Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Monthly Theme Post: Rings


It's that time again! This month's theme moves me to make a confession; I don't think I have ever actually bought  a ring for myself. The closest I've ever come is these slave bracelets with ring attachments I got off e-Bay a couple months back:
Not very impressive, right? I need to hit it (and its blue and green siblings) with the pliers and pull out some of the excess links, because they're way too big. Ah well, whaddya expect at $8 for 3?

I may never buy rings, but that doesn't mean I don't have any. In fact, I have all of these:
 Now, if I don't buy rings, how do I have so many? Well, that's because they're all inherited.
This lovely lady is my Grandma Elsie. Doesn't her outfit kick some serious ass? She passed away on February 7th, 1997, from complications due to hepatitis C and liver failure. I was only four years old when she died, but I still have a lot of good memories of her. One of my primary ones is sitting with my two cousins playing dress-up with her ample amounts of jewelry-we could be pirates or princesses or anything in between, and she would play right along with us. When she died, my mom and aunt divided up her jewelry, and since my mom doesn't really wear jewelry, I inherited many beautiful pieces from her. Some of them I can't wear, since her fingers were a lot smaller than mine, but I keep them all the same, because she loved her jewelry so much and it was a huge piece of who she was. When I do wear rings, these are some of my favorites:
I love all of these rings; they are unique and special and gorgeous. Most of my grandma's jewelry wasn't expensive; a lot of it is from Avon or similar sources, but I don't care. The key ring on my thumb is absolutely one of my favorites, and my mom tells me that it was one of Grandma's favorites too. I like to think she was steampunk before steampunk was a thing. My grandma loved clothes, and she was always wearing beautiful, wild outfits with everything from leopard print to stripes to velvet. I haven't bought other rings, even though I've bought other bracelets, necklaces, etc., because I associate rings so strongly with my Grandma Elsie. Every time I don one of these with a corset and some striped socks or a skull-print dress, I smile, because I know that Grandma would have approved, and it makes me feel wonderful to know I am carrying a little piece of her around with me, whenever I wear a ring. 

9 comments:

  1. Holy Heck you have lots of rings:)! The slave bracelet is very pretty. Your grandmothers rings are beautiful too, I'm quite sentimental about jewellery from my Ouma as well, she didn't wear rings much, but she wore lots of beaded and pearl necklaces.

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  2. lovely collection your granny had :-D
    and great that she was confident enough to wear those clothes you talked about!

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  3. Your grandma sounded awesome. My Oma was a stylish woman too. I got a lot of my tastes from her. I'm so glad you have her extensive ring collection. It's amazing (so is the tray - I really need to find one of those). I tihnk the key thumb ring is my favorite too!

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  4. What a lovely post! Your grandma was very beautiful and it's visible on the photo that she was fond of wearing eyecatching jewellery. That is a lovely memory of her all the rings. the key ring is fantastic!

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  5. Nice collection, I really am a fan of those cute, thin rings with hearts and the simple colored ones.
    Your grandma must have been a really lovely woman. I also keep a ring I got from my grandma, it's like a tactile piece od memory. :)

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  6. Oooh, look at all the sparklies! Very nice collection. Thanks for sharing with us.

    Also, thanks for coming to visit my blog! :)

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  7. The collection looks very interesting! Those rings seem like ones with some stories attached to them. And I really like the piece in the first photo, very pretty.

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  8. Your grandma had a great sense of style! I love the jewelry she's wearing in the photo; and it matches her outfit so perfectly! You're lucky to have such a lovely collection of her rings. I really love that big blue oval one, which appears to be a sapphire. It's so classic.

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  9. Wow, you've got a fabulous collection there!

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