A few weeks ago, I started this Disney Princess engagement ring series with my picks for engagement rings worthy of fictional Disney Princesses Cinderella, Jasmine, Ariel, Mulan, and Aurora. It was too fun to stop with just five, so I kept right on going.
Here is Part II, with my picks for Belle, Snow White, Esmerelda, Tiana, and Rapunzel.
(Image via Belle’s Bookshelf.)
Belle is my favorite Disney Princess; no other lady holds a candle to her. Not only is she a sassy and fabulous representative of Team Brunette, she loves books! And she’s a documented re-reader, much like yours truly. (“I’ll borrow…that one!” “But you’ve read it twice!”) Belle doesn’t really need a ring, since her Prince already gave her the best gift that anyone could hope for, but I wanted to find her one anyway.(Image via Belle’s Bookshelf.)
My pick for Belle is this 4.33 carat yellow diamond ring by Cartier. Classic and elegant, just like Belle herself. The center stone is a rectangular brilliant cut natural fancy intense yellow diamond, flanked on either side by white diamonds. Yellow diamonds aren’t usually my first choice, but this one is glorious and no one can deny that yellow is Belle’s color.
Once she’s married, I imagine Belle will wear just her wedding band most of the time and save her engagement ring for special occasions. She strikes me as sort of a hands-on Princess, and who can re-organize her library with a huge rock on her finger?
The De Beers Adonis rose band in platinum gives me the rose tie-in I wanted for Belle without making library maintenance impossible. It’ll look wonderful with her engagement ring or on its own, and it’s a reference to the rose as an important symbol of her story without being overly on-the-nose. The plentiful tiny diamonds will give this band sparkle worthy of a Princess.
(Image via Fanpop.)Sure, Esmerelda’s not technically a Princess – but she’s a fabulous, feisty heroine and she deserves a ring too. I don’t actually remember her movie very well, but I know she dances like a diva and stands up for herself and her friends. She also definitely loves gold – even her goat has a gold earring.
My pick for Esemerelda is the Erica Courtney “Ellen” ring. It’s bold and feminine, just like Esmerelda. Bonus: the design on the side actually forms a cursive “E.” The one pictured here is in rose gold, but I think Esmerelda would probably prefer high-karat yellow gold to match the rest of her jewelry.
(Image via Kniggit.)Good old Snow White. I don’t have strong feelings about Snow White, although I do enjoy her affinity for woodland creatures and I think she played herself better than Kristen Stewart did.
My pick for Snow White is Art Deco Cartier, so it’s very Princess-worthy. Aren’t the colors amazing? It features a 5.50 carat a European-cut fancy intense yellow diamond flanked on either side by shield-cut sapphires weighing a total of 1.20 carats.
I think the connection here is pretty obvious: the yellow diamond with blue sapphires is a perfect match for Snow White’s favorite (or only) outfit. A Disney Princess engagement ring must be an appropriate color!
Tiana came too late for me to admire her in my personal golden age of Princesses (before age 20) but I’m still fond of her. Her movie has fabulous music and her domain includes beignets; what’s not to love?
I chose Van Cleef & Arpels’ Arbre aux Songes ring for Tiana. It features a glorious, majestically-hued tourmaline in a setting embellished diamond-studded leaves. I think the bayou-esque color scheme and foliate setting would be a lovely reference to how she and her prince met and fell in love.
(Image via Disney.)
If you missed Part I of my Disney Princess engagement ring series, you can click here to catch up. What do you think of this round of picks? Did I miss anyone you were hoping to see?
All images and info in this post are thanks to the original source for each item – please see individual Disney Princess engagement ring descriptions for source links.
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Belle Epoque diamond and ruby plaque-de-cou.
I’ve got some May flowers for you right here!
This is a ruby and diamond plaque-de-cou from 1905. A plaque-de-cou was a variation of the “collier de chien” that was popular in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. If you took as much high school French as I did, you might be sitting there scratching your head and thinking, “seriously? They put these on DOGS?”
Sadly for the dogs, they didn’t. Collier de chien (or “dog collar”) was just what choker-style necklaces were called. A plaque-de-cou is a collier de chien featuring a large rectangular or square plaque suspended on a ribbon or strands of pearls. (Source.)
This one is particularly ornate. The center of the design is an elaborate openwork basket full of flowers, suspended from the diamond-studded bow at the top of the plaque. The basket is also set with rose diamonds and accented with calibré-cut rubies.
The basket full of flowers is within a frame of ribbon, bow and floral swag design similarly set with rose-cut diamonds. A pear-shaped diamond drop dangles from the bottom of the plaque. The plaque is suspended on a wide moiré silk ribbon.
This lovely piece was listed in Sotheby’s December 2012 Fine Jewels auction. All images and info are thanks to Sotheby’s.
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The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
This book is: a raucous yarn.
Other elements: elephants, communism, hijinks, bibles, murder, explosives, centenarians, crime, politics, atom bombs.
Read it: if your brain wants a treat.
Overall rating: 8.75/10
He was on the run from his own birthday party, another unusual thing for a 100-year-old, not least of which because even being 100 is pretty rare. (Page 8)
I was having a rough week when I happened to download this book onto my Kindle and give it a go, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. I took it up to my roof deck with a blanket and a big glass of wine, and it was the ideal kickoff to my spring.
First, credit where credit is due: it was Publisher’s Weekly who first referred to this book as a “raucous yarn” and I haven’t been able to think anything else about it since. Thank you, PW, for calling this book exactly what it is. I hereby borrow your phraseology.
What makes The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (I’m not going to repeat the title every time) such a success is its tone. The premise and plot of the novel are both extraordinarily complex and completely absurd, and the only way to pull them off would have been to write the book in exactly the right way. Luckily for us, Jonas Jonasson did write it in exactly the right way. Major props also to Rod Bradbury, who translated the novel from Swedish into English.
Chief Inspector Aronsson ended the evening with a gin and tonic, and while he drank, he sat there feeling sorry for himself and fantasized about pulling out his service pistol and shooting the pianist in the bar. (Page 202)
My one criticism is that I think this book would have benefited from being the tiniest bit shorter. Cutting one or two of the less brilliant scenes would have allowed to let the rest of the novel shine more brightly. I found myself tiring of the characters for about 20 pages 2/3 of the way through – and then something amazing happened, and I was in love with everything again. But I would have preferred to avoid the loss of momentum, if possible. I read very quickly, however, and that can make it easier to overdoes on a distinctive voice.
As a child, Allan had been taught to be suspicious of people who didn’t have a drink when the opportunity arose. He was no more than six years old when his father laid a hand on his little shoulder and said:
–You should beware of priests, my son. And people who don’t drink vodka. Worst of all are priests who don’t drink vodka. (Page 135)
Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and if you like dark humor, absurd situations, and improbable coincidences, you will too. I actually think it feels somewhat like a Mel Brooks movie, except that, rather than feeling like one long joke, the book takes itself seriously and all of the events that transpire just happen to be ridiculous.