Moissanite for Peace?

   Ryan left the country for a little over three months this last year during the entire holiday season except for Thanksgiving. Which means he missed Christmas, my 21st birthday, New Years and Valentines day. While he was gone though he did his very best to make sure that I knew he loved me and kept me on my toes the whole time.

   I stayed with his family for the weeks leading up to Christmas. I was using Pam's sewing machine to make her, Courtnee and Kat all really cute aprons as gifts. Pam had no idea that I was making her one and it was some what frustrating because Pam is a perfectionist. A couple of the fabrics I picked out to go with her apron had cream and one of them had white in it, this is bothersome to her, she thinks they clash :) She ended up loving her apron but I had to find a different fabric that didn't have white in it.

Pam's apron, unfinished because the band had white. 

Courtnee's nautical apron. 

Kat's bollywood Christmas apron. 

   So while I was at Chateau Hard I was spending a lot of time at the fabric store with Pam. I think we went there at least five times to make sure the each apron was just perfect. Pam and I would spend an hour or more just staring at fabric, it would give me anxiety lol. Some how Pam and Ryan managed to get me a sewing machine, which means that Pam and all of the ladies at Hancocks knew what I was getting for Christmas and kept it a secret from me. I still can't figure out when Pam went there without me? Must have been when I was making this.

That's Beau looking out of the window. 

   Or maybe it was when I was looking through these...

That is Ryan's. Cute huh?

   The Hard's all went to Missouri for Christmas and I went to Chicago. My friend Kat had moved there about the same time that I moved to Alabama. Neither one of us could really afford to drive all the way to Idaho so I decided to drive up there and have a white Christmas. We had to sneak Beau under a blanket up the stairs anytime he needed to go to the bathroom because he wasn't exactly allowed in her apartment building. We did a lot of walking, eating and drinking and fun was had by all. Kat decided one night that she wanted to cut her hair, so she tied it in a pony tail and chopped it off and then we dyed it blonde and it turned out orange. We spent the next day looking for a salon and dying her hair brown, it was very cute after it was fixed but probably a bit shorter than Kat wanted it.

That is a bunch of hair. 

I like it! 

 

Beau on Christmas morning at the dog park, he was really happy, playing with the other Christmas dogs. 

My attempt at a heart warming Christmas photo. 

Kat loved her apron! 

12:30 AM first birthday beer, in my Christmas pajamas!

   My sewing machine was waiting for me in Birmingham, a Janome that has an LCD screen, and 50 different settings, it also does button holes, I didn't know that machines did that. I love my sewing machine, when I was home I used almost everyday. Sewing panties, Beau-ties, aprons and curtains.
   One day the UPS truck pulled up to our door with a package for me, it gave me butterflies, seeing a delivery truck at my door always meant Ryan. He bought a box of chocolates for me for my birthday. Chocolate on its own is a great gift, its not my favorite, I wouldn't call myself a real candy person but this box of chocolate was extra special. Ryan bought them from the very same little shop in Brussels, Belgium that we had visited in the summer. How adorable is that?

Each one was so good I took five minutes to just savor it.

   The next holiday was Valentines Day, and we were still separated. I made Ryan a pair of Valentine boxers and got him a box of chocolates shaped like tools to send to him in Qatar. Since Ryan had a much larger budget, he got me a beautiful ring.

   You don't have to know Ryan for very long before you know what his stand on the diamond industry is and just about everything Ryan has a strong opinion on is because he is right. Diamonds fuel war, blood shed, child labor and are really not worth even a tenth of what they are priced at. So what is my ring made out of?

   Its called moissanite. Moissanite has more fire, luster than diamonds, as seen in the picture above (moissanite on left.) It is actually more rare than diamonds and was discovered in a meteorite, its a space stone! Since they are so rare all moissanite stones are made in a laboratory in Arizona by Charles and Colvard. They are only controlled by one market and the price reflects their true worth, it is a lot cheaper than diamonds. The only way to tell moissanite from a diamond is by how flawless they are. These stones are flawless, have more fire, better cuts, colorless and on the hardness scale rank at 9.75 but are less likely to chip than a diamond which ranks at 10 on the hardness scale.

14k white gold, five 0.25ct round stones. 

   At first when I heard about moissanite I thought that people would think less of me because it wasn't a diamond, like it was an impostor like cubic zirconia. The truth is that it is its own stone. Its own beautiful, blood free, flawless stone. It took getting my ring to convince me but only because it is really hard to find jewelers who have it in their stores. 

   Now that I wear it everyday I am completely convinced, I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about buying a diamond. Ryan bought my ring from moissaniteco.com, they are super nice people and able to make or do anything you want. I love my ring and I know that if you get one, you will too.