beach discards series

It's that time of year when we all look up and say, "Where has the year gone?!?"  I actually have one foot steadfastly in the hope of Fall and one foot lingering in the vestiges of Summer.  Actually, the only thing tying me to the warmth of Summer are the memories of the three days we spent at the beach and wishing I could Samantha Stevens my way back there right now.  It was a pretty magical trip, not fancy, but perfect.  Slow mornings with coffee and a thick book, long, hot days on the beach, and sunburnt evenings playing cards with family.  My version of perfect.  

We kinda rushed to plan a beach trip this summer.  I think I was in denial that time was closing in on the kiddo leaving for college.  I just did not want to think about how we really had not done a very good job of cramming 18 years into the one and a half years that we've had her.  We literally had weeks left when we planned this trip - sweet girl had never seen the ocean!  

Our beach is a Texas beach, ie. unfancy.  We don't get big, lovely shells washed ashore fully intact.  We get pieces of shells mostly.  We get everything the ocean has churned and beat up and decided to finally let go of.  But there is still so much beauty in the parts that have been discarded.  We combed the beach each day and I came home with a rather lovely pile of what the ocean gave up.
As I dug through my little bag of treasures I thought how cool it would be to honor it in some way, to pair it with sterling silver and druzies and other stones and create my own little beach discards series.  Texas might not have the most traditionally beautiful beaches, but there is true beauty there, literally right at your feet.

I was so unready to leave when our short trip was over.  But it was nice to close our summer on a high note.  And when I walked off of the beach that last day all I had was a bag full of shells and the promise of what they could become...