Things that are few and far between these days

A few days ago I went for a long walk on my favorite beach in the area. It is my favorite beach because it is a state beach so there are no houses along it, there is a cliff that mostly hides it from the road, and there are consistently lots of good pickings. Since I have developed a large sea shell collection from all my shell picking expeditions, I am pretty selective, but this is what I came home with. I have noticed a sharp decline in beach glass since I was little so I was very happy to find these nice few pieces. (I wonder if it is because people are recycling more, or because fewer things come in glass bottles, or all those people that get up early on their Saturdays to do organized beach clean-ups. Damn environmentalist do-gooders!) They could have washed around for a few more years to get smoother and milker patina, but I like them anyway.

I also saw what I have since identified as a California Sea Hare, thanks to my Audubon Society Field Guide to Seashore Creatures. It was stranded above the tide line so I tired to gently roll it back into the ocean with a stick so it wouldn't dry out, but I think this may have inadvertently produced more damage than assistance because the waves were kind of large and I'm worried now that I read its' habitat is 'in sheltered places with few waves'. Sorry little buddy...

I recently did the window displays at work, which can be one of my favorite parts of my job. It can also be really frustrating because we don't have any props and I have to constantly justify my display decisions because certain other managers like to either; A. crap the displays up with all kinds of accessories and layers, or B. put a dress on a mannequin and call it a day, or C. put the same outfit in different colors on all the mannequins. I guess I fall somewhere else because my theory is the display needs to have a cohesive theme, be something the customer might not put together on their own, and be interesting enough to appeal to people walking past, and CREATIVE. What's the point of putting a dress on a mannequin? It is the same effect as a customer picking up the hanger and looking at it. Here are the windows I did the other day, they are not my favorite or even particularly inspiring, not like Adrienne's awesome creations at Anthropology where she gets to build crazy stuff.
The girls in the above picture are all wearing logo tees and some of the denim we got in last week. I accented with bright colored accessories. There are lots of hats on stands between the girls, but they don't show up very well.
The girls on the right are in a denim/beige/coral color story. I particularly like the beige Generra cape on the far right girl. I think the pictures look even worse than the actual windows, but like I said I don't have a lot to work with and any attempt to get TOO creative results in the mannequins being changed when I am not there or endless comments about the various reasons my selections are inappropriate.