You made me laugh out loud...the quote is great but your comment is priceless! josh

It made me laugh as well. Both the quote and the comment. Actually, I have always felt jewelry on dowagers did just the opposite. Young women (and men) wear jewels to draw attention to themselves. Why would it suddenly do just the opposite when they get older? Some old gals almost seem to flash their carats in defiance, like medals earned for seniority.

interesting. I'm sitting here thinking of my beautiful wooden pendant carved by an old man in Crete which I wear,or some of my great turquoise and silver earrings made by American Indians in Arizona,and a beautiful old cameo which belonged to DHs grandmother which I wear when dressing up,and another sterling silver pendant from Israel which I wear when I have on a lot of black,or the single strand of pearls my dad gave me when I turned 16. I get a lot of pleasure from those and never thought of them as trying to draw attention to myself or God forbid playing up my wrinkles. Heck..now that's what I'm going to think about the next time I wear them. I think I'll go eat a worm.

LOL! That quote reminds me of the lyrics to "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Thanks for a Sunday chuckle.

But, doncha know art with which one adorns themselves is like any other art. It's in the eyes of the beholder (wearer). I look on my jewelry ........and admittedly I'm not a jewelry wearer, so I am biased........as accessories to clothing. Some things like a turtleneck or a low cut gown are not complete without adornment. Even my wedding band sits in a box collecting dust, because it is welded to the engagement ring and both are full of little, and one not so little, diamond. I have nearly had my fingers ripped off from wearing that ring, and have also managed to lose the diamonds. I wear, instead, a simple topaz solitaire my husband gave me, and only then because I found out his feelings were hurt because I didn't wear any of the jewelry he bought for me.

I guess what I am getting at is that jewelry becomes conspicuous when the amount one wears increases exponentially to a person's age. Just like perfume. I love to smell scent on other people, both men and women. But, when somebody goes overboard with it, it becomes offensive. I had a lady customer a week ago who was delightful. But her perfume lingered in one greenhouse for nearly an hour even though the ventilator fans could suck a horse off it's hooves.

I was reading an article once by a group of New York stylists..kind of a round table type thing and they agreed that you can easily wear any two of ...earrings,necklace and bracelet,but never all 3 at the same time,unless the earrings were tiny and almost invisible.It's just too overwhelming for anything you might be wearing.

That's my mantra, Marda. Two pieces and no more. Sometimes a hard choice but I know it's a good choice to make.

Miss Manners once said that a good, tried-&-true rule of thumb is to add jewelry until you think you have the perfect amount...& then take off one item.

Then she reminisced about a Queen of England, I think maybe Queen Mary.

She said a newspaper account of the Queen's ensemble at a state dinner included something like (I'm making this up, since I can't remember the quote) "5 rings with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, & pearls, a 6-strand diamond & emerald collar, 7 bracelets, a sash with 8 brooches, & a tiara".

Miss Manners said, "One wonders what the dear lady had taken off."

It has always been a tradition for the women on my mother's side of the family to have their ears pierced as young children. The older woman of the family was the one who usually did the piercing. It is so mainstream now, nobody raises an eyebrow. But it was very unusual when I was a child and several of my teachers sent notes home to my mother to complain because they thought it was a safety issue. Or inappropriate.........or maybe both. They'd have a hassle with being un PC with ethnic traditions now if they tried that, I guess.

Times change. The day before school started I had my family in for dinner and we were quizzing my eleven year old grand daughter about the school dress codes now. Still modest rofl I guess by today's standards. Only one eyebrow or nostril can be pierced. Eleven year olds can come to school with dyed streaks in their hair, but not purple.

I guess nothing can make you feel like a geezer than having one of these threads come up. When I was a kid only "foreigners" would have their ears pierced. I remember when I got mine pierced when I was a Freshman in college (the roommate method with numbing your ear with an ice cube & then running the needle into a potato held on the back side of teh ear) my dad sarcastically told me he would build a bonfire int eh back yard & I could dance around it since I'd now just like like the rest of the gypsies. however, within three or four years my mother had pierced her own ears, so all that talk stopped.

Here the school dress codes are tending in the uniform direction - khaki pants definitely worn at the waist & navy of white polo shirts. Except for one hole in each ear, no piercings are allowed & no wierd hair coloring either.

marda - the items you mentioned just don't qualify have enough bling to be flashy.

Last week, I saw the perfect example of the quote. She was rather short, and rather rotund, and had the crisply curled silver hair usually found only in certain tearooms. I didn't notice any wrinkles because dangly diamond earrings and a spun gold choker-necklace and 2 glittery pendant necklaces and 3 shiny bracelets on each wrist [maybe it was four on the right one] and a diamond brooch holding her scarf in place and rings on three fingers of each hand --- well, that's where I really became distracted because: does wearing 4 diamond rings with your wedding band mean you've been engaged four times or married four times or something else.... I assure you, I never noticed her wrinkles.

It was in the 1970s I think when I finally had my ears pierced, and then it was mostly because it was impossible to find good-looking earrings for non-pierced ears. I didn't have any reason except that I hated needles and pain...LOL My Mom and sister took me to a shop which sold cosmetics but had a booth and someone supposedly trained...they used topical numbing something or other and I had to wear special studs for a week or so, then go back to be checked.

And why the ban on the color purple for hairstreaks...is there some special secret signal it sends or something?
I heard some author talking about his book on new trends and he pointed out that the next thing will be upscale tattoo and tanning salons. I know the places around here which offer these services don't exactly fit that image. He said there were more tanning salons in the US than Starbucks...hard to believe since I think there are still questions about safety, and there are better tanning sprays and lotions now which give a more natural look. Good grief I remember we all looked almost orange when those self-tanners first came out...LOL josh

Josh, I think not only purple, but any shade hair doesn't naturally grow in is grounds for sending them home. I told her that was unfair, and aged biased, because I knew a lot of women past a certain age who had blue and purple hair. LOL.

And yes, I do remember the first tanning lotions. I bought some, since I am very fair and don't tan easily. I was orange. Worse than that, the lotion stunk badly.

Oh, I'd forgotten the smell...you had to choose between smelling bad or scrubbing your tan off...

Reminds me of a quote I saw recently. Napoleon to Josephine. "Home in 3 days. Don't bathe." josh