Bunche Beach Shell Box

A couple of weeks ago we picked up this little green box at an estate sale.  I really had no idea what I was going to do with it, but any time I see a cool little box, of course I have to buy it.  It was in pretty rough shape..

Pretty bad, huh?  I pulled out some light blue paint and gave it a couple of coats.

My friend Cheri from over at the Shelllady Blog  has a house near Sanibel Island.  Cheri recently sent me some jewelry making metal stamps so I wanted to make her something special for her new home.  Cheri loves Bunche Beach, so I decided to stencil shells and Bunche on the box for her.  Then I distressed the whole thing....

I can't wait to see what kind of shells she finds to fill it up.  She is a master sheller.  Go over and check out Cheri's blog for lots of posts about Sanibel Island..  She's a new Grandma too.

Linking up with...
Catch as Catch Can # 213
Craft Frenzy Friday # 90

Party in Your PJ's # 55

Shelling in the Attic

Sometimes you get something special from the strangest places.  If you read my blog, you know how much I love Sanibel Island.  My family has a long history with Sanibel.  My Grandma took my mom there in the 1940's - mom remembers going over to the island on the ferry boat before the first causeway was built. Mom said, "I was first there in 1948 or 1949, not sure which it was. We had to take a boat because there was no bridge on the causeway. I think we stayed at the Island Inn, but not sure. It was just an old hotel."  I've been going there on and off since the mid 1970's.  Mom reminded me that those were the days you could pick up live shells and boil them to clean them. We did that the year we were all down there in 1974. Island Inn had a shell cleaning shack in the back with a stove and pots to cook them in.

Last week my mom remembered that after my grandma died in 1976, my mom had taken all of grandma's Sanibel sea shells and had them on display in their house for many years.  By 1989 mom was tired of dusting them so she and dad packed them up in a huge box and shoved it into a corner of their attic where it's sat, forgotten, since then.  One day last week mom sent dad up in the attic to bring down the box of shells and last night I went over there to paw through them.  The first few things I unwrapped from the brittle, yellowed newspaper dated 1989 was this huge horse conch, almost 10" long, a lovely piece of coral and assorted smaller shells....

Look at the colors on this one.....

This basket was my grandma's.  Mom said she and dad found the 2 giant sea urchins and the sand dollar in Oregon, but all the rest of the shells were found on Sanibel.  There's several starfish and a nice size sea horse and a piece of sponge.....

There are a few shiny cowrie's in there too...

Anyone know what this is?

Or these two shells?

Or these?

As I'm digging frantically through the box I kept saying, "Oh, what if there's a Junonia in here?"  And guess what - one of the last things I pulled out was this!!!  Happy dance, kicking up my heels, doing hand stands and cartwheels .....  OMG!!!!  It's almost 4" long and in perfect condition...

Just look at these two beauties!  Two shells that I have been wanting for forever and could never find.  And to think that my grandma found them almost 50 years ago and picked them up herself.  Well, that just makes them all the more special.  And they were stuffed in a box in the attic for the last 25 years.  Cripes!!

You just never know when something special is going to happen.  What a nice, unexpected gift.  Thanks Grandma!  I feel like she just reached down from heaven and gave me a hug.

Galvanized Bucket Make Over

The other day I grabbed a galvanized bucket out of the garage and decided it needed a make over.  First I cleaned it up with soapy water and let it dry really good.  Then I gave it a primer coat of white paint.  Don't mind the picture frames - those are for another project.  I like to multi-task!

For this project I just used acrylic paints that we had in our craft shop.  Beaches and buckets just go together, so I chose beach colors....

I painted both the inside and outside with a coat of tan....

I mixed some of both colors of blue together until I got a color I liked and applied 2 coats of blue to the outside of the bucket.  After it dried I took some stencils and stenciled Shell Bucket in white letters on one side....

 I gave the whole bucket a light distressing.....

And then coated both the inside and outside with 2 coats of polycrylic.  Even tho it has this protective coat, I would advise against using this bucket outside.

Wouldn't it look cute in a bathroom stuffed full of bath or beach towels?  Or filled with shells?  Or in a bedroom with a quilt placed inside?   It would be perfect for a beach house or lake house.  If you're interested in it, I have it for sale in my Etsy shop.

Linking up with....
Party In Your PJ's # 21
My Salvaged Treasures 9-16-14
Make it Monday # 2
Funky Junk # 256
Simple Saturdays 9-13-14
Catch as Catch Can # 180
Craft Frenzy Friday # 57

 Thrifty Things Friday # 18

Thrifty Life Thursday # 35


Sanibel Trip 2014

This year's trip to Sanibel Island was low key and relaxing.  We had 5 glorious days of warm and mostly sunny weather, with a few afternoon showers thrown in here and there.  It was usually just enough rain to cool things off and we were quickly back on the beach in hot pursuit of shells.

As always, I had my copy of the Sanibel Captiva Handbook along.  This book is indispensable.  When I want to know something about one of the restaurants, I can quickly look it up.  When I couldn't remember the name of a souvenir shop we wanted to visit, I whipped out the Sanibel maps and quickly located it, complete with name and phone number.  This book is so handy.  If you missed my review on this years edition, go back and read it here.  Better yet, buy a copy for yourself.  It's also available for instant download on Amazon too.

One of our favorite restaurants on Sanibel is the Fish House.  I had a lobster roll that was excellent - stuffed full of flavorful, sweet lobster.  Chablis likes their seafood pasta.  But the real reason I go there is to get a slice of their key lime stuffed cheesecake.  It is out-of-this-world delicious.  I must confess, we took some back to our hotel on 2 different nights.  I can't stop eating it!

 Evenings this year were overcast, so we never really got a colorful sunset.  One night the tide was pretty low and we had a lot of beach area to wander.  We still enjoyed the birds flitting about and we were treated to some golden tones on the horizon.

This year we tried a new restaurant for us - The Green Flash out on Captiva.  We will definitely be going back.  It was a little more upscale than the restaurants we generally eat at, but the location has a killer view and we had a window table.  Our waiter was one of the finest we have ever had - very attentive and pleasant.  Our meals were top notch and beautifully presented.  I had the stuffed grouper and it was fantastic.  I think it was the best meal I had the entire trip.

After dinner we parked at the last public lot on Captiva and went for a long sunset walk on the beach.  We had some gentle rolling waves that evening and we found many nutmegs and olives.  I found this one shell half buried in the sand and liked the way the light was hitting it....

Again we had a cloudy sunset, but we returned with pockets full of shells, so we were happy.  We stopped at The Bubble Room and took a slice of Orange Crunch Cake back to the hotel for a little late night snacking...

We enjoyed the beach on Captiva so much the night before that we decided to return the next day and we walked all the way down to Red Fish Pass. 

It was a long walk and we made several stops to swim in the water, have a snack or just rest.  Once we reached the pass we had the beach area to ourselves.  I was disappointed in the lack of shells out there however.  After about half an hour a man and his 2 pre-teen boys climbed over the rocks and were strolling the beach near us.  The 2 boys felt it was necessary to keep picking up handfuls of sand and whipping them at each other while they ran around screaming.  The father kept drinking his beer and did a great job of totally ignoring them.  Really, have some control over your brats.  I was disgusted at the behavior of all of them, so we gathered up our things and headed back down the beach to our car.  Honestly, that was the worst behavior I've ever encountered on Sanibel.  Usually the people there have more class.

That evening we had another quick storm, but we saw a nice rainbow.  I always think that's good luck, don't you?

We walked around lighthouse beach and picked up a ton of tiny bubble shells.  We practically had the beach to ourselves.

I never get tired of looking at the lighthouse....

Our last morning found us with overcast skies again.  We had a quick breakfast at The Lighthouse Café where I like their pancakes and real linked sausages.  As we entered the sad lane to head for the airport, we stopped for our traditional last walk on the causeway, where we each pick up a shell to put in our pockets for the trip home....

As we were pulling out of the parking lot I glanced at my watch and realized we had about half an hour to kill.  I remembered that there was a geocache hidden on the beach on the opposite side of the causeway.  I floored it drove over there and we got out to take a look.  The geocache is called MacGyver This One and it's a good one.  Due to the nature of the cache I can't even show you any pictures of it, but I will tell you this.....   I knew it was going to be difficult, but I wanted to look at it and see what type of a special tool we'd need so I could bring it back with me the next time.  After searching for a little bit Chablis found the cache and after a minute of studying I ran back to the car for a needed item. After kicking off my flip flops and making several mad dashes, we determined that we needed to try something else. Again, Chablis did a great job of thinking like MacGyver and tried a different tactic. Success! With minutes to spare, we made the airport in time for our flight. This cache was well worth almost missing our flight and I gave it a hearty FAV point.  It was the perfect ending to our Sanibel get away. 

Even though we didn't net very many great shells this year, we still cherished our special trip.  We got to spend an afternoon on the water with Captain Brian and I finally got my horse conch.  Plus we got to kick back with The Shell King and his Queen and made 2 new friends in the process.  And we had all kinds of great food and found a new restaurant to add to our list of favorites.  You just can't beat all that, can you?

Day Tripping with Capt. Brian

One of the highlights of any of our Sanibel Island trips, is the day we schedule with Captain Brian.  We've been cruising with him for many years now, and no Florida trip would be complete without a day on the water because it's always an adventure.  I usually tell Brian what we want to do - hmmmm...... funny, it doesn't change much from year to year....  Sightseeing, shelling and beaches.  Somehow Brian always manages to mix it up and take us to new places to discover.

Chablis makes custom signs, so she designed one for Brian and crammed it in her suitcase to bring along for him.  He has an awesome back porch with an amazing collection of shells, driftwood and beach items that he's collected over the years.  The sign is for his porch!

Usually we meet him in the morning for our trip, but this time we arranged to meet at noon and spend 6 hours on the water.  Bright blue skies, large fluffy white clouds and warm breezes looked promising!

Almost immediately we ran across a large pod of dolphin.  There was about 10 of them total and we spent quite a bit of time sitting and watching them play.  There's something about dolphins that is magical and they rise and fall above the water line so effortlessly and quietly.  I find myself holding my breath as I wait for them to return.

 

 

 They kept circling the area and pretty soon a man on a jet ski with 2 little kids came by to watch.  The one little boy was screaming with delight and I'm sure that he will remember his dolphin encounter for years to come.

 

After our personal dolphin show, Brian took us to a shallow grassy area where we got out of the boat and waded around, looking for shells.  We found quite a few Venus Sunrays. 

 

Capt. Brian always finds the neatest secret spots to take us and we soon arrived at a special island where only his discerning eye could find the path through the vegetation....

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the island and walking the beach, deep in conversation and bending to retrieve the occasional shell. 

Off to the east though, the skies were churning and heavy clouds began rolling in.  One of the things I like so much about Brian is that he keeps a careful eye on the weather at all times.  I noticed that he kept turning and checking the skies and after about 15 minutes he announced that it was time to leave.

Sadly our afternoon was cut a little short due to the storms, but it's better to get back to Sanibel than to be stuck out in the rain.  Our finds for the day consisted of many Venus sunrays shells, a couple of baby's ears, a dried starfish, and my coveted horse conch....

We also saw many live shells, a cute crab and my favorite find was a fighting conch that still had his critter living at home.  I was sick to have to return him to the water because it was the largest fighting conch I've ever found and it was a beautiful brown and gold color.  Go over and check out Brian's blog post on our day with him to see more great photos.  But more than anything we had another memory-making day on the water with one of our favorite people.  After all, it's the memories you hold dear in your heart that are the true treasures.