Julia's jewels...

When my twin and I were babies, our mother nicknamed us.  Mine was "Jewels" and Laura's was "Birdie".  Over the years, Laura's just never stuck with anyone besides our parents.  Mine though, definitely did.  My closest friends call me it and I just well.....I love it.  Because to me, a nickname just oozes closeness and shared secrets.

The spelling has always been a bone of contention between her and I  She spells it Jewels, and I like Jules better..  I have my reasons.  First, it writes out better, and is much closer in sight to my name (Julia); second, and I feel most fitting of all....I am NOT a girl who wears jewels.  I wear a beautiful cuff bracelet that my mom gave me as a wedding gift, my engagement ring, and a simple band that takes the place for my wedding band (which is in my jewelry box).

 That's all.

My mom on the other hand LOVES all things girly.  She has oodles of jewelry and overflowing closets full of beautiful clothes and high heels.  She is THE quintessential LADY.

In fact, she is famous for asking me.

"Why can't you just be a girl for once, Julia?"

And when I have dressed up,  it changes to...

"See, it's nice to be a lady isn't it?"

As I cringe and wrinkled up my face in my fancy dress, just counting the minutes until I was able to get back into my jeans and flip flops.

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This morning, I took off my rings to shower.  I went about my morning, walking around the lake and getting groceries.  As I was checking out at the store though, I looked down at my hand and realized that I didn't have my rings on. No big deal I thought and just went home to get them.

Except once I got there, they were not on the dresser where I had left them.

I literally PANICKED.

I tore our bedroom apart!  Flipping the mattress off of the frame and pulling out the dresser drawers.  But I still couldn't find them.  Finally I found them in the laundry basket that was in front of the dresser.  Apparently my cats have a thing for gems and must have knocked them into the basket.

As I slipped the rings back into the familiar spot on my finger, I felt inspired by the tightness that was resolving in my chest.

I could hear my mom's voice whispering in my ear. "Be a lady."

Of course, I knew that she was right.

And so began.... "OPERATION JEWELRY ORGANIZATION"

You would probably think that I am lacking in jewels after what I wrote above.  But in all actuality, I have some really nice jewelry.

 (all jammed into that teeny tiny jewelry box that I got in high school).

I divided it all into piles and then found little sweet containers to put each pile into.

First came the most sentimental, a little saved note from my husband from when we were dating, and a necklace and ring that he bought me during that time.  They all went into a beautiful in-laid heart shaped stone box that he bought for me.

Then my sterling chains and pendants (most of which my sweet mom gave to me) all went into a little silver tin.

My earrings all went into this ceramic heart.

And lastly, my rings and necklaces each got a pocket

In this pretty pink vintage satin glove case that my Aunt gave to me.

So here I sit on my couch, LOVING Missy Higgins and sipping on my Snapple, feeling every part the LADY.......all decked out in my jewels.

And of course, my jeans and my flip flops.

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Now, you tell me...are you a girly girl?