Shell display

Well I havent been able to go shelling due to the weather not cooperating.. So I have been focusing my efforts on displaying my shell collection. I really love my living room. Its a work in progress, but so far it is coming right along. I love finding little display boxes to put shells in and have been very lucky as of late.. there is an awesome little resale shop that always provides me with incredible finds. Heres a gander at what I have been working on..

I particularly love the spice rack that was my parents when they first married.. I put different types of shells in each one and I love the way it turned out!

Got this thing at my resale store. It was gold and cheap.. so spray painted it and put some shells in it and now it looks lovely on my wall!

My boyfriend made this shelf for me to go above the TV and display some of our larger shells

I bought this awesome old box the other day. Not sure exactly how Im going to use it but I cant wait to play with it!

Heres another shot of it. Right now I just stashed all my silver shells in there just to to put them some where... but Im still not entirely sure how I am going to use it.. if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Not a great picture, but I just wanted to show this old printers drawer that I got and absolutely cannot wait to turn it into a beautiful shell display. That will be quite a project but I look forward to it! Its so awesome!

 

 

So thats what I've been up to! Hooray for shells!

Silver Shells!

Ive been dying to try this out.. spray painting some shells silver! I love the way they turned out! This is going to make for some good decorating.. and just in time for Christmas!

I especially love how the silver sea whip turned out!

I was trying to spray one type of each shell so I could get a feel for how they would look

Not bad! My first jar of silver seashells! I love them.

I think spray painted silver seashells make for fine decorating and I plan to do LOTS more!

And hopefully I will still have some regular shells left after I run out of spray paint!

Starfish & Sea Urchins!

Went to Kure Beach for some fun in the sun.. and fun it was! It was quite a day. My boyfriend and I couldn't stop finding all sorts of treasures, most notably lots of starfish and sea urchins! But there were other random cool things, like a piece of some kind of animals jaw, a giant crab claw, fossilized barnacles, plenty of scallops, and lots of sea sponge and sea whip type stuff. Lots of good stuff for decorating! Here is a gander:

Look at all that good stuff and such pretty colors!

You can see some of the bones in this one

The fossilized barnacles! There is an awesome swirlie in there! I did not find this unfortunately so no bragging rights for me.. but luckily I get to look at it everyday!

The other side of fossilized barnacles

All our starfish and sea urchins cleaned and drying!

Great shelling day!

Great day.. just sad its over.. until the next time..

Hurricane Irene pictures

Here are some pictures from when Irene finally passed us and they allowed people back on Wrightsville Beach to see what she left for us.. This was my first time ever going to the beach after a Hurricane but I have often dreamed of the awesome things I would find if I ever got the chance!

Look at all of that debris!!!

A horseshoe crab covered in barnacles washed up

I finally noticed that large group of people way out in the distance and soon realized that was where the jackpot was!

Starfish

 
 

That pool didnt use to be there!

Irene

Well it certainly has been good shelling ever since Irene came around! My boyfriend and I went to Wrightsville Beach immediately after they allowed people back on again after Irene passed.. it was crazy! It was still pretty insanely windy, so you could barely see or you would get sand in your eyes.. but we stuck it out for about half an hour before we couldnt take it anymore. There were a lot of people on the beach for it being so gusty but we finally understood why when we got to one spot... There were tons of horseshoe crabs, starfish, whelks, other shells and just overall debris. It was craziness! I never see that stuff on the beach! My boyfriend managed to snag one of the dead horseshoe crab shells and he also found a fossil shark vertebrae! I was stuffing whelk shells in my pockets or wherever I could find room!

Everything we found during our half hour on the beach directly after Irene

Look at the horseshoe crab!

A closer look at the shark vertebrae

So with the shelling that good then, we of course had to go back the next day and the next... It was unreal the amound of whelks that got washed up. Most of them older and worn, but still very cool. I now have an abundance of them and am not sure what to do with them! I have already decorated most of my house with them and still have lots left over! Here are a few other highlights from the days after Irene..

This HUGE clam got washed up.. he was still alive so I put him back but I have never seen such a fatty clam before.

I love this guy. Im a big fan of worm shells and this is like a little colony.. it was attached to a rock but once removed it revealed a little world of swirlies. I love it!

Although this angel wing is cracked and has a hole, I still adore it. This is first entire one I have found so I was quite excited! They are so beautiful!

And last but not least, a baby sea turtle skull. I did not know what this was when I found it but am sure glad I kept it. I love finding bones on the beach.

Thats all for now. Lots more stuff was found but it was almost too much to document! So until the next hurricane.. happy shelling!