Mimi's Savings Secrets....keepsake jewellery...

Does anyone but me have a jewellery fetish?

I love my jewellery. Real and costume. I wear it all. Not all at once, but I wear different things every day, and love them equally. I have inherited pieces, gifted pieces, things I bought myself when I was younger. My affection for different pieces never wanes, and I always wear at least two including my wedding rings (although I have different versions of those too!), but never more than four.

Today I am wearing an antique French Georgian pendant that my husband gifted me. It is jet and seed pearls set in gold, and has a matching pinky ring.

Yesterday, I wore a pear shaped crystal pendant set in gold, also a gift, with tiny gold stud earrings. So I don't mind a bit of fake bling when the mood takes me either!

We were taught from an early age to appreciate beautiful things. My first real jewellery, like many girls of my era, was a gold ID bracelet with a bluebird of happiness on it. A matching pendant was added later, and a signet ring in my teens. These were expensive even back then, and goodness knows how Mum, with seven children, could afford it. But perhaps it was because we didn't have the discount costume jewellers and so on, and we only wore those genuine pieces, not the showy stuff. She possibly layby-ed them with the same family jeweller at which we shopped for many years, and which sadly, no longer exists. Knowing Mum, she paid them off gradually over many months.

My daughter, now 15 has a couple of genuine pieces. A tiny gold cross on a very delicate chain (also from my Mum who was still alive then....a christening gift), a tiny pair of rose gold huggie earrings which she wears daily, and an opal ring that we gave her for her birthday this year. This was purchased as a memento of her Poppy who used to mine opals in his younger days, and who would have left her one in his will, had he not been burgled shortly before he passed away.

The point is, that 'good' jewellery for me, is all tied up in memories. I'd like it to be the same for my daughter and grandaughters. I'm gifting my daughter a piece that was Mums for Valentines Day. It's a tiny pearl pendant set in gold. She can re-use the chain that's currently on her cross to wear it. Mum would love that.

It's my older granddaughters third birthday on Sunday. She's getting a bluebird bracelet, just like the one I had at her age. I hope she'll treasure it for many years.

So I guess my question is, do you value these more expensive items too? They're all important to me, not for their financial value, but for their sentimental value. I love antique jewellery for the same reason and it's a cost effective alternative to the shiny stuff in the shopping malls. I love that someone else has worn and loved that piece as much as I do.

This Valentines Day, think about gifting something special, something that has memories attached to it, and that has the potential to hold your own memories for you to pass on to precious ones in your own family. Check out antique dealers, pawnbrokers, and private sellers on eBay or Etsy. Even better, ask within your own family whether there may be a special much loved piece that is worthy of being passed down. You might be thrilled at what you can find, that's pre-owned and pre-loved.

After all, what price can you put on 'sentiment'?