Give Yourselves A Hand… Of Seashells

A little NUTMEG always brings some nice spice to hand full of shells, don’t ya think? This NUTMEG added a lot of spice since it was not just a dash but a fairly large one Rosemarie scooped out of the Gulf of Mexico off the beach on Cayo Costa.

Captiva Cruises took us on a really fun cruise to the island with the shoreline laced with seashells as far as you could see.

Josh and Amy from Texas came back to the boat with a fist full of SAND DOLLARS.

Audrey and her mom Tonya (MN) were on a missions to find SAND DOLLARS and I’m happy to report that Audrey found two on her own. Tonya found a huge BABYS EAR but the cool thing is that since Josh and Amy knew Audrey was searching for SAND DOLLARS, they shared some of their SAND DOLLAR loot with her. So sweet!

Local sheller Sharon and her long time friend Mary visiting from Virginia had some really good luck.

A few of their faves… SAND DOLLARS, ANGEL WINGS, double SPINY JEWELBOX and a double CALICO CLAM.

It was so lovely to spend time with Nancy and Marilyn from PA and seeing some of their favorite shells.

The day was gorgeous! We were all thrilled to spend time walking along the calm turquoise water with that little jingle sound of shells washing on the beach.

Grace (MI) was resourceful enough to figure out how to carry even more shells. She strapped her shell bucket on the handle of her net… then filled up her net with shells too. You’ve got a smart girl there Nicole!

It’s always so much fun to see when other shellers get excited about finding such a variety of shells like Megan and Mary Beth (GA)

There was an OLIVE garden happening out there in the water but there was also fun shells in those lines along the shore like FLASE ANGEL WINGS, WHELKS, outrageous colors of COQUINAS, a few baby orange HORSE CONCHS and a funny little happy shell that Megan especially loved… on the far left side of the photo on her finger you’ll see a perfect happy face on that CROSS-BARRED VENUS. :)

Now talk about finding an OLIVE garden! Niki from GA was blossoming with her OLIVE bouquet.

So honored to have Cayo Costa State Park volunteer Linda on our cruise as well. We have a mutual awesome sheller friend and fellow Cayo Costa volunteer Jan who taught her to always carry a small vial with a lid to keep her small fragile finds in. Good advice Jan!

So much fun to talk shells with seasoned shellers and cuties Valerie and Donna from Kentucky. You girls rock!

Actually, we had quite a few seasoned shellers on our iLoveShelling trip. Val and Matt from Ohio not only know a lot about finding shells, they also are into the SEA BEANS and the SHARKS TEETH. I always love to talk about all the BEACH BLING with other shellers so it was awesome.

And of course it’s always a big pleasure to meet shelling families like McKenna, Joy, Cadence and Tom from PA.

You really can’t see the brilliant lemon yellow color of the ALTERNATE TELLIN in McKenna’s hand on the far left but it was really amazing. And… Candy!!

I even got to hang out a little bit more with Dottie and Jennifer to learn about some of the shelling they do in their home state of Louisiana- they said the SHARKS EYES are huge and fantastic. Maybe we’ll have to go there one day too.

Shellers Janice, Sue and Eric were visiting all the way from the UK! They are so cool and I got the warm and fuzzies just hanging out. Thank you so much for coming with us on our adventure!!!

As usual, everybody received their $25 gift certificate to Congress Jewelers!

It’s always a pleasure to meet so many cool shellers- Join me on one of our iLoveShelling shelling adventures…