dressed up or dressed down just running errands, but it is also a little modern with the engraving and the double circles.

It takes about 4 weeks to get the jewelry back from her, however, because she lives in Monclova she got it to me in 3 weeks because I said I could meet her and pick it up!  Which I truly appreciated her doing.  She also answered my barrage of questions and requests quickly and was so kind about all my custimizations.  I will order from her again. 

FYI - if you want something for Christmas she stops taking orders the beginning of November due to the volume of orders she receives and the turnaround time she needs to get stuff to people for the holidays.

Bio

Hi, my name is Christen Largent. Thanks for stopping by my shop. My work is an accumulation of years of study, experimentation, inspiration and the JOY of working with metal! All of my work is created using traditional metalsmithing techniques, commonly called fabrication. These are the same techniques that metalsmiths have been passing down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. It is a legacy of metalwork and I am very proud to be part of that history. I hope you enjoy viewing what I enjoyed creating! I add new pieces each week, so stop back often!

Talk to Me – Keeping Your Rings Clean & Sparkly

So here is my question of the day….how do you keep your rings (or other jewelry) clean and sparkly? 

Here is my beautiful engagement ring June 7^th or June 9^th, 2005 the day after my husband proposed to me!  (I think one of those days are right, I would have to verify with Mickey D. on the exact day I got engaged as she has an amazing memory for those things and unfortunately I do not!)

It is beautiful and shiny and not a speck of dirt on it.  Now for the first couple years I wore my ring I would take it back to the jewelry shop from which we got it and have them clean it.  Of course we were going back frequently as they are a very reasonably priced jewelry store and owned by a young independent couple.  We went back those first couple years to get gifts for our wedding party, T’s ring, special occasion gifts, or special ornaments around the holidays.  However after the wedding and after I lost my job, spending money at a place like this was not an option so we stopped going up there except for very special items and in turn we rarely got my rings professionally cleaned by them.....maybe once every 12-16 months if we are lucky.  See I didn’t just want to walk in and ask them to clean my ring if we were not really shopping with them, though I get that they wouldn’t mind.  I don’t know why I feel bad about that, I mean we did spend money with them and I know they will clean it for me if I ask….but to go up there just to get it cleaned seems silly.  And so far that is the only way I know to get my rings cleaned as T. is apprehensive to use most ring cleaning products as he doesn’t want to hurt the ring.

Of course it is natural that your rings will become dirty from the natural release of sweat, skin and dirt on our hands….not to mention all the soap, lotions, and overall stuff we touch with our hands that will remain on our rings.  So between that and the lack of cleaning, my once sparkly and beautiful rings are disgustingly dirty. I am not exaggerating AT ALL.  They are dull, have dirt from the oils and dead skin on my fingers, and have completely lost that sparkle. Yes, my ring has no sparkle.  I am totally embarrassed at how gross my rings are.

Don’t believe me, take a look.  You may want to prepare yourself….this is GROSS. (Camera phone picture….sorry)

EW. And NO sparkle.

See that dark stuff in between the two emeralds…part of that is dirt.  Again Ew. And the diamond is really THAT dull that it would not photograph well no matter which camera I used. (I am embarrassed.)  I scrape the loose dirt out with my nails from inside the ring, but it is still tarnished and dirty.

I looooove my rings and I want to take care of them not only to respect the value of the rings, but because they represent something special to me and I just want them to look as good as they possibly can.  But I don't know how to keep them clean and though I do not want them dirty, I also do not want to ruin them with bad jewelry cleaners.

So here are my questions.

How do you keep your rings clean?  Do you think it is OK to go to the jeweler every few months to get your ring cleaned?  Should I offer them money to do it?  Are there ring cleaners out there that you trust to keep them clean?  Should I only get them professionally cleaned once a year?  Do your rings ever look as gross as mine do?!?!  

Please don't judge me based on how dirty my rings are

My New "Addiction"

Ok, so I have a new late night addiction. QVC.

I will be honest, I never really cared for QVC. I use to make fun of the jewelry (just not my taste) and I more or less never even watched the show and didn't give it a chance. However Monday night I was looking for something to watch and saw that it was Gem Week on QVC so turned to it. I love gems and as there was nothing else on I thought - what the heck!

Skip forward a few days and the last three evenings I have turned on the QVC jewelry show and watched it for a little bit before I go to bed! I don't know if it is because it is Gem's this week or the soothing voice of the girl talking or how fast the jewelry goes or what but I am completely enthralled by this show AND the idea of the show.

Here are some things that amaze me about the show:

- Lisa, the person talking about the jewelry is really nice (on the show) and can just keep talking forever. It is like the marathon of sales pitches! She can talk about this jewelry for 2 hours straight and she is flawless. It is amazing to watch. After like 5 minutes I wouldn't know what to say!

- I can't believe how many people stay up late to watch these shows! I mean they are always selling stuff anytime during the day!

- People call in and say hi. These are dedicated QVC fans and some will even go into parts of their life and reveal maybe too much info on air. It is funny! (The calls are my favorite!)

- I can't believe how much people buy! They may have 6,000 pieces of jewelry and they will be gone in 2 hours. And things just go FAST on the show. You have to be quick!

- I wonder how much QVC makes a year. Also, I wonder how much people spend a year on QVC products.

It is like the ultimate reality show for me! And actually alot of the jewelry I have seen the past few days I thought was pretty and something I may wear! (of course some is just too crazy for my taste, but some is very very nice)

Does anyone else watch QVC? Any other products worth checking out? Right now I am just stuck on the gems, but any good makeup or stuff? I haven't bought anything, but it is fun to look!

P.S. I could see how this could be dangerous. Just sitting in the comfort of your home, looking at the pretty things on TV, credit card in hand....it could be easy to buy alot of stuff from them!

Talk to me....

(Not my jewelry)

Ok, I have some questions on jewelry!!

I have just unpacked a box of my jewelry from our move nearly 8 months ago! (I know - sad) The jewelry was pretty much just costume/fashion jewelry...not my good stuff. As I was going through the box, I came upon some older jewelry that had become slightly tarnished and jewelry that had become tangled together.

So here are my questions.

1. How can I clean this jewelry to get it sparkling again? Some rings, earrings, chains...stuff like that.

and..

2. How do you store your jewelry? I have alot of jewelry. I keep my "good" jewelry in the boxes they came in...but have NO idea how and where to keep all my necklaces and bracelets so they won't get tangled and so I can easily access them!

Any ideas on these two things?