Ringing in the years ...

I started blogging just over 10 years ago, though included earlier adventures from 2009 (when Nick and I had been married for several years). 

My recent Scrabble bags featured fabrics from our wedding outfits - and both our 5th and 10th anniversaries are recorded, so it seemed entirely appropriate to document our 15th!

Of course, we've been together longer than 15 years.  We departed for our wonderful Wing-it Wanderings just after the 17th anniversary of our first "dodgy" date. 

A lot can happen over the years - and a lot did!  We moved often.  7 times in ten years by 2015, which included our 2012 relocation from NSW to Victoria.  

In 2017 we made another interstate move, from Victoria to Queensland.  We'd culled heavily before relocating in 2012 and then even more ruthlessly during the Great Cull of 2015. Some of those efforts feature on Hamby Home(in)stead.  Here and here give a good overview of how much we "released".  There are posts between those that detail the more nitty gritty aspects of our extreme down-sizing.

What survived the culls?  Rocks.  So many boxes of rocks!   I talk about them on this post when we joined a lapidary club in late 2014 - and by the time we moved to Queensland we had added olivine to our collection (though the Fire King chair was cremated in Victoria - yep, have a big laugh about that, we certainly did)! 

Most of our rocks are rough, ie. not cut and polished, though we had one of our sapphires faceted and there are opals that Nick cabbed at the lapidary club.  (We were club members for about a year before the Great Cull and our subsequent 18-month stint of van life). One of those opals was particularly intended to be set but there have been various higher priorities - till now.

In July 2010 we bought a stone at the Yowah Opal Festival, which Linda set for us just before we headed home. She did great work and I love my "double 21st" pendant.  Since then she set a pendant for Erin, who also purchased an opal bracelet for herself and an antique pottery one for me.  When Nick and I decided to set this opal, we emailed Linda with photos and some ideas.  Once we posted the stones to her she was able to draft a design and start work.  

The opal is one Nick found along the road at Yowah in 2014 and the small sapphire was treasure from our tag-along fossicking tour at Rubyvale in 2017, soon after becoming QLDers.  We haven't valued either of these stones, their worth is linked to our memories of shared adventures and experiences.

Linda sent a few progress shots and checked we were happy with the reality of her design, before finishing the piece.  The ring was posted back to us in early December - and journeyed out to Goondiwindi a couple of times (cos I mucked our postcode when texting quickly), before arriving safely about a week and a half later.  I was able to try it on, admire it and take a few pics before Nick stashed it away for safe-keeping till our anniversary.

We were quite broke at the time of our wedding, so purchased our rings via eBay. Nick's cost $20.00 and featured an anchor, which had lovely symbolism.  The anchor became a motif on our hand-crafted stationery, accessories and purchased cake decoration. My wedding ring was another eBay purchase, a big $80.00 spend. It's an antique-style band of aquamarines, which had nice meaning and fit with the anchor. Given our lack of funds at the time, I opted not to have an engagement ring - just wore the fancier wedding ring.