Bits of Sea Glass

3/26/15 My brother and his sweetheart took a weekend trip up to Mendocino.  It's a small, picturesque town high up on the Northern Californian coast.  He sent photos of their visit and one picture showed a hand holding tiny bits of sea glass gathered at Glass Beach in nearby Fort Bragg.  The beach was a disposal site long ago and apparently the dumping ground for millions of glass bottles and jars of every color.  Over the years, the glass was worn down into smoothish pebbles that are comingled with the sand.  There's less glass now than there used to be, but it's still one of my favorite places in the world.  I find it extremely calming to sit on the sand at Glass Beach, scavenging for the jewel-like bits, sorting them by color.  Call me a kindergartener, but I love to sort!  I have baggies at home of "Coca Cola" aqua glass, "beer bottle" brown, and the rarest of all, "Phillips Milk of Magnesia" cobalt blue.  Back in the paper crafting world, I also sort my papers - by color, by shape and by size.  Of course patterned is in one box and solid in another.  The 12" x 12" sheets go here, strips go there and the smaller pieces (under 4.25 x 5.5" card size being the deciding factor) go in their own spot.  When it comes time to make card samples, (and I make a lot...see below) ALL the paper comes out willy nilly!  You never know what is going to coordinate interestingly with what and to find that serendipitous fit, you've got to see them side by side.  So I make a huge mess and finally, when I start not to be able to find what I'm looking for because it's covered up by paper piles, I sort it all again.  Sort of like life - messy and neat, then messy again.  Because I make discoveries with the mess, not the neat piles.    So, I hope you "find your beach" as the saying goes, and if you feel the urge, go ahead and sort your sea glass too.