A Little Bit of Sparkle

It seems like everything sparkles during December. Snow, Christmas lights, wrapping paper, cards that shed glitter all over your house for weeks. Normally around here it sparkles in January as well because we get more snow this month generally than in December. But this morning, the day after my 31st birthday, I looked out the window and saw only faint remnants of snow at the end of the driveway where I had shoveled it weeks ago. Everything is brown and the sky is flat gray.

So, to add a little sparkle back into the day, I bring you the first heirloom of 2011.

Please excuse the close-up of my ear and focus on the earring. Grandma Foote had a large collection of jewelry when she died, much of it costume jewelry. I'm not sure if these circa 1950s-1960s clip-on earrings are of the costume variety (my guess is that they are) and I can't find a maker's mark on them anywhere (just the word sterling on the silver). But I love them for a variety of reasons.

First, while they are clip-ons, Grandma never having had her ears pierced, they are actually more of "screw-ons" because they have a sort of vise-like screw on the back. You put it over your ear lobe and screw it on until it is snug. Second, I love the natural motif—stem, leaves, and berries. Third, they're a nice size and weight (too big of earring make my ears itchy, too small have no impact).

Most of all, of course, I like them because they were hers. I wore them on Christmas Eve and to this party with an early 1960s-style dress and I felt pretty fancy. On Christmas Eve I also wore this simple brooch which was hers:

This is probably not very old and I can see it being from the 1990s (I may have even bought this one for her, who knows?) so it's not really an heirloom yet in my mind. But once I pass it down to a niece and she passes it down to a daughter, it will become one. Never forget that the stuff you buy today may one day be special to a descendent you've never met. So buy things that are nice and will last. They may not be worth a lot of money since almost everything today is mass-produced, but they may be worth quite a bit in sentimentality.