I have a charm bracelet for each decade of my life. each little silver item marking a personal milestone, adventure, or achievement. some of them are attached to bracelets while others hang out in tiny plastic baggies, waiting to fulfill their destiny. I love how I am able to wear my life's personal history on my wrist (though I never do, ever since I lost one of my favorite charms while schlepping around at the mall). I get them all out from time to time, lay them all out on the floor. I line them up and re-tell the little stories of my life. I am my own audience.
now the ava-girl has charm bracelets, one for each year of her life. I know i won't be able to keep that up forever but I won't mind the trying.
That's pretty cool. My mom used to have a silver charm bracelet that she'd let me wear to school every once ina while while I was in junior high. I think there's something special about charm bracelets. It's cool to see the way in which you have marked time and history with them.
ReplyDeleteit is a beautiful way to mark milestones...
ReplyDeletemy mom also had one and i often wonder where it ever went...
lucky you to have one for each year! wow! i love charm bracelets - but only have a few. and also lost one, so always very careful where i wear it.
ReplyDeleteI started a charm bracelet when my Ava was born. My grandma had one when I was a child that I was obsessed with and once my girl was born, I wanted to start one for her. I've got charms from the places we've traveled, our Chinese astrology animals and other mementos that are signficant to our tiny family. I hope that she loves it as much as I do.
ReplyDeletethat is pretty darn cute :)
ReplyDeletethis just brought back a great memory that my mom had two charm bracelets in her jewelry box--one silver, one gold (because she was practical) I used to love to take them out and wear them, because they made so much noise on my wrist and ask her about each of the charms.
ReplyDeletewhat a great idea to start one with ava.
i LOVE this picture! fantastic andrea!!!
fab fab fab.
ReplyDeletecharms as markers.... love it... and that it's a tradition. special. in such a wonderful way.....
What an amazing picture!! I love the significance of it all. My mom has a charm bracelet that I love. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're so great at capturing memories.....your kids are lucky to have such a thoughtful mom!
ReplyDeleteI love this set of pictures. I love you and Ava together. Call me silly, but it's just heartwarming to see.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm a boob.
I had a charm bracelet in high school...it didn't have that many charms...but I wonder where it is! This has inspired me to dig it up!
ReplyDeleteooo wow you picked my very favorite photo to portray such a beautiful thing.
ReplyDeleteAnother great idea from Andrea! I love it so much. And the picture is just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHmm, wonder if it's too late to start this. Or maybe in a couple years when I hit 40. That way I can convince myself that life -- or the best chapters -- will really begin then.
that's a beautiful photo. And it's so cool that you continue that tradition with your daughter. I wish I had a mom like you!
ReplyDeleteI started my own charm bracelet a few years back. Max thinks it's absolutely magical, the way it jingles when I move ...
Love this shot, Andrea. And I can't possibly stress enough how much this obsession with charms affects our travel plans. Hours and hours spent walking EVERYWHERE in Rome, trying to find that perfect charm that meant something to you, that spoke to you directly with the right words that hopefully said, "yes, this encapsulates my trip to Rome,".... man, my feet hurt just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteBut with these fun and quirky idiosyncracies you possess makes me love you all the more.
this is a really great shot and an amazing story.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine sitting on the floor touching your history - beautiful.
thanks, all.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to write so much more on this subject but I was in such a rush. plus, it just felt finished. but I really did want to write about where my love for charm bracelets came from: my mom had the most fantastic bracelets. my favorite one was one she brought back from her trip to europe-- it had all these amazingly detailed little movable charms marking each country she'd visited and yes, it made that wonderful jingly sound! and I wanted to write about all my different charms, and all the ones I've collected for ava but there are just too many stories there. ward is right, I drive him crazy with my ongoing quest for charms. I want to write about how I drove both him and my best friend nacy looking for a statue of liberty charm in new york and I want to tell the story of how I happened onto the most perfect charm on a little side street in rome, but alas. those are all stories for other days. sigh.
Your writing is awesome. I'm so entranced with the beauty you find in life. SO VIBRANT
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful picture. It reminds me of when my girls would dump out my jewelry box and look at each piece one by one. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDelete