BuyDay Friday: The Charmed Life

 

As with all addictions, it started innocently.

I asked JetSetHusband for a silver charm bracelet for my birthday, planning to add a charm or two to commemorate the places I’ve been on my travels. Just over a year later, my Tiffany trinket has 19 charms dangling from it and I’ve had to start putting two charms on each link. (Luckily, the links open so I can slip the charms on myself; no need for a trip to the jeweler.) Now, like a belled cat, I announce myself with a silvery jingle-jangle every time I enter a room. And I’ve started to notice my spine curving from the weight of the mementos on my left wrist. But I can’t take it off; every charm is a precious reminder of a trip past.

There’s the Dala horse that I drove my friend Victor crazy with as I searched high and low for it in Stockholm last summer. The steelpan that reminds me of my maiden and absolutely mind-blowing trip to Trinidad Carnival. (I bought it in the terminal within minutes of touching down. Don’t you just love an airport where you can shop before you even leave the arrivals area?) The Welsh dragon I scored from a market stall in Swansea, where my parents used to live. The amber-and-larimar orb I snagged in a hotel gift shop on a weeklong safari touring Punta Cana’s gargantuan all-inclusive resorts. The sun-embellished coin from a craft fair in Buenos Aires …

Scoliosis be damned, I won’t give up my charm bracelet  – or the pursuit of charms to go on it. In fact I just got back from Belize, where I searched high and low but couldn't find one. So let me know if you see a silver Belize charm out there. Because there’s always room for one more.

What do you collect on your travels? Fridge magnets? Snowglobes? Decorative spoons? JetSetting minds want to know …