Small World of the Seafood Festival

Today Glenn and I went to the Maryland Seafood Festival at Sandy Point State Park. It's funny how things happen. I was walking pass the Verizon Wireless stand and some lady says, "the first 5 people who show me their Verizon phones...' So I pull it out and she hands me a bag, lanyard and some other stuff in it. I had no idea what I was winning. Luckily I'm good on the draw! Shoulda been an outlaw!

Then after eating, we are walking through a tent and see some of my former co-workers working an exhibit I created. It was nice to see them. Walked a little further and ran into another former co-worker working at the Fish Mobile.

Giant was passing out samples of Phillips new seafood dip....yummmm....I can highly recommend it! For lunch I had the fried rockfish platter. It too was very yummy. The day was very pleasant. Sunshining, cool, breezy. The perfect day to stroll by the Chesapeake Bay. Tomorrow I'm there again, this time to volunteer to work the Diamond Jim Fishing Tournament.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/10473542/

Available On Etsy Click Here

A Work In Progress - China Painting

It's time to repost this as I have been getting questions again. I hope you enjoy it.

Inspiration Piece

Blank China

So people always ask me how I do this. This time I took some pictures at each stage. Each piece of china is painted and fired in a kiln to a temperature of 1800 degrees multiple times. Here's some pictures of how it progresses:

Design Sketched in

The paints used are powdered paint pigments, mixed with oil for a painting medium.  Some people buy special mixtures of oils, however, you can use anything from mineral oil to motor oil!

Brushes used are very soft.  Unlike other types of painting very little paint is loaded on the brush. Your brush "kisses" the porcelain as you paint.

TheFirst Painting & Firing

Second Painting & Firing

Each piece is painted multiple times as you build up your color from light to dark. There is no white on the palette, the white seen is actually the porcelain showing through. At each firing the glaze opens up and the paint goes into the glaze. As it cools the glaze closes and the paints become permanent. They will never wash off. They are dishwasher & microwave safe.

Third Painting & Firing

The only exception to this is if the porcelain artist uses gold or lusters on the piece. Gold is actually 24kt. liquid gold. When fired it doesn't go into the glaze. It sits on top of the glaze. Lusters like mother of pearl also sit on the top of the glaze. For that reason should you have gold or lusters, handwashing is advised.  Gold should never be put into the microwave as it is a metal and might give you a fireworks show!

So, if you are interested in porcelain art (a gift to treasure for generations to come), please visit the porcelain section of my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JYWheeler?section_id=5051128

Prayer...On Schedule?

Watercolor ACEO

Father Carl always tells us we need to be more disciplined in our prayer. He says we should pray every morning and every night. I can do the morning thing. Every day before my feet hit the floor  "Thank you  God for another day of life and my blessings."

At night I'm not so disciplined. Sometimes I remember sometimes not. I feel bad about that but I think I make up for it during the day.  How much prayer is enough or is there never enough.  St. Paul  does say  pray unceasingly.  But he doesn't say we should be on a schedule.

Sometimes I think I do pray unceasingly. My day is one giant prayer. An ambulance goes by "Dear God please let that person be okay". A fire engine goes by "Please Lord let the firemen contain the fire and spare the people involved." On seeing a wild bunny in the yard, "Lord thank you for the animals." When the news says someone died, "God please forgive their sins and give them eternal life...give their family & friends strength". When my kids travel, "Thank you God that they made it safely." I hear someone needs surgery, "Lord get them through it okay and guide the hands of their surgeon."   When it's a nice day, "Thank you God for this beautiful day...thank you that I am able to be retired and enjoy it."  I could go on and on.

 It seems my day is always full of prayer.  But I'm not doing the night time thing. I end up going up to bed to watch a little TV and bingo, I'm out like a light.  I have to work on this evening prayer thing!

May Their Souls....

...and all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

St. Vincent de Paul Icon

So a month ago, I went with my Dad to a funeral. He wanted to go to his Mother's grave and so we did. On the way home he said he remembered going to a little graveyard in Clifton Park with his mother to see the graves of his two brothers who died as babies.  I asked him did he want to go and he did. It seems at his age (he's 82) he wants to tie things up going places for one more time.

Well we drove for over a hour looking and looking for the cemetery. He kept saying things had changed. I gave up. We left. Later I went online to find the cemetery. It is "St. Vincent Cemetery". I read there had been major desecration to the point that the church had tombstones bulldozed to keep people from finding the dead and it was left to become an overgrown jungle. That to me was unthinkable. I keep saying to myself, what happened to the 7th Corporal Act of Mercy-Bury the Dead? How was this possible?

Sad piles of tombstones litter the grounds

Searching online I found a group on Yahoo, dedicated to the restoration of the graveyard. It had just gone up online a couple weeks before. I joined. I was obsessed with helping out. I'm sure it was my Grandmother prompting me to save her babies.

It's been a whorlwind couple of weeks. I have found myself at the Maryland Archives every week rummaging through and recording the Internment Records for St. Leo's church for those buried at St. Vincent's. Most of those buried there were poor immigrants and mostly children and babies. So sad. There I find the record for my Uncle Angelo who died at 6 weeks. My poor grandmother. My heart sinks and is sadden for her loss.

Does this look like a cemetery?

In a short time, our group raised $1,250 and the church (St. Vincent de Paul) gave us another $1,250. We paid a landscaper to come clear out everything but the large trees. Now you can walk throughout but it doesn't look and feel like a cemetery.

I visited the cemetery yesterday with one of the group leaders. We met someone from the Friends of Clifton Park, a very knowledgeable woman. She gives me hope.

I couldn't help but cry as I walked around the cemetery. Seeing the tombstones in piles and some piled over with soil.  Looking at an old map trying to find my uncles. Praying for all the dead who rested below my feet as I walked. My church (the Roman Catholic Church) may have let the dead down but I won't let them down.....I remember what I was taught by Sister Trenta...that 7th Corporal Work of Mercy. She was a good teacher!  But I wonder, will we ever make it a dignified resting place?

God help us. St. Vincent de Paul Pray for us!
--------------------------
The icon above was painted by me  for  a friend, Sister Liz Sjoberg of the Daughters of Charity.

Wattamelllllllllloooon Soup!

Watermelon is one of the fruits that remind me of when I was a kid and lived in Baltimore City. The A-rabbers would come past the house with carts and horses saying, "Wattamelllllooon" or "Straabeddies, chaahahdies". I loved hearing the clipclop of the horses and the sounds of the A-rabbers. I really missed that when we moved to the "country" (not really the country but it was to us).

So today I have the recipe for one of my favorites....Watermelon Soup!!!! I love cold soups. So here's the recipe

Ingredients


4 cups seeded watermelon cubes
1/3 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice for a little twang!
1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt (optional too--I'm not a plain yogurt fan!)
Balls of watermelon

Preparation
Process first 5 ingredients and honey, if desired, in a blender or food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Cover and chill 1 hour. Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of yogurt or balls of watermelon.

A little shameless self promotion. The ACEO show of the horse is available for sale in my Zibbet Shop---it's framed $12.99  http://www.zibbet.com/ArtByJYWheeler

Nothing Better than Chocolate!

You've probably all seen that email that circulates that chocolate is a vegetable and laughed I'm sure. But you know what, it is made from plants so it has the same benefits as vegetables...or am I dilusional?  No there are lots of antioxidants (8 times the amount of strawberries I read!) in it from flavinoids!  Dark chocolate is good for the heart! Those little flavoids are good for easing that high blood pressure and reduces your bad cholesterol! 

Soooooooooooo grab a piece of dark chocolate everyday....and while you are at it, you can make some oreo truffles...however....the truffles are not heart healthy....lots of fat, but awlfully tasty!

Oreo Truffles
1 bag of oreos ground up in food processor until powdery
12 oz of cream cheese
Dark chocolate melted

mix the oreo powder & cream cheese with a beater until you can't see the white oreo filling anymore. Form into round balls (it helps to refrigerate it or it gets a little sticky) and then drop them into melted chocolate and put them onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

Fathers Day Gifts

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope. ~Bill Cosby

This quote cracks me up. I think of all the crazy gifts we've given my Dad and he always acted as if it was the gift he always wanted.  And I have given him the most bizaar gifts. I remember years ago, I don't know what I was thinking, I gave him a trowel painted with an acrylic landscape (the painting was quite good). Now those of you who know my family know my Dad was a bricklayer--hence the trowel. But he's never been an art afficionado. He kept that crazy trowel near the fireplace for years. I know he was probably thinking "what a waste of a perfectly good trowel. I could use it for laying brick".

Then there was the time I was taking a drawing class at the college and drew a very large 18x22" pencil drawing of bricks....I framed and gave it to him for Father's Day. He smiled but I know he must have been thinking "bricks are meant to be made of  clay and laid and not drawn and hung"...but he kept it hanging up for years.

When they moved to the house they are in now I was older and wiser and said, maybe we should put these away and he diplomatically agreed with me. He was probably thinking inside...yayyyyyyyyyyy finally!

So this year I'll listen to his suggestion...a gift certificate for a restuarant....not exactly memorable but certainly more useful!