February 29, 2016 ~ Family Love Tokens

Every time you smile at someone, 

it is an action love,

 a gift to that person, 

a beautiful thing.”
~Mother Teresa

One of my FAVORITE pieces of jewelry is a necklace I had a silversmith friend of mine make for me from my daddy’s family’s love tokens.  During the 1800’s,  people would deface one side of a coin - mine happen to be dimes - and engrave initials, dates, and pictures on the that side. They also placed engravings on rounded pieces of silver.  I have been struggling for years trying to identify the initials and have been successful in some cases.  All of them come from my father’s side of the family. The Hornot’s were French and lived in New Orleans.  A number of years ago  - before Katrina - I spent a week in the genealogy section of the NOLA Pubic Library researching family history, and that is where I was finally able to identify some of the dates and initials. This necklace is another one of my Hornet family “treasures.”

 The following are the pieces that “responded positively” to being photographed!  Many of the tokens are inscribed on both sides. In other words, I couldn’t get the other shots to come out clearly enough to post. I am still having trouble with the silver. At least these will give you an idea of why this necklace is so full of meaning and sentimentality for me.

I am adding one more NEW treasure to this post, and it is a picture done by my granddaughter, Eloise, for her art journal. I gave her one for Christmas 2014, and ever since I started mine I’ve been sharing with her my sketches hoping that she would catch the bug and start sending me some she has done. Well, Saturday she sent me her first and I about flipped out I was so thrilled. I do not know if her mother took a photo of her or she was sitting with her back to the hall closet mirror, but this is of the back of her with her LONG hair that she will cut in June for Locks of Love. Since it is going to continue being a treasure to me - especially since it is her first sketch she has shared - I thought it would be OK to post it here. Oh, I asked her if it would be alright if I posted it on my blog and she said “yes” and  was thrilled to death. It made her so happy...and me, too. She is now 10 years old, and I am smiling at her now.

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday’s Treasures.