Florida Seashell Charm Bracelets

Hello, and Happy Friday!

Today I have some new charm bracelets. Two of them are Florida seashell charm bracelets, and there will be more of these coming. I'll have some in sterling silver, too! These are on aluminum flat cable chain.

This is such a cute bracelet with Florida seashells, and beachy charms. A nice juvenile Florida conch, kittens paw, calico scallop, and a little dosinia are interspersed with a bottle of suntan lotion, a bikini top, and a pair of sunglasses, with tiny Swarovski crystals embedded in them. A pretty dolphin charm, and a sweet half orange complete this Florida Seashell Charm Bracelet!

A fun in the sun bracelet for Florida beach lovers! This is beachy and fun!

If  bikinis aren't your thing, and lighthouses are....

Then this Florida Seashell Charm Bracelet is for you! A juvenile conch, calico scallop, broad ribbed cardita, and a white kittens paw...I think it's a kittens paw.

Recently I learned that some of my kittens paws are actually baby lions paws. With the hundreds of thousands of seashell species... I have a LOT to learn still!

A sea turtle, sand dollar, starfish, dolphin, and an orange.... make this Florida Seashell Bracelet a special souvenir piece for those who love the ocean....like we do!

This next bracelet is a pretty bronze!

The center shell is a Babylonia. The other two I don't know. I have a LOT to learn!

A bronze nautilus shell, and a bronze scallop shell give this seashell charm bracelet a vintage look.

Wouldn't it look so pretty with this nutmeg ring?

The bronze filigree is so feminine and delicate looking. Love this! This ring wraps around the finger with tapered ends, making it adjustable, and still pretty. This is one of my favorite style ring bases...it's similar to the stem and leaf style.

I'll show you what that looks like when I post the other rings~

until then~

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sea Urchins and Seashells

You know I love all things pertaining to the sea. So, when I saw these darling little green sea urchins, I had to have them. I had no idea what I would even do with them, so they have been hanging out on my shell shelf since I went to the shell shop with Momma P back in late July/early August.

I knew they were going to be too fragile to use as is. I thought about this for a while, and decided to fill them to make them solid. After I made those last two seashell and flower headbands, I knew what I wanted to do with some of them.

I now have a pretty new headband to put in my shop!

The little urchins are still very lightweight, but far less breakable than they were.

The cream and white flowers accent the urchins beautifully!

I'm not much of a headband gal, but I would wear this one, too!

It is perfect for a beach wedding, though. Bridesmaids would look lovely, and flower girls would be so darling in this. I don't think I would wait for a wedding to wear this! I'd wear it anytime!

I have a few more of these cute little urchins, and will probably make another headband, and I don't know what else yet. Right now I have too many ideas, and too many things to play with....but I'm not complaining!

I have a couple of custom orders I'm excited to get started on, I'm just waiting for the rest of my supplies. I also just finished a couple! I can show you one of them. The other is a gift for someone, and the gift giver should have a chance at posting about it first, I think :)

These earrings were made to my customers specifications! Those blue green pearls really pop with the shells! She got the idea from another pair I posted a few weeks ago. You know my pics don't do them justice, and I'm really kicking myself for not taking more pics.

The only pics I took were on the whale tail :(
In my haste to get them listed, I failed miserably in the photo taking department.

These three pics are the only ones I have of these earrings. Shame on me! 

I do love the soft pink in these shells, and the crystals match perfectly. That little pop of sea colored pearls is mesmerizing, and gives these earrings a nice beachy vibe!

You may have noticed I haven't listed much of anything new in my shop. Between my custom orders, selling other things, and getting ready for the craft shows (and doing some serious playing! see my last post!) I just haven't made the time. But I have really enjoyed the time off from being a photographer lol. You know that is so not my favorite part of this. I really do need to get on the ball and show you some of the neat necklaces I've been making....and my new ideas and plans for the next show!

But...today I am taking a couple of hours to take a wire wrapping class! If I do a good job, you will see the results, if I don't...you will never hear about it again. LOL!

I'll see ya tomorrow!

Always have a beachy kind of day :)

A New Adventure

Yesterday I embarked upon a new adventure that has been on my Bucket List for some time now. I had heard of Geocaching here and there, and had seen something about it on one of the cable tv stations a few years ago. Never did I imagine I would want to try it....

Until I came across Kim and Snug Harbor Bay. Kim and her family go geocaching all the time! Her parents even do it! Kim is a seasoned geocacher, and has over 2000 finds under her belt! I have followed her adventures through her blog, and it looks so fun I knew I had to try it. I have known where a couple of caches are close to my home for over a month, and I have been trying to squeeze some time in to go find them.

I finally registered as a geocacher a week or so ago, and yesterday I did it!
I found my very first cache!

I had my own adventure, let me tell ya!

Everywhere I turned I ran into giant spider webs with giant spiders IN THEM! Sometimes quite literally because I was watching the ground for snakes LOL! I did not want to get bitten. I was more cautious of what could be on the ground than the big ole' banana spiders suspended in webs in the air.

The foliage was pretty dense, and vines with thorns wrapped around my legs several times...but at least it wasn't a snake!

 ANOTHER banana spider! These things were all over the place!

But finally, despite the spiders, I found it!

I absolutely squealed with delight!

I signed the log book, and put it back in the cache container....and left the container how I found it.

YAY! Crossing another thing off my bucket list! But you can believe this will NOT be the first and last time I go geocaching. Despite the spiders, I'm hooked!

It was such a beautiful day in this woodsy place.

I felt as if I had stepped into the Land of the Lost....or maybe Planet of the Apes....

Or maybe even a scene from Tarzan!

Hubby took these last few pictures, aren't they awesome?! And um, yeah, more spiders!
This barefoot sign post is no where near where I found the cache hehehehee. We thought it was cool though, and I guess it USED TO indicate where a path WAS. There is no path!

FYI none of these pics indicates where I found the cache :P so good luck if you go looking for this one!

I had a great time, and my hubby was pretty intrigued, too. We will be going out to find more caches!

Thank you Kim for introducing me to the wonderful world of Geocaching!

Have you ever gone geocaching?

New Seashell Headbands

Oh Happy Friday!

Thank you all so much for the well wishes, and feel betters!!! I am on the mend, and even went uptown yesterday. My knee is sore to the touch, and to the 'lean' (as in a dog leaning on it!) and my bruises are bright, but I am thankful it wasn't worse!

I bought these pretty wine color scallop shells from the shell shop in Treasure Island, FL. The little shop that is just south from Belleair Beach. They were actually the first shells I picked out when I walked in the door. The color is so vibrant I couldn't pass them up! They have sat unused because they are a big shell, and the curve is wrong for a barrette. I just got some new headbands, and the curve is right for them!

Isn't that a pretty shell?!

This one has wonderful color for fall, and is a nice feminine hair accessory.

The next one is a bit dressier, and would be so pretty for a fall beach wedding, for the bridesmaid or flower girl.

The flowers couldn't have matched better if I had picked them out just for these shells. They just happened to be left over from another project.

I may have to start wearing headbands again!

Unfortunately I only bought two of those shells to try them out :(
And that was the last of those flowers, too.

Do these make you think of beach weddings? Or wish you wore headbands, too?!

Have a great weekend, and I'll see ya on Monday!

Oh My!

Oh my! is right....

You will NOT believe what I did last night.

Hubby and I were watching video's on our daughters blog, getting teary eyes and runny noses, and unbeknownst to me, my dog, Zach, was laying directly behind me at my feet. I turned around to walk away, tripped over his 80 pound furry body, and went down HARD on rough indoor/outdoor carpet covered concrete. (we were in my craft room) Oh how I cried! Like a baby.

My left knee took the worst of it, and is still hot, swollen, and sore this morning...and skinned up. Right knee isn't much better. My hands, wrists, and right shoulder are messed up, and I have various bruises, broken blood vessels, and scraped up skin. I am sore! My wrists are almost as sore as my knees. I'm sure I'll be as good as new in a couple of days....and poor Zachy looked so apologetic. He felt so bad for making momma fall. He gave me kisses, and then didn't know whether to give me some space, or hang close to make sure I was alright. I gave him lots of loves and assured him it was NOT his fault. I was hot and then cold, and then hot and cold all night long. I guess from the trauma of having so many places hurt? It's something I won't soon forget.

I am such a klutz anyway, and am constantly tripping over my own feet, and running into walls and things. I need to watch where the heck I'm going! And I KNOW that Zach is always RIGHT THERE by my side. He has been my little buddy since the day he was born. He has been my constant shadow since he could walk. He is never very far from my side, and usually right at my feet. When will I learn to watch where I'm going?

Enough of my boo hooing! Let's take a look at some frames I did!

These are simple, but time consuming to do.
I started with a small, cheap, metal frame.

I took a nail file to it to rough it up some, and then added some adhesive (E600 or QuickDry) I actually used both, as one was missing when I went to make the other one.

Michaels sells crushed shell in bags, and I bought a bag of it, and dumped some into a coffee can lid. Then dunked, and redunked, reglued, and dunked again until I covered each frame in crushed shell. After it dried, I glued a sliced shell to each one.

I love how they turned out, and I will be making more of them. I bought a bunch of these mini frames. I'm going to use whole shells instead of sliced shells on the next ones, though. These are small, and the perfect size for desk top photos.

I've been making some more things using my super adhesives, and I hope to show them to you soon!