what's a hod? Am I misreading it,or is that the word you mean. You've got me curious. I sure can identify with that. I am so tired of buying good earrings I have just about quit. I have a whole wardrobe of single earrings. Pidge and I went shopping several weeks ago and I bought a great pair of beveled gold metal earrings. They weren't real gold but were really pretty hoops. Ok..so I'm in the garden two days later with my new earrings. I push the garden cart up to the edge of the woods,go to dump it,and small twig catches inside the hoop,I pull back and thwap...it goes flying into the woods...sigh. ( Don't tell Pidge..she doesn't know.)

Now listen here, Marda, if you are going to wear earrings while romping around with the garden cart you have to expect twigs to take pot shots at you, lol.
You are right, they were really nice hoops, nicer than most IMO because of that slightly flattened part of the hoop. See? I remember them well.

I've worn the earrings I bought on the same shopping trip but not in the garden so mine are safe. Though I have to hide them from the kittens when I remove them--just a topy to them.

I don't know what a hod is, but if it means one can't wear cool jewelry, I would cry!

Don't know what a hod is either, but I can relate to losing good jewelry. DH once gave me an emerald ring for Christmas & I loved it but lost teh stone wearing it while doing, I can't remember what, but certainly it was something that should have precluded wearing fine jewelry.

The same goes for really nice fountain pens. I think I've lost 5 or 6 Mont Blanc pens & think that should be something of a record. For stupidity maybe. Anyway, I've now relegated myself to cheap Bic pens. Thant way if they're gone I've only lost 29-cents.

I thought at first she had made a typo and she was wishing that she wasn't such a BOD.

I never got around to getting my ears pierced so all of my ear rings are clip ons. I can always find an excuse to not wear them. I am one of those that doesn't like jewelry. I don't even own a watch. Nor do I wear my wedding ring. When I get dressy, I will wear a necklace if I happen to have one that suits what I have on.

Hopeless, that's what I am...Hopeless!

Now, I'm from the same neck of the woods as Tibs, so you'd think I've heard that word used like that, but I haven't. To me, a hod is a coal scuttle. I used to date a guy waaaaaaaaaaay back when who worked as a hod carrier in construction on his summer breaks. It had something to do with laying concrete or bricks. But, I guess I'm a hod as well, then. Seldom wear jewelry because in some jobs it was a safety hazard, in others it wasn't allowed. I nearly tore a ring finger off when my wedding band caught in machinery at the post office. Danged, I thought it was a goner. My finger that is.

My husband bought me a lovely wedding ring/engagement ring set, and I've taken it in so many times to get small stones replaced from abuse I stopped wearing it. I think it hurt his feelings, so as soon as I started wearing it again, I lost the large center diamond. So, now I wear a pretty sapphire ring, and it seems to be pretty heavy duty, so that's my only piece of jewelry.

My ears were pierced when I was a small child. It was a family tradition for the women to have it done, and my mother did mine with a needle, silk thread and olive oil to keep the thread supple until the healing. Back then, it was so unusual to see it on little girls, teachers sometimes even sent notes home of concern. In those days, nobody had even heard of cultural diversity, much less practised it. LOL.

Occasionally I stick some hoops in, and occasionally wear a watch.........but only when I must. The sun is my watch.

A hopeless old dilettante? A hapless old dame?

Neologism..a new word for me just learned last evening reading about the Brights. Means creation or use of new words or senses (like the word "green" being adopted/used by the ecology movement). Tibs just added another reason I love the GP...new words or new uses/meanings for words!

I've always liked costume jewelry of bone, tortoise shell, wood, enameled metal, anything folkloric, unusual. Also like to make my own from papier-mache. DH designed my wedding band, a simple wide band of platinum. With mostly white hair since my twenties silver looks best, amd there are lots of artists making unusual pieces...at reasonable prices without the jewelry store markup.

I grew a grass this year called "Job's Tears" whose seedpods are tiny spheres which range in color from ivory to charcoal and have a soft gleam. A GW friend (Jo from Il) sent me some years ago but this is the first year I've had success growing my own. Hope to harvest enough next year for a multistrand necklace. josh

P.S. The grass is attractive in container...Coix lachryma-christi.

I love to wear jewelry, at least I used to. You'd seldom
see me out with out it. Now I wear the same pair of hoops
for weeks at a time. I don't wear it in the garden.

I have drawers full of great costume jewelry.
My favorite things are the beautiful earrings, bracelets
and necklaces Neil has bought me over the years. He has
excellent taste.

If my hands aren't swollen, you'll see my wedding ring on
my finger, if they are, I have to leave the ring at home.
My wedding ring is the one thing that if I lost it, it
would break my heart.

Marda, Marda, Marda, leave the jewelry in the house when
you work in the garden!! Or you could buy John a metal detector for Christmas.

Okay, fess up ladies, who among us has those big knock your
socks off diamonds?

I've always had watches, kind of loved having different styles but got sick of replacing batteries. It occurred to me that I rarely, if ever see young people wearing watches, they just don't. I thought about that for awhile and came to the conclusion that they don't need watches. Their timekeeper is their cell phone. And now in a last ditch effort to stave off being a crone, I use my cellphone as time timekeeper also. HA!

Jan - no huge rocks here sorry. I have the ring with three small diamonds that Mr. Suzanne bought for me. It was all that he could afford at the time and for that reason it remains precious, because it reminds me of a simpler time when we struggled and saved to buy even the smallest treasures.

I have a friend at work who has "upgraded" her diamond ring as her husbands earning status rises. I guess...but it's not a concept that I understand because to me my small diamonds have sentimental value. One of my neighbors has the most drop-dead gorgeous simple 2 carat ring. It's beautiful and doesn't seem ostentatious at all.

I haven't worn a watch since I started carrying a cell phone. I mean, I'm either in front of my computer (which has a clock), or in my car (which has a clock), or in front of my stove (which has a clock), or in front of my TV (which has a clock), or have my cell phone (which has a clock) on me, or in bed (with a clock on my nightstand)... if I'm not in any of these places, then it doesn't matter what time it is. A watch is just something for me to scratch, lose or break.

As for diamonds, I told Steve I didn't want one and I meant it. I don't want the responsibility, and don't see the value in them. The only nice piece of jewelry I wear is my wedding band, which, like Steve's, has a Celtic knot carved into it and is gold.

Tibs, I understand perfectly how you must feel in a jewelry store. I'd be afraid of destroying something expensive. Artisan or unique, I can do. Expensive or fancy? Not so much...

I suspect that Tibs is a Mom with an effervescent, mildly self-critical teenage daughter, who tends to hang with, or is at least influenced by, video gamers.

"Hex of Death," (HoD), perchance?

Steve

no big diamonds here either. I have my wedding band and my mother's wedding band both of which have little diamonds in a row but no big honkers. I work in the garden just about every day,even if it's just for a minute and sometimes I plain forget about the dumb earrings . Now I just save the good ones for special occasions.

Wow, I had no idea that hod was either a very limited colloquial expression, or maybe even a family expression, but both the dh's family and my family use it and my family is not from this immediate area. We use it to mean clumsy. The big orange fuzz ball of a cat is called "You big hod", when he knokcs something over. I think Suzy hit it right. Hod carrier was a guy that carried bricks on the construction site. He had to be big and strong, but didn't have to be too bright or trained. I have Irish in my family and there were lots of Irish hod carriers. So maybe it is an out of date term.

I too noticed that the younger generation doesn't wear watches. I have worn a watch since I was in 2nd grade. I feel nakid without one. What do you do when you're in the garden and know you have to be somewehre at a certain time? Carry your cell phone and pull it out of your pocket?

I wonder if a hod is cousin to a clod? They have the same surname. LOL

Hod = clumsy hodcarrier. No, that's not it . . .

Just kidding. But, having both worked in a concrete block plant and built basements as a younger man . . . and then there were all those years on farms, hopping clods . . .

My effervescent, mildly self-critical teenage daughter, who tends to hang with video gamers - knows little about this existence.

Steve (an odd sort of life ;o)

Hod = 3 sides of a cube attached to a pole at the V for carrying mud (cement or grout) to the mason. The tender is the one doing the carrying and is usually working to become a mason. Mason in the family.

Now, who has a honker diamond? That's a pretty subjective question, as what's to define a honker? LOL.

I guess my answer is no. I once had a lovely solitaire, marquise cut my first husband bought me. He was a farm boy and a student and could ill afford it. Put it away on "time" and I believe I ended up paying it off when I dropped out of school to go to work. To me, it was enormous at 3/4 carat, but I suspect in this day and age of excess it would be a bauble. When my children turned sixteen, I didn't have very much money. To my son went my little red sportscar and a year later to my daughter my solitaire. My second husband was not very kind, and that was all my worldly possessions I could really call mine and he had no say over. Lest you think my kids were spoilt, the sportscar was ancient by then, and he paid all his own repairs, insurance and gas by working after school, and my daughter bought her own car and did the same thing.

I'll tell you what, being poor has some upsides in the school of life. It teaches you either that "things" are transient and not what is important in life, or just the opposite.

A big honker diamond has to be more than a carat, and, no, i don't have one. Remember, I'm the one who loses stones in rings. My engagement ring is a modest 1/2 carat solitaire in a Tiffany setting. I got it reset after we'd been married for 25 years. As it never comes off my hand, it was pretty banged up.

I once hocked my engagement diamond from first marriage ... the only good thing about a diamond as far as I'm concerned is the value the pawnbroker put on it...LOL Paid for a nice trip. Funny, in those days (late 1950's) nice girls weren't even supposed to know about pawnbrokers...but I'd been reading Balzac and it was all the rage in his stories. I do remember feeling rather uneasy though...hoping noone I knew would see me...LOL

No diamonds wanted, just a simple band for the second marriage. josh

I do; I'd blush except I didn't choose to have it. I don't particularly care for diamonds. Engagement ring with entwined wedding band from DH2; sleek and beautifully designed but a huge stone. I haven't worn the rings for over 20 years. Arthritis caused my knuckles to swell and there comes a time when the ring cannot be safely stretched. I don't miss them, and in fact this post is the first time I've even thought about the rings in years. I have a fair amount of 'good' jewelry from when I was young and svelte, and thought wearing those things was important. No doubt I could wear them now, but my office persona is un-adorned, and at home I would probably lose jewelry in the compost pile if not in the woods. I have pierced ears but since I'm topically allergic to most metals, the collection stays boxed. DD's ears are not pierced and she doesn't like wearing earrings. I imagine GS's wife will inherit them... guess I'll have to live another 20 or 30 years just to find out if she is inclined to like jewelry.

My only diamond is, like Andie's, a half-carat in a Tiffany setting and I haven't worn it in years and years. After 30 years or thereabouts, I asked for a gold band to replace the older stuff. When I lost that one, it was replaced with another gold band. Then I found the first one, so I now have three wedding rings. What owning so many makes me realize that the commitment is not in the "thing" but in what it represents.

I really, really like costume jewelry and am not much interested in "fine jewelry," though I do have a few pieces, all gifts from DH for special occasions. I don't even know how many pairs of earrings I own, and it's almost as bad with necklaces. I cannot recall the last time I lost even an earring, so the booty just keeps piling up!

I have a friend that has a treasure chest of honkers.
They are beautiful, she has rings, bracelets, a Rolex watch,
a diamond watch, you name it she can probably find it in
her jewelry box. There are some of us who can wear
diamonds with great style like we were born to it and
others like myself that if I had a large diamond on, i'd
probably get arrested.

I have one friend who has a ROCK, it is around 7 1/2 carat
solitare. Knowing her husband, it was an investment of
sorts. She was afraid to wear it until her daughter
said "mom go ahead and wear it, the way you dress no one
would ever think it was real anyway."

I do have a solitare, it's one carat, Neil bought
it for me for my 30th anniversary. He said he wanted me to
have a larger diamond but he was afraid i'd shoot him for
wasting money. When we got married he
couldn't afford an engagement ring and had always felt bad
because he said he had wanted everyone to know that I was
spoken for. It didn't bother me but it did him so now I
have a ring. My wedding ring and his are alike, the only
thing I asked was that it be a wide band, it is. I will
always treasure my wedding ring. When I look at it I am
reminded that at least once in my life I got something
right.

7.5 carats? How does a stone that size fit on one's finger?

And just as a thought, how many of you actually find Rolex watches attractive? To me they are ugly, ugly, ugly. I like the Cartier tank-type watches, which I find to be simple but elegant. I wish I could afford an original, but have to be content with a knock-off.

My father bought my mother a Rolex and despite the expense, it literally fell apart rather quickly. There was a defect in the stem. There really aren't any local watchmakers anymore, the last one going out of business about a decade ago. Now, they are are just jewelry stores and send the watches out to be serviced. Mama's Rolex when one place and was there six months and they hadn't gotten to it yet and she demanded it back, suspecting foul play (and I don't blame her). She got it back and it sat in her jewelry box ten years before I went to a jeweler with whom our family had connections. The assistant manager just blew me off when I asked her about getting the Rolex repaired. "But that would be soooooooooo expensive" says she. LIke Duh, the watch wasn't? It's about disposable anymore.