Have I mentioned how much I miss this? I feel it a little more everyday........
I ironically have been thinking for two days now, "I wish I had brought home some of the sand from the beach." There are so many recent uses I have needed it for. 1. For a memory 2. For the Dreams (Beach Themed) Bible Study for the girls youth group lessons at church 3. For some crafty inspriation
"Trust in the Lord and do Good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord , and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37: 3-4. And that He did.
Since we have been home we have been pretty busy each day, so much so I have yet to unpack for any of us. I remembered spending an afternoon on the beach gathering sea shells with the help of my niece Sarah. It was such a calm and relaxing task that I am pretty sure I could have done from dusk to dawn everyday we were there :) Today I decided to pull out this little green bucket that had been set on our washer to see what type of shells we had.
I had to take each one out, rinse the excess sand off them, sort them on plates and lay them out to dry.
Once I got started, my heart was delighted to see so many beautiful treasures I had brought home with me. The most unique and fully assembled ones above are very special to me because I searched hard for these.
These are the most commonly found and just happen to be my favorite!
Of course there were also many broken pieces that hold their own personal beauty. I often wondered if any of these pieces may have been parts of oneanother since they were all very similar.
When I had almost all the shells out of the bucket, I saw this tiny creature floating around on top of the water. I quickly realized it was one of the little sea creatures that come out of what my sister in law likes to call "finger nails" shell.
My nieces and nephew loved these because they thrived inside these shells and when washed upon the shore they would bury themselves back into the sand to form lots of little holes. It was neat to watch. I spent an entire evening on one of our beach days looking for these specific shells for my nephew's collection.
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Viola! The Lord provided the best gift to me at the bottom of that little bucket- Myrtle Beach Sand!!! I decided I had to preserve it. So I poured it out onto a plate in hopes that it will dry correctly and pulled some decorating resources out for some additional inspiration.
I have spent some time this week browsing decorating and home magazines. I found a few ways to showcase the shells and sand but can't decide exactly what I want to do just yet. Above requires a simple curved bowl, place the sand in it and a few shells. Having a roaming toddler just doesn't seem to be something this will mesh well with.......
I am leaning more toward the next two options. I LOVE the simple jars above that you can label with the location and date you were at the beach while also adding something decorative coming from the top. This appeals to me because it would be an easy and affordable collective memory!
I also liked this! Taking old withered frames, placing them on walls and placing the shells inside of them. My goal some day is to have a setting/living room devoted to a Beach Theme. A relaxing getaway (at home) where I can go and read etc.
And finally, I could take my jar idea and jazz them up a bit with a few of the shells placed on top of the sand :)
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