Take your diamonds, I like pearls

Well, not completely true - I do like diamonds! However, I LOVE pearls. I think they are gorgeous. My wedding dress was scattered with sewn on (fake) pearls, and it was so pretty. My brother, TB, gave me a pair of pearl earrings when I was a teenager - I have no idea where they are today, but I loved them and wore them a lot. I also found a very wee baby pearl in a smoked oyster once. DD1 and I marveled over it, and I have it in my jewelry box. She loves to tell the story.

After my mom passed away (2 years ago this Spring) I received the pearls that Dad gave her on their very first Valentine's Day together. I had loved them since I was a little girl - so much that Mom and Dad gave me my own string of pearls when I graduated from college. I love both sets, and will pass them down to my girls someday.

The cost of real pearls is high. (By "real" I mean saltwater cultured pearls - the cultured pearls are almost always perfectly round because you can control the shape of the irritant that seeds the pearl to begin with - and saltwater pearls have a beautiful lustre. Did you really need this information that I find so fascinating?) Thus, freshwater pearls are more popular. Still beautiful, and more readily available.

My birthday is coming up... I'd love to see a set of these in a box for my gift! I've never owned black pearls before - aren't they gorgeous! (They are freshwater pearls.) The site where I found those earrings is full of beautiful pearl jewelry... and I would have LOVED it in my 20's - when it was all about me me me, and pearls could be worn every day without regard to children grabbing them, household cleaners splashing on them, or general impracticality. But someday my friends I will be the older lady whose signature look includes a double strand of pearls, and expensive shoes. Like Barbara Bush - but with better hair!