Anyone else feel more exhausted after a bank holiday than they did before? I feel very ungrateful, but I take banks holidays as an invite to go wild, and we have had so many recently that I haven't had a chance to recover.
There is nothing I love more than having family and friends to stay and the weather was fabulous, so I embraced the sun and spent most of the weekend in the sea and on the beach with a glass of fizz or two (who am I kidding!). It was lovely but now I'm playing catch up at home and at work, the kids are off and look like lost stray puppies as all their friends have gone away for half term and every time I sit down to write this I get ˜MUM!' shouted at me from all corners of the house. Also, since when did they start calling me ˜MUM'? It makes me sad as I loved ˜Mummy' but Mum is horrible. I now understand how my own Mum felt. I'm not sure what a good alternative is? Mother? Madre? My name (agh!) ??
Dad on the other sounds so much better.
Talking of Dads its nearly their moment in the spotlight. Their special Sunday of the year is only 2 weeks away, so here is my list of potential gifts for the special Fathers in my life.
I am still trying to get my Husband to wear jewellery and feel like this year could be the year!
My Father on the other hand is obsessed with jewellery and was the first person to suggest we increased our male range years ago when male jewellery wasn't really a thing! He is such a super fan that he's starting to look like Mr.T (80's reference!). He has always worn a beautiful silver chain and now hangs on it an assortment of our Men's charms - he has the Men's Tag Necklace personalised with all the families initials and he has an oxidised Russian Ring Necklace We also engraved his family crest onto our silver Dog Tag Necklace.
My favourite is an oxidised whale necklace, that he wears to represent the trip of a lifetime we all went on a few years ago where we were lucky enough to swim with Humpback whales on a dive liveaboard in Tonga for 10 days called Naia.
It was a mind-blowing experience and something I'll remember vividly for the rest of my life. We took Naia overnight for 18 hours and arrived in the middle of nowhere. We couldn't have been any more remote. We were surrounded by the vast open sea, the sound of the waves and whale song. I didn't even realise you could cry underwater but the day I was swimming in front of a huge Mama Humpback and her baby, plus her escort (who is like a Great Aunt who looks after them both) and could see their beautiful ˜old soul' eyes (they strangely reminded me of my Grandad's) and I could hear their emotional song. I was so in love and so in awe that I cried. I felt so fortunate to witness this sight first-hand. It was amazing and to be that close to something so huge. They weren't even fussed and the baby kept coming up close to see who we were. We probably looked very strange to the calf who had never seen humans before.
We went to Tonga, Fiji and Australia. My Dad and his wonderful Wife Wanda organised the whole thing and even took my Mum (very modern) who loved it too. I was so moved by the whole experience that I knew I wanted to design a whale with its calf and that is what I gave him last year.
This year I'm thinking of something for his wrist as he will start to get neck ache! Maybe the new Leather Cord Bracelet
Dad is a stylish man and wears them well. He was at the forefront of the Men's jewellery revolution. Go PapaDom!! (my kids name for him as he's Papa and his name is Dom.)
On the other hand, my kids have already picked two designs for my Husband. They think we should go for either the Anchor Signet Ring as he really is the anchor in our life or the Lobster Signet Ring as he's obsessed with lobster and crab. Any seafood actually “ Seafood. Eat it!
We might even treat him to a big lunch in his favourite seafood restaurant to compliment his new jewellery! I'll keep you posted
