The Secret Inside Our Bottled Treasure

BOTTLED TREASURE

On summer holidays in the Okanagan as a young girl, I remember, with great fondness, those times when my mom and my grandma would take me to the local thrift shops. Back then a dollar went a long way. My mom would always give me my own money to shop with and she would say, "When that money runs out, that's it, so spend it wisely." Somehow that made it more fun because I would have to plan out what I would buy and I also appreciated what I did get, that much more. My favorite thrift shop was in Naramata... a tiny community in the Okanagan. The thrift shop was tiny, just like the town, yet they managed to pack a lot of items in there. It was my favorite one because it was so cute and the ladies always made you feel like you were the most important customer there.

Since my youth, I have always loved shopping in thrift stores and at garage sales because you can get so much more bang for your buck. And they are so unpredictable in that you never know what 'treasures' you might find there. I come from a single parent family where money was scarce so I have appreciated the role thrift shops play in the lives of people who are struggling to make ends meet. To me there is no shame in shopping secondhand and now, it is actually trendy to recycle. Go figure. More and more people are appreciating the value in reusing items and not wasting valuable resources.

Cheryl and I have both worked in thrift stores as well as being avid thrift store and garage sale shoppers. We believe in recycling and we have carried that belief into our business. Our Bottled Treasure is a great example of that. People are always surprised to discover that the beautiful, glistening, green glass inside our bottles and several of our candle holders are, in fact, chunks of broken windshield glass! So there... our secret is out!

We take pride in the fact that we use primarily local, organic, recycled & eco-friendly materials in our designs. We love what we do and we love that we can take something and reuse it to make something else. while making it more lovely. We also like the fact that our treasures end up in someone's home 'in a land far, far away'. This Bottled Treasure is on its way to Euless, Texas. We will be posting a new one soon so check out our site for new treasures!

So, I suppose that the moral of this story is, we take 'going green' very literally!

A Precious Time Capsule

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

When you decide to create something, you just never know the impact it might have on someone. I have always loved the romance behind the 'Message In A Bottle' concept... the fact that someone would write a heartfelt message meant for someone they love or someone they haven't even met, in hopes that someday, somewhere, someone would find it intact and read its precious contents.

We recently sold a Message in a Bottle to a mother of a young child. She explained that her plan was to give it to her young daughter with the intention of having her daughter open the bottle several years later to see the meaningful words her mother had written to her so many years before... a time capsule of sorts. What a wonderful idea!

Time is indeed a precious gift that is so easily taken for granted. We never know how long someone we love will be in our lives and, when that someone is gone, we remember vividly the last words we spoke to them, either with a smile on our lips or regret in our hearts. Whether we choose to express those words the way this mother did or whether we say them audibly, it is so important that we say them. While there is time...

Win A Mermaid Treasure Pendant!

THE MERMAID TREASURE PENDANT GIVE-AWAY!

Cheryl and I are pleased to announce that we are sponsoring a Give-Away Contest and if you would like to participate in the fun, just click on the photo above and it will lead you right there to the blog that is featuring the contest - 'Tools Are For Women Too!' And while you're there, take some time to peruse through this awesome blog and see what they are up to and the wonderful art they help promote.

Our Mermaid Treasure Pendant is a darling miniature bottle filled with precious mermaid treasure which consists of baby seashells, white 'fish netting', glass bits that sparkle in the sunlight and tiny beads. The blue fluid is... well... we can't tell you because it is a magical, secret solution known only by mermaids and mermen. But we can tell you that it is non-toxic. The top has a very tight, secure fit. It comes with a pewter starfish charm tied on with raffia.

For those of you who believe in recycling (as we do) you should know that the glass bits inside the bottle are actually, and you aren't going to believe this, tiny bits of broken windshield glass. Nifty huh? Mermaids collect EVERYTHING!

Best of luck to all you participants. May the best Mermaid or Merman win!

New Beach Treasures at A2Sea Creations!

Little Beach in a Bottle Magnet

Clam and Abalone Tealight Candle Holder

Oyster and Abalone Shell Tea Light Holder

Well, the creative juices are flowing once again at A2Sea Creations. Here are three of our newest seaside designs. What is really nice is that in each creation, we include beach treasures that we have collected ourselves. The Little Beach in a Bottle has seaweed that had been collected and dried in the oven (smells a little odd in my kitchen from time to time), the Clam and Abalone Tealight Candle Holder is set in a huge clam shell and embellished with real fish netting, both of which was cleaned and bleached in my sink, and the Oyster and Abalone Shell Tea Light Holder is nestled inside a ginourmous oyster shell from our very own Vancouver Island Beaches.

What is also neat is that many of our designs are so perfect for a beach-themed wedding. Or, for that matter, any bride who loves the sea.

We put a lot of time and care into the packaging end of the business because we want our customers to feel special and excited when they open their gift/order. And what some people do not realize, we will personalize our creations as much as possible. So if you are having a wedding, we will add a tag with the recipients' names and your wedding informaton, We will even wrap your treasures in clear cellophane and organza ribbon, if you so desire. In an age of big department stores with little to no customer service, this is a nice change that gives the recipient warm fuzzies.

Bottom line: we want to offer our customers an 'experience', not just make a sale.

A2SEA COMES TO EBAY!

Today we, at A2Sea Creations, brought our seaside treasures to eBay for the first time! We wanted to combine our intense love for the sea with our appreciation for vintage designs. So we combined the two in our new and delightful 'Vintage Inspired Seaside Glass Pendant'. And the best part is, you can pick out your favorite design out of all the wonderful choices of vintage pictures we have on display! So cool! Click on the picture below to view larger and click here to see our eBay listing. Perhaps you'd like to even place a bid!!

At our online shop, we create and sell unique, beautifully handcrafted, ocean-inspired treasures designed to bring the West Coast into your home. We take pride in the fact that we use primarily local, organic, recycled, upcycled & eco-friendly materials that we collect with our own little hands from the beaches of Vancouver Island, BC. Canada. We bleach all the shells we collect, wash the driftwood and dry it with the seaweed in my oven (interesting smell!) It is truly a labour of love and we love what we do. Wish us luck on eBay and tell your friends and family!

New Vintage Seaside Pendants

Well I must say, the markets are always a surprise... one never knows how they are going to work out so it's always an adventure! Our last one was on Canada Day in Parksville at the beach. We had to be all set up by 9 am but no one came and no one came and still, no one came. So I asked someone if they knew what was up. They said, "Oh, no one really comes until after the parade... around 12:30." Wow! That would have been helpful information to have a little earlier.

Then, after a long day of only 3 very small sales, 4:30 rolled around and we figured we'd better pack up. So, disappointed and discouraged, we were about to put things away when all of a sudden, customers suddenly started coming in droves and were buying, buying, buying! What a funny day. We ended up staying an extra two hours to accommodate all the customers and Cheryl and I were both feeling a whole lot better !

Markets are a great deal of work but it is a very rewarding feeling to have people appreciate your creations. We were able to do some networking as well and obtain a few possible leads as to where else we may be able to sell our nautical treasures. And the day was perfect... the sun shone, the wind blew... oh yes... the wind. That's a whole other story. If you are a marketer, you know what I am talking about. That is a challenge in itself. The first hour was taken up with finding ways to keep things from blowing away!

I had designed some Canada Day Pendants and photo pendants for the market. We now have some new pendants for sale on our site which I am rather excited about. They are vintage-inspired with a seaside twist. There are several designs to choose from, as you will see there in one of the photos. Perfect for a beach wedding gift for sure! We also have some new seaside, multi-purpose boxes for sale now which are such a great gift for men and women alike. They hold pen and pencils, cigars, change, even reading glasses. And they truly are West-Coast creations; embellished with seashells, driftwood and sea glass that Cheryl and I have collected from our Vancouver Island beaches.

Well, we hope everyone's summer is turning out to be wonderful. I am going to Oregon soon to see my son and his wife and my grandbaby, which is something I am so excited about!

Happy summer everyone!

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE - Bottle Design by Cheryl

Story and Photo by Micki Findlay

I have always had such a fascination with the whole 'Message in a Bottle' concept. I mean, how romantic would it be to find an abandoned bottle laying on the shore with a love note inside it from a mysterious stranger? There is something about it that just warms the 'cockles of my heart'... the fact that someone, somewhere, at some time wrote a note to a loved one they had lost track of and, thereby possessed enough faith to dare believe that if they stuffed their message in a bottle and threw it out to sea, that there could be a possibility that their loved one may one day find it and return.

It makes me think about the power of hope. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk once said, “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
So true! I believe that courage is a by-product of hope. Is this the ramblings of an idealist? Guilty as charged. I do have my practical side as well. But I believe that how a person looks at life determines how they survive through the devastating times.

So is the whole Message in a Bottle idea silly and frivolous? Or is it empowering to the one sending the message? When I think of how I met my husband David, I know there is such a thing as miracles, but that is a story for another day. Figuratively speaking, I guess you could say that I threw a bottle into the sea in hopes that I would one day meet someone like him: my soul mate, at last.

A2SeaCreations.com