Anniversary Weekend

It’s been 22 years of being married and we decided to celebrate in Vegas with some friends of my hubby. They own a timeshare so it was a no-brainer. Our arrival started with an early dinner. His friends told us about a great deal on Groupon for a buffet nearby at Planet Hollywood. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good deal and this was a goooood deal. The food was delicious and we ate ourselves into a stupor. I don’t usually recommend gluttony but did I mention the food is good? It was good.

His friends also bought inexpensive tickets to The Mentalist show at the V theatre. At the discounted price, it was worth checking out so we got tickets too. I’m so glad we did. After our gluttonous dinner, we rolled out of the buffet and headed over to the show which was nearby. The walk did us all some good. The show was fantastic.

On our walk to the show I noticed several kiosks that sold silver jewelry. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love silver jewelry. My mom and I used to love going out together to browse jewelry. We were enablers. She would always encourage me to buy something when I really loved it. Both of us loved a bargain so we never spent that much on any one piece. I usually didn’t go over $40 on anything. A store we loved going to was Shemoni’s because the silver was reasonably priced and they had some really nice things. We love gemstones and they have gorgeous pieces. Those stores have been steadily closing  and I haven’t seen one in years. In fact, I stopped seeing the silver kiosks in malls and stores. And when I did see silver jewelry, I wasn’t too impressed with what I was seeing. Besides that, I had made a vow not to buy any more jewelry anyway because I had enough already. I still look when something catches my eye but I no longer buy. Well, walking throughout the Vegas shops, I saw many silver kiosks and my head kept swiveling to the shiny, sparkly treasures. Being that I was walking with company, I didn’t stop. Plus we were on our way to the show. But right before we got there, I spotted a Shemoni’s! What?! They still exist?

After the show, we started heading out and I spotted it again. Hubby was very accommodating, being that it WAS our anniversary, and said we could pop in there. Based on the prices we were seeing at the kiosks, he thought the prices would be over blown. But this was Shemoni’s! Yes, this was a mall in Vegas but it was still a Shemoni’s. I had to look. That was probably a mistake. My intentions were good, I promise. I was just going to look. His friends decided to head back to their room which took the pressure off on how long I could browse. Hubby was actually very happy to accommodate me because he saw how affordable everything was. I have to say, I felt my mom’s presence all around me as soon as I walked in. I found myself thinking about how mom would have liked this or that or how she would tell me to go ahead and get that one piece I fell in love with even though I was protesting that I shouldn’t buy anything. That’s when I found this:

It´s hard to truly appreciate how beautiful the color of the stone is in a picture because it changes with the light. It´s a beautiful rainbow stone.

Mom and I had very distinct and different preferences but sometimes we loved the same things and I believe she would have loved this one. Hubby said get it. Happy anniversary! I saw plenty of awesome things but then I saw this:

I don’t know why I was drawn to it but I kept going back. It made me think of both my mother and my daughter. Again hubby said get it so it didn’t take any arm twisting to convince me 🙂 He ended up getting two rings for himself. I had turned him! He remarked how inexpensive it was and how nice the jewelry was. He had joined me on the dark side. LOL We walked out of there with four pieces of amazing silver and gemstone jewelry without spending  all that much.

As a bonus, the sales lady remarked about the jewelry I was already wearing. I have slowly collected many pieces of sterling silver over the past 25 years. What I was wearing was something I purchased with my mother (she and I were so bad 🙂 or she purchased for me while I was with her. I don’t even remember where whe bought it but I do know it was at least 15 years ago, but probably more like 20. Silver combined with amethyst was always our downfall.

It’s a  bracelet and choker and they are substantial. The sales person was showing me some expensive pieces I was eying, even though I knew full well that I would never spend the expensive amount that necklace cost, but hey,  I was admiring it anyway. That’s when she told me she liked what I was wearing. She turned my bracelet over and said my jewelry was worth a lot and that it had a good amount of solid silver. She said that many pieces today have a lot less. Well! That made me feel really good. And, it also brought up many memories of my mom again. I vaguely remember having a small disagreement with mom at the time about how these pieces were a little more than I wanted to spend. But, I absolutely loved them and one of us ended up buying them for me. I don’t know what the sales person meant by it being worth a lot, but it was nice that someone who knew about jewelry was impressed by something I loved so much.

In the end, hubby and I walked out happy with our purchases and I was happy with my memories. We headed back to our room but soon realized we were walking around in circles. I thought it was hilarious when we kept walking by the same stores but hubby was getting frustrated. I felt good because I had fed my jewelry monster while walking off all that gluttony in the company of my beloved hubby. We finally found our way out of the maze and made it back to our room. We topped the evening off with a dip in the rooftop pool. It was a nice end to a very satisfying and fun evening. 😍

When I went to bed, I was thinking about my mom and  even though she´s gone, she and I had a wonderful crochet bond and and equally wonderful jewelry bond. I have so many pieces of crochet AND jewelry that remind me of her so I always feel her presence around me.