a coastal holiday part 3: the result

a coastal holiday part 2

I have been creating all kinds of simple coastal inspired decorations from all of the finding from my beachcombing this week. Since this year I purchased a small table top tree, I kept all of my creations small.

I stared by adding a little ribbon and beads to the clam shells.

I used the photos that I took of all the shells and printed them out.

I cut out each shell and glued them to a piece of twine to make a garland.

I used shell drawings from my sketchbook and made color copies.

I cut out the shells,

glued each of them to a book page and added a little piece of twine to the top.

I created another garland with ribbon and all the bits of tiny shells and pebbles.

I couldn't resist making a small chain from book pages.

I made a nautical wreath by wrapping rope and scraps of fabric around a styrofoam wreath form.

I made little watercolor starfish to place throughout the tree.

And I painted a large watercolor starfish for the tree topper.

I even used scrap fabric to sew a little skirt for the tree.

I filled jars with my collection of rocks.

I even put notes in bottles.

And then I went to work putting everything together :)

a coastal holiday part 1

Having lived at the beach for most of my life, I consider myself to be an expert beachcomber and other than being an artist, it is truly up there as one of my favorite things to do. Is there such a thing as a professional beachcomber?!

For a few years, I've been kicking around the idea of having a coastal themed holiday where I put my love of beachcombing to use. Instead of being tempted to buy ornaments and decorations (yes, even though I typically make everything, I still get tempted to buy more) I would

work around a beach theme, find all my decorations at the beach or make the rest- everything inspired by the sea.

This is the year that I challenge myself to do it!

So for the last few days I've made my way down to the beach. Lately we've had some minus tides (translation: VERY low tide) and this is the best time to go beachcombing.

I cover a lot of ground when I'm in "beachcombing mode" and prefer to go alone (everyone I know runs out of patience after about 30 minutes) because I spend hours and walk miles . I traverse back and forth from the water line up to the dry sand, covering everything in between and then back down to the water line- back and forth for miles.

I sift through tiny pieces of shells. This is where you can find teeny tiny treasures.

I crawl around on all fours- sometimes this is the only way to see everything.

I search through rocks

until I find the perfect one.

I only look for shells that will fit with my ideas- otherwise I could come home with WAY TOO MANY treasures!

When I get home I spread everything out

and sift through my findings.

I organize by size,

categories

and color.

and now it is time to get to work!

Check back in the next few days to see what I have been creating with all my beachcombing treasures

pretty little cookies

There is nothing better than giving or serving a batch of homemade cookies during the holidays! I love using a simple recipe and then spending my time decorating the cookies with tiny little details.

Start with mixing up a batch of cookie dough.

Sugar cookies are my favorite to use when decorating.

Here is my go to sugar cookie recipe-

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour.

Roll out the dough and use simple cookie cutter shapes to cut out shapes and transfer to a baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes (this will all depend on the size and thickness).

Once the cookies are done baking it is time to decorate.

This is where I cut all the corners-

I use pre made frosting and add food coloring to create different colors.

There are lots of great cookie decorating products out there and I like to keep a can of frosting with different tips on hand for all those little details.

Use sugar pearls, sprinkles or your favorite little candies to decorate.

They don't have to be perfect just pretty :)