Still Creating and Decorating...

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while” ~ Steve Jobs

I figured I would save some of the decorating that we did last week in our Ft. Myers house to keep the posts from being so long. This has really been a lot of fun for me! Like I said before, I'm no Martha Stewart, but I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Remember when I saved the seahorse?? Since them I bought these seahorses at my favorite shop in Ft. Myers & Sanibel (Wiliford and Lee) several months ago, and just couldn't find a place to make them to work anywhere. Then I tried one more thing, didn't like that either, so I set them down one more time....on top of each other on a cabinet until I would be inspired another time...and it hit me!! I liked them as a 'couple'!! I joined them and they seemed to really work for me!! What do you think? 

I also wanted to show you the chairs when they were finally finished! I really like them and they look great in the new house with what we have done so far! They remind me of 'Old Florida'! Appropriate, don't you think?

I never did show you the upstairs windows and curtains....these were also replaced! It is an awesome view too, and Hubby also tried it out as his office!!

I saw an idea similar to this on Pinterest a few months ago, then ran into these 'utensil trays' at Bed Bath and Beyond, and put the two together! I call this an 'adjustable shadowbox'!  

You can stack more jars on top or inside....and even continue to add more and different sizes!! I plan on adding many more jars of minis! 

Of course I don't have any shell finds to show you, but I did get a chance to do some more creating today. I made some more earrings for our favorite waitress at our local restaurant....don't tell her, her birthday is tomorrow!! :)

I also put some of the things I picked up this last trip into a rustic shadowbox I picked up at Home Goods in Ft. Myers a few trips ago...I think this should be called 'The wrack line' or 'Beach Bling'!

 Check this out!! See this tiny one tooth Simnia I found on this sea whip?? It is so very tiny...and so awesome, it's the same color as the sea whip and so shiny! I hadn't seen it until today!! Pam from iloveshelling.com had one on a sea whip she found and took some great pics of it here.  I left mine on so couldn't get such detailed pics!

That's it for now!! I will keep you posted as I 'put stuff together'!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Nurtured by Nature--Last Day!

The dance of the palm trees, the oceans calling, the first rays of sun and heaven is here. ~Mike Dolan

I got too busy packing up and finishing up at our place in Ft. Myers to post last night, so I thought I would do it tonight....from South Carolina! :(  It seems that our time in paradise goes much too quickly, especially this one since we had so much to do. I wouldn't trade it for the world though.  Our last trip to the beach was early yesterday(Friday) morning. The low tide was before sunrise, but we got there right at sunrise and were amazed by the amount of bling on the beach....we immediately started picking up juvenile fighting conchs, and I ran into a string of murex, both lace and apple.....as quickly as I could pick them up.

Don't you just love sunrises (or sunsets) over the water??

There was also lots of sea life scattered in among all the bling it was like a science field trip... like this little guy! He was very small and moved very slowly....I didn't have a chance to look up what kind he was...

I think this guy is called a batfish, very freaky looking!

This is a tulip shell egg case, you can see the little guys still in each 'petal'.  I sent it back into the gulf after this photo op.

If you click on the picture, it will get larger and you can see the individual baby shells.

With all of this, pretty quickly the tide came in and made it very difficult to see so shelling wasn't great, but it was certainly an interesting adventure.  I managed to find more for my project, including this millipede sea star, which had been out in the sun too long.

When we got back to the car, we saw this pileated woodpecker in a tree....that is awesome because I believe they are no longer found in our area, or have become very rare.

He was very interested in getting to whatever was in that tree so he didn't mind me getting closer for a video.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip with us, will post later with some of the updates we made at the house in Ft. Myers, and hopefully with a new project.

Thanks for tagging along!

::Hugs::

Cheri

Happy Birthday April & More Beachy Bling!

Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed. ~Charles Schulz

I want to start out with huge ::Hugs:: to April, Hubby's middle daughter who turns 41 today!! She and her wonderful family live in Queens New York, and have given us 4 amazing Grandbabies! Hailey, Chloe and the twins, Dylan and Ava!!!

April with Dylan

April with Ava

 We hope to be there in early May for some real time, color booking, crafting, reading and major hugging!!! April, I hope this is the bestest birthday yet....enjoy yourself and please know that even if we don't get there very often, we love you and are always thinking about you guys!! See if you can't slow down our babies from growing up so fast!! :)  <3

We worked around the Condo yesterday so decided to hit the afternoon low tide again after an early dinner at Gramma Dot's.  I had some amazing grouper and Hubby had a steak sandwich that was amazing.  No Jess, no key lime pie this time! :(

We went to Gulfside city park and there were so many shell casings! Shells must be like the birds, they 'do their thing' in the spring! They were everywhere!!

These are horse conch shell casings I believe, so hopefully we will see the results of these in the next few years!!

This millipede Sea Star was huge, I 'saved' him twice, going and coming up the beach, I hope he was able to survive!

There were also lots of scallops, both sides....some alive and some had been baked in the sun too long....

Check this one out, sorry it's out of focus, but when I finally back away, notice the eyes along the edge of the shell on the inside! These are amazing, they jump and spit and dance or just chatter like this guy....!!

Here are our finds for yesterday:Lots of pairs

Got both sides of this buttercup lucine!

Since I am a day behind, I will post our trip from today later tonight!  We will be packing up for a trip home in the morning! I will probably add another post with new additions from the decorating department!! :)

Again, Happy Birthday April!

We Love You!!!

::Hugs::

Cheri

A Little Larger Mini adventure--"Shopping for Sea Whips!"

We all need empty hours in our lives or we will have no time to create or dream.  ~Robert Coles

The workers finished at the house around 3:00 so Hubby and I decided to grab the chance to go to Sanibel to do a little shelling, but first to the Sanibel Fish House for an early dinner. The service was slow and by the time we got to the beach it was after 4:30. The wind was still really blowing, and the water was very churned up.

We could tell that it had been blowing quite a bit by the 'beach bling' on the beach, pen shells, egg cases, sea whips and all kinds of interesting things.

They are Horse Conch egg cases! I hope they all got out there and will grow up!! :)

There must have been hundreds of these Ponderous Arks with sea whips attached!

Twins!!

How about this for Saddle bags!!

This was all perfect for me because I was actually looking for Sea Whips for an idea I have for a project! How many people that you know can just go out and 'shop' the beach for what they want? I think it is just awesome, and it felt like shopping.  I was looking specifically for minis of all kinds and sea whips! We only stayed a little less than 2 hours, but it was so nice to finally get to the beach.  We only have a couple of days left. 

....back to the adventure...

Hubby actually stumbled across several of these huge horse conchs when we first got out there....aren't they beautiful in an old crusty sort of way?

When we were heading back in, I ran across this little guy, he is called a pygmy octopus, he is a little smaller than the palm of your hand. He was well out of the water and obviously not at all happy about it.  I took the opportunity to snap a couple of quick pictures and then picked him up in a large shell and took him out a little deeper so maybe he could make it.  I wish I could have videoed him while I was carrying him, he was very active, it was so cool!

I have only found one skate case, or 'mermaids purse' in all the years we have been coming to Sanibel, and that was many years ago! Today I found 2 of them and they were quite large! I couldn't tell if they were still in there, but I put them back in the gulf just in case.

Here is a pic for you to do some cybershelling should you have the urge!

We didn't get a lot of shells, but we did still find some minis and a few other goodies...

I have some idea for these pen shells as well, they are very colorful! 

A tiny painted egg cockle (found 3 of them)and even tinier murex! 

if you look closely you will see a baby's ear! and dog whelks I believe

...and I did a good job "shopping" for sea whips!

I have always been fascinated by the sea whips and there must have been thousands of them on the beach, most were attached to live shells, but I did find many that weren't. I hope they keep their beautiful maroon color, I cleaned them well and tried to seal them, we'll see how they do.  Stay tuned, I have plans!

We decided to go out this afternoon instead of first thing this morning....Hubby is telecommuting....how about this for an office!!

::Hugs::

Cheri