Beyond your wildest dreams ....

[ChloeTheGreat]

My mother's ruby and diamond ring. It is a large oval ruby (probably several carats...at least 5?) with a diamond cluster halo around it.
She said "where would you even wear it?"...I said "mom, I'd wear it to the grocery store!"
I want it when she dies. (I know that sounds terrible, but we've already mentally gone through her jewelry and divided it up between myself and my 2 sisters.) It was her mother's. When my grandmother died, my mom, her sister, and her sisters-in-law divided up all the jewelry. There were some disagreements in their time of grief and they wished it had been done differently.
Unfortunately, she has promised the ring to my sister since her birthstone is ruby. Although I don't think my sister will appreciate it as much as I would.
Instead, my aunt has promised me my grandmother's ruby and diamond tennis bracelet.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Since I joined PS I have lusted over Leon Mege rings. I've dreamed they were so far from the realm of possibility that I never actually let myself think I'd own one. I also figured I would receive about a 1ct engagement ring, because that's the norm with the circle I run in. I died and went to heaven when my best friend proposed with a 1.75 J VS2 ring, created by LM. It was the exact design I'd been tweaking in my head, and every detail was translated perfectly. I stare at it on a regular basis, and still can't believe it's mine!

 

[luv2sparkle]

Circe, double WOOT for you! Congratulations, I hope you get to bring that baby home soon! It truly looks like a beauty. I love the setting
with those bezeled marquise! Yum to you girl! I am so happy for you!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Circe, your new ring is gorgeous... Of course, I think so, because I had one made to resemble that type of setting!

I can't wait until you get it on your finger, it looks incredible!!!

 

[rubybeth]

So excited for you, Circe, need more photos!!

To answer your question, just the fact that I have any diamonds or gemstones at all still kind of blows my mind. Always loved jewelry but never even thought I'd end up married someday, let alone to a guy I met when I was 17! Had you told me then that he'd be my husband, I'd have pinched you!

For reference, my list of sparklies includes:
.55 square radiant (Whiteflash X-Factor) e-ring
1 carat spinel halo split shank RHR (never even knew what spinel WAS before PS)
.21 carat Danielle Jazz band from Whiteflash
1 ctw earrings in Brian Gavin Diamond bezels (most recent purchase--pretty surprised my DH let me get these last month)
plus some random gemstones from Dan Stair (topaz, peridot, zircon)

Dream pieces include an upgraded e-ring and a bezel pear pendant very much like yours, Circe! I just love pears but have decided a pear as an upgraded e-ring isn't quite right for me; currently loving all the AVCs and one like this in a D. Vatché setting would be amazing to me: http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/7745/ Plus the BGD 5 stone trellis for a RHR.

 

[slg47]

circe congratulations on finding your dream upgrade!!!

now post more pictures

 

[LGK]

OMG! First, that's the exact setting my 2 ct tranny had. Exactly! It's quite elegant and allows the center stone to shine. The one my stone had, I think, was not original but was a nice repro.

I checked this thread on the way back from dinner, while DH was driving (like a bat out of hell, per usual) on my iPhone. I may or may not have squee'd a bit when I saw it OK I did.

Circe you done good! Wow, it looks HUGE! And beautiful! I bet you can't wait til you get your hot little hands on it, huh? How exciting!!!!

 

[Gypsy]

Hey Circe,

I'll play your game (and I can be as coy as you are!!)

These are my dream earrings. I've been oogling them since they were posted at JBEG....and I may just be one BIG step closer to getting them. I *think* I may have found a great steal this morning and am anxiously awaiting my package. *IF* it pans out, I'll have earrings made that look like these, but are a bit larger.

Those are on my list too Yenny. Love them. They have it all. Bezels, step cuts, old cuts. YUM.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ART-DECO-4-47ct-EMERALD-CUT-DIAMOND-1ct-EMERALD-RING-/160648078576?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25675f24f0 If I had a random 80K running about this would be my choice.

 

[Gypsy]

Congrats Circe... I would love an old cut ring... can't wait to see more of yours!

 

[Gypsy]

Scratch that. Thanks to Coati I have a "new" wildest dreams... at half the price of the last! ONLY 42K (the woman is evil! EVIL)

 

[Circe]

Just came back from dinner to find so many lovely messages - thanks! I find them especially heartening because while my husband is purely delighted to see me happy and impressed by my deal-finding ability, my dad, god love'im, has been an absolute downer about the whole thing. He has a bad case of Overprotective Dadness, and he can't seem to wrap his mind around the fact that I'm, a) the one who was pricing the market and setting our rates from the time I was 12 (colored gem business), b) a GIA grad who's quite competent to gauge whether a stone is real, what the clarity is, how the cut looks, etc., and, c) not an idiot; instead of congratulating me on finding a deal, he had to go off on a riff about how his old buddy the diamond dealer had said you couldn't EVEN find a two carat with the specs I wanted for 20K, let alone more for less!

Never mind that his old friend the diamond dealer didn't deal with old cuts, and I've been researching basically nothing but the last few months. BAH. I know I love the stone, feel comfortable with the dealer, and feel ecstatic with the deal.

And (one of the many) best part(s)? I have enough of the original budget left over to swing both a reset and the watch I wanted to get to commemorate my son's birth, should I so choose! So, bottom line: am v. happy about the ring, and v. happy to have y'all to share the excitement with.

 

[centralsquare]

Congrats, Circe! So happy for you to have the upgrades and just delighted to read the story!

 

[minmin001]

circe~ congrats on the great finding and a great deal! so happy for u!

 

[vintagelover229]

Just came back from dinner to find so many lovely messages - thanks! I find them especially heartening because while my husband is purely delighted to see me happy and impressed by my deal-finding ability, my dad, god love'im, has been an absolute downer about the whole thing. He has a bad case of Overprotective Dadness, and he can't seem to wrap his mind around the fact that I'm, a) the one who was pricing the market and setting our rates from the time I was 12 (colored gem business), b) a GIA grad who's quite competent to gauge whether a stone is real, what the clarity is, how the cut looks, etc., and, c) not an idiot; instead of congratulating me on finding a deal, he had to go off on a riff about how his old buddy the diamond dealer had said you couldn't EVEN find a two carat with the specs I wanted for 20K, let alone more for less!

Never mind that his old friend the diamond dealer didn't deal with old cuts, and I've been researching basically nothing but the last few months. BAH. I know I love the stone, feel comfortable with the dealer, and feel ecstatic with the deal.

And (one of the many) best part(s)? I have enough of the original budget left over to swing both a reset and the watch I wanted to get to commemorate my son's birth, should I so choose! So, bottom line: am v. happy about the ring, and v. happy to have y'all to share the excitement with.

Your "new" ring is AMAZING! I can't wait to see more detailed pictures!



Everyone's pieces are beautiful as well.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Circe, I love the new stone and as a bargain hunter, I love the thrill of the chase and getting a great deal on exactly what you want. I also think that sometimes stones are destined to be ours, even if we never think it's a possibility in the beginning.

I also have to laugh because your dream stone is exactly what I listed as my dream stone...hopefully in several years I'll have my dream 2.5+ carat old-cut stone as well!

 

[Circe]

And in order ....

OMG, Skippy, that is astonishingly lovely! I remember you posted a little horse pin set with old miners in one of the old cut threads, and that made my heart skip a beat, too - you have some gorgeous antiques going on! What else is hiding in the coffers?

Amy - aw, ditto! I think I said this in my last post, but it really does make me happy to see how many of us really love our engagement rings. It's a nice rebuttal to all those who want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ditch the engagement ring tradition because of some of the crappy ads (hello, Simon G!) and apocryphal stories.

Yenny - thanks! And, yeah, I'll admit that this morning I woke up, turned to my husband, and thrust the camera phone pic under his nose with a big crazy grin on my face. He's a patient man, is all I can say.

Laila - 1.8 is a GREAT jump in size. Wowza! And it's such a pretty stone ...

Natascha, thanks! I actually e-mailed the guy at, like, 1 in the morning over the weekend to ask if it had fluor, and then marched in bright and early on Monday before he'd even had a chance to write me back and asked the same question. For a sec, he thought there was a sudden run on it! And, as for bringing my husband around ... I think it was part plain seeing how happy pretty rocks can make me (my dignified demeanor on the boards may have fooled y'all, but I am not exactly, um, subtle in person: I may have actually done the Snoopy dance), and part the environment he's in now. Like, sure, all his Swedish friends called him "carat and a half guy" for a while and gave him the side-eye, but in the company where he works, the admins wear 3 carat rocks and his coworkers don't bat an eye when discussing their 60K budgets. By comparison, I seem almost ... reasonable ....

Yssie - thanks! And just out of curiousity ... what's your story? Inquiring minds want to know!

Circe! Your new ring is AMAZING. I can't wait for lots and lots of pictures. Seriously. Please don't make me wait long. I can't handle it.

My upgrade ring is beyond my wildest dreams. So was my original e-ring. I never thought I'd own a large diamond, and certainly not one so beautiful in such a beautiful setting. I feel this way about almost every aspect of my life--it is all beyond my wildest dreams. I feel so lucky to experience all of it.

My upgrade ring:

Haven ... you know, you managed to capture what I was trying to articulate so perfectly above. That's it exactly.

And, on the less emotional and more tangible side of things ... now that a few days have passed and all I have to jog my memory are the pics, I can only cross my fingers and hope my stone is half as pretty! Every time I see a shot of your ring, I just have a moment of pure admiration. Pretty.

More in a bit ... the ringing phone knows no shame. But I love all y'all's responses - would love to hear more, even!

 

[Harriet]

Circe,
It's gorgeous, down to the fluorescence. Congratulations on everything!

 

[AGBF]

Congratulations, Circe. I have been lurking in this thread so far, but I seem to be spending more and more time here, so I thought I might as well post and say something that was on my mind...one of the many things on my mind. I have been admiring a great many pieces. I love Skippy's aunts' brooch! Just beautiful!

Deb/AGBF

 

[Phoenix]

Many congrats, Circe!! Woot Woot!!

 

[Circe]

Chloe - I think that sounds, a) like the most practical approach possible, and, b) like an amazing set which there must and shall be pics of, yes? And it sounds sort of like y'all are coming back together via the process, which is actually kind of beautiful. I so envy people who have these wonderful family heirlooms, building stories with every generation ....

OUPearGirl - LOVE your setting! Obviously, great minds think alike. And I LOVE that your BF went out of his way to go above and beyond to surprise you. The emotional weight, the LM setting, and the ROCK ... it's the trifecta, all right.

Luv2Sparkle - thank you! I am still going back and forth on what to do about the setting. On the one hand, I absolutely adore it as-as. On the other hand, I wonder if it will look ... odd? ... to have two basically identical rings, one on each hand. So, methinks that I'll have it reshanked and restored right off the bat, and then I'll sit on it and enjoy it for what it is for a year - as my husband has been pointing out, this is technically our fourth anniversary (of the marriage - though, as I have been pointing out, it is our fifth anniversary of being together), so getting the stone now and settling it into its forever home by next year seems like a nice symbolic compromise.

RubyBeth, I know what you mean! At one point in my twenties, a friend asked me where I saw myself at forty. WIthout thinking about it, I said, "Oh, single mom, kinda bitter ...." (which is not to comment on single moms at all: I just seriously never saw myself getting married and figured I'd have to do it all on my own, which can still be tough in this society). So whenever I compare where I thought I'd be to where I am, damn, I feel lucky. Beyond the wildest dreams, indeed! Your dream team sounds pretty much perfect to me ... those AVCs are heart-breakers.

Slg - thanks, and I will! And maybe sooner than I thought ... mwahahaha!

LGK - seriously?!? Great minds think alike, indeed! From the wear, I think this one's original - certainly in keeping with the other rings from the 20s/30s that got a lifetime of lovin' that I've seen (the poor shank is paper-thin). But, then again, that could mean it was a 70s repro that got hard wear. It'll be interesting to research! And it's also heartening to know there are good repro's in the style out there - I really do love it, and if it's so worn the appraiser suggests replacing it, good to know I could just get a body double! Hey, to tide me over ... got any shots of your tranny in its old setting?

Gypsy - oh, MY, I like the way you think. Both rings you posted? Magnifico. And, in turn, I can't wait to see what you settle on ....

CentralSquare, MinMin001, VintageLover229, thank you!

NEL - Exactly. I'm not sure if it's just eccentric or rising to the level of a compulsion with me, but I just love things even more when I know I got a deal ... even when I'm spending a ludicrous sum of money on a luxury object. Maybe even especially then. And I do, weirdly, feel like this stone was waiting for me - there's something about admiring a piece for a year+ in a shop window and then having it be mine that makes me feel, oh, like I did when I was a little girl and I actually got the fancy dollhouse I'd been dreaming about but never even vaguely coveting, because it seemed so stratospherically out of reach.

Harriet - thank you! It was the fluor wot clinched it for me.

Deb, thank you! I would love to hear about some of your extra-favorite pieces ... do we have a smile-y for "coaxing?"

Phoenix - thanks! I've been w00t-ing like an air-raid siren. Glee!

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Those are on my list too Yenny. Love them. They have it all. Bezels, step cuts, old cuts. YUM.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ART-DECO-4-47ct-EMERALD-CUT-DIAMOND-1ct-EMERALD-RING-/160648078576?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25675f24f0 If I had a random 80K running about this would be my choice.

Wow Gypsy. That ring is unbelievable. You're quite the huntress!

 

[yssie]

Ack - sorry about your dad! But hey, in this case he's just wrong, and YOU know he's wrong, so... yeah, back to ogling!

Yssie - thanks! And just out of curiousity ... what's your story? Inquiring minds want to know!

Gosh, no story. I just can't get that ring out. of. my. head. Fortunately DH truly doesn't care what I do with my ring, so long as I'm wearing my band and I don't spend the rainy day funds, so... there may be a reset in the future, to a 5stone trellis w/ 8prong centre. My misbehaving mind has already started to design this hypothetical ring. But it *definitely* won't be while - not until gold prices drop and we've rebuilt from buying the house, and some other projects are dealt with (my new earrings, my mum's ring). I'm thinking baby gift, in a few years, maybe...

 

[Black Jade]

Circe, I love your new diamond! that is so beautiful-- I love that antique style and I am so glad you got your dream!
I don't have a lot of photos of my jewelry up because I am so bad at taking photos and worse at uploading.
Also,a computer broke down on me awhile ago and a lot of photos were in there.
But here is my marquise, if it comes up (fingers crossed)
It's a lot more sparkly than the photo looks--but I was grateful to just get a photo in which you can tell it's a diamond. It's 1.19 center, J color, I1 clarity with .78 ctw sidestones. I'm wearing it (I never wear the two together in real life) with a .49 ctw 5 stone princess cut ring, H color VS2 clarity and I never wear them on that hand (had to use my right hand to take pictures with, though).

 

[Black Jade]

That's the bowtie showing slightly in that photo, by the way. the inclusion is not visible--its a white inclusion that hides in the faceting.

 

[Black Jade]

Well, this is the best I can do.
One of studs--extremely blurry. they are lovely in person, really. Another of the marquise by itself and a final one of my heart-shaped pendant. I have photos of the bracelet somewhere and also of my re-ring and will either search or take more.

 

[ChloeTheGreat]

Circe, congrats on the new bling and thanks for the kind words. I, too, love that my family has heirlooms to be passed on. (My mother gave me a strand on pearls that belonged to her mother for my college graduation.)

Here is a crappy cell phone picture of the beautiful ruby ring that I hope my sister will share with me someday when it gets passed down to her. My mother had it appraised several years ago and it was valued at about $30,000. As much as I love rubies, I don't know anything about their value or the value of vintage jewelry...but it must be nice quality for that appraisal value! Owning this ring is beyond my wildest dreams!


ETA: Quite the finger coverage on my size 7 finger!!!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Ack - sorry about your dad! But hey, in this case he's just wrong, and YOU know he's wrong, so... yeah, back to ogling!

Yssie - thanks! And just out of curiousity ... what's your story? Inquiring minds want to know!

Gosh, no story. I just can't get that ring out. of. my. head. Fortunately DH truly doesn't care what I do with my ring, so long as I'm wearing my band and I don't spend the rainy day funds, so... there may be a reset in the future, to a 5stone trellis w/ 8prong centre. My misbehaving mind has already started to design this hypothetical ring. But it *definitely* won't be while - not until gold prices drop and we've rebuilt from buying the house, and some other projects are dealt with (my new earrings, my mum's ring). I'm thinking baby gift, in a few years, maybe...

Yssie my dear, if you go that route we will have to find a way to meet in person because that would be a ring I would NEED to see!!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Circe I am so happy for your find!

 

[yssie]

Ack - sorry about your dad! But hey, in this case he's just wrong, and YOU know he's wrong, so... yeah, back to ogling!

Yssie - thanks! And just out of curiousity ... what's your story? Inquiring minds want to know!

Gosh, no story. I just can't get that ring out. of. my. head. Fortunately DH truly doesn't care what I do with my ring, so long as I'm wearing my band and I don't spend the rainy day funds, so... there may be a reset in the future, to a 5stone trellis w/ 8prong centre. My misbehaving mind has already started to design this hypothetical ring. But it *definitely* won't be while - not until gold prices drop and we've rebuilt from buying the house, and some other projects are dealt with (my new earrings, my mum's ring). I'm thinking baby gift, in a few years, maybe...

Yssie my dear, if you go that route we will have to find a way to meet in person because that would be a ring I would NEED to see!!

But you'd lose your anonymity if we met

 

[Circe]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ART-DECO-4-47ct-EMERALD-CUT-DIAMOND-1ct-EMERALD-RING-/160648078576?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25675f24f0 If I had a random 80K running about this would be my choice.

Uh ... hey, Gypsy? If 80K is a bit steep, how about 10K?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ART-DECO-1-...428?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2310085734

Looking at the finger coverage on THIS baby, I'm hard-put to imagine the sheer scope of the other!