A little something for Mom. . .

I wanted to get my mom something special for her 80th birthday last week, but no "thing" seemed quite right.  A book?  Perfumed soap?  A sweater? 

Nope.  Nope.  I don't think so.

Then a few weeks ago a dear friend of mine arrived at church wearing mom's gift.  Well, not exactly.  But there was my idea.

And here is my version of it - a "shadow box," if you will, in a vintage pocket watch casing.  Each item in the casing and on the chain has special meaning for my mom. 







The main feature is a photo each of my mom and my dad when they were young. . . the one of Mom just before they got married and the one of Dad just after.  In the background is a vintage map of the county in South Carolina where they retired to, with their town showing in the upper right corner.  At the bottom are their initials, "J" for Joan and "K" for Ken.  The flower represents my Dad's love of photographing them, and the word "love" at the left is in my dad's handwriting, copied from a letter he wrote many years ago.

On the chain is a golf bag to represent all the activities my parents loved to do together, a Tiger's Eye to represent the time they lived in South Africa, a heart charm with a crystal bead (on top of the watch, I later moved it because it was hard to see) to represent their love and marriage, a lava rock to represent the last vacation they took together, in Hawaii, and a bead with an opal on the bottom, to represent the time they lived in Australia. 

Connecting the chain and the watch casing is a bird because they loved watching and feeding them.  Finally, on the back of the watch casing, is the number "51" in honor of the year they were married.





I won't share here what my mom said to me when she got it. . .but she was very touched.  It turned out to be a gift worthy of her 80 beautiful years on this earth serving her family and friends with tenderness and caring.



The eBay seller I got my watch casing and letters and numbers from is vintageantiqueartsuppliescom .  If you contact them tell them phredscat sent you!