My Awesome Etsy Necklace

I haven't done a whole lot of Etsy shopping--until recently.  My daughter-in-law, Regina (wife of son #1), has been finding interesting gifts at Etsy for years now.  And then son #3 got married last December to Preciosa, who has given us some absolutely wonderful, very unique and personalized gifts found on the site. So I finally realized it was time to get on board that Etsy train, and last fall I went on there to find some Pearl Beer-inspired Christmas gifts for a few of my boys (copying Regina, who'd gotten one of them as a gift for her hubby a while back).  I just typed in "Pearl Beer bottle openers" and easily found a seller's site, where I was able to order a few of these beauties:

So anyway, I've been getting my latest mother-of-the-groom ensemble together, for son #2's wedding in November, and I was looking for a special necklace to wear with it--but not the kind of thing you would normally find at the mall.  I wanted it to incorporate pearls (because I always like to wear my favorite gems to celebrate special occasions in the Pearl family) and a Miraculous Medal (because I wear mine 24/7, and if I remove it to wear a string of pearls, then I will usually pin an inexpensive version of the medal inside my clothing, because I hate to go without my favorite devotional).  So I had a "Eureka!" moment and decided to try Etsy.  I typed in "pearl necklaces with Miraculous Medals," and one site that came up was ABABeadsKC, which offered this lovely piece:

"This is almost perfect!" I thought, because it just so happens that the suit I'm wearing is pale green, and those peridot gems would look lovely with it.  But I really wanted cream-colored pearls, because I'm traditional; and although this Our Lady of Guadalupe medal is spectacular, I wanted a Miraculous Medal instead.

There is a place on Etsy sellers' sites where you can contact them directly, so I sent the woman behind ABABeadsKC, Beth Ann, a personal message asking if she could design a necklace similar to this one, but with just a few changes. And I'll tell you, she was wonderful!  We emailed back and forth, and she showed me different pearls--both round and baroque-shaped, in several different sizes--and different styles of Miraculous Medals.  She told me she could make my necklace whatever length I wanted, in either silver or gold.

After a few online "conferences," we had a winner!  The final product is 18" long, made with 10 mm baroque Swarovski crystal pearls, oval peridot crystals, and an antiqued-gold Miraculous Medal.  Before she shipped it to me, Beth Ann sent me these three pictures, to make sure the necklace met with my approval and to see if I wanted to make any last-minute changes.

I didn't--because I LOVE it!  And for $35, I think it was a great deal--especially because it was made exactly to my specifications.

(The Danny and Nicole jacquard suit I'm going to wear with my necklace was a 2010 JC Penney find--regularly priced at $90 and marked down to $17.99!  I snapped it up, shortly after our oldest son's wedding in late 2009, thinking it would make a good mother-of-the-groom dress for a future son's wedding.  Well, the future is now.)

This has not been a sponsored post, BTW--I just thought I'd give this Esty shop a little plug because I was so happy with my beautiful necklace.  If you're looking for religious jewelry (or perhaps a new set of Rosary beads), you might want to check out ABABeadsKC.