Show & Tell Friday

I haven't done a "Show & Tell" for some time now, so it is nice to be doing one yet again. I have met some fab people from this event, so thanks again to Kelli who hosts this weekly celebration of all things loved.

Those who know me know of my love of all things Parisian, especially the Eiffel Tower. I have many, large statues as tall as myself, smaller ones, signs, vintage images of, and more. I also love charm bracelets and one of my first blog posts was on just that. You can go here to read it:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2007/11/tradition-of-charm-bracelets.html

Below is one of the bracelets I wrote about. At the time, it was my French charm bracelet. I love the way the links have been made. This was a vintage find and they just don't make the actual bracelets like this anymore. Since then it has turned into my European charm bracelet, with an emphasis on Paris.

Below is how the same bracelet looks now, spread out on a vintage ledger.

I have been fortunate enough to find some more lovely charms to add to it's splendor and this is the bracelet I usually grab to wear during my day. I love large charms and they can never be too big for me. In fact, I love large jewelry in general.

The bracelet now has some vintage enamel charms on it from places I have been like Inverness near Loch Ness (so beautiful) and Wales, where I lived one summer and taught at a school there. There is also a London crest and a policeman (bobby? how do you spell that Caz) hat on it as well. Hey Caz, I need a Leeds charm to represent you!

I love the enamel charms that say "Paris" and there is also one of Stuttgart where my husband has traveled for business. The other enamel one is a place that I have not visited, but the charm was very inexpensive and I liked the way it looked.



The above image shows my collection of Eiffel Towers. I have another one I still need to add that is very old. Unfortunately I broke it as soon as I took it out of the envelope.

I took this picture to show the thickness of some of the charms including the Eiffel towers, the Arc de Triumph, and the small bell there on the lower right. It was just another cool find that I decided to add to this bracelet.

The hexagonal Eiffel tower charm is actually a charm from a Parisian souvenir bracelet. I didn't know it when I purchased it, but have since acquired a charm just like it that is on the end of a souvenir bracelet. I will be posting pictures of that one soon. It has a great deal of intricate work on it and is just beautiful.

The newest charm is the one of the Ave Maria. It is very special to me because my good friend Kathy from Vintage Snaps & Scraps sent it to me at a time when I needed it most. I am Catholic, although not a very good one anymore. I can't even tell you the last time I went to mass. However, I am very good when it comes to prayer. Like I tell my girls, it is the key to life. When I received this charm, it was the most "down" part of my time in dealing with my mother's breast cancer. She had surgery just this week. So, when I got this charm it was like God and Mary were both telling me that everything was going to be okay and that they were watching over us. I knew this already, of course, but it is nice to get those little confirmations here and there.

On the back it shows, "Lourdes" so it goes along with this bracelet perfectly. Thank you again Kathy for this wonderful gift.

This picture shows the back side of several of the charms. The one on the far left is huge and shows the Arc de Triumph on the opposite side. It isn't silver like the others, but I just love it.

You can see in the above and below pictures, just how large some of these charms are.

Sometimes, we have that piece of jewelry that just makes us feel good. This is one of those from my collection. I just love it. I hope that you will check out my earlier mentioned post on the tradition of charm bracelets. It is a great hobby, especially if you have little girls like I do to share it with. I finally completed my oldest daughter's bracelet, and she loves it.

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting!

Rhonda...