Hairloom Treasures

The hardest part of Christmas (and birthdays!), for me, is keeping gifts a secret. Sometimes I find a gift that is so awesome, it just about kills me not to tell the recipient all about it ahead of time! Such was the case this year with this gift. Remember our horse, Moonie, who passed away last summer? Well, a week or two before, I snuck over to the farm while my mother was at work, and cut off a hunk of Moonie's tail hair. (Grampa, you did a great job keeping quiet about that!!) I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it, but I had read that lots of other people make keepsakes out of horse hair and I knew it would be great if I could come up with presents for my family members.

A couple of weeks ago, my mother handed me this newspaper article and lamented the fact that we didn't know about this before. I tried very hard to hide my smug grin and not let on to the fact that I had a stash of Moonie hair! I contacted Giselle Rec and she was more than happy to make up some jewelry for me in time for Christmas. She made a bracelet for my sister, keychains for my mother & sister-in-law and zipper pulls for my boys and my niece and nephews. And, of course, I just had to have a bracelet too! It just about killed me, but I didn't tell anyone about it until Christmas Eve. (I just couldn't wait until morning, so we stopped in and gave them to my sister & mother a bit early!) There were tears when they realized that the jewelry was made from Moonie's tail and everyone is just thrilled to have a piece of Moonie to keep forever. Thank you so much, Giselle!!

I photographed the items on an old picture of Moonie that I took way back in 1987, which my husband & I enlarged & framed for my sister's birthday gift. My sister & I modeling our bracelets...