I had a bouillabaisse party to celebrate my dear friend Rosemary’s birthday and made a beach combing theme for the table.  I poured sand down the center and scattered shells and beach glass on top and placed little oyster shell tea lights around.  I found the sand and little shells at Michael’s craft store.  I got so busy with serving, I didn’t take photos of the food, but I am going to make bouillabaisse next month and will post photos.  Bouillabaisse is a classic French shellfish and fish stew with a wonderful fish stock base with tomatoes, onions, fennel, Pernod and  combination of fresh fish and shellfish. It’s a great one dish meal to make for guests and with the huge variety of seafood we have in our area, and it’s delicious.  I should have ironed the tablecloths because in photos it looks even worse!  Oh to be a recovering perfectionist!  Hopefully, I served enough wine and no one noticed!

I made napkin rings out of grape vine rounds and glued little shells on the them.  I found some Belgian chocolates shaped like shells and put them in little bags tied with raffia and glued little shells to the ends.  When we were visiting Rosemary and Larry’s island cabin  last year, we found a bunch of oyster shells.  We went beach combing and found little shells, dried seaweed, dried baby crabs, beach glass and twigs and glued them to the oyster shells and made little tea light holders that I scattered down the center of the table.  They make a great souvenir from a wonderful time on the island.

Happy Birthday Rosemary and many more!…….