The Essential Beachcomber

A  flash mob  (or  flashmob ) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral email. (from http://www.wikipedia.org/ ) I'm always the last one to hear about any new trend. If it weren't for my 24 yo niece Pookie who lives with me I would be total obtuse about Snookie, the Kardashion's, or McDreamy - McSteamy - or any other variety of Mac except the Big Mac. It was my niece that gently corrected me "Ant Karen - you say "it's the bomb" not "it's a bomb". Whew, somebody's gotta keep this on-the-sunnyside-of-middle-age lady straight. So flash mob? Who knew? A group of people with a common song or dance that just pounces it's performance on unsuspecting people in a public place...Come on - that rocks. (not to be confused with ...

Welcome to the 1st Annual Making Christmas a Merrier  Holiday One Ornament at A Time Linky Party! I am thrilled   to get this party started!! I always liked show & tell days at school.  I was one of the nerdy kids that brought in all my treasures to show off to the class.  I started a tradition  with the Hubbs when we were newly married 30 years ago and had our first tree.  I buy a "couple" ornament for us but some years later I started buying or making a seashell ornament for me. Well now,  I've been around awhile so I have a few keepsakes to share and I know you do too. To join the party -  it's very simple. * just copy/paste the web address of the specific blog post or your blog home page. * add a title of the project in the appropriate box. * choose the best picture so I can easily see what you have to share. (it will give you an opportunity to choose a picture when you are linking up) I also ask that you link back to me in...

When one lives in Florida it can be a challenge to get into the holiday spirit especially if you are a transplant from the north. I am a native-born Florida cracker so my holiday spirit has never been attached to snow. But the holidays are something I start dreading around August - September. The thought of shopping, cooking, mailing, decorating, baking, spending....aaahhhh! I usually am in a Cracker Barrel that already has 7 Christmas trees up and the Alan Jackson Christmas CD is blaring full blast and it dawns on me..yee gads it's coming again. Then I forget about it and Autumn rolls around.   The big box home improvement store I work for can't be outdone by Cracker Barrel so we put the Christmas stuff out right along  with the Halloween decorations  so there is a big honking witch cackling away on aisle 24 with Santa ho ho ho-ing out of the big blow-up snow globe right across the aisle.  It's confusing.  But something magical happens to me on the d...

                    What do this                                                      and this                    have in common?            Full moon night shelling              on Englewood Beach. As I was driving home from work last night I rolled all the windows down to let the nice cool Florida air blow through my truck. The full moon was just shining over the tree line. I work a late shift so as I walked quietly through the door at home so I wouldn't wake anyone I decided I was not ready to call it a night.  Well I was  but I'm calling it Night Shelling.  I tiptoed into my closet in the dark so I wouldn't wake up the Hubbs (the most dang...

There is a fine line separating those of us who collect and those folks who make it on to reality tv shows like "Hoarders" & "Clean Sweep". Every collector sooner or later runs into the problem of space. Our mantra is "I know I have one of those - I just can't find it". All my stuff is in tubs. I have a storage locker filled with the niece  Pookie on one side, my mom GeeGee on the other, & me. The Hubbs even has a box or two. I hate to keep my treasures packed away but I only have so much space.   To resolve the issue somewhat I picked up a neat  old hutch to use for storage and display.  I saw the hutch at a tag sale. It had what I thought was $150.00 dollars written on the price tag.  In an effort to get the seller to step his price down a tad I started asking about the hutch and the price.  The seller quips at  me "Lady, it's 15 bucks - how much lower do you want me to go?" SOLD Darlin -  I slapped the money into his hand and ...

Well, my vacation is winding down. Whew!I've had such a full schedule. I went to a conference in Sarasota on vacation day #1 & 2. Days 3-7 were in Sanibel doing a little power shelling with blogger friends. The Hubbs & I drove up to Tampa on day #8 to meet family for a wonderful dinner at International Mall.  As I was planning my time off on my scheduling calender I noticed someone had penciled herself in for my only remaining day.  That would be my niece Pookie who is also one of my best garage sale-ing buddies. She had an entire day planned starting at 7:30 am where we would leave for the biggest community garage sale of the year - Sawgrass Lakes in Venice, Florida. There was also time scheduled for Thai food so I sharpied her in - it's a go. The early bird catches the worm - and also waits in line to get in Where to begin?  Pookie chose a left-flank attack House after house looked just like this The line of cars to get into the development was ab...

Let the fun begin!! I have shelling down to a science.  I know the right weather conditions for the best shells. I am familiar with practically every beach on the west coast of Florida and the type of shells you can find there. I have a tide chart app on my phone that can tell me the low/high tide times, moon phases, and the sun rise/set times. I have tools - shell shovel, shell sifters, and hand rakes for the big shell piles.  You might say I am passionate about my favorite past time.  People ask me all the time where do you find the best shells? I can give them my best guess but as I have learned that all the planets can line up for a good shelling day and you can still come up empty handed. Oh, you'll always find scallops, arks, & lots of venus clams but we tend to want the alphabet cones, horse conchs, & that every elusive Junonia. My hopes were high as I drove to Sanibel with my best shelling buddy Rhonda of Shellbelle's Tiki Hut . We started out a...