So my sister and niece came to town for a visit last week.  They stayed long enough to attend the Dublin Irish Festival with us.  My sister, Beth, said she wanted to buy me a birthday present (and who am I to deny my sister?), so we found this necklace:

Beth first pointed out the necklaces with faces but all the ones she picked out had fancy headpieces.  I wanted a plainer one, so she asked the saleswoman and they came up with this one.  I'm not sure what the face is made of but the stone above it is amber.

The thing that amazes me about the whole transaction is that my sister isn't the least bit pagan (well ... other than being a practicing Catholic).  She is also very concerned with what the neighbors think, so it's especially pleasing that she was willing to buy me something that someone else might look down their nose at.  I think she's beautiful (my sister and the necklace).

Something else that's funny is that I've had a moonstone ring for years that has a face cut in it.  It's just like the face on my necklace, so I've been wearing her around for years and didn't even know it.  I just assumed since it was in a moonstone that it was a moon face ... I guess it was, sort of.  Anyhow ...

The saleswoman explained to us that the face is of Dewi Shri, an Indonesian rice goddess.  She said there are shrines to Dewi Shri beside the ride paddies in Indonesia.  How cool is that?  Here's what Wikipedia says about her:

Dewi Shri also seen as Dewi Sri is the goddess of rice on the island of Bali and Java. She has the power of the underworld and the moon. She controls the foodstuffs of the earth and death. She has the power of Gaia and Terra. She is the mother of life because she symbolises rice (the primary food of Indonesia). Highly revered especially by the Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese people of Indonesia, there are a lot of versions of her legend in Indonesia, most of them involve Dewi Sri (also known as Dewi Asri, Nyi Pohaci, etc) and her brother Sedana (also known as Sadhana, Sadono, etc), set either in the kingdom of Medang Kamulan, or in the heaven (involving gods such as Batara Guru), or both. In all the versions in which Sedana appears along with Dewi Sri, they end up separated from each other, through either death, wandering, or a refusal to be married. Some versions made correlation between Sri and large snake of the rice field (ular sawah) and Sadhana with swallow (sriti). The traditional Javanese people in particular have a special place in their house dedicated for Dewi Sri, decorated with intricate carvings of snake, so that she will give prosperity for them. In the agricultural Javanese, a snake who entered a house won't be chased away as it is a sign for a success in harvest, and they will give it offerings instead. The Balinese provide special shrines in the rice fields for her. The Sundanese have a special festival dedicated to her.

She corresponds to the Hindu goddesses Devi and Shri.