Emerald from the Sea

The sea is always washing gifts ashore. Sea glass that has been tumbled to a beautiful patina.....sand dollars just waiting to be kept in a secret treasure box....shells that look like a shimmering light touched them and shells that hold the whispers of the sea. All of these sea gifts are treasures especially to one young  mermaid. Emerald loves her gifts and keeps them close by. She doesn't come to the surface much as she is very leary of the humans she may encounter there. The other mermaids have told her of the stories of these legged creatures. So she spends her time exploring the sea floor and taking her gifts to a cave under the sea. There she can put the whispering shell to her ear and hear the soft, gently whispering waves that she can only dream about. One day though she will venture to the surface to see if the stories of the humans are true.

Emerald gets her name from her bright emerald green eyes.

Emerald is one of my fully sculpted ooaks. She was sculpted using Super Sculpey Living Doll clay. No molds were used. She has a strong wire armature underneath the clay. Her face was detailed using acrylic paints. Her eyes were painted using acrylic paints and then sealed with a gloss finish with just a touch of green MICA powders. Her hair is fringed yarn and adorned with a tiny seaglass bead. Her tiny scales on her forehead were detailed using MICA powders and tiny real shells. Her whispering shell is one found on one of our afternoon beach walks here at beautiful Gulf Shores.

Emerald's tail is made from the same clay as the body. However, each scale was hand laid to give her a true fish/mermaid tail. Her tail was detailed using fine MICA powders and a glossy finish. On each scale are tiny silver beads. The end of her fin has three real tiny shells gathered from a afternoon walk at the beach. She sits on wooden base that has been adorned with real shells and a real preserved sand dollar. The main shell is an oyster shell. The base was also covered in some of my faux sand mixture. Emerald is attached to the base permanently.

Her fins were made from transparent clay and then adorned with tiny silver beads. Her waist is a beautiful circle of tiny shells that look as if a shimmering light has touched them. 

Emerald loves her treasures. Do you think she even knows that she herself is a beautiful treasure from the sea?

Until next time.....Hugs,

Regi

Wordless Wednesday

Until next time.....HUGS,
Regi

TGIF for Southern Coastal Cooking!!!

Now some might say that going to a Redneck Dive would be a bad thing BUT let me reassure you that this is SOOOOOO not the case with this Funky Junky place. When driving down Highway 59 in Foley, right in the middle of Uptown, next to Wal-greens, there it sits. Thought I would start off with the directions just so ya don't miss it. It would be a cryin shame if ya did!!!!!

Fish River Grill #2 is one of the best places to eat in Foley (the original one is located in Fairhope, AL) of course we have a lot of great eating establishments and I'm not taking anything away from any of them. It's just that to me when you walk into a place and are greeted by folks that make ya feel as though you just walked in the old family homestead for a meal, well it just goes without saying, it's the place to be.

The Fish River Grill's Hurricane Hamburger was voted the BEST in Baldwin county and we all know that there is "the best" and then as my Chazman would say, there is "the BESTEST", which this burger surely is. It's just one of the great items found at this funky junky  place. My favorite has to be the all you can eat each and every day...yes I said ALL YOU CAN EAT EVERYDAY fried catfish. Yum yum yummmmm, it's so good it might make ya slap your momma...but I wouldn't do that...she might slap ya back or ya might tell her I said to do it and she would be slapping me. (hehe)  I'm one of the true GRITS (girl raised in the South) so I know good home cooked fried catfish when I eat it. They cook it when ya order it and let's just say...with the pile they bring ya the first time, I doubt that you would be eatin a second helping but of course they will keep it coming if ya can. Not only do you get the catfish but you also get crinkle fries, fried okra, coleslaw and some of the best hushpuppies around. The grill has a special entree that comes with your meal too. It's called Swamp Soup and talk about something belly warming. It's fantastic. It comes in a small cup...HEY...ya don't want to ruin your appetite for that all you can eat fish now do ya?  The Chazman would not eat greens of any kind...no..can't make him...he wouldn't do it....couldn't pay him enough to even try em WELL that was until he ate the Swamp Soup (yes...you guessed, it has greens in it and tons of other good for ya stuff)  Not only do they have the catfish all you can eat they have fried shrimp all you can eat too. So many good items on their menu...just try em...you'll see. They have daily lunch specials too which include the swamp soup and a dessert. Just a great funky junky Redneck dive that will make anyone proud to say....I'm a redneck!!!

Oh yeah.....they have live entertainment too. We are blessed to have some very talented local artist (folks that play guitar and sing) in our area. Diana will even ask if it's to loud....she is one of the sweetest folks and she has some of the BESTEST folks working there too. Always smiling and talking and making sure that everything is just as you want it. Why in the world would someone not want to eat at Fish River Grill? Oh yeah...I'm not the only one that loves the place either....check out Urbanspoon and see what others have to say.


Until next time.....

Hugs,
Regi