New Beginnings.

[Dawn70]

I may be in the minority here, but I kept every bit of jewelry my XH gave me. And I wear it often. I'm not at all a girly girl and prior to our marriage I had mostly relatively inexpensive earrings and a few rings. The most expensive rings I had were my college rings that my parents bought me when I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees. XH bought me a good bit of jewelry and while none of it was super expensive by most people's standards, it was all stuff that I really liked and still like. He bought me a string of pearls for my birthday one year then followed it with matching earrings for Valentine's day (my b-day is in January, so they came close together). Probably my favorite pieces are a really pretty chunky garnet bracelet (garnet is my birthstone and my absolute favorite gem) which is totally NOT my style, but it is so pretty I wear it often and always get compliments and a beautiful laser cut sterling silver Razorback (I'm an alum of our state's university whose mascot is a Razorback) on a gorgeous thick silver chain. I wear both pieces quite a bit.

The only things he gave me that I don't wear anymore are my wedding and engagement ring set and a ring he bought me for Christmas one year that has both of our birthstones in the shape of hearts. I've never been a fancy jewelry girl so there are just really small diamonds in my wedding set so it wouldn't even really be worth a lot of money to sell it, so it sits in its little box in a drawer.

I guess everyone has their own thoughts/opinions about such things, but I just wear what I like and though he turned out to be a jerk in the end, my XH had nice taste in jewelry and seemed to understand that I didn't like flashy, gaudy pieces.