My heart is all warm and shelly after receiving 3 boxes of seashells this week to reimburse the shells used in making the hearts and flowers for Shell Love Bug. I’m pink with gratitude to Melanie Herrin who sent many gorgeous ROSE PETAL TELLINS. I know these precious shells aren’t easily found and I would have never asked for them if I wasn’t in a pinch (as I explained in my blog post Seashell Repurposing). So I’m grateful she sent them to help finish creating Shell Love Bug. Omigosh and she sent other shells I needed to replace … FLORIDA SPINY JEWELBOXES and SAILORS EARS. Melanie also made a JINGLE SHELL bracelet to be sold at the next Sanibel Shell Festival in March to raise money for the Sanibel Community House- so very sweet! Melanie made a few shell creations for the Shell Love Bug box as well. What a “sweetheart”.
Sweet, Sweet Marie McDermed. She and her sister have kept me going through the years, for sure. Marie sent a huuuuge bag of SAILORS EARS that will replace all of the ones used from the inventory of the SCA Shellcrafters.
And she took so much care in separating ( left valves from rights valves!) and bagging so many different color COQUINAS to replace what was used in the hearts. Marie, I’m a lucky girl to know you.
Linda Gammon is so clever! I couldn’t help but smile seeing sooooo many beautiful coquinas for Shell Love Bug. I smiled at feeling grateful but I also had to smile seeing the clever packaging in which she thought to send her sorted COQUINAS.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to these dear givers who donated these shells to help with finishing putting together this shell car. I had the idea of making a mobile seashell art piece of the first annual National Seashell Day so I turned a car into a Sailors Valentine… but I didn’t have all the total 20,000 shells in the Rambo Shellaboratory. I’m grateful to the folks who donated shells (and helped glue shells) while creating Shell Love Bug last month and to these lovely contributors Melanie, Marie and Linda who have made it easier for me to get things back in order. I can’t thank you enough!!
I’ve also been scouring the beaches looking for purple COQUINAS this week and I had lots of great luck so I think that’ll do it for replacing shells. Yay!
Hooray for these wonderful ladies, so graciously donating the fruits of their labor of the Sanibel Stoop”! They paid it forward so you could pay it back. I’ll be in Sanibel in less than 2 months and hoping to see the Shell Love Bug while there. Does “Shelley the Bug” have a schedule of public appearances? I’d love to “meet” her!
Smiles…..
Sandra- you are exactly right… pay it forward! Sharing the shell love. Shell Love Bug doesn’t have a tour schedule yet for the future- she’s getting tuned up and figuring out whats next. :)
Shellers are the best people!
Pam, if I might ask…. what kind of glue did you use to get the shells to stick to the car? I envision a bunch of women with glue guns. ;-)
haha yes! there were lots of fun women… and men … with tubes of glue called Goop. check out http://shelllovebug.com for info and pics of all 65 of the volunteers.
Living life with an open heart & open hands. Generosity & giving is always the best gift from the sea. 😍
It was a pleasure to be able to share in the Shell Love Bug effort. Hoping to see it in Dec.
Are you going to produce a step by step of how you made the Shell Love Bug? How did you get your car? How did you design it? How did you transfer the design? Now I know the glue. Did you do any stills or video of the process? It fascinates me that you were able to go from idea to completion in such a short time.
Pam,
My mother, Anna Ham, and I have been coming to Sanibel for years and have always been off schedule with your tours. We will be at West wind November 9-13 and hope to go on a trip with you. It will be my mom’s birthday and this would be such fun. Please let me know if we hit the jackpot of a trip with you this time.
Thank you,
Sheila McCormick
would love to see your love bug and do a shelling trip with you. please
advise as to your schedule and the love bug’s too. not too far away (Naples) so I can come on relatively short notice.
Hi Debra, I’d love for you to see her! we don’t have a definite schedule yet for Shell Love Bug and I only have a few trips planned for cruises. I hope to see you but My schedule is a little wacky right now although here are a few dates for my cruises…. http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/iloveshelling-events/
Pam, I was just getting ready to ask what shells you still might need, now that I have a chance to look through mine. I was going to sort some coquinas this week. If you still need anything, please let us know. :-)
Hi Gail, thank you so much, honey. SCA Shellcrafters could prob still use coquinas but prob have enough to work with now. If you still have some that you know you will never use, I’m sure it would be helpful if you brought them with you on your next visit. Don’t y’all usually come in early fall?
We’re there in January–week of MLK Jr. Birthday (14th-21st). I’ll plan to bring them with me. I should have them all sorted by then. ;-)
Pam,
Is there a way to see a how to of the way you made the coquina hearts? My sister is a widow and the heart is so special to her as her husband would send heart things to her often. I would love to make one and frame it for her as a gift. The bug is so incredible and such fun to watch her on her adventures! :)
Ok Pam we need a heart class. ❤️. I will bring the margaritas!🍸
Kathy and Sandra, I found a great tutorial for y’all since it doesn’t seem like I can ever catch up on anything these days… especially doing fun youtube video tutorials or doing fun how-to posts any more :(. But you can use this same idea with small seashells like coquinas or rose petal telling or even arks. It the same concept! … but this gal used pistachio shells! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npajYp8eSy4
Just checked out the Shell Love Bug site, to see the tour schedule. Loved reading the faq and learning how it happened, also great pics on volunteer page.😊 Sad to see she has no plans to be out and about anytime soon. I think she needs a permanent home where we can visit her whenever we happen down to Sanibel. We are doing our yearly family va ca at the beginning of August and was super excited to check out the bug….but I didn’t realize she didn’t have a permanent home to be displayed. 😔 Maybe next year, Im dying to check out this awesomeness of a bug. She’s so beautiful. Brilliant idea Pam!
Sounds like you still need the margarita! 🍸😀
Uhhhh. How did you know? Haha I need more than a margarita I think. Maybe your whole bucket will do it? 😜
Ok, Pam jump in the bug, drive to OTown and scoop me up and then we can meet up with Kathy and drink buckets of margaritas and learn to make coquina hearts! 👍😛
I wish! Sounds like an excellent plan 🤔