ANOTHER Hobby!?

 Sorry I have been absent, but truthfully I have not had much to post. The tides haven't been great here lately and we (The Shell Raisers) have had to postpone the one trip we had planned so not much going on! So I have been crafting mostly...you know me, I'm not usually idle. The first weekend in March is a big Shell Festival, it is actually the 85th year! I have helped prepare for this show for probably 15 years or so and have never been able to attend. This year will be my first, and I'm excited! We (Sanibel Shellcrafters) are busily making things to sell and getting things ready to display! I've been making my shell trees...

I know most of you have seen these, you probably even have one (or two)!! :)  They are very popular and sell nearly as quickly as I can make them! I've also been painting shells for the Shellcrafters...Large shells mostly like these....

Of course I've also been painting shells and hiding them on the island to bring smiles to folks....I love doing that and it's great therapy...the painting and the hiding....'sprinkling' is what we call it!

Jolene and I also decided to try a new hobby....I need a new hobby, right?!

We took Glass class this week, we went to a small little town called Matlacha, a beautiful little artsy beach town with bright colored buildings, art galleries and small popular seafood restaurants! A lady there teaches this glass in the garage of her house and she does amazing work! The first thing I learned was that it is raised art...instead of flat, you build your art up! It was a blast, her room is filled with so many colors of glass, in pieces, vases, glasses, any glass you can think of, and you get to break it, cut it, hammer it....whatever you want to make the piece you want for your art work!!! How about that for fun? I decided to make a palm tree... you put it together and when your done, you leave it and she covers it in clear resin. You go back in a couple days to get it! Jolene and I had a blast....the hardest thing was deciding what to create....I decided on a Palm Tree....

This is the view from the bottom....see how high it stands up off of the canvas?

Jolene made this beautiful fish! How gorgeous is that??

I can see us doing more of this....!! So fun!!

Today Liz, her husband, Mike, and I went to Manasota Key in search of Shark's teeth! It's a beautiful beach! The water was a beautiful blue and crystal clear!

It always takes me a little time to adjust my eyes to looking for the teeth, they are generally very small, and you need to concentrate.... here's a couple of examples...

They are usually dark....do you see it??

I circled it in red in this picture....

The actually tooth is tucked under a shell piece...here is what it looks like...

Here's another...

This one is a lot more obvious...

Here are my final finds....

of course I couldn't resist the limpet, coquina pair and pretty little orange scallop!
 Here's a little closeup....

Fun...huh?! Liz got some really nice larger ones also....(I forgot to get a picture of hers) hopefully she'll post a pic too!!!

The tides are beginning to improve, so I anticipate a few early morning trips coming soon, so stay tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Low Tide Life, Rescues and a Few Treasures

 Liz and I went out to the beach this morning and I'm sad to say the tides are not as low as they were but we still were able to find some treasures and see some cool things!!  One of the the neatest things to me was I found another Mantis Shrimp....this one was VERY Much alive! 

I keep my distance, even with my rubber boots on! He was above the water line so I carefully got him nearer to the water He's about 3/4 the length of my size 9 boot!!.... 

Check out these videos!

This guys are said to deliver quite a blow, that will leave a hole in your skin, and are said to be very painful! They fascinate me...from a healthy distance! Here is what Google says "I never explained very well how these guys can injure you so I googled it and this is what they said....

"A mantis shrimp's powerful punch can hurt humans. A shrimp can land before a person even realizes it is there because its strike is so quick. Shrimp punches cause deep wounds and lacerations with rounded edges. There is almost always a loss of tissue after a mantis strike and heavy bleeding." So I keep my distance when trying to help these guys.....Though I did move him with my boot! 

There were quite a few of these Amazing Lightning Whelks patrolling this morning....I love it when they put their shell on their head like a hat and go cruisin'...

This Apple Murex with the curly tail was just napping....

Of course there were still a lot of Live Horse Conchs out there, but I figured you had seen enough of them lately....

This little tiny Murex was cruisin' on a Cross-barred Venus!

and this purplish Thorny Starfish was up on the shore, so I transferred him to the water...

It was another beautiful Sunrise! I was so busy shelling I almost missed it!!

At one point today Liz and I were walking side by side and we each picked up an Alphabet Cone...as if they are common!?!

Here's Liz's....

and here's mine!! 

Liz also found another cone and a Horse conch that was unoccupied....

I got one too!!

and another cone for me!!

I also found this cute little Nutmeg!

Liz found another GOLDEN OLIVE!!! Score of the day!!! Isn't it pretty?

Here are our finds for the day!!

Liz's....

and Mine... 

I haven't quite decided yet if I'm going out tomorrow....Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Slow and Steady Morning

I have mentioned before that my favorite type of shelling is tidal pool shelling. You just walk along slowly, (without making a splash) and look. I especially love it when there are buried shells there....that big cone I got yesterday was like that....

Today I was in a small tidal pool slow and steady....and was just picking up a shell here and there, checking out the life also, everything from Crabs, sea stars, live shells....I just love it! The best therapy there is!  

I've only seen one other of these in my 20 something years of shelling....a live Baby's Ear! A friend of mine was talking about them yesterday....and here one is!

Their body is huge and would NEVER fit inside this shell!! How cool is this??

There were several Live True Tulips...

This guy (another True Tulip) was out of the water so I took advantage of it and snapped his pic as I was putting him in the tidal pool...look at that gorgeous color!!

Another beautiful Nine-Armed Sea Star and Horse Conch....

and a Horse Conch Family!! ;)

and yes I got those 2 Shark's eyes!! :)

Once again, when I first got out there I found this guy!!

This is becoming a trend!!

 Right after this I got this one!!!!! Can you tell what it is??

Yep that's it...it's a Baby Junonia, and though it's in really bad shape, it's mostly complete!! I actually saw the spots buried among some other shells and thought it was an Alphabet Cone! I'll take it anyway, even in bad shape it's a find!!

Right after that I found this BEAUTIFUL Chocolate True Tulip!

and Woohoo...it was empty!! So into my bag it went!!

By now the sun began to rise...

I don't know if it was the added visibility of the sun or just timing...then I ran across these two guys!! 

Alphabet Cones that will cleanup Nicely!! Both perfect!! I'd say this is a pretty good morning!!

I continued to find more treasures! A Lightning Whelk I couldn't resist...

a Gaudy Nautica, one of my favorites!

I found this lacey Lace Murex partially buried, and it was pink! 

I'm sure it was in some sort of sediment that caused the color, I noticed that pretty quickly the pink disappeared as it soaked in some bleach water.

So I'd say I had a pretty good morning...wouldn't you??

Still low Negative tides so stay tuned! ....and it's finally beginning to warm up!!!

::Shelllady Hugs::