My mum and dad have always liked to mark our special occasions for me and my sister with a special piece of jewellery. I still have the gold heart necklace which they gave me for my first day of primary one and it’s something I will always treasure. This has continued for big birthdays, milestone achievements and to remember special times in my life. For my 23rd birthday, they got me a beautiful pair of earrings which fill me with such happiness, but which are also tinged with sadness.
Those earrings were the last present from both my mum and dad. For those of you who don’t know, my dad died suddenly last January, three weeks to the day after we celebrated my last birthday with us all together. It’s something I will talk about on the blog at some point in the future, but for now I want to move this to present day. I’ve said since losing my dad that I wanted my own piece of jewellery to mark the journey myself and my family have come through since that life changing day.
That’s why, when Argento treated me to £75 of their beautiful jewellery through a #LoveArgento Instagram competition, something caught my eye straight away in their Princes Square store. It may look like a simple rose gold bar set on a silver chain, but when I looked closer it was the special engraving you could have on the bar which really captured my attention. Each side can be engraved with your messages and it just seemed a perfect way to carry my dad and my family with me wherever I go. I had ‘dad’ and his birthday on the front side and added my mum, sister and my boyfriend’s names and their birthdays too. You see, I could not have done the past 18 months without my mum, sister and Brian – it felt a fitting tribute to have them close to my heart beside my dad’s name. It feels almost like our own secret when I wear the necklace as no one can really notice the engraving unless they look very closely which, to me, makes it more special.
For Christmas, Brian got me an Argento rose gold bangle with ‘Love and be loved’ engraved around it and I loved the silver and yellow gold versions which can be worn as stacking bangles. They have the words ‘everything happens for a reason’ on the silver and ‘carpe diem’ on the yellow gold and it seemed the perfect accompaniment for my personalized necklace. They are the type of quotes I try to live by and everytime I wear them, they do make me smile at their meaning.
Thank you Argento for helping find my special pieces of jewellery to remember something so special and something I carry around inside and out every day. I believe in fate and do genuinely think everything happens for a reason, even if you never understand that reason. I never really win anything so winning that Instagram competition did feel like fate, like a sign that I was to go find that personalised necklace which now takes pride of place in my jewellery box, sitting proudly beside those very earrings. We will continue marking our special moments with jewellery and it is something I will want to do for my children too, this piece has just marked a new chapter in my jewellery collection.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post, I have never really shared anything so personal but I wanted to share this with you all.
This is such a beautiful post Rachel! Love the story behind each piece! Xxx