Saturday, February 23, 2013

Shamrock Charm


This is the shamrock charm Joey got me for Christmas.    Made by Solvar in Ireland.
Here is the story:  We got married July 20, 1996 and enjoyed a 2 week honeymoon in Northern Ireland.  We were in Belfast one day shopping and we were getting ready to go into a big department store and he said go ahead in and start shopping I'll be right back.  He had stepped back to a jewelry store we had just passed and bought me a gold shamrock on a chain.  It was my real souvenir from our honeymoon.  Unlike most souvenirs that are stamped on the bottom made in (another country), this was stamp on the back Made in Ireland in the Gold.  This made my shamrock unique.  Our honey moon was also the first chance I had to get to visit my Grannie's grave site. So for sixteen years I have wore this necklace for the most part of all the time only taking breaks from wearing it occasionally to wear seasonal or other personalized jewelry.  This shamrock was in a way my luck, a piece of my Grannie with me at all times and a reminder of my marriage and honeymoon.  My 3 girls have heard this story their whole life and they seem not to get tired of me telling it because it's them who keep asking to hear it again and again.  So this leads up to last year.  My shamrock got stolen along with several other pieces of my most prized jewelry pieces.  It is pretty easy to find a shamrock about anywhere on the Internet, the challenge was to find on stamped Made in Ireland on the back of it.  After some research on the Internet and a call to the company it was discovered that the shamrock I was looking for was made by Solvar company in Ireland.  I was assured it would be stamped on the back Made in Ireland and it was.  Joey gave this to me for Christmas and it was the perfect gift.  When he gave it to me it was on the neck of an Irish teddy bear he had found.