Crabs, Yankee Style!

I was invited to eat crabs with a friend's family yesterday. It was a perfect way to spend an afternoon, getting to know new friends and learning to eat a new food.

They caught the crabs in the water right outside their back yard, and steamed em up right before we got there.  The steaming part is what makes them Yankee Crabs.  The cooks are visiting from Maryland, and they steam them with a mixture of beer and water, and heavily sprinkle them with old bay.  The southern way to make these is to boil them. I look forward to trying that too!

 

It was only my second time eating crabs(whole crabs I mean), and was much better than the first time, which was a miserable failure.  I had such a hard time figuring out how to get the crab meat out, that I gave up after my first one.

Like with crawfish, there is an art to eating the little rascals, and I finally had 3 people to teach me how to do it.  Each showed me their own way, and I finally got the hang of it.


After we finished up, there were four crabs left.  With my new found skills, I picked the meat and the hosts insisted that I take it with me.  Oh, am I glad they did!

For breakfast this morning I made a breakfast bowl with: 
louisiana hot sauce and old bay seasoned grits
topped with eggs scrambled with onions and peppers
roasted tomatoes from another friend's garden
 lump crab meat with a little bit of cider vinegar 

Feathers and a Barnicle Covered Stick

This painting took a lot longer than the others to do, but it felt good to have something to come to work on every evening.  I am obviously not making something every day like I set out to do on my birthday.  But, I am ok with this.  I will be working towards that goal still.  I still want to make one thing every day.  Maybe in my second month, starting today, I will be more successful.  Here is today's painting.  Technically I have been working on it for a week, but I finished it today!!!!!!!

A Piece of the Shore

This is one of a series of paintings that I have wanted to do for a while.  During the summer, I took a photo of the sea shore, or several, and wanted to do something with it, but at the time I didn't know what to do with it. When I started watercolor painting in January, I thought again of this series of photos.  I decided it was time.  I will be doing more of these.  

Horn Island Findings

Here is my newest painting.  It is a small collection of findings from Horn Island, and a branch with berries from my yard.

I really liked painting the branch.  It was fun watching it pop off of the page when I put the shadows in.

I am definitely getting more confident with the watercolor paint.  I am really enjoying it.  I am so excited about my next painting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Available here at my etsy store

Not painting tonight? - kind of a fail.

Nope, I am working on something else tonight.  I am not going to finish, but I am dedicating a bunch of time to it, so I am only classifying it as kind of a fail.

I am working on a menu for a friend's establishment.  It is a bigger project and tonight I am doing only one step out of 5 or so.

I really should be trying to finish a whole project for my birthday resolution, but I think this is also important.

Oh, this is the balancing act I mentioned in an earlier post!!!

Camellia Pt1 and Pt2!

So, Camellias are one of my favorite flowers.  They are the state flower of Alabama, and I have fond memories of climbing in my family's huge camellia trees as a little girl.  I love these flowers.
When I saw some flowers in bloom outside my little cottage, I was so excited!  I picked a perfect red camellia.

I brought it in, and started sketching.  I immediately got lost in drawing the petals.  But, I thought I would stick it out, and try to get a pretty painting out of this, and definitely learn something!  Well, I failed at getting anything pretty out of the first try, but I did learn a lot.

So, I tried to paint a camellia again, and this time I selected a pale pink one.  It was not easier, but I was able to make out the different petals a bit more clearly, and so it was more straightforward to draw and paint.  It turned out a lot better.

I will continue painting these flowers until they fade for the season, but I am going to give my self a bit of a break from them for a few days.

Here is an image of the "Angry Camellia" that I am giving to my friend Britton, because he says he likes it, and I don't!

 

The Pink Camellia is available at my Etsy Shop.

A Surprisingly Wonderful Date Night with James!

James asked me on a date on saturday night, but didnt tell me what we were doing.



A cello quartet from russia in a beautiful domed methodist church in Gulfport, MS  followed by a yummy pizza at a new pizza place in Gulfport!

Thanks for a wonderful night boo!