Glass heart.

Knowing that I was going to get something special from Chris for Valentine's day I *pre-eliminated* five items last week to offset the gift and stick with my minimizing plan. Chris is the best gift giver I've known. And he knows that I love Valentine's Day- I'm a heart shaped jewelry aficionado. This glass heart locket from Archaic Design is perfect. It seems both solidly chunky and delicate at the same time.  I appreciate the metaphoric nature of this necklace; hearts are simultaneously strong and fragile. The locket unscrews to allow a photograph to be placed between the glass but I'm not sure I will do this. I think the antique glass is gorgeous as it is.

My Valentine

I'm especially thrilled that Chris ordered this necklace from an Etsy seller. I have a couple of pieces of silver jewelry from Tiffany, which I do enjoy, but which I feel a bit conflicted about. First, anything from Tiffany is, by nature, highly overpriced. What one pays for is the name, which I don't care about particularly, so it's not money well spent in my case. Second, anything from Tiffany is completely identifiable as such, to everyone. I don't have any of the pieces which visibly bear the Tiffany name but even so, one doesn't have to be a jewelry expert to be able to identify these pieces. Three, there's not sport in obtaining Tiffany heart jewelry. As long as you don't mind paying too much for a silver heart necklace or bracelet you can take your pick of several styles at any time of year. They certainly aren't inherently special, in and of themselves. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the pieces I've received- I do. They were heartfelt gifts, given and received as a token of love. And I wear them often. In fact, I never remove my Tiffany wire heart bracelet unless I'm going through airport security. But I'd truly rather have more things like this locket. Something hand made by someone who is trying to make a living making art. Something with a little mystery, that had to be searched for, that cannot be easily identified. Something special.

The hounds-tooth check skirt form the thrift store gets its first outing today. Unfortunately after taking these photos I noticed that the heel tip was broken off one of my shoes, leaving the metal screw exposed. I had to switch out the shoes at the last minute before leaving the house. I'd have tried to snap a quick picture of the shoes I did end up wearing but they are in desperate need of a polish. I'd be too embarrassed to feature them here in that condition. And they don't look as good with the skirt as my first choice.

Ready for the rain.

It's supposed to rain here all week, and perhaps longer- I only checked the seven day outlook. These red rain boots will be a fixture on my feet this week. The first day it rained last spring I saw dozens of girls in colored rain boots on my drive in to campus. The whole time I was thinking- "I don't know if I'm really the rain boot type." One short walk across a wind and rain swept campus later and I'd decided I'm definitely not the put up with wet feet all day type. Turns out I am the rain boot type after all. I've been wanting to get a red umbrella to match my boots but my boring black umbrella is holding up maddeningly well. If only it would get blown inside out a few times so I could justify replacing it.