Happy Anniversary to Me and Lacy

I made a post on my facebook page this week that inspired me to write this blog post even though my anniversary is now two weeks ago.  I get a feed on Facebook from a jeweler named Gabriel & Co.  I reposted a ring that they displayed on their facebook page which is absolutely gorgeous.  I said that if my husband hadn't already bought the most amazing engagement ring I could imagine (paraphrasing), then this ring would be tops on my list.  And that's true!  It's beautiful!

I follow that company on Facebook because my husband, who has fantastic taste, has also bought me some jewelry from Gabriel & Co., but I'll save that story for another post.  This post is about my engagement ring... and lack of wedding band.

My anniversary was 9/15.  It was our 5th.  When we were first married I never got a wedding band.  I have been wearing only my engagement ring since then.  The reason we never bought the wedding band was  because we bought a house just two months after our wedding.  Actually, we didn't even go on a honeymoon for this same reason.  We bought a real fixer-upper of a house and we had entirely too many costs related to the house to spend money on frivolities.  We did take some vacation time from work right after our wedding just to spend some time together and have a "honeymoon" at home.

So, we always said that on some anniversary we'd buy the wedding band to match my engagement ring.  The ring was made by a company named Fotiny& Co.  Here's a picture of the ring right after Lacy gave it to me.  I didn't have the nice camera then, but I'd rather use that photo than taking a new one for some reason.
You can't see in the pictures, but the whole underside is engraved with a design.  When I look at it (and I do often gaze at it) I think that every detail was considered when it was designed.  Can you tell that I really love the ring my husband picked for me?

Lacy was told when he purchased the ring that I would need to send the engagement ring back to California, to Fotiny's design location, so that the wedding ring could be fitted specially around the engagement ring.  The ring sits at such a low profile that this really does seem necessary.  It always made me nervous about sending the ring across the country, but I am willing because I do want the wedding band badly.

For our wedding I acutally used a gold band that we bought at at pawn shop for $10 in North Myrtle Beach for the ceremony.  It was about 3 sizes too big, but never intended on wearing it; only using for the ceremonial act.  I still have the pawn shop ring.  I saved it, along with some other keepsakes, for scrapbooking purposes.  Of course, I never made a wedding scrapbook.  It was a small wedding, so there wasn't that much to save and commemorate in a scrapbook.  Plus the album from the photographer turned out so nicely that it seemed like a waste of time to do it.  For a long time I just carried that pawn shop ring around in my purse.  I finally put it in my jewelry box for safe keeping.

So, time has passed.  We spent our money renovating our first house and investing in the stock market.  I never fussed about not having a wedding band or considered it a priority.  But, I think we both always assumed that on our 5th anniversary we would drive down to Columbia, SC to the jeweler where Lacy bought the engagement ring, order the wedding band and have him mail off my engagement ring to match it correctly.

However, a snag in that plan occurred.  Close to three weeks before our 5th anniversary, we decided to buy a new house.  Another fixer-upper.  It was my in-laws old house which sat on the market for quite a while, then off the market... a few minor renovations done, but essentially no one lived in the house for almost six years.  So, when we bought the house, along with it came a laundry list of repairs to be made.

And there went my wedding band.  Another house; another postponement of the symbol of our eternal love.  We already have a contractor working on the house, so that should be complete soon.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have a new job, so hopefully we'll get some cash freed up soon for this purchase that continues to be pushed down the priority ladder.

I occasionally browse Fotiny's website and I wanted to embed some pictures from their website of some jewelry I like, but the website isn't conducive to copying links.  Check it out though, http://fotiny.com/

A Month Passed By Quickly

Its been about a month since my last post.  I have so many ideas of things to write about, but so little time!  Really, I do have a good excuse.  We bought a new house and we moved in two weekends ago.  There are still boxes in almost every room, but its slowly coming together.  This house is a fixer-upper, like the last one.  Except it is a lot bigger.  There will be plenty of room for my girls to grow up here, and maybe, possibly their future baby brother ;)

We are definitely going to do "before" photos this time.  We have some from our first house, but they are incidental, not intentional. 

Also, in late August I got a new shipment of beads and findings in.  I've been counting, restringing, making tassels, labeling, photographing, retouching photographs and organizing my growing inventory.  It was a lot of work, but I'm pretty much finished. 

There are definitely some photographs I'd like to retake.  I have had an extremely difficult time taking good pictures of the strands of Rose Quartz beads I bought.  When I use a white background and then color correct the lighting to make the background solid white, the edges of the beads seem to disappear into the white.  So I tried to use a black background.  I still have to color correct that to remove the lent and tiny but visible particles from the black background of the light tent.  But, I can't seem to get the settings right on my camera to start with when using the black background, so when I do the color correction the pink no longer looks pink; instead more coral.  I guess it will be a matter of trial and error until I get it figured out.  It's a shame, the Rose Quartz is lovely.  I can't wait to list it, but I have to figure out the photography first.  I don't want to misrepresent the product.

Finally, during all this chaos, I found a new job!  I've been a bit bummed out about my job at the bank since I came back from maternity leave last year.  My job started to feel monotonous and working in the financial industry has been and still is highly stressful since the economic downturn.  I may be a bit jaded, but I really think the the press has been unduly brutal towards the big banks.  I really liked working there and it seems kind of weird to leave after six years of tenure.  But, I am really excited about my new opportunity.  One big change will be that I've been working from home for the last two years and now I'll be back in an office.  I really liked the freedom of working from home, but I am kind of looking forward to being back in an office.  It gets lonely by myself sometimes. 

So, here is a photo of all the work I did.  It may not look like much to some people, but all this organization took a lot of time.  This picture includes one of my favorite purchases of all time; my label maker.  Every bag of beads is labeled with an identificaiton code as well as length of the strand and quantity of beads.  I love making labels!

This is just the counter of the cabinets behind the desk in the office area of my new house.  I will post pictures of both the desk and the storage once it's neater looking.  One thing I love about the office is that its really more of a large nook that is part of the girls' play room.  So, hopefully I can do some work while they are playing with their toys.  We'll see how that goes :)