How a ring and bracelet jewelry combo unlocks desire

 

 

As owners of our style expression, we have rights. We have the right to change up our look or bring out something new about our personality. We do this through fashion, style, clothes, and jewelry.

When Artful Home invited me to choose two pieces of jewelry to wear and write about, I challenged myself. What if I chose pieces that called to me for reasons I wasn’t clear about yet? Would I be making a mistake?

You know how passionate I am about women being visible, but I need to clarify one thing: It’s not just about being visible to people around us; it’s about honoring the stirrings of our inner life. Can jewelry help us hear our desire? Oh yes, I believe so.

 

 

 

How a ring and a bracelet can express desire

I’ve been noticing something about myself. It could be seasonal or it could be more than that. Where I’ve enjoyed the hustle and bustle (noise) of life, I’m craving quiet reflection.

Let me use jewelry to the change. I loved wearing multiple bracelets this summer, like a minimum of five at a time. The sound they made as they clanked into each other reminded me, “I’m here. I’m showing up!”

Besides a wrist or two full of bracelets, I wore double necklaces a lot. I enjoyed the bouncy action against my chest. ‘I am woman!’ they seemed to announce. I’m an older woman and I’m not dead yet. I deserve to be seen. See me, hear me, don’t overlook me, says my jewelry.

 

Every fashion and style choice is the right one for that moment. 

But what happens when there’s a shift? Does that mean we make a shift in our fashion as well?

 

Something shifted this fall. I’m in the mood to listen far more than I speak. I’m in student mode rather than teaching mode. I want to spend time alone in order to read, study, and learn. I want to think and reflect.

Could my jewelry align with those stirrings? Yes!

I used that inner desire to inform my Artful Home jewelry selection.

 

Using jewelry to connect to desire

I like the bold shape of this Dahlia Kanner Bumpy Belted Ring.

 

 

I wear bold rings, but none as simply designed as this one. My rings are generally more complicated. The quiet row of silver beads that goes all around the saddle-shaped ring hearkens me back to a beauty marker from my childhood. In North Dakota farmers plant shelter belts. A shelter belt is a single, long row of trees that breaks the wind that howls across the prairies. Those trees help keep the soil from eroding. Every farm has them. Those rows are so beautiful and soothing to me. This ring, with its row of beads, reminds me of those lines of trees. (Read Can clothing choices be influenced by childhood for my theory on why we love what we love.)

Can you see that same connection with the Crescent Ball Bangle silver bracelet created by Nikki Nation?

 

 

It has even smaller beads than the ring has, but it shares the patina of the ring. It’s delicate, which is outside my comfort zone. Have you ever seen me wear a delicate bracelet? I don’t think so! I wondered if something so light and thin would be satisfying to me after a long history of wearing heavier, bolder bracelets or multiple bangles like I wore this summer. Slipping it over my wrist the first time gave me the answer: I felt like I’d come home. It was simple, steadfast, and quietly powerful.

 

 

The world we live in is so busy, demanding, and filled with pockets of strife and unrest. If we let it, it clatters and clanks and makes it hard to hear ourselves think. When I look at these pieces while wearing them, I’m reminded to find that quiet, soft spot in me and listen. It’s a place of nourishment and rest. I need the reassuring message these pieces bring.

 

Outfit details with the silver ring and silver bracelet from Artful Home

 

 

I wear this ring and thin bracelet with everything right now. I think the repetition of the message they convey is good medicine. They’ve inspired outfits that feel easy and effortless. I wore the jewelry pieces with a column of navy and slipped my summer kimono over it.

I wear the jewelry with this silk Equipment shirt. No necklaces; just earrings, the Bumpy Belted Ring and the Crescent Ball Bangle.

 

 

Here I added a navy duster for an extra layer. Simple dressing.

 

 

This weekend I wore more head-to-toe navy: jeans, a navy cotton shirt and a denim jacket. This time I added one more slim bangle to my wrist.

 

 

 

 

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on pieces from Artful Home. They are so generous with me. As a company, they are supportive of women. You’ve got to love that!

 

 

My final thoughts: As you contemplate new purchases, ask yourself if the pieces you’re looking at are helping you express what you want in this chapter in your life. Are they helping you hear yourself? You could be looking at a piece of jewelry or clothing and saying, ‘Wow, I’ve never thought of wearing that before.’  Follow the stirrings of your heart.

Clothes and accessories give us the opportunity to express our unique selves over and over again, one chapter after the other. Isn’t it exciting?

What has your inner self been telling you lately? I’d love to hear!

XO