There's No Way I'm Making Up For Lost Time (blogs)

I'll just start out saying that since I last posted to my blog.....I've gotten engaged. Amy described the entire event in near perfect detail on her blog (http://30yofseeksmarathontorun.blogspot.com/) if your as interested as I know you will be.

She got one thing wrong. I did come back with that third beer. I put it on the table and told her I was going to the bathroom and would be right back with roses and a ring. She didn't hear that last part though. I didn't hear much as I carried the roses and ring from the back of the restaurant towards the front either. As a matter of fact I vaugely remember getting tunnel vision. It wasn't until I dropped to one knee that I remember hearing other patrons ooooing and awwwwing. I snapped back then and had the fortitude whip the camera from my back pocket in time for someone to snap a reenactment of the one knee event. Amy still had the contact jacked up inside her eyelid and I was just wanting to sit beside her and give her a hug.

After she returned from the bathroom, we laughed about the whole thing and then talked about the events leading up to "the moment" and talked about the ring. She has small hands anyway, so I knew anything over a 3.5 carat would be too big for her. HA! Realistically, it would have been too big for my savings account. See, I actually had a savings set aside for the ring. So, she has a paid for ring and I have a happy fiance. (how do I get that little dash over the "e" in fiance?) Since she probably won't tell you, but you really want to know, I'll tell you a little about the ring.

First of all, the center stone is and Emerald cut just under 2 carats. It is exactly 1.92 ct. with .25 ct. tapered bagets on each side. I purchased the Emerald cut seperately, but had it inspected and appraised first. The appraiser was the only GIA gemologist in Middle GA and gave me a report that listed the stones specs. An Internally Flawless, VVS2 that is I in color. Good Symmentry and Polish with no Flouresence and a memdium Girdle. And I knew what all of that meant. I know much more than the 4C's. That's remedial information. Grade school stuff now. I'd actually considered going to NY or even Antwerp to get a stone. But persistance and lots of looking paid off in the end. I purchase the two bagets through the jewelry designer I used to hand carve Amy's setting. We had looked had hundreds of settings in several catalouges and online and I knew which style she liked and several things about some similar styles that she didn't like. After much much research (more so on the main diamond than the setting) I came across Tiffany's setting that matched so much of what we both liked. And it is bad ass! Here, go look...
http://http://www.tiffany.com/expertise/engagement/engagement.aspx?style=emerald&ring=baguettes#
See, I told you so! So, I had Georgia Heard, owner of Gray Jewelers, in Gray, GA recreate it for me. I took her both pictures and lots of pictures of the similar settings and showed her what I did and didn't like about them. Three weeks later, I had it in hand. She did co-create this ring with Gregory Crawford, whom I've never met, but understand is a master artist with clientle David Yurman would pay for.

The entire ring process took many many hours of internet research and more hours of shopping and talking with diamond brokers. Most of which were full of malarkey (Exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive: “snookered by a lot of malarkey”). Nonetheless, it was fun and worth it once I was able to give it to my former girlfriend.....current fiance.

I'll try to remember to come back to this post and add the reenactment of the proposal and a better picture of the ring.

So, it took such an event to bring me back to my blog, but I can't promise I'll keep it up as regularly as I had been. Blog land is competitive and if you don't have an audience, it's hard to be motivated to make it a priority. I know, I know. If you don't make it a priority and keep it up you'll never have an audience. (long sigh)