Trails of Hats'n Hospitalitea

The A-Z of Christmas ~ G & H

Welcome to Christmas and to my A-Z of Christmas.  Each day I’ll try and share my favourites be it a craft, amusement, memory, photos, places PEI, recipe, inspiration or what makes me smile and a blessing or two. Yesterday was Christmas Tea Time Tuesday and so I’m getting caught up.

~ Good Friends

~ Helpers

~Good Friends

Bloggers write in hopes that someone reads and comments on the blog. We (bloggers) only know someone has been by when others (you) comment. Or when something like this happens from a bloglurker .  Yesterday I blogged about my Christmas coffee cup why?  because I don’t have a Tea Cup nor a Coffee cup looking like Christmas but I can scrapbook so I made one just so I could join in a Christmas blog happening yesterday.  To my surprise by the afternoon I not only had cookies baked, Ana down for a nap but I have good friends stop over for coffee and one of them brought me these two Christmas Tea Cups.  I might be a day late and a dollar short, but you know it is a good day when your blog delivers not comments but tea cups.  Thank you Charlene, they are perfect.

~ Helpers

During the Month of Christmas helpers come out of their hiding spots and get in the spirit of giving.  The Santa Clause Parade on PEI is a great motivation to get the ball rolling as the parade collects for the needy.  Others around the Island are having fundraisers like Christmas light shows in aid of the P.E.I Heart and Stroke Foundation that is hosted by Landon Holmes. Seven bands from the province performed in a “Rock For The Kids” fundraising show at The Guild in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on December 2. Proceeds went to the Toys For Tots charity. 

Grandma is on duty over these past weeks and my little helper has baking cookies, hunted for sea glass, and wrapping a present or two. Speaking of presents you can drop off your new and unwrapped toys for tots off at one of the Island locations for pickup. 

G and H of Christmas It was wonderful that you stopped by and I hope you’ll stop by again tomorrow with my I of Christmas.  Have the very best and enjoy your day!

Till tomorrow…. I’ll be thinking about a I ~ Cindy

To the moon Alice! NO, instead I hear, “To the Sea Cindy.” That is where you often can find a pair of Beachcombers like myself and the French Gardener. Often between the days of May and October I’m tied with an anchor to our Bed and Breakfast taking care of vacationer’s needs. But give me a day when I can get breakfast on the table and rooms finished early and we spend our time walking the beautiful beaches of Prince Edward Island.

I am often asked where I hunt for Sea Glass from guests that frequent our B&B.  It’s no secret, it washes the shores of Prince Edward Island.  It is there for the picking, shiny, round, coloured treasures left at high tide and washing up on low tide marks.  The nature of the tide wills in what it gives to it’s beachcombers, sea glass.

An artist needs the space between the water and the land to walk and think.  The beach provides this space and on it why not look for treasures, gems, and hunt for sea glass along the way.

The area between the high tide line and low tide gives me some of my best finds.  Yesterday the sound of the ocean and the walk along the beach was just what I needed.  Walk and organize thought, I like to think of the beach as my office and the space as my work.  With the walking I did yesterday I’ve planned out the layout for the two bedrooms in our bed and breakfast that need a make-over.  They are going to end up being nautical rooms, after all why do most people come to the East Coast? Just for the sea glass hunt, lol.  Anyway if you make it this far, I’ll have a sea glass hunting map of beaches for you to try out.  These are the best beachcombing Prince Edward Island has to offer.

While working in my office (the beach) I came across this outstanding piece of seaglass and thought I would share it with you.

I see a wrap and I like the shape.  This piece isn’t going into the mosaic I’m planning on making.

This was such a good set up.  We have had rain over the past week and water is still running off.  We found a run off leading to the ocean and used it as a sluice wash, having only seconds to grab a piece of sea glass as the rushing water uncovered it and rolled it past us.

The challenge was snatching the seaglass before the sluice wash opened up to the ocean and swallowed the gem only to return it another day.

Well it was fun, that is all I can say, chasing, running after pieces of seaglass as they uncovered and roll out to sea.  When they are wet, they sure do resemble mermaid’s tears.

So if you want peace go East, to Prince Edward Island where the experience of a seaglass hunt is always an adventure.  These pieces will look lovely wrapped in wire and displayed for sale, admired as trophies on a shelf in my little Island Made Gift Shop.

Next I’ll visit Sandi on her Tea Cup Tuesday all this adventure is getting my old bones aching it is almost time for tea.

Take care my friends,  xo cindy

Come walk the trails with us on our Sea Glass Odyssey while we blaze through unmarked locations in lurk of the almighty eye candy.

On Route we look for a pull over spot that has a) water and b) a shoreline to walk. We are lucky today as we have found both a number of times. We venture down towards the water that we see off in the distance in anticipation of  Sea Glass, marbles, pipes, doll parts, depression glass, or bottle stoppers.

The trails we adventured are not all as nice as this one, some of them are very muddy and then others are slippery.  Charlene blazes through the bush and comes to an opening and you can see how muddy the little path is.  We usually follow Braxton as he always steps where he can’t get his feet wet.

We have often come to a cross in the road with interesting art.  Seems like others who haven’t found sea glass are also artisans and find beauty is the simplistic forms.

Every path we took managed to lead us to water, not always seaglass but we were sure to find water. This was a lovely pebble beach with lots of rock and waves crashing the shore.

At the high tide mark is where we seemed to have found the many pieces of shards in a multitude of colours.  We also found plenty of drift wood and someone who didn’t find sea glass found time to make drift art.

Next I will share with you a unique one of a kind spot we stopped at, a true treasure of a spot.  Friends were made, glass was found and our sea glass odyssey was conquered.  Until then, take care, Cindy

It’s no secret that Grandpa and I are torn between the things we love to do.  If only we could set up the Tea Room on the Beach we would be all set.  That won’t ever happen so we take a day here and there to enjoy the beach like the many who come to Prince Edward Island love to do.

We are the finders of Sea Glass, shards of glass found in their natural state along the shore that has been smoothed by the elements of nature tossing it back and forth until it reaches the hands of beachcombers like us.

Grandpa and I have traveled the many beaches of PEI and find sea glass to bring home, wash, sort and grade.  He gives me the job of grading, sometimes I feel like a teacher and the sea glass are all students.  If you have a love for the sea and a passion for sea glass they come together very quickly and you look for a day when the tide is right, the waters after a storm, the business is slow and then you are on the go to another new beach looking for sea glass. Often we have gone to a beach and not found anything, returned to that same beach and found sea glass.  ”Where do you find sea glass?” Remember! wherever there is water, there is a beach and people you will find sea glass.

It is off season for our Tea Room now and we are open times are by chance or appointment.  Yesterday we had 6 people come in for lunch at 2:30 pm and my daughter and I had started making mustard pickles (another blog) and so we couldn’t stop for lunch.

Today we have promised friend of ours that we would take them to a near by beach and show them how to pick sea glass.

So this is what I do with the sea glass we find on the shores of PEI.  The stuff we don’t use we have started putting back so others can enjoy the sea glass hunt.  Sometimes it feels like littering, however I excuse the guilt and call it re-cycled sea glass.

The Island Made Gift Shop saw a lot of beachcombers this year as we offered a small PEI experience of teaching others how to wrap their beach finds. You can bring your sea glass, shells, drift wood or other finds into the studio and I’ll teach you to wrap it to go.

I had fun seeing collections of sea glass and it gave me a chance to meet other beachcombers a like.

These 5 pieces were gifted to friends who didn’t get to PEI this year for a vacation.

This is it all wrapped up.

We travel to many parts of the Island looking for sea glass and sometimes we have great finds and other times it is a hit and miss.  When you go to a beach and don’t find anything that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good beach it could mean someone has picked it clean and you need a new tide to bring it in. We often return to a beach where we didn’t find anything and then found sea glass on the next venture out.

We have been to a few spots like Cousin’s Shore, Fernwood around Chelton Beach area, Savage Harbour, and Souris Ferry doc.  Take Cousin’s Shore, we never have found any sea glass the one time we were out and gave up on it.  Around July a lady came into the shop with three beautiful pieces she found on Cousin’s Shore and now we return there to hunt sea glass.

Good luck on your hunt, and remember stop in with your treasures and we will teach you to wrap it to go.

Grandma ~00~  , on Sea Glass

There is no better name than Sea Glass.   I think of Beach glass as something similar to glass found from a beach party bonfire and broken glass.  However, sea glass says, “tumbled by the sea over and over until the edges are smoothed round.”

Yesterday we took a day off and hit the beaches of PEI in search of none other than sea glass.

I’m still trying to work with this camera

In between these two cobalt blue pieces is a purple, a deep purple piece of sea glass. The amber piece was a nice find also, I think I’ll use it as an accent piece.

We are looking at the next 4 days of rain, good job we went to the beach yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by my friend,

do take care,

x0, cindy

Yes, the name Sea Glass why? Because it is offered back from the sea.  Years ago we didn’t have plastic and so everything came in glass bottles or jars.  Beach Glass as many know it today is created by many shards of glass washed by the gentle rolling waves and can be found while walking all beaches, lakes, rivers, and inlets where people might have been in contact with water.  Years ago before the days of plastic, recycling and garbage pickup people disposed of garbage by burying it or throwing it into the ocean to have it disappear.

Last Fall after the Bed and Breakfast closed we took a road trip. Call it on the beach and only along the East Coast and make this a Sea / Beach Glass vacation.  We blogged about it daily and you can read about it if you search Google for Ma & Pa on a Beach Glass Vacation.

Today we revisit our sea glass collection and memories each time we walk into the studio. Collecting Sea Glass can be addictive and beach-combing is now a tradition however, beach glass is slowly becoming a thing of the past as we use more plastic then glass.

Our beach-combing  hobby started out in PEI were we think of the Beach Glass as exceptional compared to many that is being found. I dont’ think we are experts as we don’t propel down cliffs or swim to non inhabited Islands to find Sea Glass but we have spent the better part of 43 days on the Coast from PEI to the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a Sea Glass Vacation. Living out of the back of a Honda Element and making lunch a la tailgate.  It was a frugal vacation that cost a few trips to the grocery store and gas.

Our Sea Glass treasures are displayed on the wall of our gift shop. Where we have bottle Beach Glass from many of the locations we visited along our way.  We bagged and carefully tagged each bag and journaled about our finds and rated the beach on a 1 to 10 for quantity, quality and if we would return.  When we arrived home we washed and bottled the Sea Glass naming the outsides of each bottle.

I never claimed to be an artist but I tried my hand at painting and what better way than to use  a canvas the size of a wall in a room that you are trying to hid gridewall.  My non painting side of me sure came out, however I do like the East Coast I painted down the left side and the Lighthouse I painted on the other side of the wall.

One of my favourite places was Tilghman Island.  It was here that we found the most unusual looking yellow brain matter that floated up onto the beach, read Wikipedia on Osage-orange, Horse-apple, Bois D’Arc, or Bodark (Maclura pomifera).  We also found plenty of Sea Glass in this area.  We blogged about this yellow brain that floated ashore and people were following our Ma & Pa Sea Glass Vacation and emailed to me what this yellow brain was.  I also fell asleep that night and had the most vividest dream about this brain matter that fell from a brain tree that when touched you became smarter, there is more, really go read.  It is a seed, imagine that it is the size of a two softballs in diameter and apparently these are full in this type of tree and when they are ripe they fall from the tree and if near water will float until they come ashore.  Hum, and we found one.

The finished wall

Getting back to sea glass, the wall, and the East Coast.  This is what the wall looked like when I started to paint it and you can see the painting of the East Coast from PEI to the outer Banks of North Carolina on the wall.  Now when you visit you will be able to see the bottled sea glass from some of the beaches we visited.

Cool, my work is done! I labeled the bottles, filled them with glass then told the French Gardener where to hang each shelf (he made) and then I placed a bottle on the area it belonged, and after a debate about the exact location of some we got the job done.

And one last picture before I go.  I want to show you what I have done with the beach glass collected from Prince Edward Island.  I’ll have it wrapped ready to go! is what people say when they purchase a gift for someone.  Here at the shop I tell people that if they find it on the beach and it is reasonable size, bring it back and I’ll wrap it to go for you.  Here is a sample of my pendants that I wrapped in silver wire.

Do you wrap, bunch or fold?  Perhaps you are a scrapper rather than a wrapper, or maybe you are a hooker, and spend more time quilting these day?  Let me know what your interests and hobbies are, I’m always interested in what others have to do with their time and seeing how talented hobbyist are in their space is always fun.

xo, cindy

Work before play is our rule and so we hurried up and tossed about the yard, scurrying here and there and getting things moved around, taken out, picking up.  The work wasn’t done but we were due for a little time for us, quiet time, a time to reflect, and remember.  THE BEACH! here we come, we have beachcombers fever? I know your saying what’s that?  Well it is the thoughts or run ons your mind spends in between doing odd jobs that you daydream about what else you could be doing instead, and then you just do it.

Here is the beach

Here are the treasures

Cobalt Blue and diamond shaped as well

This is what becomes of the little sea treasures found on the beach

A day at the beach means Beach Combing to me not sun bathing.  What do you do at the beach? Are you a comber or a sitter?

Rain for the next 3 days, sugar.

cindy

We hurried up and got breakfast underway, clean two rooms and headed out to the beach.  We got glass, we got glass and here is a little bit to share with you.

Seeing it is Labour Day today we figured we had better labour to the beach again, perhaps I’ll post a find later.  Sorry to leave you like this but I got to go to the beach.  I hung a “gone fishing” sign on the door as PFA’s would understand you taking a day off to go fishing.

See you soon,

xo,

cindy

I would like to think of beach-combing as another Hobby, an addictive one but for sure a hobby.

Look at this harbour, still, content fishing boats rest until the next whistle blows and off they go again to the sea for another catch.

We took a picnic lunch and sat on a rock chair and ate from a rock table, it was fun

What a wonderful day

We started to walk the beach and pick up beach glass

If you look closer you can see a piece in original state

A hobby ya, no it is more like an escape… I could do this all day but my knees don’t like me after 3 hours, oh and look how far we got.

The cliffs have eroded quite a bit, it is dangerous and there is posted signage telling people not to climb on the cliffs. You can see this tree has an eroded root system and has come away and been on the beach for a long time.

A piece of green sea glass a very common colors of sea glass others are brown, and clear. These colors come from bottles from companies, beach parties, bon fires and they are of beer bottles, juices, and soft drinks. The clear or white glass comes from clear plates and glasses, windshields and windows.

Once we return home it will be washed and sorted

Here is a closer look at the beach glass. You can always tell the difference between original beach glass and tumbled, look for the pitted wear from the sand and stone. Tumbled glass or “twice tossed” will be still shiny, not having the frosted look.

For Many professional sea glass collectors, authors, artisans, and retailers, the main issue is honesty regarding the source of glass. While some prefer the term “twice tossed” or “craft glass” for inauthentic or artificial products, this usage is by no means universal. From Wikipedia / Free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass

Here is a piece finished

Treasure washed waiting to be sorted

Well the treasure hunt is over and it is back to work today. I hope you enjoyed my day off as much as I did. If you are visiting Prince Edward Island and find any beach glass, stop by I’ll wrap that for you to go. Take care,
xo,
cindy

I love the idea of posting Friday’s fave Five. Find five thoughts in the past week that I am blessed for. This is also going to help the Mom’s missing MEMORY.

FFF post #1…Get on with it already.

1. First day I talked to my dad in ages. He is in a nursing home far away and came out of the hospital not able to dial my number anymore. I called the nursing home and made a few nurses promise when they brought him back to his room they would dial the 1 – 800 number I have set up for him. I got to talk to him 3 times in one day this week. (holding back the tears)

2. Friends that just drop by, don’t get me wrong family is great but friends hear the tone of voice and just know you need to share a cup of coffee and and a chat. Looking back many years I notice that each friend brings something different to the table, and I mean the genuine kind, the ones that will say “stop our you’ll have me crying too”, the caring sharing kind that want nothing but your company.

3. Shadows from the sun made it through the window into the tearoom and on the floor. For a shadow to make it that far the sun would have to be shinning awful bright, well it did. Here it is June and we are having April showers, in fact 17 days of them. Then this week of all, it broke through and started to shine. Brilliant bright Sun had reached the flowers, warmed our backs and gave me a little burn as a reminder to wear sun block.

4. Forever thankful that the week has a Thursday in it. On Thursdays we close our little tea room and gift shop call it a “G” day. Thursday is devoted to “Gardening, Groceries, Give me a break, and Grandchildren” I love G days, oh I mean Thursday – it is the little hump day in the middle of the week for me just before the weekend starts. This past Thursday my French gardener invited me out to go beachcombing with him. I love to comb the beach, excited and anxious to find a treasure. Each time I beachcomb, I reflect as this is where I was when I got the call that mom had passed away. With my brother crying on the other end of the phone, I sat down on the beach glanced at all the mermaid’s tears I collected and looked out over the ocean like as if it would come ashore and swallow me up.

5. Finding an end to pulling weeds this week. Yes, the better part of two days devoted to the garden and pulling weeds. It looks good now and deadlines have a way of making things happen. Next Thursday we are part of a Tourism Fam Tour, where 40 to 45 others from around the Island, stop at different spots and familiarize themselves with what other Island business have to offer for Tourism.

This has been my Friday’s FAVe FIVE, I hope you enjoyed stopping by. Remember to reflect on your favourite things from your week, look for blessings be them obvious ones or something you had to look for. Find and share.

For more Friday fun visit Suzanne at Living To Tell The Story

Tomorrow I’ll post about; mermaid’s teas, sea glass, or beach glass as it is called you’ll see, come back.
xoxo,
cindy