Cape Lookout

I am sad summer is over.. letting go is hard to do.  Sorry for all the beachcombing posts, but I can't help it.  Below are pictures from Labor Day at Cape Lookout.  This is probably my most very favorite place to be. Most of the time, there is no one on the ocean side of the island, which I LOVE.  Having a whole beach to yourself is amazing.  I could live over there if there was electricity.  and somewhere to buy chips, french fries, and coke :-)

tons of shells to look through!

headed over to the ocean side

Loads of broken conch shells.  I call the area between the sound side and the ocean side of the Cape a conch shell's graveyard.  There are tons of shells in there, but the ocean is cruel when the tide comes up. 

and this gem is something I picked up out there.  I think it's a stingray skeleton.  When the sun finishes bleaching out, it's gonna look really pretty in my basket of odd beach finds!

 

ocean side

view of the lighthouse from where we were

Love this view!

 

A Day in the Life of a Beachcomber

Going through pictures from this summer, I found some from when I went to Fort Macon to look at shells back in June.   Well, I say I went to look at shells, and I do, but I also look at every. other. thing. on the beach as well.  

These poor people didn't know what was about to hit them when I power walked and got ahead of them

I wanted to strap this bad boy to the top of my car and bring it home.  I thought it would make a beautiful, nautical Christmas tree!

I sifted through piles and piles of seaweed. Some of my greatest finds come from these piles.

The beautiful rock jetty at Fort Macon. I walked out a ways and the men fishing were looking at me like I was crazy.. But I did get to see some pretty crabs!

 and this is what happens when I get my treasures home and don't clean them immediately.... 

Yup, ALL those bags are bags full of shells that need to be cleaned...

The Cutest Beach Pictures Ever

I have to share my cousin's little girl's 6 mo pictures they had taken on the beach.  She actually had her 9 mo pictures taken this morning, so I'm a tish late, but these nautical beauties had to make it on the blog.  How cute is it that they got her to hold a starfish?!

Beachcombing on Shackleford

Hi my long lost friends!  I have taken a slight break from blogging, but I have loads of pictures on my iPhone from my summer that I have got to get on this blog!  I am so excited that it's football season, but so sad summer is over.  I spent a lot of quality time on sandbars and the boat and picked up many a pretty seashell and other sea treasures!  

Below are pictures from a Sunday in July when we spent the whole afternoon on Shackleford, which is one of my most very favorite places to be. We went clamming.  and by we, I mean the friends I was with dug for clams while I spent the afternoon beachcombing and searching for treasures...

not sure what this is but in the sunlight it looked like coral and I thought it was pretty!

One shell of a party! Look at all these crabs piled up together.  I have never seen this many in one place before!

more of my coral spongey friend

Those are some pretty big claws for such a small shell

A live sand dollar (I put this back!)

I seriously wanted to bring this home as a centerpiece for my table... I am regretting leaving it behind now!

Hermit crabs on the move once the tied started to come in

An old coke bottle that I found that I left there. I so wish I had of brought it home now!

Beautiful shell!

Our their loot

Ringing in 29!

I celebrated my 29th birthday this past weekend at not one, but two beaches! 

I spent the first part of the weekend in Morehead City

We had dinner at Chefs 105

and my sister met us out!

 
 

I loved my Tracy Negoshian birthday dress!

Then on Sunday, on my actual birthday, I headed to Wilmington to spend the day with my other best friend Carmen who has the same birthday as me!

We headed out to Mason's Inlet and had about 20 minutes out there before it POURED. Non-stop, for about two hours.  It was still a great day though!

We saw this on the way home.  It was awesome!

The Birthday Girls!!

 

all the girls

Our birthday cookie cake!

 

Dinner at Neptunes

We ended the night at Jerry Allens

  
Here's to 29 being fabulous!!

Marye-Kelley Picture Frames

I shared with you yesterday some of my favorite things from the Marye-Kelley website, a website I recently came across during my stalking of all things nautical on the internet, and while I love the things I shared yesterday I am REALLY am in love with their picture frames.  How neat are the map ones?!  They have them for tons of beaches all over the world.  The NC, SC, and GA coastlines, the Florida Keys, the Gulf, Cape Cod, the Bahamas, the Jersey Shore...  I think these are such a neat (and nautical!) way to display memories!

Here are a few of my favorite nautical frames. 

Map of NC Coast Frame

Map of SC Coast Frame

Map of Florida Keys Frame

Turks and Caicos Map Frame

Swordfish Frame

Starfish Frame

Coral Frame

Shells Frame

Sand Dollar Frame

Fish Frame

Shells Frame

Shells Frame

Crabs Frame

and these aren't all of them, I could post them all day!