Archive for Christmas
Sanibel Christmas Eve Seashell Style
Posted by: | Comments
Seashell Nativity
This is the sweetest nativity scene made with URCHINS, PEN SHELLS, CLAMS and topped with a STARFISH.
Jody Brown Jingle Shells song
I also want to share a really cute Christmas carol written by local sheller Jody Brown. Our neighborhood sang carols together the other night and I learned her new song. Now we can too! Ahem…. Okay, all together now…
Jingle Shells, Jingle Shells ……
Jingle Shells lyrics
Now that you are warmed up, I’ll show you what I found at Blind Pass this morning…. Shelling sisters!
Shelling Sisters
Meet sisters Kelci, Katie and Kara shelling for COCKLES and CONCHS. 
Speaking of CONCHS, I found some candy for Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!
Horse conch colors
Happy Holiday MarketPlace
Posted by: | Comments
Sanibel Sunset point
The sky was so pretty looking over at the Sanibel from the new sand bar beach on the Captiva side of Blind Pass.
Sand bar beach Captiva
Clark and I stopped there to see the changes after our fabulous weekend hanging out in our booth at Chadwick’s Square for the Holiday Marketplace. We had a fantastic time getting to know more shellers, giving away shells and showing off our new merchandise. We also had front row to the stage to see cooking demonstrations, painting demos, ice sculpting… oh my gosh.. I could go on. But the best thing for me? I was so thrilled to meet blog friends and shelling sisters.
Julie and Bob (Ottawa, Canada)
Mary Ann from Indiana (of Course!)
Sally and James (Georgia)
Thank you all for stopping by! You have no idea how much it meant to me.
Blind Pass cut sand bar
It was a perfect way to end the day to stop to see the beach.
Tulip shell piece
I had to smile when I saw this broken piece of TULIP shell lying there on the sand bar. It’s exactly what Val from New Mexico uses for her flowers and leaves to make beautiful ornaments. I love mine!
PS- There are 20 mph West winds kicking up the gulf right now…. shelling is right around the corner!
Changing Captiva Island
Posted by: | Comments
Today- New sand bar at Blind Pass on Captiva
Captiva Island is changing before my eyes these days in more ways than one. First of all, as I drove over the Blind Pass bridge that connects Sanibel Island to Captiva Island, I was shocked to see a new beach that had just formed on the Captiva side. It was low tide, yes, but this is a big change for any tide. Take a look at the difference from last week…..
Last week- Sand bar Dec 6 photo by Kaybe
The Essential Beachcomber’s Kaybe took the above picture at low tide on December 6.
Today- Shells on Blind Pass sand bar
Here’s a video of what the scene looked like this morning around 10:30ish. Please excuse my choppy commentary. Now you know why I don’t talk a lot in my videos. LOL
The other big change on Captiva is because of this first ever huge holiday hoopla. As part of the Captiva Holiday Village, Tween Waters Inn hosted a Sunset Aria ….. Opera on the beach this evening!
Sunset Aria Opera singers
Opera on Tween Waters beach
And after sunset….. Fire Dancers and Beach Drummers!!!
Fire dancers on the beach
I’ve finally recovered from last week’s golf cart parade and luminary and saved all those decorations from the iLoveShelling golf cart to dress up our booth for the 1st Annual Marketplace today, tomorrow and Sunday.
With Donna and Cheryl
I met some new shelling sisters! Donna and Cheryl were the first ones to visit our booth at Chadwick’s Square at South Seas Island Resort to get some shelling gear.
With Val from New Mexico
Okay, this was so much fun…blog friend Val and her dear friend Dodie (taking pictures) stopped by our booth too! You won’t believe what she made me.
Val's ornament
She loves to pick up pieces of shells like these bits of TULIPS, LIGHTNING WHELKS and AUGERS to make flowers and leaves for ornaments. I am so deeply touched she chose to hand craft this ornament for me and I will treasure it every day so thank you so much. This is too special to only put on the Christmas tree, this will be hanging in our home all year round.
Captiva Holiday Village Golf Cart Parade
Posted by: | Comments
iLoveShelling Captiva golf cart parade "float"
The First Annual Captiva Holiday Village golf cart parade was a HUGE success! Captiva has really pulled together this holiday to make this season so crazy fun. There were over 30 golf carts decorated to the nines for the holidays and iLoveShelling was right there in the midst of it all covered with SAND DOLLARS, STARFISH, SCALLOP SHELLS, CONCHS and a kooky humongo JUNONIA right smack on top.
Painting a Junonia
I started with a big sheet of plywood, cut it to the shape of the junonia then started painting the spots. Okay, I didn’t find the junonia I used as the model, we bought it years ago…. as you might already know, I’m still looking, and looking and looking for my very own real junonia.
Seashell Christmas tree on golf cart
We borrowed a golf cart from our friends Paul and Vera who helped us dress it up with a Christmas tree, lots of green garland and aqua gift boxes tied with gold ribbon. I wrapped the tree and the green garland with the seashells that I strung last week on my post Seashell Christmas then put the final touch of the Santa hat (lined with shells of course) on the monster JUNONIA.
Our float team Paul Vera, me and Clark
I even trimmed my Santa hat with shells.
Seashell Santa hat
Then we were off to the races!
Here comes the junonia
Our float with Clark at the helm
Wanna see the other carts??? They were outstanding! Here are a few photos but don’t miss the video at the end thanks to Les Pendleton from American Realty of Captiva…
Golf cart parade winners!
My girlfriends won a trophy for best golf cart! Congratulations Shirley, Janice, Bonnie, Liddy, Merrill and Nanelle!
Parade winner
Congratulations to American Realty ! They won a trophy for best cart too.
Yolo Holiday cart
Yolo Watersport‘s cart was really cute.
Kingfisher Vacations holiday cart
I also thought Kingfisher Vacations had a show stopping cart. Great job!
Jensen's golf cart after dark
Thank you to Denice Beggs (go, girl!) of Beggs Realtors and Paul McCarthy of Captiva Cruises for spear heading Captiva Holiday Village parade. Such a fun event for all of us!
I guess we have to step it up for next year if we want to win a prize. We even gave the judges a “bribe” of the sand dollar cookies and that still didn’t work LOL. I’m hearing buzz around town that people are already brainstorming for next years decorations. Wow! Okay, I think we’ll need help. If you’ll be in the area next year, come help and cheer us on.
Captiva Luminary
After the parade, luminary bags line the village streets for a cozy holiday glow. The businesses brighten with Christmas lights to serve free beverages and goodies for good tidings and cheer . It’s so beautiful! Clark and I set up a table at The Mucky Duck (Thank you Victor!) as the sun was setting on the beach right behind us. We gave away lots of seashells and over 100 sand dollar cookies. The cookies were a big hit!
Seashell Christmas
Posted by: | Comments
Sand Dollar Starfish Seashell garland
Time to Shellebrate the Holidays! This little Seashell Elf has been busy making SAND DOLLAR and STARFISH garland strands for the Christmas tree in our iLoveShelling.com golf cart at the Captiva Holiday Village parade on December 4 at 3:30. I’m making this a very simple design so I can add red ribbon and some white SCALLOP SHELLS as well to fill in every inch of my tree. Of course, I have to have lots of seashells!
Starfish Sand Dollar strand garland
I’m using sand dollars that we have collected over the years but I bought these starfish “seconds” (I don’t mind that they aren’t perfect…. who is?) from Seashells.comhere on Sanibel. I’m not using any glue. I just wrap the twine around a starfish arm and knotted the back then string through one of the holes in the sand dollars and repeat. Easy! This next project was easy too……
Sand Dollar cookie trays
Sand Dollar Cookies!!! I’m not a good baker but my friend Tiia helped me make over one hundred of these adorable sugar cookies Thanksgiving night. Okay, we made life easy and sliced pre-made sugar cookie dough then decorated them with five slivered almonds- a great idea I got from Daily Vitamin Sea.
Sand dollar cookies
Aren’t they so cute? You can have one too since I’ll be giving them out at the Captiva Holiday Village Luminary night after the parade by The Mucky Duck. I’ve packed them in the freezer for safe keeping until then. Come by to say “Hi” and get a sand dollar cookie and a real shell!
Tween Waters Holiday Sunset
I haven’t had time to do a lot of shelling, but we did make it to the beach yesterday to witness this beautiful Captiva Island sunset right across the street from Tween Waters Innannual holiday lights and tree lighting festival. If you’ve never seen this spectacular event, you are in luck because I took a video. Yes! I’m in full Shellebration for the holidays!
If you’d like to see more holiday tree ornaments or get some great ideas for decorating your tree, see a collection at The Essential Beachcomber.
Shelling For Captiva Holiday Village
Posted by: | Comments
It is getting VERY exciting on Captiva Island! Every day I hear about something even more spectacular happening for the CAPTIVA HOLIDAY VILLAGE festivities in December 2010. Haven’t heard about it yet? That’s because this is the very first year and the buzz is Big! I’m talking… every inch of the streets from ‘Tween Waters Inn to The Mucky Duck to South Seas Island Resort will be decorated to the nines with lights and attractions. But Wait! AND there will be a golf cart parade, boat parade, fire dancers on the beach, a holiday Marketplace, seafood festival, pub crawl and lots of live music and parties.
"Olive want for Christmas is my feet on the beach" art by pam
Hang on…. if you like that, this is the best news! iLoveShelling.com will be participating in all of the fun!! Want to know why I was collecting all of those COCKLE shells on my post The Cockle Collection yesterday?Clark and I will have a decked out Christmas golf cart for the parade decorated with shells (of course) and handing out seashells to the crowd as we ride through on Saturday December 4th. We’ll have a table for Luminary Night giving out more shells and my homemade SAND DOLLAR cookies close to the The Mucky Duck on Saturday night December 4th. We’ll also have a tent at the Holiday Marketplace selling our brand new iLoveShelling tee shirts, caps, tote bags, shelling gear and more on December 10th, 11th and 12th! I’ve had many people ask me if I wear something to identify myself on the beach…. so now I will … and you will too! It’s so exciting!
Christmas shells for Captiva Holiday Village
These are just some of the shells that I am going to be giving away throughout this “extravaganza”. Now you know why I need LOTS of shells and can’t have the ones that break easily (like the SEA URCHINS that I passed up yesterday). Yes, I have my WORMIES in the mix too. I won’t be throwing them out of our cart in the parade but I will have some at my booth at the Holiday Marketplace for you special people out there that are as crazy about them as I am.
"Oh Cone all Ye Faithful" art by pam rambo
Okay, ya’ll- If you are thinking about joining us in any or all of the Holiday festivities, I have the inside scoop on places to stay.
If you want me to help you find a room for a week or weekend, just CONTACT ME HERE and I’ll help you find a great place to stay to help us Shellebrate the Season! Here is an events calendar…… click it to enlarge.
