Seashell Momentos (Part I)

We just returned from a lovely beach vacation.  Catherine carefully gathered a small collection of shells and pebbles.  So now the question is, what do we do with them?

Peter and I were thinking that a small display glass would be nice.  Maybe even something simple and cheap from the dollar store.  We have something similar with things we collected on our honeymoon.

Source

I have carefully saved the first shell that Catherine picked up on her first ever beach trip.  I've been (half-heartily) looking for a white shadow box where I will put of picture of her on said beach trip and also display the shell.  I do like this shadow box, but I was thinking a little bit smaller would be nice--maybe an 8x8.  Speaking of shells in shadow boxes, It's the Little Things has a great way to showcase lots of shells in a shadow box, you have to check it out! Maybe I should put Catherine's new collection in a shadow box and hang it next to her first shell in a shadow box . . . (Because I looked through a bunch of shadow box ideas here's another really neat one from The Long Thread!)

Shell pieces I saw in the OBX.

There were so many broken pieces of shell that I would love to make into jewelry.  I didn't gather any of these pieces this trip--but I think that I might next time we visit the OBX.  The tricky part will be drilling holes without cracking the shells.  (Anyone out there ever make seashell jewelry?  How did it go?)  I think all of the shell pieces to the right could make interesting pendant necklaces!

It is so much fun to scour the beach for beautiful and interesting shells, rocks, sea glass, drift wood, etc--but once you have them what do you do?  It seems a shame and a waste to have them stashed away in the dark recesses of some closet.

Part II will be along shortly . . .

Here are some of the awesome places where I link up!