Continuing on with my version of the A to Z challenge, the first word that springs to my mind when I think of the letter J is jewelry. Possibly this has something to do with the three standing jewelry boxes I have, although I hasten to add, I long ago decided my budget ran to fashion jewelry, not the “real”  stuff, with a few exceptions. I also decided to concentrate on earrings primarily, since I never was a bracelet person and we have to wear a clunky badge at the day job, which makes necklaces problematic. Although of course, being me, I do have some of each!

I have nothing in any of my jewelry boxes that compares to the glories of ancient Egyptian gold and precious stones, like the example above, but I do have some vintage Elizabeth Taylor for Avon “Cleopatra Collection” items, pictured here.

 This little guy is the piece that started it all for me, when I was seven and my Aunt Barbara sent me this turtle pin (who had a twin but he’s gotten lost in the mists of time) and a red purse to match. Coincidentally, I wrote my first “novel” at age seven! I had never really noticed until today that my turtle’s back is a scarab. Wow, those connections between me and a fascination with Egypt run deep!

Not everything in the boxes is Egyptian-themed. I wore these five inch vintage Lunch At The Ritz earrings to the RT book signing because I figured if I’m going to keep telling y’all that I love blingy earrings and then when you run into me, I’m not wearing any, that would be a bad thing. Also highly unlikely since I won’t even go grocery shopping without earrings.

The silver-toned ones are some of my favorite go-to, daily earrings for just making the run to the post office, which I have to do today, or the grocery store. The fairy-themed ones in the middle are 1980’s Banana Bob and the split sun is an eBay find. (I troll eBay to the detriment of my budget.)

If a person writes a lot about the Crocodile God and his children, the Nile crocodiles, which I do, then they begin to acquire a collection of crocodiles. Of course they do! So here are a few of my favorites.

And I’ll finish off with some bracelets, because I do have a few. I love the typewriter keys because I learned to type at age 8 on an old Royal typewriter my Dad found someplace (I typed so fast the strikers were always getting tangled up – at least we don’t have that problem on computer keyboards!). The keys looked just like the ones on the bracelet. I love the trilobites because they’re 250 million years old and whenever I get impatient (which is often), I remind myself in 250 million years , it won’t matter to me….and the marcasite one is just pretty and makes three. I might wear it with my steampunk costume at RWA. We’ll see!

And then below that is a pin that means a lot to me – my Romance Writers of America Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Special Interest Chapter pin. I’ll have to talk rings another day, maybe for the letter R!