It''s done! A 1.60 J SI2 has found a new home...

[fire&ice]

Date: 3/9/2005 8

4:23 PM
Author: fire&ice
Mr. F&I here:

The 1.6ish looks way too big for your hand. In my professional opinion, the 1.2ish is much more appropriate for your beautiful slender fingers. Greg...props.

But then again, if I had made a preimptive strike, maybe I wouldn''t be enjoying watching my beautiful bride sporting a 3c.

See........he''s incorigable. I go take a shower...waiting for American Idol and loading your ring interium.

It looks great. You do have long slender fingers! Hubby joked that you started the "game" earlier. You may end up with an 8 c.

if Greg waits that long!

Seriously, it looks great! I will be interested over the next weeks how you will feel. You know me - I have an F,G &I.......I like the biggest one!

 

[snlee]

Mara, your new diamond looks beautiful and HUGE!!! What a lucky girl!

I still can''t find any inclusions in my SI1, even with a loupe.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Mara

WOW !!! congrats, that''s a super nice J and from the I-scope pix the inclusions all look white

love the way it''s set with all 8 arrows showing ,when the arrows are lit up your finger will be on FIRE.

i think the next upgrade should go to Greg

guys also catch Diamond Shrinkage Syndrome.

 

[jadeleaves]

Gorgeous! I love how the stone now ''hangs'' over your wedding band more!

 

[Mara]

And here is a second set of images, got the arrows with the loupe, very nice!!!

Portia was DYING to wear the ring so I let her...then she almost fell asleep on it!

 

[icekid]

wooooooooow! lucky girl... congrats on your new even blingier upgrade!

 

[luvmysparklies]

Mara! The stone and rings are gorgeous! I am glad you love the new rock!

Luv

 

[IrishEyes]

That is NOT a J!!!!! Are you serious? Wow, I may have to start considering one myself....

Congrats again, it''s sooo beautiful! I don''t know what impresses me more: the ring, or the fact that you''ve had everyone on here holding their breath and changing thier schedules all day to see this thing!!!!!

 

[headlight]

Mara, from looking at those close-ups, I have two comments --
1. The rock is a VERY nice color match with the stones in your bands, and
2. I think your e-band and w-band look REALLY great together; the w-band is ever-so-slightly narrower... but just PERFECTLY so, thus the e-ring being the "star" of the show, and the w-ring the "Best Supporting...."
Personally, I''m so glad that you''ve made it "in vogue" to go for SI2 and "warmer" color (in order to get into a larger stone) -- makes me feel so much better about mine!!! When I got the 3.29 almost two years ago, I know everyone was thinking, "What was she thinking!!!" But, if your goal is like mine was (which it is, as is the case for moremoremore as well) and you want to reach it without shelling out like $50k or something, you have to make some "compromises"!!! Honestly, please throw that loupe in the garbage and don''t obsess -- just enjoy your stunning set!

 

[lizzyd]

W.....O.....W.....E......E......E.......E.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[solange]

Beautiful ring and it looks great on the dog who is also beautiful. It looks so white it is hard to believe it is a J. The set is stunning.

 

[mrssalvo]

OH Mara

It''s amazing how much bigger the 1.6 looks. It doesn''t look at all like a J and looks great with the diamonds in your bands. I just LOVE it. That''s so great about the SI2. I would be worried you could see the inclusions in a stone that large and it is very encouraging that you were able to find one that is eye clean. I agree with headlight. toss out the loupe and enjoy your beautiful new ring.

 

[kaylagee]

Gorgeous J diamond & lovely hands, Mara! Right on!

ed: your dog is too cute! that nose!

 

[KBerly]

omg it''s Portia!!!

the one with her sporting the new bauble....new avatar time!!

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Hi Mara:

I took the liberty of pasting both hand shots of the different diamonds next to each other. Surprisingly the photo''s are very very close in size which gives an estimation of how big the stone on your finger is compared to the old diamond.

You can definitely see the difference in how the half moon of the girdle reaches farther from the edge of the band beneath the bigger stone.

The ring looks awesome and "Portia" is soooo cute!

 

[Tybee]

Date: 3/9/2005 9:37:37 PM
Author: KBerly
omg it''s Portia!!!

the one with her sporting the new bauble....new avatar time!!

Oh my Portia! Too cute. So, what''s the time frame on being able to ask for an upgrade? I''d like to upgrade to Mara''s original stone!
But seriously, you are a very lucky woman. It is too beautiful. Congratulations.

 

[Mara]

here is a story...

last week i was at a bar for happy hour with some friends. hadn't told any friends about my upgrade since they all think i am nuts anyway and that my rock was huge to begin with. the nerve.

so my friend spots my ring is gone, and reluctantly i spill the beans and say i am getting an upgrade. one of the gals that was there who doesn't really know me asked what size my ring was before. so i tell her, she says she has the same size ring, she asks how much an upgrade to a 1.60 would cost since maybe she would consider it (nevermind that she didn't even have her ring on since she said she forgot it that day...you don't deserve an upgrade!!

). i didn't want our friends to think that we were dropping serious coin on this upgrade since i would NEVER hear the end of it from them...so I said 'well, i dropped color and clarity a bit to get a bigger size for relatively little money.' she goes 'ohhh so you dropped color and clarity'...and then she tells my other friend and he goes 'ohhh' (like he even knows what she is talking about? he is chronically single!)...so I feel obligated to defend my pending J SI2 stone. 'well its not just about color and clarity, the cut makes a huge difference and can mask small amounts of color'. she just nods, i see her eyes glazing over. at that point I thought, why am i trying to educate this gal? she could care less and is not going to have a diamond epiphany in the noisy bar between bites of calamari.

SO, in the future if anyone asks i will just say i got a great deal that could not be passed up on a larger stone and leave it at that. all they are going to see is the sparkly madness of the bling bling and i can guarantee you that no one is going to even guess this stone is a J SI2! even if they did I am sure they wouldn't believe it...so why bother with the details??

 

[Patty]

Mara, it's PERFECT! In the side by side photos that Josh posted, the "old" stone looks too small! It's like the 1.6 was MADE for you. Congrats on a wonderful choice. By the time you get to 3 carats, maybe you'll have an I-1!

I just realized that the ring is on Portia's paw! I swear, at first, I thought it was on her TAIL!

 

[Mara]

No Patty that is her PAW...see the small black nails? hehehe....it does kind of look like her tail. I tried to rig it to her collar but that was too risky.

I was nervous when I was playing around with her, the look in her eyes was far too eager and I could just envision myself hovering anxiously over her hours later waiting for the ring to 'emerge' again out the back end...

...but she was a good girl. In that last pic, the next pic in the series is her FALLING asleep next to the ring, too funny! She's such a slug sometimes!

Josh, thanks for the comparison pic!! That shows it better than I could have. BTW I try to size most of my pix on here the same at 450 pixels in width so that is probably why the two images are similar in size and ratio!

Tybee, an upgrade can happen at ANY time...seriously!! you never know! in all seriousness, the last few upgrades I have gotten have all been when Greg is good and soused on a bottle of yummy wine and feels relaxed. I always do my financial homework ahead of time so I approach him with a final plan, aka I want to get this for $$ cost and this is how much bigger, etc. Kind of like approaching the boss in an important meeting with a slideshow presentation and financials. 'and this ring will have an ROI of XYZ amortized over the next year'...hehee. don't scoff, it works!

 

[Patty]

Yeah, the little black nail tipped me off. I was thinking, "Wow, Mara is brave. One flip of that tail and her ring goes flying!" LOL!

I love the sleepy Portia picture. Don''t you just love to rub that soft fur between her eyes?

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 3/9/2005 10:18:31 PM
Author: Mara
No Patty that is her PAW...see the small black nails? hehehe....it does kind of look like her tail. I tried to rig it to her collar but that was too risky.


I was nervous when I was playing around with her, the look in her eyes was far too eager and I could just envision myself hovering anxiously over her hours later waiting for the ring to ''emerge'' again out the back end...

...but she was a good girl. In that last pic, the next pic in the series is her FALLING asleep next to the ring, too funny! She''s such a slug sometimes!


Josh, thanks for the comparison pic!! That shows it better than I could have. BTW I try to size most of my pix on here the same at 450 pixels in width so that is probably why the two images are similar in size and ratio!


Tybee, an upgrade can happen at ANY time...seriously!! you never know! in all seriousness, the last few upgrades I have gotten have all been when Greg is good and soused on a bottle of yummy wine and feels relaxed. I always do my financial homework ahead of time so I approach him with a final plan, aka I want to get this for $$ cost and this is how much bigger, etc. Kind of like approaching the boss in an important meeting with a slideshow presentation and financials. ''and this ring will have an ROI of XYZ amortized over the next year''...hehee. don''t scoff, it works!

oh, so that''s how you''re suppossed to tell hubby...i wish i knew that about 10 hours ago

 

[Buena Girl]

Beautiful ring!!

Love the Portia pictures!!

 

[heartsonfire]

Congratulations on your uprade. Your ring looks amazing on your hand. I love it.

 

[Mara]

so I have worn out my camera battery with picture taking, it''s now recharging while I do some work...heheeh.

Patty, when I smoothe the fur between her eyes, her eyes just slide shut lazily and she looks blissful. I want to be my dog!!!

 

[Mara]

Date: 3/9/2005 7:35

9 PM
Author: heart prongs
Oh Mara, that''s so beautiful. It actually brought a tear to my eye knowing how happy this must make you! I don''t know if you remember, but you helped us out so much (almost 2 years ago) when my now husband and I were looking at rings! It was your influence that got me from .8''s and .9''s to the 1.14 baby that I love so much!!!

A big, sparkly shiny congrats from all of us that you''ve gone above and beyond for...klr

I almost forgot to respond to this...thanks klr...I really love this new stone!!

I have to smile when I hear stories of people who I have ''inspired'' to go larger in terms of stones, there must be some hubbies out there who hate me! aka Who is this Mara person and why is she spending our money?!

 

[valeria101]

Let me see ... does the current experiment lead to 3 carat I/J-SI2 ? via 2+ carat I/J-SI2 (later this year) ?

 

[headlight]

Mara,
I just read your post regarding the little "incident" recently and the ignoramous'' who were so rude.
You don''t owe ANYONE any specs on the ring, the price, etc. All they need to know is that it is GORGEOUS and you don''t even have to tell them that because they can see it with their own eyes! I tell all of YOU, my fellow PSers that my ring is SI2, H, EGL, premium, $20k in ''03, etc. -- I don''t tell anyone else that! And, as you have found out, they don''t know SQUAT about cut -- all they know is color and clarity, period. But, all they see on my hand is a honker in a gorgeous setting that sparkles -- the same thing people see when they look at YOUR hand

 

[Mara]

I can't stop taking pictures!!! Here is another collage, this time of more sparkles and dim lighting, yum!

Greg saw the ring and said it looked huge, he put his ring up to mine and said he thinks the next one is HIS upgrade!!

Oh and in terms of future upgrades...the HOPE is that the next one can be to 2c+ and then the final one will be slightly over 3c...or maybe 3.5c?

Ask me in a year! hehehe.

 

[Mara]

and one more for tonite!!! shots from the kitchen with our fabulous recessed lighting. I like the side hand shot on this one that shows both rings from an angle since it shows off both rings very well, even though the diamond looks yellow, that is NOT the case in real life, it was that the kitchen lighting was throwing off yellow sparklies (you can see them in the other pictures too), and so that side view caught a yellow sparklie as I was shooting it.....just to clarify!!

Whew....no more pictures for today...I am content now to just lay on the couch and stare lovingly into my new diamond...

 

[ForteKitty]

D*mn that ring is gorgeous!!! I love those new pictures! Mara, you''re gonna be the death of me. Everytime I think i''m not an RB person, you come and flash your rings around!

And J looks awfully white... maybe....