Trinkets and Travel

As I may have mentioned a few times in the past, I turned 30 last weekend. When my husband and I returned back to Sparta after our vacation in Foinikounta, my mother-in-law had a lovely and thoughtful birthday gift waiting for me:

A stack of silver bangles held together at one part! I don't talk about this much, but I looooooooove me some bangles. When I spent my summer in India in 2004, I totally came home with lotsa bangles, although I stopped wearing them because they made so much noise. I had a bunch of colleagues at my first job who had gone on a trip to Morocco and they'd all bought awesome silver bangles and I was so jealous... So I'm pretty psyched about this. I've already worn the stack once and they were nowhere near as jangly as I feared, so I will be good to go with this. I don't love that they have the big "Just Cavalli" logo, but no one can really see it when it's on, anyway (as it dangles on the bottom). 

As anyone who has ever read this blog knows, I really love jewelry. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake in highlighting my love for boots over jewelry. Because I have loved jewelry since I was sentient. It's all my dad's fault, bringing me back lapis lazuli stuff from Chile every time he went home... Anyway, I do love jewelry. And I love wearing a variety of it. And I also love travel. How do I combine these two loves without hideously combining them? 

In the past, I used to shuck everything into a little leather case no doubt intended for some other use and would inevitably spend at least one morning laboriously undoing the knots in two necklaces that had snarled together. But that hasn't happened in well over a year cuz of this guy! 

Style Nation, meet my travel jewelry case. I saw it in a J. Crew catalogue last school year (does anyone else feel really wistful when they read a J. Crew catalogue? Everyone looks so fresh-faced and preppy!) and as soon as I had some time to kill while visiting home, I moseyed on over to my local store and bought my own. People, it has been a lifesaver. Okay, I'm exaggerating: a trip/jewelry saver, at LEAST. It is full of nooks and crannies and three different zippered compartments and it really fits everything I would want, even for a long trip like this one. I organize it differently each time and depending on what jewelry I'm packing (which, of course, depends on what clothes I'm packing, duh). 

On this trip, the top compartment (i.e., the one all the way to the left in the above picture) has my necklaces/pendants. These either have big, chunky pendants that discourage their tangling together or chains with links that make untangling easy. I've had a few tangling incidents this summer, and they were all resolved in a few seconds without the use of anything other than my own hands (I'm weirdly good at untangling delicate jewelry - if all else fails, I'll even use a safety pin/unbent paper clip; again, I've been doing this for a long time). Below, you see my chunky turquoise and chunky red seashell necklaces:

Next up, we have my two favorite bits: the strips for (stud) earrings and rings, respectively:

I love these features. Even long, dangly earrings have space to fit. And my rings are doing just fine, hanging out on their own little strip, just sliding around merrily all day long.

The next compartment houses my non-stud earrings (and the gold chain I've had since childhood which is currently holding my mom's baptism medallion, because I would be more nervous if that tangled with anything else: it's quite delicate, hence it hanging out with non-threatening earrings):

Lastly, in the final compartment, I have my carnelian jewelry set. Since it's only housing one necklace and two earrings, it's well-nigh impossible to have tangling issues, even though the many chains and stones and danglies on this set are prone to wrap around each other; but putting the whole set together in isolation has worked a charm so far:

Isn't that fun? The saleslady at J. Crew, a woman from Sweden, said that she used the same case to travel to and from home. And I love my own. I love that it has so much space and is so delicate that you feel your jewelry is super-safe in there (priorities, right, people?). I also love that - since it does have so much space for trinkets - I can always shop for more and fit them in without worrying about loading up my suitcase! In the end, the whole thing folds up to this:

It's about seven inches long and 2.5/3 inches wide. And lightweight enough to toss into your carry-on without worrying about anyone stealing it from your checked luggage - or maybe that's just me. 

Anyway, I've been wanting to feature this lovely little travel case for over a year now and I'm glad I finally was motivated enough to do so. Do y'all travel with a bunch of jewelry? Do you have a fun way to pack it? 

Note: I was no way asked/compensated by J. Crew to write this post. I friggin' love this product and if they want to repay me in gloriously preppy pastel chinos and cute skirts, I would...really like it. But, seriously. I just really like this travel case and it happens to be from that store: that's all there is to it.