What's Your Favourite?

Jul 16, 2026

Written by Trish Houghtling

What's Your Favourite?

A friend recently asked me this simple question and I still don't have an answer...

"Trish, what's your favourite piece of jewelry you've made?"

I laughed, started listing a few ideas, and then stopped. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't answer the question.

Was it the Lucky Penny Necklace I made for my mom?

The GPS coordinates bracelet I made for my son in Banff?

My pendant with my boys names on it?

A Morse Code bracelet I made for my neighbour and her daughter?

There are pieces I'm especially proud of, but none of them felt like the right answer. That question stayed with me for days because I eventually realized my favourite thing has never been a piece of jewelry. It's the story it holds.

Two years ago, I became the owner of CITRUS, a Canadian jewelry company that has been creating personalized jewelry and meaningful keepsakes for nearly 2 decades.

When I bought the business, I thought I understood what we made. That we made personalized necklaces, custom jewelry, and meaningful gifts. That part was obvious. But the longer I've been here, the more I've realized that our customers rarely begin by talking about the jewelry itself. They tell me about their children. Their parents. Their partner. Their cottage. A place they miss. Someone they've lost. A milestone they're celebrating. The jewelry almost always comes second. That was the first thing I noticed.

Something else I've noticed comes from a conversation that has repeated itself so many times that I've stopped believing it's a coincidence. I'll be standing behind a table at a market or community event when someone notices our CITRUS banner. Their face lights up.

"Oh my gosh... I remember you."

Then comes the smile.

"You made me a necklace when my kids were little."

Almost every time, the next sentence is exactly the same.

"I forgot I even had it. I should get it out again."

Sometimes they ask if we can clean it. Sometimes they ask if we can repair it. The answer is always the same, yes! Not because we offer lifetime repairs—although we do—but because I genuinely love seeing those pieces come back to life.

They're never exactly the same. They've picked up scratches from everyday life. They've been worn on vacations, through pregnancies, graduations, anniversaries and ordinary Tuesday afternoons. They don't come back looking old. They come back looking lived in.

What surprises me most isn't that people remember their necklace. It's that they remember a chapter of their life through that necklace.

I've also noticed something else. People rarely say, "my necklace." Instead, they say, "My CITRUS." I've heard it hundreds of times.

"I've worn my CITRUS every day for sixteen years."

"Can you add another name to my CITRUS? Our family has grown."

"My daughter still wears her CITRUS."

No one said to describe it that way. It just happened. Which made me start asking a different question. Not why do people buy personalized jewelry? But why do they keep it?

Over the past two years I've heard hundreds of stories. Some make me laugh. Some stay with me for days. Some are so personal they'll never leave the studio because they aren't mine to tell.

I've stamped children's initials, milestone birthdays, GPS coordinates, wedding dates and retirement gifts. I've stamped words like Strength, Balance and Breathe. I've also stamped Fck Cancer and one of my all-time favourites, I AM A FCKING DELIGHT.

Every piece is completely different. The reason behind it usually isn't. It's almost always about a relationship. A place. A memory. A promise. Or a moment someone never wants to forget. The jewelry becomes the symbol.

One conversation recently changed the way I think about that.

If you follow me on social you'll know that I recently started creating breastmilk pendants. I made one most recently for a mother who's son was born prematurely at twenty-six weeks after the heartbreaking loss of his twin.

I assumed, as I often do, that her story would remain between us. Instead, when I delivered her pendant, she told me she wanted other mothers to hear it too.

Her story, as she permitted me to share, is that she helps families navigating premature births through the charity she founded, providing breast pumps to mothers whose babies are fighting for their lives in the NICU!

I realized that day that meaningful stories don't always want to stay hidden. Sometimes sharing them is another way we care for one another.

The more I observe, the more I think my favourite thing isn't a necklace. It isn't a pendant. It isn't even a collection. It's the privilege of seeing what people choose to celebrate, honour, and remember.

For nearly twenty years, customers have trusted CITRUS with some of the most meaningful moments in their lives. I've only been part of that story for the last two years, but it's been long enough to realize that this work has very little to do with jewelry and everything to do with people.

That's what I want to explore here. Not because I have answers. But because I keep finding questions that are worth exploring further.

As we get closer to CITRUS' twentieth anniversary next spring, this Journal feels like the right place to record those observations. Some will be about meaningful gifts. Others about personalized jewelry. Many won't be about jewelry at all.

They'll simply be things I've noticed while meeting the people who have welcomed CITRUS into their lives.

Maybe, together, they'll help us understand why some ordinary objects become impossible to let go of.

If today's Journal made you think about someone special, you might enjoy exploring our Personalized Necklaces, GPS Coordinate Jewelry, or the Canadiana Collection.

An Invitation

One thing has become very clear to me over the past two years: every meaningful object has a story. Sometimes it's a wedding ring. Sometimes it's a lucky penny. Sometimes it's a photograph, a handwritten note, a concert stub, or a necklace worn every day for sixteen years.

Some stories are deeply personal and some stay exactly where they belong. Others are shared because they might help someone else.

If there's a meaningful object in your life and you'd like to tell me the story behind it, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Not every story will become part of the Journal. All will be read, appreciated and trusted with the care they deserve and may eventually help to answer the same question that started all of this: What's your favourite?

I'm beginning to think the answer was never the object. It was always the story. So I'll leave you with the same question my friend asked me.