FMM - Summer-esque Post

I know it's not summer for nearly another month, but between our hot weather this week and the inspiration that I had for my dining table centerpiece, I'm showing your my summer table today.

This idea came from moving items around on my living room shelves.  I removed the beachy, Hawaiian items and decided to use some of them on my dining table.  We bought the blue bowl several years ago when we were in North Carolina; it's hand thrown, from Cary Pottery, and I always think of the ocean when I see it so I started with that and collected items from around the house to end up with this:

Top view.  Not the easiest shot to get but worth it.

I bought the glass shells from a shop in Watsonville, California; the silver bowl belonged to my Grandmother.  All of the shells in this display were collected by me and my friends over the years - some of them go back 45 years!

I bought the ceramic starfish from a shop in Los Gatos, California; it's been all over the house at one point or another.  More shells - the small abalone was a rare find back in the day!  I can't walk on a beach without looking for shells, can you?

Sand dollars - gifts from friends; I almost never find one that isn't broken.  

A shell with another shell inside, a rock with bits of shells embedded in it, and a rock with holes - all treasures!

As a California girl who spent many summers at the beach, seeing this grouping of sea treasures makes me both happy and wistful for another visit to the beach.  I'm hoping to go to California in a few months and you can bet that I'll have my hands full of newly collected shells in record time.  Now all I need is for my herniated disc to stop hurting so badly so I can manage a few basic things like sitting in an airplane seat for several hours, being able to walk for more than a few hundred feet without immense pain, and to go along with that, to not have to take so much pain medicine.  These are the strangest summertime goals I've ever had in my life but I am going to try my best to make them happen. 

Have a good three-day weekend - I'll be taking Monday off from blogging so I'll see you back here on Wednesday!