A Charmed Life

Years ago at a dinner party one of my friends decided we should play a little game.  She posed a question, if we were each to write a novel what would its title be. She asked us to write the title down on a piece of paper which she collected and placed in a basket.  We each then picked a title from the basket and had to determine who was the author.  It was a surprisingly fun game and being good friends it wasn't hard to figure out who the epic novelists were among us.  The joviality came to an abrupt end when one of my closest friends picked up my title and looked across the table at me with an icy stare.  "A Charmed Life" she read out loud with disdain. The men quickly burst back into the frivolity of the game trying to determine whose life was so charmed, incorrectly assuming it had to do with one or the others athletic conquests. The women starred at me with daggers in their eyes.  My friends and I were professional career women and I had just been given the opportunity via a corporate downsizing to take a few months off from working.  We all had small children at the time and it was no secret that I enjoyed being a homemaker and that a few months might turn into a few years (twelve to be exact). Life is always greener on the other side and I realized immediately that the title of my novel implied that my life was somehow much greener than theirs.  The men were getting louder and had moved from debating athletic achievements as the basis of "A Charmed Life" to personal wealth, each of whose seemed to be increasing. With all the commotion, I guess my friends couldn't hear the rattling emanating from my side of the table every time I reached for my drink, which was frequent that night.  "A Charmed Life" I repeated shaking  my wrist, the noise could have replaced the percussion section in a small band, "like the one this woman had".  I had on my wrist the vintage travel charm bracelet shown below.

These vintage bracelets are often referred to as "Around the World"  bracelets and my epic novel would be about this bracelet and her grand tour. On one income, fiction was the the closest I would ever get to traveling around the world. I have seen several examples of travel bracelets, many are theme bracelets purchased with the charms already attached.  The charms on this bracelet are individually stamped from the counties they represent indicating that the woman who built this was quite the world traveler.  My charmed life actually includes a collection of bracelets starting with my own, which was given to me on my 16th birthday.  But I prefer to wear the stories of other people's lives, such as this Danecraft bracelet.

 The interesting thing about this piece is that the charms are removable.  Each charm clips onto the bracelet with a "C" clasp and they can be moved around or taken off completely.  Collecting charm bracelets became a passion of mine before dealers realized that they could make more money selling the charms individually.  In those days I could usually find a reasonably priced bracelet at a flea market.  I rarely find them now.  While I'm always sad to see a bracelet pulled apart, building a bracelet from scratch with vintage charms can be a rewarding experience.  My  personal hobby is the coronation crown bracelet below that I have been building from charms I find primarily on Ebay.  Being the princess I am I have set some parameters for this bracelet, the charms have to be three dimensional and can only be of crowns or carriages. 

Wearing charm bracelets requires some pre-planning. Don't wear them if you don't want to draw attention to yourself, like at a college information session with a bored 16 year old.  In those situations I like to keep it simple and often wear this sterling silver Tiffany style charm bracelet, which is generally quiet.

Vintage charms and charm bracelets can be very valuable.  It's well worth the investment to have a safety chain put on a bracelet, and to make sure all the charms are soldered.