I am very sentimental, sometimes to a fault.  I print close  to 3,000 snapshots a year and will one day put them in albums.  Other than photographs to document important things in my life I have a few material possessions that are very special to me.

This is a new necklace that I had made to symbolize my three children.  The ceramic pendants were made by Katie Coston of Illyria Pottery.  She uses items found in nature to create her stamps and these particular stamps were chosen to represent the personalities of each of my children–one orderly and stuctured, one random and wild, and one calm and flowing…that was supposed to be the personality of #3 however she is starting to be more wild like her big brothers!  Katie also made the earrings to match.  Check out her etsy shop and her new “booklaces” at art & light gallery.

I took the pendants to The Beaded Frog to be assembled into a necklace and Elizabeth Tate (who also has a studio in the Pendleton Street Arts District) created the most stunning necklace I could ask for.  We discussed ideas for the necklace and she put it together in a fashion even more beautiful than I could have imagined.  It was perfect and exactly what I wanted.  It will be at least a year or so until I am again wearing necklaces on a regular basis considering child #3 is still being carried in a sling most days and loves to pull them, but when I get the chance to wear this one I am especially happy to think about all the care that went into its creation.

Ceramic jewelry is special to me.  Before I had children I used to do pottery on the wheel.  The big pregnant belly made that a little tough, so I started exploring photography.  Unfortunately, I have not ventured back into the pottery world, but enjoy wearing my ceramic jewelry like this necklace and others by Lily Stratton (of Lily Pottery ) and Shane Bryant.

A special thanks to my fantastic husband who snapped these pictures of me in between grilling dinner and wrangling the kids to come inside.  He is not only patient with my photo requests, but does a great job taking the photos!  Check out that focus!