Embroidered maritime magnets!

Woo hoo! The gift I wrote about earlier has made its way to New England! Now I can reveal to you the embroidered sea creature magnets:

I made these magnets for my fabulous friend Jen, who has been one of my dearest friends ever since we met one day in Earth Science class way back in 8th grade.

Jen is a life-long lover of all things aquatic, which is why she co-founded the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation. Blue Ocean Society protects the Gulf of Maine through research, education and conservation activities. I think their beach clean-ups are especially amazing: in 2008 alone, Blue Ocean Society involved 2,969 volunteers in removing 9,866 pounds of marine debris from beaches on the New Hampshire coast!

In honor of Jen's dedication to all creatures of the sea, I made a whale tail:

If you go on a whale watch led by a naturalist from Blue Ocean Society, you're likely to spot some incredible whales, like the beautiful "Flask," shown here in a photograph from July 2009:

photo via Blue Ocean Society's Facebook photos

I also made a little crab:

Blue Ocean Society's awesome touch tank program was the inspiration for the little crab. Check out the touch tank and you might meet a hermit crab:

photo via Blue Ocean Society's Touch Tank Blog

Our final magnet is the starfish:

I won't lie. Part of the reason I wanted to make the starfish was because I wanted an excuse to create a sandy beach out of french knots! (But by now you know that we can thank Blue Ocean Society that it's a clean beach made of french knots!)

Happy birthday, Jenny-girl!