This is one of my favorite old pictures.
Me and my brother Josh picking up sea shells on our first visit to the ocean,
Tampa, I think. Mid-70’s. I still have that little metal box. We were filling it with shells and I’m pretty sure that I was explaining to Josh the proper way to pick them up.
I loved scouring tchotchkes shops with my Mom on vacations selecting sea shells, but the real thrill was the hunt was finding them on the beach.
Still is.
I’m a collector. Always have been. Even as a kid.
Here’s what the beach at Cape San Blas looked like a few weeks ago on our vacation to the “Red-Neck Riviera”………
Soooooo many shells.
Even found a handful of oh-so-fragile urchins.
Here’s a pretty good sampling of what we found on those Florida beaches. We were very careful not to bring anything home that already had an occupant…….invertebrate or hermit crab.
And what, exactly, do we do with all these treasures?
Here’s how it comes together.
I buy these vintage canning jars from junk stores whenever I see them cheap….usually about 4-5 bucks each.
Then fill them with all our findings…..
(Not just shells. I’m a fanatic about finding sea glass, but we also add the occasional bottle cap or coin. This year I grabbed a handful of that beautiful white sand from the Seaside beach.)
……and label them with clear labels. (Thanks for that suggestion Heather) So we remember where everything came from.
Like Seaside 2014.
Pretty simple……
and charming for days……
Yepp, Organized Hoarding at it’s finest.
One day, these will line the window of the master bathroom.
Great minds certainly do think alike, and my dear friend Shannon, at Bohemian Junktion, has been doing this with her family even longer than we have.
Any size or shape of jar is an eligible candidate for her……even a Corona bottle.
While we just use a label maker, Shannon takes it one awesome step further and prints labels with a picture from the trip. SO very, very clever……
OOOh, and my favorite part, all their family vacation jars are lined up on top of vintage lockers down their hall.
Check her out……
THE CAVENDER DIARY 
Hello
I love your blog and have been following for a year or so. I too am a seashell collector. I could be wrong, but I think you have a nutmeg shell rather than cantharus….
-Bridget
Hi Bridget, Thanks for the info…You’re probably right. We are still working on identifiny all our bounty. I was surprised that we could name as many as we did.
This is a post close to my heart. I too collect things in old bottles and jars that have lids. My grandma’s button collection, sea glass, washed ashore beach finds, shells and everyone’s favorite money, to be counted and rolled for later use.
Same here Janet………besides shells, I have jars of dice, matchbox cars, matchbooks, corks, bottle caps, dominos, pinecones, coins, and one big jar full of all sorts of found things….
Thank you so much for mentioning our vacation jars! I’m so excited to be included here because I have admired you guys and your decorating for about 8 months. You once again made my day! Hopefully I can meet you both one day since I’m only a few hours south of ya.
Shannon ~ bohemianjunktion.com
Glad that you liked it. I love your take on the same thing….and your vacations look much cooler than ours. How funny that we both posted on them in the same week……Great Minds
Love this! I just did the same thing with my niece and nephew with our shell collections from Florida. I added a wooden tag with rope to the jar with the date and location from one of my favorite Etsy sellers. Your blog is so awesome!
Aww shucks, thanks JD. And just love the idea of a wooden tag. Jamie has an Etsy artist who makes them from stamped copper. He uses them for luggage tags….could be cool on these jars too.
How wonderful to have your shells and beach finds organized – mine are all together in a heap! http://www.tarabradford.com/2014/02/seashells.html When my daughter was a child, we started collecting rocks, stones and inexpensive gemstones on our travels. The only airport security incident we had was when bringing white sand from Carmel to my mother, to fill a pottery bowl from France (and stick thin white candles in the sand). As sand is a component in explosives, this didn’t go down well at SFO.
(Tara, I’m no stranger to TSA)….and not all of our shells are that organized. I have 2 big tubs full of shells, coral, and drift wood in the garage. Sometimes in the summer I pull them out and fill a big wire basket on the coffee table. It’s way to jumbled to remember where each piece came from…but I try.
OOOhhh, and I just love the ides of using cloches…think I have a couple in the garage right now..hhhmmm
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