Can Jewelry Save the World?

We recently announced our pregnancy over on Facebook. I have to say, we were overwhelmed by the love and support we felt from everyone, most of who we have never even met. Thank you to everyone who is part of our journey, we love having you here.

The Handsome Man and I have been together for almost 12 years. It's hard to take that plunge from couple life to adding a child. Finally though, we decided to try.

Sadly, we lost our first baby at just over 8 weeks pregnant, two days after Thanksgiving, hours after seeing him on the ultrasound. We were crushed, as anyone who has suffered a Miscarriage knows. It was a rough December, there aren’t words to describe it.

We were lucky and got pregnant again in January. We decided early on we weren't going to stress about all the things that could go wrong and instead happily embraced our new pregnancy.

Well, Nick did. I embraced the toilet seat. From weeks 4 to 15 I threw up at least 3 to 6 times a day. When I wasn't actively throwing up I was dealing with incredibly severe nausea. Eating and drinking was a chore. Sleeping brought little relief. I lost 10 pounds and fought to feed our growing baby.

At week 7, I developed excessive saliva. Every second of every day my mouth was rapidly pooling with saliva. I carried a spit jar in my purse and got sores in my mouth from sucking on hard candy (which was supposed to help...it doesn't). In order to sleep I had to jam towels in my mouth, which I then changed about three times a night. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Meanwhile, Nick picked up all my slack. I honestly don’t know how he did it all.

And then Amy wrote us. Amy is the proprietress of Bon Lemon, a beyond glamorous accessory store in Olympia (although, accessory store doesn't seem like a good enough explanation, but I'll get to that later). Amy wanted to do a photoshoot with our animals showcasing jewelry, scarves and hair accessories. Saying yes was a no-brainer for Nick and I...this was just the type of distraction we needed.

When Amy first showed up at the farm I laughed out loud. I told her to dress to get dirty and there she was looking fabulous in tall faux crocodile boots, skinny jeans, a vest, scarf and more bracelets than I had ever seen anyone wear. But, don't let the accessories fool you, she got in there and in about 5 minutes flat Amy had singlehandedly "accessorized" every goat we own. My heart smiled...she was contagious.

The day only got better, perhaps culminating when Sampson, our 350+ lb. boar mounted Delilah, both wearing hair flowers.

It was perfect. I almost forgot I was spitting every 5 seconds and I forgot to count how many times I threw up.

A few weeks later I let myself start dreaming about announcing our pregnancy. Obviously we were cautious, and doing anything while feeling so poorly was almost unfathomable. But then I saw a photo online and all of a sudden I had a vision!  I scoured my closet to pull together some bits...the skirt my mom wore to our wedding, a corset from being a bridesmaid, my pink boots from our pre-farm life, 2 yards of lace and a lot of straight pins.

But it needed more...you know, the zshush. I wrote Amy a note to see if she could help me and she instantly replied, “Come down to the store!”

Bon Lemon is a magical place bursting with inspiration around every corner. Amy and Brenna were there to help me try on A LOT of different options. When I felt uncomfortable with some of the more outrageous pieces (like I mentioned, they are way more fabulous than I’ll ever be) they listened to my feedback and just kept patiently giving me more to choose from. I left that day bursting with excitement…for the first time since initially finding out we were pregnant again I was giddy.

Below was our announcement photo. The necklace and the hair flower are from Bon Lemon. I captioned it: "We have a secret...There are two baby girls in this photo. 16 weeks Pregnant"

What makes Amy even better? She donates a large portion of her time and proceeds to Big Brothers Big Sisters. When you support Bon Lemon you not only support a small business, you support a greater cause.

So, can jewelry save the world? I'm not sure. But I do know jewelry helped this very sick pregnant mama and her very overworked husband dream and smile. I’d imagine the organizations that benefit from Amy’s generosity would also argue in favor of jewelry. It would appear jewelry can save the world…a little sparkle at a time.

Thank you Amy, for creating a world full of inspiration and outrageousness. Where laughter is an approved medicine and goats wear jewelry to lunch.

Link Information:

• Visit Bon Lemon's Online Shoppe. You'll find belts, bags, scarves, hair accessories, bracelets, rings, watches, and more!
• To see all the photos from our fabulous day at The Farmstead, visit Amy's website.
• To follow Bon Lemon on facebook, like them! They are so fun and full of inspiration!