This JUNONIA didn’t just roll up at Shelling Sister Daina’s feet this week during her vacation on Sanibel Island. Nope, she was out at 10:30 at night with a flashlight walking in knee deep water when she spotted the spots. Brown spots! Hot Diggity Dawg! She found a JUNONIA! Congratshellations! Even though it’s not perfect, it’s beautiful and it almost makes it sweeter when you work so hard to find one and it finally appears. And she found something else on the island that she was excited about…
She found my new SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION FIELD GUIDE in one of the local store! I designed this waterproof shelling ID card made of hard plastic so that you can easily take it to the beach to identify your shells that you find. Some of you avid shellers already know the 45 different Southwest Florida shells I’ve listed on the guide especially if you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time but it’s perfect for kids, regular shellers and just great as a gift because it retails for only $4.99. Here’s what it looks like on both the front and the back…
Okay… I have to fess up. Oh boy. Daina told me she knew about the typo. The typo. Okay, yes, I said TYPO! LOL How did I make a typo???? I looked at it hundreds of times and had about 12 different people proof it. After I printed them all up, I took it in to Mary Beth at Sanibel Seashells on Periwinkle and Fitzhugh and she loved it. Her dad Larry looked at for 4 seconds and said “Nice… but you’ve got a typo”. Whaaahhhh? Noooooo! Yep, the man has got an eye. Ack! Do you see it?
Well, whatcha gonna do… We all had a good laugh about it and I told them if anybody came in to purchase angle wings (45 degree or 90 degree), they knew who sent them. Typo and all, you can find them a quite a few different retail stores in our area. I’ll make a page with links and phone numbers that I will attach later, but for right now here are the local stores you can find them in if you want one…
Ace Hardware Sanibel, Beach Stuff, Book Nook, Jerry’s Foods, Island Inn Sanibel, The Island Store, MacIntosh Books, Pack & Ship, Royal Shell, Sanibel Harbour Marriott, Sanibel Seashells, Suncatchers’ Dreams, Tuttle’s Sea Horse Shop, Whitney’s Bait and Tackle, and Yolo Watersports.
Thanks Daina for showing me your fabulous JUNONIA and the other great shells you found off Middle Gulf Drive.
Love the Junonia! Oh, how I miss Sanibel Island (and Blind Pass in particular)!
Great! Can’t wait to buy one! But, yes, I saw the typo within the first few seconds! I’m heading to Miami this week to see my son for a few days. The shelling won’t be good, but a palm tree and sunshine is needed! Wish I could come up to see you, but I’ll be subject to Jason’s work schedule.
WOW, nice “J” shell! I really love the ID card. Looks like I need a trip down so I can get one!
I got two of them shell ID cards!!! They were in are SHELLABALOO welcome bags…One in mine and one in hubbys!! It’s a nice shell ID card too…typo and all! Lol..and yes its water proof..actually its soak in ocean for 30 mins proof as we found out..lol…I display one of the ID cards on my shelling shelves so when someone stops xxx and looks at the shells I display they can look on the card to find them. I have a few shells displayed I have found that are not on card but most of them are.
Pam you need to do a “BEACH BLING” water proof ID chart too!! I so wish I could find one with beach bling. Let me know when you do. I will buy a few of them!
Congratulations Daina!! Well done!! To be a sheller is to be tenacious, right??
Wow, on first pass looking at these pictures, I missed the amazing variety that Daina found, holy mackerel!!!
Holy mackerel, indeed! Patience + time & effort = yes, tenacious. I found so many wonderful shells, I feel like I hit the seashell lottery jackpot. I had to pinch myself-LOL. Went out at 4:30 this am before the -0.9 low tide and found a large aphapbet cone in the waters between the Sundial and Gulfside Park. Many thanks for the good wishes, (my family says I’m possessed and obsessed by the Sanibel seashells-LOL)
Someday those charts with the typos may be a collectors item. :-)
Great Junonia! Congrats!!
Pam – I am a “speling kween”. Enny thang yew need prooooofed, lit me no!!
hahahhaha I shuda aksed you furst, Moira! Nex tiym
Hey, nice Junoonia. And nice waterproof shell ID card!
WHAT A FIND! Congratulations!!! I’d put it in a place of honor to display.
Perfect no matter what :’)
I can’t wait to get a card. I can give it to Kenna and ask her to find all the shells on there. Great project for a beach combing 5 year old!! Great idea Pam!!!
OMG, OMG, OMG!!! Pam, THANK YOU so much for “shellibrating” with me and my Junonia. I so enjoyed spending time with you-it was like chatting with an old friend, especially with a shelling sister, no less. I am also thrilled to have helped you launch your own shelling guide on your blog. We did have a chuckle over that “typo”. Long live “that angle shell.” It will have a new meaning to all of us-LOL.
Many heartfelt thanks for all the good wishes from everyone else in seashell land.
Being patient, hard work, effort and yes, tenacious, does pay off. See ya’ all at the beach! Daina from Oregon
Lovely Junonia! My 3 yr old wants one so badly (so does his Mommy:) We went to the beach today and he kept saying I need to find one of those cool shells, I hate to tell him he’s finding any over here on our side of Fl!
The end of March is getting closer and closer..I am so looking forward to shelling for a week on Sanibel..My sis-in-law said she hopes to get to meet you while we’re there..Hope to see you on the beach at Blind Pass..
Wow! I looked at the first photo up close THREE times and STILL didn’t catch it either! Can’t wait to get my own copies!
Nice shells (and shell ID card), ladies! I especially like Daina’s junonia (obvi) and the horse conch. Why oh why do I never find horse conchs or king’s crowns?!? Clearly I don’t have the ‘eye’ for them.
I guess we all have our blind spots. I apparently don’t have an eye for whole nutmegs or whole wormies although I can find extremely broken pieces of either!
That was a nice junonia that Daina found. I haven’t found a horse conch yet, but I found a Kings crown in the surf west of Ocean’s Reach. If I went out shelling late at night I would be eaten alive by the no see ums. I tried the new spray, but it seems to attract them. Yesterday I was cleaning an auger and a miniature cone popped out! I had to use my magnifying glass to see it. Went to Blind pass again on Sunday, but didn’t find much. Pam-is the sand always so soft on the one side? It’s hard to walk on. I still can’t get on line at the condo-so we keep going to the library. Pat
So I had a dream about shelling and I kept finding olive shells…my favorite but they always had a live critter inside and I had to toss them back………I’m hoping I’ll find some empty ones in March to take home to Illinois!
I should have known the Shell Guide came from you! Love at first sight. I found it while exploring YOLO last week and knew it would be perfect for my friend who is just starting to fall in love with Shelling.
I saw the typo at first glance, then inverted the letters for myself, and never saw it again.