After 12 years of dating followed by 10 years of marriage, my husband and I separated last fall and made a plan for raising our daughter together and moving forward with our lives, separately but very much still connected. As I was settling into my new home as a single woman, I unpacked my jewelry box and took a look inside. My engagement ring and wedding band were tucked in their home, but I had no idea what to do with them.It was essentially a very expensive gift from someone who was my best friend, but I didn’t feel that I could keep wearing it. It was a symbol of something that was no longer - our marriage. I loved its art deco style though, and my engagement ring was my favorite piece of jewelry. It seemed silly to leave something so pretty and so valuable just sitting in my jewelry box.While at lunch with Kalle, the owner of Stitch Sew Shop, she mentioned that she had taken some pieces of jewelry to Alx&Co. to have them reworked into something she liked more than the original pieces since the originals weren’t getting worn. She thought I should do the same with my engagement ring. I got in touch with Meaghan and set up my first appointment.  I had an amazing consultation with Meaghan and Tim, and we discussed a number of different possible stones to use for the center and a few ways that the design could go. I wanted to maintain the style of the ring and as much of the band as possible but change the center stones so that it had a different vibe from the original engagement ring.We developed a plan to replace the center three Asscher cut diamonds in my ring with one large rustic diamond since rustic diamonds are more affordable and would allow me to get a much larger stone than I had before. They ordered a few options for me, and I got to choose the one that I liked the most. I wanted a salt and pepper diamond that was dark and almost black. Tim then worked up a rendering of the new center gallery for the ring and it was sent off to be cast!  The day my ring was ready for pick-up was incredibly exciting. I am so pleased with how it turned out. My ex-husband was also pleased with it! He said it was even better than the original and was a great way to up-cycle our engagement ring. I am able to keep the gift given to me by one of my closest friends and someone that I shared two decades of my life with while having a new gorgeous cocktail ring for my new beginning. It was the perfect solution, and I am so delighted to have worked with Meaghan and Tim on this project.