Sea Shell Display

Last month I spent about a week organizing my shell

collection.  I've collected shells since I was in grade

school!  I've never lived near the ocean, but we

took a few family vacations to the Atlantic Ocean

and I remember starting my collection during those

trips.  I bought a little postcard in a souvenir shop that

had pictures of shells with their names and a

little bag of shells stapled to the card.

I framed a mirror with hundreds of shells several years

ago and filled a shadow box with more, but the rest

have filled a jar or two and a big bowl on the coffee table.

The thing is, I seem to always find a bag of shells in the

auction trash!  haha...so my collection has grown to

be quite large over the last couple of years!

I thought it was time to be a more serious collector and

display them properly!  It took me about a week to

divided them according to type, researched their

names and display them in a better way with labels

and pretty containers on my shelves.

It was not only fun, but fascinating, too!

I loved learning the names from Sailor's Ear

to Kitten Paw...Cockle to Turkey Wing.

It also gave me something to do with the pretty vintage

 containers I've brought home from the auction trash.

See the sea horse?  I've had him since I was about 10 years old!

"Singing, Cockles and mussels, alive alive, oh...."

Did you sing that in grade school, too? :)

Now when I find a bag of old shells, I can easily

call them by name and put them in their proper jar.

So you see...girls in Ohio can have sea shells collections, too!

They can even know their semeles from their ceriths. ha.

And here's the kitten paws...just for Martha. :)

♥