The Beach's Bounty............

Today I was going through the "treasures" I brought back with me from Anna Maria Island, FL.  I hadn't planned on posting today but after gazing at my "stuff" I thought, why not?

I LOVE shells.  I mean LOVE shells.  Every vacation I go on, you can find me strolling the beach with my plastic Wal-mart bag, or whatever will hold my finds, collecting shells and sanddollars.  Here's what I found.

The shells on the left I picked up on the beach of Anna Maria Island (on the Gulf side) and the shells on the right I picked up on the beach in Vero Beach (on the Atlantic side).  It's amazing the differences in the shells.  The ones on the Gulf side are prettier, more colorful and seem more delicate, whereas the ones from the Atlantic side are bigger, thicker and the colors are more neutral.

The Gulfside.

The Atlantic side.

There were many shops on the island selling shells, starfish, and sanddollars.  I couldn't resist. 

Check them out.

It seems you can buy them everywhere.  The sugar-starfish (the three orange ones in the middle) came from Walgreen's Drug Store.  LOL

Did you notice the two large starfish have a blue hue to them?  I bought them in a gift shop for not a lot of money.  If they had more, I would've bought them too.  Some is good so more must be better, no?  The color is a greyish blue that reminds me of colors Miss Mustard seed uses to paint furniture.  I love Miss Mustard seed's blog.  If you haven't been there you have to check out her latest project here.

Aren't they great?

While were were there, my friend's Mom and Dad babysat the kids while we went out for a nice dinner.  Her Mom always has a craft lined up for the kids and this is what they made.

The kids glued shells (that we collected on the beach), starfish, sanddollars, even a sea horse to a frame.  Then they colored the shells with colored pencils.  The the next day she took all the kids to the Welcome to Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island sign and took each of their pictures in front of it.  Here is Jacquelyne's.  Carson was taking a nap, he's only 2.

I haven't decided what I am going to do with all this loveliness but I sure will have a good time displaying the stuff all over my house. 

Hey, I have a great idea; how about a giveaway?  Leave a comment on this post and I will select a winner via one of the random counters I've read about all over blogland (if I can figure out how to use one of them).  The prize will be a goodie bag of things pictured in this post.  I'm new to blogging so your chances of winning will probably be really good.  Giveaway will end on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 6 p.m.

GOOD LUCK

Kaye