A little while back I had the honor of creating a little something beautiful for The City Beautiful. Doing these custom pieces made me reflect on living life in our little hometown of Laurel, MS. We are not originally from here, but I like to say we were ‘dropped’ here by the Lord 23 years ago from the plains of Oklahoma. And much like the wind that goes sweeping through the plains, my honey lamb and I did not dream we would be here this long…
But here we are. Our 23 year journey includes memories from all over the world, but finds it hub – it’s homebase, right here. I never knew what “southern hospitality” really looked like – open carports, and open doors were a huge contrast from closed garages and closed doors. Oklahoma was friendly, but Mississippi was hospitable. People are born here, grow up here, and often grow old here. Deep family roots, long lineages, and here we were…Two young city kids barely 20 – living on faith – I’ll go anywhere God – where again is Mississippi? – following the call – 10 hours from anyone who knew our name. And yet, Laurel took us in like family, like we had always been here. We stayed. And had babies. And now they are growing up here, the only ‘home’ they have ever known.
So, naturally when I was asked to create something unique, something reflective of our little town, I was honored! We weren’t “from” here. But Laurel had woven its way through our lives over the years and I wanted it to be just that – a weaving of history in each part of the necklace. Hence, the Heirloom Necklace.
Five elements make up each of the 6 necklace designs. Handmade is my preference 🙂 so each necklace begins with just that – a handmade sterling silver charm created out of precious metal clay, sculpted, heated, stamped, polished and waxed with “Laurel” boldly displayed. The vintage/vintage replica chain is hand selected and is very symbolic of our little town both with it’s beautiful rich history and the desire to bring it back to life (which many of you may well know if you’ve caught any of HGTV’s ‘Hometown’ ) The other elements were inspired by an article written describing Laurel and the assets it possesses, “ranging from it’s incredible history of business and innovations that spanned the timber industry [ petrified wood charm ] and the invention of the Lindsey Wagon, to the oil industry, the building industry and the invention of Masonite siding. Additionally, Laurel … has a rich architectural heritage represented in it’s downtown commercial architecture [ old keys found in the vault of the historic First National Bank building, now home to Rasberry Financial ] … Finally, its “string of emeralds” [ emerald charm ] parks system reveals some of the most beautiful parks designed by some of America’s most renowned landscape architects.” –www.msmainstreet.com/events news/press releases/P596
The Heirloom Necklace: Gardiner, Daphne, Euclid, Mason, Eastman, and the Lindsey.
Here are a few of my favorites!
EUCLID
MASON
Many memories in this park – playdates with kids, ladies bible study (yes – perfect place while kids play!), church picnics, prepping for my first 10K, home of my first ever craft booth at our annual Day in the Park. ( I made 400$ on bookmarks! LOL! )
DAPHNE
Daphne park is the home of the Cameron Center and it played a huge role in our lives and the life of our church for many years before we had a building of our own. We met there, played there, ate there, really felt like we lived there actually!!
Maybe you have special memories of one of these Laurel parks as well and would enjoy one of Novi’s heirloom necklaces! They are currently available at The Mercantile in downtown.