For Christmas 2000, Santa was very good to me (I'd obviously been a very good girl all year). He brought me a new, diamond ring, set in 14kt gold! Well, it's actually three rings in one set, that fit tightly together - see the photo to the right below...

Because I have an allergy to nickel, all of the costume jewelry I owned at that point in time was causing my skin to develop an itchy rash where it was in contact with the metal. Nothing too serious, but it was quite annoying. I tried a number of different things, such as coating the metal with clear nail-polish, but it wouldn't stay very long and the rash would eventually return. I knew I didn't have that problem with real gold, since my wedding band was made of 18kt gold and had never caused me any problems. So I was pretty sure anything made of real gold would be OK. I went searching discount jewelry outlets on the internet and eventually found something I really liked that was also in my price range.  The fact that it was a wedding set was fine with me, I prefer to wear a ring on the third finger of my left hand anyway. So I took the plunge, so to speak, and ordered it. It took a month to arrive, but was well worth the wait. The other advantage of waiting was that I was able to let my fingernails grow to a more feminine length. I'm really pleased with the ring and the way it looks. I wear it every opportunity I get, especially when I'm driving by myself. I've seen several women do "double takes" when they spot it... on a guy.

The other purchase was a pendant necklace with my name on it. Something about people being able to see my name in nice, shiny gold, appealed to me. I found a design that accented the gold name with a single gem-stone. You know what they say about girls and diamonds, so I chose to have a small diamond mounted on the end. I think the overall effect is wonderful. One thing I didn't consider originally is that the length of the chain may not have been long enough. And it wasn't. I had to have the jeweler extend the length buy an inch-and-a-half  on each side.  Now it works beautifully.

(Sorry the photo is not the best quality.)