Sea Shell Votive Jars for a Party!

Rather proud of how our 50th Wedding Anniversary Party votive "jars" turned out.   I wanted to make something that would reflect my mom and dad's love of the beach and their many travels to all over the United States picking up seashells and sea glass along the way.

These sea glass, shells and vintage mason jar votives were pretty easy to make  - once we had all of the supplies assembled!

*raffia

*tiny drill  We used Kristy's jewelry dremel (and her expertise!) to drill tiny holes in the seashells to adorn the outside of our jars.

*Votive Candles - In glass, not just the candles by themselves.  I found white vanilla ones at Michaels for a very reasonable price.

*shells.  We did buy a few packages from our local dollar store, but between my mom and I, we have piles of them that we have been collected from beach walks in Florida, Texas, and Washington.  I tried to use as many local Puget Sound ones as I could. We filled over 30 jars and just did not realize how many shells it actually takes to fill them up!

*sea glass.  Or "faux" sea glass.  For the party, I used the tumbled glass that Allison and I picked up in Seattle at Bedrock Industries.  We specifically picked out colors to match the theme of the party; lavender, light aqua and a pretty Caribbean turquoise-blue...

*Mason Jars.   My mom had all of the vintage mason jars. (Cannot begin to tell you how many jars of canned peaches, pears and plums these have held!)   The turquoise pretty ones all came from my grandparents farm, as my mom just could not bear ever getting rid of them.  So for us, these jars also held a lot of meaning to our family.

My pretty sister-in-law drilling the holes for the raffia tie...

We layered the seashells and sea glass to about 2 inches deep before setting in the glass votives.  Then layered in more shells and glass around the candles to keep them standing up straight in the jars.   

Ta-Da!

Have a great Monday - thanks for stopping by Everything Coastal. If you get a chance, we would love to have your vote in the Business. Inspired by ASUS Contest - for every vote and every share we'll enter your name into our drawing!

Here's a quick link for the voting: Business Inspired by ASUS

P.S. The party turned out wonderful!

Coastal Dining Room - complete with Alameda Flea Market Finds! + Enter our First Drawing!

Blog Post #101 - 
Giveaway drawing details on the bottom of the blog!

Gee Whiz, about 200 pictures later, in different shades of light, I hope you all can see  my new dining room beginning to take shape!  Missing my aqua and golden yellow walls at my old house. Might have to task Tom with asking the landlord if we can paint... HATE white walls.

The print on the back wall belongs to Tom and is of Sausalito. When I am rich one day, that is right where I would like to live! The funny thing is, I had this exact same print hanging on my office wall in Silverdale,  (mortgage days) didn't even know Tom had a copy of the same print.  I loved looking at it every day, the blooming bougainvillea, red geraniums, and boats bobbing in the blue blue San Franscico Bay.. all the while planning my escape down here to be in the sun and close to the ocean.

When I sold the old house, I pretty much sold everything in it too. Moving to California was very liberating! The only furniture that came with me was my big white iron bed, vintage white dresser and a shabby chic blue cabinet - I really didn't even bring dinnerware, except for a few favorite antique pieces and my grandmother's silver. Was so ready for a new life.

This go around, instead of a beach cottage "chic" dining room table, I decided to go a little more modern - love this dark, with tones of burgundy, mahogany table.  With the extra leaf in, I think we could have 12 or more people over for dinner!  (When are you coming??) World Market had this table at such an unbelievable price, I bought it before they could discover that it was marked wrong! Now for the chairs; did a lot of shopping and thinking about what I really wanted, decided to go with the parson style chairs from Ikea.  Like the idea of changing the slipcovers if the mode strikes me, also like the idea of simple clean lines so that if I decide to add some interesting end-chairs, it will all come together beautifully.

Melissa and I found, and fell in love with the hand-painted "Beach Cottage" sign at the Alameda Flea Market, can't tell you how much I paid for it, it was an absolute steal! It's about 5 feet long, block chocolate letters outlined in aqua - the perfect complement to my house!

One of the best things about being a retailer, is that you get to pick out merchandise that you hope your customers will really like, but lovely items that you know you do like! These pretty creamy white seashell plates can be found on my site, www.caronsbeachhouse.com, as well as the wine glasses, the etched blue fin tumblers and the recycled aqua-green glass bowls.  We had a few mismatched wine glasses and only a few regular glasses so I thought it would be okay to enjoy some  pretty things out of my warehouse!

The Beach House Candle was another item that I thought looked lonely in the warehouse. Now, my whole apartment smells so wonderfully fresh - almost like suntan and tropical drinks!

We had such a good time last Sunday in Alameda,  sure made me miss having my regular retail store in Poulsbo though.  Here's one more of my finds from last week - could not resist this cute little framed mermaid.  Yes everyone,  that IS my "Fathoms O'Fun" Princess Crown from 1982!

Now, to show you all some of our favorite beachy/coastal  items at the Flea Market!  

You will see why I miss having a store...

Melissa spotted this detailed sea shell mirror - cannot even imagine how much it must have weighed! I thought if I can be ambitious one day, I too can figure out how to make something this beautiful.  (might be never!)

French -European striped ticking linen pillows.  So lovely!!

And look at these matching lavender sachets!

Way cute vintage chair with even cuter printed burlap pillows!

I was dumb again... I should have bought this sweet cherub 

holding an empty sea urchin and wearing a sea shell crown.

Coral, big purple barnacles and vintage sea shell pitcher! 

 (I can't seem to buy any of this coral - but am always drawn to it!)

This was the coolest furniture! The artist had attached faux alligator print vinyl to the top of the desks and buffets - what an unique idea! Finished beautifully.

An entire blue beach house bedroom set! So so pretty!

Gray-blue coastal occasional chairs, antiqued and then recovered in a "West Indies" patterned fabric - not sure if you can see it or not, but the pattern contained sailing ships, palm trees...

More coral....saw lots of these red spiky pieces this time

Nautical inspired pillows..

Not really sure where I would put him, but I thought he was especially cool - 

particularly because he was highlighted with a little old fishing net!

Thank you so much letting me share my journey this past year. This is my 101st blog post and I have been thinking all week about how to celebrate, as I have been writing now for an entire year!  I started writing Everything Coastal on May 4, 2010, what an adventure I have had... To commemorate this anniversary,  I will be entering names  into a drawing to win one of my Beach House Candles. (featured above!)  All you have to do is leave me a comment on this blog post. I would also like to invite you to become a new follower!

See you at the beach!