Sea Shells by the Sea Shore -- a BBA Challenge

Each month the Blogging Business Artisans Etsy team has a challenge project with the theme given by the team members. July's theme was my idea (blush blush) and was to create something that was vacation related -- a vacation memory, something that represents a place visited, colors or scents associated with a special place, or even something funny that happened on a vacation.

With this in mind, I decided that I would finish a sea shell cross-stitch piece that I started years ago, but had never finished (the procrastinator in me is always lurking about.....)

The fabric is really more ivory in color -- I just couldn't get the background color right!

Aren't these colors pretty? Shells always seem to have the loveliest pinks!

I have always loved shells and have quite a few gathered from various places, but I had never done much with them. So when it came time to tear down the absolutely awful very outdated wallpaper that was in the hall bath when we moved in, I opted for a beach theme and used those shells! The bathroom fixtures are kind of an aqua blue and have always reminded me of the ocean. We painted the walls a lighter version of that aqua blue and the granite tile we selected reminds me of sand. So sea shells were a natural for decoration!

Knowing that I have a fondness for shells, my daughter painted this watercolor for me! I love the soft muted colors, especially the peachy pink. I like that she painted it in a style with softened edges and just the hint of a shell, like a fading memory. That blue background is perfect on the wall too -- just a bit darker!

She also gave me this shell shadow box (the shells are not real) and it lives on top of a white wall-hung cabinet in the bathroom. 

It's really cool with three-dimensional shells

I've got to get the cross-stitch framed, but this is sort of what it will look like in a white frame. (This frame is not the right size!)  I think it will be perfect alongside the watercolor! Since this is vertical and the shell watercolor is horizontal, I'll probably do a skinny cross-stitch to fill up the space -- I already have one in mind that has shells in a row! Now, if I can just get it finished before 2020!!

Now on to the vacation memory....

When I was a child, my family always visited the grandparents every summer -- one set in Alabama and the other in Florida. We often took a side trip and one year we spent a few days at a seaside cabin, maybe on the Gulf Coast. It could have even been on a river because, as I recall, it was fresh water! Anyway, I was somewhere between 8 and 10 and my older brother was with us. 

The cabin extended over the water and my brother and I were swimming and saw a flounder! I had never seen a flounder before and my brother told me how they have two eyes on one side of their flat body and that when they turned over, the eyes migrated to whatever side was up! Since he was older and wiser than me, I believed every word! Of course, now I know that a flounder is born with eyes on either side, but that one does migrate over to the chosen side that he turns onto.... but they STAY there, they don't move around the head every time the fish turns over as my brother wanted me to believe!

 

They're not a very pretty fish but they're great to eat!! 

It was a fun time doing something I had never done before, and to top it all off, I found finger paints in a cabinet... I'd never done that before either!!

Sharing with
Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound
Blue Monday at Smiling Sally's


♥♥