I would love to be able to use shells as beads and embellishments in crochet and jewelry making. I have some shells my mother collected on their last Asian trip with my brother. I picked through for the ones that already had holes and plan to wire wrap the coral (as soon as i learn to patina the copper wire to my liking). If i was able to drill in the shells though, i could imagine more opportunities. I have shells from when my mother collected them when she was growing up in Hawaii all jumbled together with the shells i collected as a child on the Atlantic beaches from North Carolina to Florida.

Our trees are one that is plastic and one that is living in a pot, so we don't have a candidate for a good fire. And as we'd had no rain for months (0.02 inches just doesn't count) fire burning has been prohibited pretty consistently since Christmas. With the rain, though, i could imagine a delightful bonfire up at Ocean Beach with remaindered trees.

Where did you have your tree fire?