Success!

At last, small purple coquina sloping to the right—i have finally found you! the ebay auction came in and i was surprised to see bags and bags of EXACTLY WHAT I NEED! there is even one whole bag that contains nothing but the right sided small purple coquina. i emailed englewoodseashells, just so grateful over that bag and wondering if she had hand sorted the shells for my needs. it turns out these shells are from an estate sale and they came as is. so, original owner man of the purple coquinas, thank you so much for sorting those shells so long ago. and thank you englewoodseashells for scooping them up and offering them in an auction!

now to carve out the time from grad class, harvest, the boys and work!

possibilities from ebay seashell community

yesterday, i was contemplating starting kayleigh's valentine all over—maybe cutting out the center piece, salvaging the bits that i could. hate thinking about it, but this gift is way overdue and i thought i outran my resources.

but, once again, i've purchased a glimmer of hope.

ebay has an active seashell community. the auction category used to be easier to find. now the shell auctions are under Crafts > Multi-Purpose Craft Supplies > Craft Pieces > Craft Shells.

yeh. not so easy. but the community still works the auctions and there are great treats to be found there. i had been checking in occassionally on the auctions, but hadn't seen any significant purple coquinas.

but today, when i checked in, i saw that englewoodseashells was stocking the purple coquinas, and best yet, the auctions were offered as a buy it now offer. i purchased the whole lot, so i'm stoked! i'm hoping there will be enough of those purple beauties to get me past being paralyzed. i would like to think about the rest of kayleigh's valentine design without worrying about the space background