Longing for the beach

Summer's been over at our house since Ben went back to school on August 1, but I'm having trouble letting go.  Luckily, the weather's still been great around here.  It's Dennis' last few days at his old job, so he agreed to go out to a Sky Sox baseball game Saturday night, even though he knew we'd get home late and he'd have to be up very early for work.  How's that for a short -timer's attitude?  I love it!

Dennis and the Garlic Cheese Fries

Here we are all ready for the 3D fireworks show after the game!  Unfortunately, the game went into a tie-breaker inning (we won) and by the time it ended, the rain had started and the fireworks were cancelled.  Boo!

I thought mascot Sox the Fox's little rain suit was so cute!

We never made it to the beach this summer.  So, the other day I had the idea to put out some of my favorite beach souvenirs, instead.

The candle holder in the middle is something I found at Goodwill -- it looked brand new.  Before putting in the candles, I filled each of the votives with decorator sand (that I also found at Goodwill!)

I put out a small cake tower and arranged some of my favorite shells on more of the sand; they were part of my late grandmother's collection from her San Francisco seaside days.

I covered that with a cheese dome.  I also arranged some estate sale shells around the edges of a pretty antique seafood plate:

The star fish on top was a gift from our friends, from one of their beach vacations.

I love the little wicker platter, which was a souvenir from Mexico found at a thrift store; I placed a large sand dollar on it, as well as a pretty packet I bought at a very quaint gift shop in Pacific Grove, California the last time I was there.

(Sigh.)  It's not sand between my toes, but it's the next best thing I guess.

A sampler designed by Charlotte Lyons that I just finished

Of course, nothing beats home sweet home.