Detail: Pandora bracelet

Normally, I'm not someone who is a great deal into faddish things, but one of the "trends" I do own is a Pandora bracelet.  I saw this sort of bracelet first advertised as "Troll Beads" on youtube, and then Becky showed me her Pandora bracelet when we met in Singapore a couple of years ago. 

I am a massive sucker for charm bracelets and I have a few, including one Dhany bought me for my birthday last year which has a pencil, handbags and a comb on it. 

The thing that I love about the Pandora type bracelet is that the charms are screwed on as beads rather than clasped onto links.  So they don't dangle and risk getting chipped as much and the whole affair is rather compact.

I thought I would share what I have on my bracelet so far, just because I like looking at others'.

So far my beads are mostly silver, with the exception of one that has a tiny gold circle and a garnet.

I think when I do start to add coloured beads (I'm holding off as they're more expensive), I'll go with a colour combination of red and silver with touches of gold.

The guitar represents Dhany.

The turtle represents my mom and the dog represents Chip.  Becky got that one for me.  My neighbour, Afua, got me the snowman for my birthday this year (because we're in a snowy place and as she is from Ghana and I am from Singapore, we bitch about it all the time)!  I was uber touched.  She's just started her own and it's going to be a mad colourful one.  I can't wait to see it finished.

Dhany bought me the book with the owl on it and the hedgehog for my birthday and had them express mailed over for about the cost of ONE CHARM.  I was so excited and moved when the package came.  The book is supposed to represent my getting into the Masters programme and the hedgehog is just... um... cute.

This bead on the end with the garnet represents my grandmother.  I got it when she moved in with us last year to remind myself that no matter how hard things got, she's my grandma at the end of the day.

And finally, the swirly one second from the right is a special source of pride for me, for my first promotion.  It was hard fought and long in coming, so I like to remind myself that hard work pays off.

It's been about two years now that I've slowly started to build the bracelet up and it still has space for at least twice as many beads.  It's a process that's meant to be slow and thoughtful, and I like that every time I look at my wrist, there are little reminders of all the meaningful things in my life, and that I have worked to afford every single one of them or that they are special presents from special people.

What about you guys?  Do you have charm bracelets and what's on them?