By Micki Bare

While everyone else was elbowing their way through door-buster deals and clearing retailer shelves last weekend, I was sifting through shells left behind by the tide.

It wasn’t quite as crowded on the cool sand. And the sounds of crashing waves were much nicer than the sounds of cash registers, PA systems, honking horns, distorted holiday music and intense shoppers.

But that’s just me.

Admittedly, I’m not much of a shopper. After grabbing some groceries last evening, my son needed to find a few pairs of jeans, a hat or two and some shirts. Holding up a pair of cargo pants in his size, I declared, “This color would look great on you! This is the perfect color for you!”

My son smiled and replied, “Is that a compliment, or now that you have your groceries is it a ploy to get me to hurry up and pick out a pair of pants so we can leave?”

The color actually was a great color for him, despite the fact that I was ready to head to the check out three minutes after he started browsing through the clothes. In my defense, he is a picky shopper.

I bet he tried on 20 hats. And they were all ONE SIZE FITS ALL!

You’d think I would prefer online shopping. There are no crowds and one can complete all her holiday purchasing while listening to her favorite playlist and without getting dressed or even getting out of bed. It seems like a convenient and peaceful way to shop.

If it weren’t for technology, online shopping would be great.

But where there is technology, there are slow-loading Web pages, disruptions in Internet connections, phishing intrusions, hard-drive crashing viruses and hour-long searches for the best price and shipping deals just to find that the online distributor is out-of-stock.

Pesky tech-issues can really impede an otherwise joyous attempt to spend January’s paycheck in December.

It is nice to have my nieces’ birthday presents wrapped and shipped directly to them without having to leave my keyboard.

But buying a gift here or there throughout the year, especially when you know exactly what they want and where to find it after they text the details to you a month in advance, is simple.

Even if the technology is working, finding everything you need for the holidays without your boss catching you or your kids interrupting can be next to impossible.

But that’s just me.

Spending hours browsing in stores, whether for me or for gifts to others, whether in person or online, has never been my cup of tea.

Yet I can browse through the shells along the coast, even when the wind is whipping so hard and cold my ears ache, for hours.

I never lose track of the time at the mall. As a matter of fact, I like to plan my trips just before another important appointment so I have a back-up plan for getting out of a shopping situation.

But at the beach, I can wander for hours. I can fill up several plastic bags with all sorts of coastal treasures. Before I know it, the sky is bursting with the colors of a glorious sunset and Hubby is urging me to head back to the condo where it’s warm and there’s food.

So here it is, the first weekend of December. We have only a couple of “shopping” weeks left.

While I do have quite the eclectic collection of shells and sand dollar pieces, I’ve barely made a dent in my holiday shopping.

So here’s what I’m thinking: handmade shell gifts.

People love to give and receive ornaments, so my first project will be to paint 2010 in fancy script on some of the bigger shells.

They already have a little hole near the top, so it will be easy to insert a wire hook. I can also add some shiny red and green ribbon and a dash of glue and glitter.

Some of the smaller shells can be made into earrings and matching bracelets. I have enough colors and varieties to make a few jewelry sets. My nieces will love them!

Shadow boxes and vase beachscapes can be constructed with many of the fragments I discovered during my wanderings.

I came up with those ideas after we quickly ventured into one of those bargain souvenir shops in search of the 10 T-shirts for $10 Hubby saw advertised on the tail of a low-flying plane.

Of course, when I don’t have time to create extraordinary handmade gifts from my shells, I will head to the stores and online and rush to get my shopping done.

Of course, I’ll have to make it quick because I’ll have a very important appointment in an hour.
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Micki Bare is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C., and author of the book, “Relative Expressions.” She lives in Asheboro with her husband and three children. Her e-mail address is mickibare@inspiredscribe.com.