Pat P.

"I've been a fan of Stephen Vincent Design for many years now, ever since the shop was in Gaviidae Common in downtown Minneapolis.

As a struggling college student, I didn't have much money for extravaganzas like jewelry (still don't), but way back when, there was a coupon in a local newspaper for one item at 75% off. A co-worker and I hightailed it to the shop. He bought a beautiful stainless steel ring for his young bride, with a small tension-set diamond.

I bought a bracelet, a black rubber-type gasket-type bracelet with tiny diamonds embedded in it. I fell in love with it immediately and had to have it. Even at 75% off, it was still around $500. But I had to have it!

After that purchase, the man I was dating at the time -- who fancied himself an "artist" -- would not let up on harassing me for buying it. Too much money for a rubber gasket, he said. Too frivolous, he said.

I was impressionable. He was older and, I thought at the time, wiser. I let him talk me into returning it.

I have mourned that bracelet ever since and to this day and probably for the rest of my life. Turns out the "artist" was just an a**hole.

I've since purchased other things at SV Design, earring, a necklace, a ring. But I have never forgotten that first bracelet. So instead of taking a photo of one of my possessions, I thought it best to write and tell you about my bracelet."