I love nautical imagery. I think it goes along with my romanticized daydreams of taking my large, blond, competitive family to our coastal New England beach home, where we have clambakes on summer nights and play touch football on early autumn days. I would like to remind my dear readers, I am a city dwelling, only-child, non-competitive Jewish girl, with a tiny family to call my own. I just have had a long fascination with anything that smacks of the Kennedy-esque lifestyle. I love chipped china with blue tinted tall ships and the graphic look of nautical flags. I was sporting a rather nautical bag by Ill Parcel today and was inspired to make some fun seaworthy jewelry.

Alas, I was thwarted at every turn so all I have to show for myself this evening is this too dark, oddly shaped, poorly embroidered shrink plastic doohickey.

First, when working with shrink plastic, you can go too big as well as too small. I went too big.

Second, as my gut had told me before I printed my plastic, I used too dark an image – when shrunk, the original shrink plastic colors deepen.

Third, I might as well have been blind when I cut my “circle” (I understand this shape is merely “circle-esque.”

Fourth, I was just as blind when I punched my embroidery holes.

Fifth, I don’t know how to “embroider” a darn thing. So I followed through to get the hang of my stitch.

Well, I dream of nautical jewelry featuring anchors and ships – so I will go back to the drawing board. In the meantime, I thought to myself that next time I was at the beach, I should try to embroider sea shells. We shall see!