Good Questions: Special Jewelery or Music Box?

Cherie writes: My 85 year old grandmother has given money to celebrate the birth of my daughter Edie. With the money, I'd like to buy something that Edie will always treasure, to remind her of her dear Grams. I was thinking of a beautiful jewelry and/or music box that would be appropriate for a little girl, but would still be something she would want to use when she is all grown-up!

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The only ones I have found seem to be covered in fairies and princesses and the plainer ones just look too harsh in a baby's room. Any ideas Ohdeedoh readers?

Please share your suggestions and ideas with Cherie in the comments below...

Photo: Antique French Bronze Box on eBay

Comments (3)

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posted by mschatelaine on December 17th 2008 at 2:01pm
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well, that worked... let's see if this will...

Here's another suggestion for what to do with the money -- and this is what we tried to do ourselves, but never had enough money -- hire a really really good b&w portrait photographer to take beautiful pictures of the baby with your grandmother.

We have no good photos of my husband's grandmother -- an amazingly beautiful, smart and funny woman of almost 102 (in 4 days!!!) -- much less ones of her with the children. I know that we would all cherish them dearly.

A nice idea would be to have them specially framed, maybe with vintage frames.

posted by mschatelaine on December 17th 2008 at 2:05pm
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The idea of the portraits with grandmother and baby is really nice, but I don't think they have to be expensive photos to be special.

I like the idea of the music/jewelry box, partly because my mother collects music boxes, and partly because I had wished my family were more into heirloom/sentimental objects than they are. The few things I have (whether expensive or not) that are connected to memories of relatives are really precious to me.

I don't know how much you have to spend on the box, but I think getting a Reuge box would be a good idea. If you can find a local place (don't know where you are) where you can play and hear the boxes, that'd be best. Quality boxes have great tone and resonance and aren't just tinny. There are some beautiful inlaid ones that aren't covered with fairies, but still aren't too severe...some just with patterns of different colored wood, some with flowers, etc...so I would think you can find something to suit your taste. You can google "Reuge music boxes" or look on e-bay, where there is a decently varied selection. I'd still keep the box out of kid hands while she's young, if I were you, if you want it to be intact when she's an adult. Maybe it's a special birthday gift she would get once she's 8 or 10 or so? One website I browsed through even could do an engraved plaque in/on the box.

If investing in a quality music box seems too much, you could just go the jewelry box route.

posted by mirnada on December 17th 2008 at 3:46pm
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