A Tale of a Ring… and a Surprise at the End.

Well I will tell you about a piece of jewlry I have that is sentimental to me. I have a blue cameo ring that has been passed down through my family for 5 generations, well 6 if you include me. The face is blue with a black backgroud set in yellow gold…it is just beautiful and so special to me. When it was passed to me my grandma got it put into a new setting because the previous one was falling apart and we didn’t want the cameo to break. I can’t even add up how old the ring may be but it is amazing to think it was around through so many significat times in history and my family. Definitley something I will treasure and pass down to Peyton some day

As I was sitting here trying to think of something of sentimental value, I spotted a ring I was wearing… it’s my paternal grandmother’s engagement ring. Her finger must have been really small, so I had the ring cut down to fit my pinky. I only remember meeting her twice, and I was very young both times, so I never really knew her. It’s an honor to have been given this keepsake of my grandmother.
And Jen, I really love Silpada jewelry – Thanks for the giveaway!

Well, I have 2 pieces of jewlry that are important to me, and that in itself is a bold statement: I am not a “jewlry” person! I have both wedding ring sets from both of my grandmas. My paternal grandma was married to a tobacco farmer in Brunswick County, VA. Years before she died, she asked each of us to walk through her house and make of list of items that were important to us, for whatever reason, and give it to her. I was quite young (like a young teenager), but there was only 1 item on my list – her wedding set. It wasn’t fancy, for some reason, I wanted it … it was “plain Jane”, but nothing else caught me like that did. I was the middle of 3 of her grand-daughters, so I did know what would happen. Same situation for my maternal grandma, only it was my secret. When she passed away, nothing changed … nothing. So, years later when my grandpa died, the family was at the house and my mom and her brother gather all us grandchildren and asked us to take pen and paper and walk through the house and make a list of “things” we would like to have. I was the only grand-daughter in this family, and again, I didn’t need to look. I wrote it down, and turned my list in.

To make a long story short, my dad came to me several months after his mom was gone, and had FOUND it in her belongings!! She had told him before she died that she wanted me to have the set. There was actually another wedding band she was buried in – it was the original band she was married in, and later on, when they had some money, Grandpa bought her the set I had always seen her wear!

My mom and her brother discussed my “wish list”, and both agreed that since I was the only grand-daughter in that family, it was fitting that I get her set as well. Her set was the tinyist diamond chip you could “almost see” (he he) and a thin band to match. Both of my grandparents were born and raised in the secluded mountains of West Virginia, and there was NO money. It was during WWII and when my grandpa wasnt fighting with the Army (in Germany), he was the only teacher on the mountain, in a 1 room school house that held 7 grades … he was also the cook for lunch!! Anyway, she had worn hers so long, that the underside of the set was worn so thin, you could barely see them holding together. I had the set sautered (spelling ?) simply to prevent it from being separated. I only wear this set on “special occassions”, but I wear my other grandmother’s diamond ring as part of my wedding set. My husband Barry’s and my wedding bands are both engraved with words “We Made Three”, as we consider our Heavenly Father and ourselves completing our circle of love.

Many years ago my mother had rings made for my sister and me from my grandmother’s diamonds. My ring was stolen several years ago when someone broke into our house. The pearls my husband bought me the Christmas before our wedding were also stolen. I can appreciate losing something with sentimental value. Hope your ring arrives home safely.

I have jewelry and it was all purchased by my husband over the years, but the item(s) I hold most dear would be my nativity scene he purchased the 7th Christmas we were together. We did not have much money, but he knew my hearts desire was a nativity scene, and that is what I got.

I love DIAMONDS! The bigger the better… The more the merrier. Make mine Diamonds! Well both of my grandmothers felt the same way. And my mom could not care less! My mom lost the stone to her engagement ring YEARS ago but no big deal. Who cares really??? Hello mom it is a diamond! All she had left was the worn thin band with the engraving and those 4 prongs stuck straight in the area. Worthless! When my grandmother died, she had rings I would have wrestled for. But I was so low on the totum pole I was never in consideration for any. I was allowed to rummage through the trash jewelry bag and pick something. And there it was! Among the beads and costume jewelry, was a worn thin gold band with some engraving. It had been cut off her hand at somepoint in life and discarded. The stone long ago reset in one of those prize rings I so craved. But I could have this. Her original setting from her engagement ring. I took her ring and my moms ring to a jeweler weeks before Carey and I married. My instructions were simple. Cut those prongs off, Size them and solter them together. DONT POLISH STRAIGHTEN OR DAMAGE THE WORN look at all!

My wedding set is stunning. My husband spoiled me with several carats of diamond bliss! But nestled in all the sparkle is two disgarded rings that no store can sell, no jeweler can make and noone wanted. I treasure it as much as those big glittery stones.

If you ever run into me, ask me and I will show it to you!

Loving these stories!

When we got married in 1987, my husband had no intention of buying me an engagement ring. He thought they were stupid and overpriced, and had no interest in adding to the profits of the DeBeers Corporation. Sigh. His friends and family shamed him into buying me a ring with an estate stone–very simple solitaire in a Tiffany setting. Bliss.

Eighteen years and three kids later, I sat on our sofa and felt something rough against my finger. It was the empty prongs of my engagement ring. Panic. We had been to soccer practice that evening, and I actually went out to the soccer field with a flashlight, hoping to find the missing stone from my ring. No luck. I searched every nook and cranny of our house over and over, tore the sofa apart, and begged everyone to keep an eye out for it. Finally I realized that it was gone and resigned myself to life without an engagement ring, since my husband would obviously have no interest in replacing it. I was so sad.

Four months later. A Saturday morning. I was upstairs sorting laundry when my six-year-old son came in with his hands cupped together. “Mom? Look…” His hands were full of goldfish crumbs, paper clips, pennies, lint, plastic beads, and other crud from under the sofa cushions. Yuck. “But Mom–LOOK!”

There in the middle of the crud was my diamond. It had fallen out of my ring while I was sitting on the sofa and had gotten wedged deep into the frame. My three-year-old had dislodged it while jumping on the sofa (her favorite pasttime), and my son had found it while replacing the sofa cushions. “I knew it was your diamond, ’cause it’s so sparkly.” Tears.

I took the stone into the den where my husband was watching TV. He looked at it, and at the expression on my face, sat me down, and said, “You know, if you want to upgrade that stone and the ring, we can do that.” Shock. “I see you looking at it all the time, and so many people have told me how beautiful it is. Nothing I’ve ever bought you has made you as happy as that ring. And nothing has made you as unhappy as losing it. If you want to upgrade, let’s do it.”

I looked at new settings. I looked at larger stones. And I ended up having the original stone reset in the original ring (with new, reinforced prongs). Because I remember what a huge deal it was for my husband to buy it that way, and I never want to forget it. And I still admire it every day–especially when I’m vacuuming under the sofa cushions.

When I married my wonderful, sweet, patient, loving (you get the picture) Husband 26 years ago, I too was ‘ringing’ a man that had never been ‘ringed’ before! I bought him the biggest, thickest gold wedding band that I could find…I told him that when he “wore through” it he’d be free…something akin to an animal chewing off it’s own leg to get free of a trap! LoL…needless to say, after 26 years it bears the marks of a hard working man. It truly is a symbol of our lives over the past 26+ years, dings, hard knocks and some abrasions. But, underneath all that obvious wear and tear, the golden glow still shines just as it did when I slipped it on his finger on May 12th, 1984 in Martin’s Brandon Episcopal Church before God and everybody and every time I look at it on his weathered hands I remember that glorious day of promise and infinite possibilities! P.S. He still hasn’t chewed his leg off…yet!

I am a sap…I still have the now empty bottle of perfume that my now husband bought me 22 years ago. Love your story and thanks for the chance to win.

I have so many things that have no value what-so-ever except for the sentimental attachmnent to me. My mom recently passed away and I’ve been going through things. I found two pairs of clip-on earrings that are costume jewelry. Precious! Just because I can see my mother’s beautiful hands clipping them on.

My kids have sentimental value. I would pay almost $30 to get them back if my husband left them at some hotel. Most days. And some days I might even pay $31.

Love the story, and the earrings. My favorite sentimental item is attached to my wedding ring – a 10 year anniversary band now 10 years old that my hubby surprised me with on the anniversary of his proposal. Not a date that stuck in my mind, so it was a complete surprise. I still get a silly grin whenever I look at it!

My (only) child’s baby clothes! Someday I want to make a quilt out of those clothes and I know I’ll sleep with it each and every night. I know my husband and I will always miss our little boy being a baby.

Your story took my breath away. My treasure is a very ugly orange & black bowling ball. When my Mom passed away from cancer a couple of years ago I chose her old bowling ball that she kept hidden in the back of her closet. It was the ONLY thing of my mother’s that she never let us children ever play with – I always wondered why (this woman let me and my sisters destroy her wedding dress and have tea parties with her sterling silver tea set) but we were never allowed to touch (or even look at) her bowling ball. My mother never bowled – ever! But, after she passed away I took that bowling ball to remember her and because I felt that, aside from her family, it must have been her next greatest treasure. Every time I look at it – it reminds me that my Mom was a person with a life beyond me! She had a whole life story that I wasn’t part of. I love my Mom.

I have several little things that my husband has bought me over the years, are not expensive, but i love that he thought enough about me at the time to buy me something while he travels for work and i know he could have his mind on many things, but at that point, it was me on his mind. I’m sure one day once we are gone our kids or grand kids will say “what was she thinking, keeping this old thing!” Thanks for the giveaway!

Sometimes the simplest and cheapest things mean the most. I took my kids on an overnight trip to a theme park a couple of years ago. While walking to the car after spending a wonderful day at the park my daughter, who was about 14 at the time, came to me in a panic. With tears in her eyes she told me she had left her blanket at the hotel. You see this is the blanket she was given before she was even born and has slept with this blanket every night since. I even had to add a new front to it when she was about 10 due to all the love Bri had given it over the years. She usually puts the blanket in the pillow case while sleeping and puts her arm in the pillow and this is where she left it at the hotel.

I called the hotel but of course only the desk clerk was working at this time and everything else was locked up. The following day I paid the hotel $25 to ship the blanket home. The look on Briana’s face when she pulled that blanket out of the box made it worth every cent and more!!

I have many things of sentimental value, I call them treasures, but probably my most treasured is my engagement ring. I threw the one he gave me in 1984 when we got engaged into a lake. (we were fishing – long story) And he worked and worked to buy me another one and surprise me with it. It is symbolic of many things, but mostly of his love for me, and my love for him, and that makes it precious!

When I was a little girl, I would look at Mom’s engagement and wedding rings on her finger and thinking it how beautiful they were. One of these days, I thought, I’ll be married and I’ll have a beautiful wedding ring set.
I was Mom’s caregiver during her final days. She was no longer wearing her rings. I found her engagement ring one day, and told her how much I had always loved her wedding rings. She gave them to me. I had to have them rebanded and repaired because the bands had worn all the way through. Dad had paid about $500 for the set in the early 40′s, and it had cost me more than that to have them repaired. The jeweler told me it was a miracle the diamond hadn’t fallen out – it was being held in by only one prong.
So, this beautiful wedding and engagement ring set is now worn on my left ring finger, a constant reminder of the beautiful mother I had, and how God had chosen such wonderful parents for me, something the Burts and the Warthans have in common

I LOVE how you love your husband and tell it to the world!!! Does the cold hearted hotel clerks have an email where we can flood their in box with our comments of how we will never stay at their establishment and that they have icewater in their coursing thru their veins to ransom your ring at such a price????

I am SO not a jewelry person. I wear a wide white gold wedding band & only really special occasions a silver bracelet or two. I was the only living daughter when my Mom passed, so I got the wedding ring. A unusual band of gold with white gold accents & multiple diamond chips that form a trailing vine. My Dad won it in the early 50′s at a jewelry store opening. They had never had the money to buy a wedding ring. It was Mom’s prized possession. It will go to my only daughter someday (she is a jewelry LOVER ). The silver earrings would look really good on her!

The things I hold sentimental are the cards and little notes he has given me over the years. One of my favorites is a sharpie-on-napkin note telling me ” love you, have a good day, here’s some snack money” he left in my lunch box. Love the little things he does to remind me he loves me! I keep in the visor in my truck so I can re-read it when I need a little pick me up.

My little boy has the whitest hair you’ve ever seen. I know it will not be too long before it starts to change to a darker blonde, but for now I touch it and smell it and stare at it like it’s gold from heaven. I have a secret….I keep it all every time he gets a haircut! He’s only 16 months old, so there haven’t been many haircuts, but, I’m telling you, I can’t see myself quitting this habit anytime soon. So there it is. My item of sentiment is…a bag of hair.
Everything changes when you have kids.

Hi, I hopped over here from PioneerWomen’s site and enjoyed the tale of your man’s ring. It has me thinking about my own sentimental ornament. I wear my wedding ring on the appropriate hand and on the opposite one I wear my grandmother’s ring. As a little girl I would play in my mom’s jewelry box and then as a teenager, mom would let me pick out some bauble for a special occasion. She let me wear her mom’s ring to church sometimes and one day I just never took it off. It still holds residence on my finger, some 17 years later, and I can still feel my mother lift up my right hand and hold it in her own. She would look down at the ring and run her other hand over ours and then she would smile sweetly as she no doubt remembered the special love between her mom and dad. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

I have an old blue crockery bowl that belonged to my maternal Grandma, and an old recipe and ‘home helper’ book that was my paternal Grand Dad Bobs. (He had written instructions on the inside cover about where particular ‘valuables’ were stored in case of emergency.) They are both earthly treasures, but treasures none-the-less.

I have worn my daddy’s wedding ring on my middle finger for over 40 yrs. Unlike everyone else who has it for endearing feelings, I went and got it out of the front yard when he opened the door and threw it away… and some time later I asked my mother if I could have it since it was still in his drawer not being worn. It took many years before I could wear it, put aside the trauma and see the positive things it represented. It was worn thin as kite string… from working hard every day of his life. He never, ever took a sick day, worked out in the Texas heat and took every minute of overtime available. He did his share or more and never took more than his share. Although I can not forget the difficulties of our emotional lives I have come to terms with the realities of what life was for him, and that he gave us better than he ever got. In some odd way, it reminds me of doing the hard things and sticking it out to the betterment of others, is an honorable life.

Hello. Love the pictures you take. They are amazing! I never saw cotton on the plants til I found you here off PW’s site.
My husband had my engagement ring made for me from his Grandmother’s diamonds that were left to him for when he found the “right” girl. At the time, I had no idea he was that serious about me! I’m glad he was. I treasure it almost as much as I treasure him.

Married a farmer. New what I was getting into. Love it every minute of every day for the last.. ummmmm 33 years

I have a little statue of an old man golfing. I gave it to my Dad for Christmas one year as kind of a joke thing. He kept it on his dresser. After he suddenly passed away almost two years ago my Mom returned it to me. I kept it on my mantlepiece but it became too hard to look at so I have him packed away until the hurt lessens.

I stumbled upon your site today and I must say you are so talented w/ a camera, love your photography!

Love the picture and love the smell of wet dirt when it’s raining. Adorable earrings too.

I have a wooden box, with a mirror inside the lid, that my dad won at a punch board in the 1920s. I love it!
Found your blog from the Pioneer Woman’s. Thanks!

A keepsake box my grandmother gave my oldest son Noah the day we dedicated him at church. She crossstiched his name with a Bible verse and it is framed into the top of the box. So, so special.

My mom’s simple gold wedding band. I’ve worn it everyday since the day she died nearly 40 years ago.

I hold precious a silver charm necklace made with a long bit of charm bracelet chain and lots of charms i have collected and have been given to me over the last 45 years.
i love silver jewelry!

I have a watch that my husband gave me. 13 years ago, 7 days before the diamond engagment ring. He was trying to throw me off. Sorta worked, but every time I wear my beloved watch that is all scratched and out dated, I remember how much he loves to surprise me. I would definitely double back for that watch…

I just found your blog and I hope I’m not too late for your drawing! The earrings are fantastic-it is the first time I have heard of Silpada. Well, no excuse, except I stay home a lot.

Earrings are like icing on a cake. They make everything complete.

I still sleep with my Raggedy Ann and Andy pillowcase from my childhood. I just turned 28.

Anything that brings me memories of my precious mother that passed away 15 years ago. I gave away all her jewelry to her granddaughters and daughters in law so they would always remember how glamorous and special she was and I kept the things that made no sense to anyone but me and my close relationship with the funniest woman on earth. Like her favorite sewing kit with crazy buttons she never found a use for.

I used to live in Norfolk, Va. I really miss it