Trish Berry, December 2024
Pretty, shiny jewelry is not as lovely as a big sparkling smile. Pretty, shiny jewelry is not as lovely as a laugh from the heart that rings across the dining room.
I have old, wrinkly hands, as you can see in the photo, but I dress up those old hands any way I want. (Remember, these are 76-year-old hands!!!!)
I love jewelry. Always have. Always will. But it does not need to be expensive jewelry. I play with different rings and bracelets on the cruises I take. I wear my good jewelry, but I also wear fun pieces. I found some fun rings in the Cayman Islands. They are simple adjustable rings in various colors and are called Mermaid Scale Rings.
I found these rings at the souvenir store at Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. There are many things to see in this shop.
I don’t usually wear cheap jewelry because of my allergies to certain metals. Nickel is the worst. A lot of the cheap jewelry being sold now can cause severe reactions, even leading to keloid scarring, which is an overgrowth of scar tissue. If you develop this on your ear lobes, it can be costly to have removed.
I’m showing you a photo of me with some of the rings on, the store where they were purchased, and the display box where I found them on the counter at the back of the store. They are so cute and so cheap, $5.00 each. (But I only wear them during dinner and then remove them. I don’t keep them on long enough to cause harm to my body.) The photo below is a picture of one of the mermaid scale rings I put on my husband’s little finger. I thought he looked cute. He did not think he looked cute. Possibly a blackmail photo?
Below is a highlighted photo of the tulip ring from the top photo. You are very special if you have a tulip ring. That means you won at Bingo. You press the sides to turn it on and off. Some nights, a lot of people have flashing rings on their fingers.
I also have fine jewelry that I pack. I transport this fine jewelry in our roll-on suitcase, and I use a Yale Lock that can only be opened with a key. All my valuables, makeup, and medications are in that case. I board the ship with this small, wheeled suitcase and take it everywhere with me until the rooms are opened at around 1:00.
Any fine jewelry I take with me is always locked in that suitcase with the Yale lock when I’m not wearing it and am leaving it in our stateroom. I trust no one with my jewelry, except my husband and son.
Most of my fine jewelry came from my husband over the 54 years that we’ve been married, but some of it came from my mother, grandmother and mother-in-law.
I am allergic to jewelry that is not 14K or 10K gold. I can wear sterling silver, but I am a yellow gold girl. I can wear gold-filled jewelry without getting a rash on my wrist, but I will not put gold-filled earrings in my ears. I learned my lesson when I was a teen and first had my ears pierced.
(Fifty-nine years ago, you went to a doctor to get your ears pierced. My doctor had a pair of scissors with a needle-like fixture on one end. He snapped those scissors. I almost hit the ceiling with the pain, but one ear was done so I had the other ear done. I cried. Some of my girlfriends would put a raw potato behind their ear, on the lobe, and an ice cube on the front of the lobe to numb it. Then, another girlfriend would jam a needle that had thread in it into the lobe and pull the thread through. They were successful, but I did not want to do that so I thought things would be better if I went to the doctor. Well, I might as well have stuck with the potato and ice cube. It was extremely painful to get your ears pierced back then. And back then, you walked around with cat gut (as I was told) that was tied after it was in your lobe. I had to pull that cat gut (??) back and forth until the lobe healed enough to put in earrings. That must have been an awful sight to see. That cat gut thread was black. It was impossible not to see it.
Just think, short hair with black thread in a circle hanging from your lobes. Ugaleee!!!!)
I recently had another piercing in my ears so I can wear two pairs of earrings at one time. Numbing creams are now used. To be on the safe side, I ordered my own numbing cream and put it on my earlobes before I went. I wiped it off in the car. I told no one at the store. They put on new numbing cream. I had a double dose of numbing cream. I didn’t feel a thing. Chicken? Yes.
I wear three gold-filled bangle bracelets. One came from my mother, one from my grandmother and one from my mother-in-law. One is made by Marathon, another Bates & Bacon and another by Winard. I have a smaller Carl ART. These are dear pieces to me because of the memories. These were popular back in the 1960s. I wear them along with my Apple Watch.
We are not back in the 1960s. I wear what I want when I want, which is what every person should do.
The last time we were on the Serenade of the Seas, someone on our floor hung blue and white rubber bracelets on everyone’s door handle. Those bracelets said ‘Serenade of the Seas.’ (See photo at top.) That was so sweet. I wore those bracelets each day we were on the ship. If I knew who to thank, I would thank them. It made me smile every time I thought of someone being so thoughtful of others on the ship before we even set sail. You, out there, I thank you very much. You made our cruise even more fun. Hope to meet you one day.
I have an Apple watch and an Apple phone. We did not want to spend that much money, but these are safe items for us to have. If the watch is close to the phone, I can call for help if I fall, I can answer phone calls, just by speaking into my wrist. Look sort of funny doing that in the grocery store, but what the hey. On the cruise ship, I get in lots of stair steps because we use the stairs as much as possible. Most ship have covered walking on Deck 5. I go there to get in my steps when I’m on a smaller ship. I work at those steps, putting some energy into the, huffin’ and puffin’ so I get my heart pumping.
Whether you have a watch or phone or not, try to get your steps in. Here I am at the computer typing while I’m telling you to get your steps in, but each step we take each day helps us. My husband and I just try to keep moving around.
Thanks for reading.
Doll up with jewelry if you want. Don’t doll up with jewelry if you don’t want. We are all individuals who do our individual things. Most importantly, have fun.
Trish
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