There’s been no stamping here today . . . yet! But I do have something I want to share with you that I worked on this afternoon. I’ve been jewelry mode!

My family knows that I will take their old jewelry that they no longer wear or wish to keep. A friend of ours, who also cuts my mother’s and uncle’s hair, brought me a boatload of jewelry last week when they were having beauty parlor day. I got there late that day and everyone else had already gone through the jewelry that was brought to me. My sister started bragging about a watch she pulled out and when I saw it, through a fit because I knew she wouldn’t wear it and how dare she go through the jewelry when it was meant for me . . . all in good fun, it’s just the way we . . . . dibs, I’ve got dibs! I think she was have a grand time watching me pout and suffer because by the end of the afternoon I came home with the watch.

This morning I was sitting here thinking about the watch and what I could do with it. I lost my favorite watch in the airport last year, one I had gotten for my birthday . . . one of a kind . . . LOVED that watch. Since I only like to wear a watch when I’m traveling, and since I’m traveling this weekend . . . Wendy Vecchi here we come. . . .I thought I should do something with the watch.

Here’s a picture of my plan.

You can see the very neat watch made from old typewriter keys and lying next to it are some charms that I’ve had forever. I decided I would gather what charms I wanted to use and take them down to my favorite jewelry to have them put on. Before I headed out I decided to do some figuring on what this might cost me . . . . at the low end $5.00 per charm . . . $65.00! NOPE!! I decided I could do it myself.

I ran to the studio, pulled out the soldering tool and decided on my plan of action. Luckily I had jump rings in my bead stash and . . . .

Isn’t it cool! One of a kind! No one else can ever have one like this! It’s all me! Things that have made me what I am!  Something that reminds me of who I am!

Take a look at this!  That little heart is the locket off my very first baby necklace . . . it’s old, very old . . . . 51 years old.  That head is a charm my mother had on her bracelet . . .  engraved on the back is my name and birth date.  Of course there’s a coffee cup.

Here’s the Sister Locket (the one with double hearts) my sister gave me at Christmas when we found out I was going to have surgery to remove the spot of cancer.  She even put our picture in it . . . too cool!  I took it off the chain and made a charm.  You can’t see it very well, but hidden next to the watch face is my very first charm . . . a bowling pin and ball.  My aunt gave it to me when she gave me my first charm bracelet.  I might have been 10 years old.

My absolute favorite charm is this one of the coffin.  It was one my aunt had on her charm bracelet and I eventually ended up with.  I’m sure it’s for my uncle who was, and always has been, a Funeral Director.  See the little skeleton behind it . . . that was Aunt Linda’s too.  The coffin is so cool and I’m guessing goes back to the early to mid 60’s.  I would love to find out more about it some day.  You push the corpse down to the life side and the lid closes over and latches.

I’ll continue to add to it every time I’m given or purchase a charm. I still collect them when I travel and the watch contains many of those . . . Disneyland, Arizona, Texas, Daytona Beach, Opryland, just to name a few. Some of them I’ve had since I was in my teens.

Damn isn’t the watch cool!  I’m so tickled with myself that I’m about to break my arm patting myself on the back!

So that’s it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and look at the adventure I had today.  Remember life is short . . . .