Have Lunch On Us!

Monthly special for June

2008-06-10T04:25:40-07:00

We are offering a special price on plates with pictures of Dads or Grads during the month of June. Plate sets that include these subjects can be purchased for $40 per set. This is a savings of $2 per plate. Just mention the June offer when you send your request.

Marywood Plates will benefit The Marywood Fund

2008-05-11T18:33:27-07:00

Greetings to all past and present students of Marywood University and to all friends of Marywood!

Last year we made a plate of the entrance to Marywood for my Mom, who attended Marywood from 1946 to 1948. My great aunt also attended Marywood, and my sister-in-law has a Master's Degree from Marywood.

I wanted to do something for Marywood so we offered to make our Marywood plate a fundraiser plate. We will donate all of our normal profit after our expenses to the Marywood Fund. When you buy one of our plates for $15 we will give $7 of it to the Marywood Fund.

The current plate was photographed on Saturday morning of Mother's Day Weekend, 2007. We will have the plate from Mother's Day Weekend 2008 shortly. Either plate can be purchased as a fundraiser.

We are going to extend this offer to ANY plates YOU have made which relate to Marywood.

This is how we expect it to work:

You have a digital photograph relating to Marywood that you want to make into a set of plates.

You pay the regular price for the first four, that is $48. After your plates are made, we will post a picture of the plate in the fundraiser album. Any additional plates purchased after that will be considered fundraiser plates and the $15/$7 split will apply.

In the near future we plan to purchase a scanner of sufficient quality to be able to scan older photographs to make them into picture plates. We will let you know when that capability is available.

One additional point, on the shipping costs. If we can deliver your order to the Alumni Office at Marywood for pickup, there will be no charge for shipping. If your order needs to be shipped to your home address, we will send it in the most cost effective way we can find. Right now we are using U. S. Post Office flat rate priority mail. We do not know how much the new postal rates will effect the cost of shipping.

If you have any questions or comments, please email us at thearkangel2007@aol.com.

Childhood (and adult) dreams and inspirations

2008-04-30T08:02:10-07:00

By now you've probably heard about - or better yet - read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I've been thinking a lot about what he said about achieving your childhood dreams.

Most of my childhood dreams were minor key, not something that I carried forward into adulthood. I really don't want to go exploring in Africa or Alaska for that matter. One of these days I will write at least one book. And I will learn woodworking. But not just yet. My biggest goal is to create a business which makes my customers smile. Have lunch on us! is it.

My life is so hectic with work and the farm that relaxing is a major goal. On my days off I usually work on the farm since there's always more to do. At present, my favorite plates are still "Flying" (Daphne in mid leap) and a walk in the woods at Nay Aug Park. Joy and peace.

I did not intend my plates to be used to hang on a wall or sit in a stand on a table. I actually want people to eat from them. What easier way to keep your dream in front of you than at meals. I want people to photograph their dream goal - like a cruise, hot air balooning, fishing, or swimming with dolphins - to give them the incentive to achieve it. Or after they achieve their dream, photograph it to remind them that they have accomplished it.

Enjoy your dreams.

April picks

2008-04-23T15:46:23-07:00

I've got two great sites for you to check out on the web.

1. freerice.com

What a concept! Improve your vocabulary while "earning" grains of rice for distribution to needy people. There are levels of vocabulary to achieve. I occasionally get to level 48 then my memory goes! Try it, its fun.

2. galaxyzoo.com

Here's your chance to be a citizen scientist. Take the mini tutorial, learn how to classify galaxies, and pass the test. Next thing you know you're viewing pictures of galaxies that will amaze you. Worth the effort to get yourself enrolled.

My favorite book for April

2008-04-23T15:34:58-07:00

So, I'm not up on current events. I happened on this book by chance and started reading it in the store. I guess lots of people knew about it, just not me. Anyway, read this book: The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, and in September 2007 he gave a lecture at his University that became this book. No, its not depressing. Yes, its entertaining and talks about really achieving your childhood dreams. I picture it as a Jonathan Livingston Seagull for this decade. (Yes, I know that dates me.) Check it out at your local book purveyor.

You can get more information at thelastlecture.com. There's an excerpt from the book on the site.

Comments from Visitors to Our Blog

2008-03-16T04:16:29-07:00

Folks, I'm new to blogging.

Sometimes its hard for me to read a blog site and figure out where to make comments.

I wanted it to be real obvious on my site.

Please leave any general comments you have for me right here. I don't care if its about the contents of the site or about how I organized it. You can still leave specific comments on any of the individual posts.

The lovely thing about blogs is that you can change it any time you want.

I'd like to hear from you.

What do you think about what we're trying to do? Did I make it easy for you to understand how we will do it? Did it give you any ideas of your own? Is there a better way to organize the information?

Talk to me ... please.

And, thanks ... for visiting my blog!

Don't get any bright ideas.

2008-03-10T15:03:46-07:00

Folks, this is a family business.

No naked people.

No illegal or vulgar acts or gestures.

No vulgar or profane language.

No pictures of other people's copyrighted material.

In general, no photos of "famous" people, unless you have their permission in writing.

If you wouldn't show it to your Great Aunt Matilda, we don't want to see it either.

We reserve the right to refuse to work on any questionable material.

Somebody must know somebody who...

2008-03-10T14:03:22-07:00

There are some plates I'd really like to make, but I don't have the contacts...yet.

So, maybe you know someone who might be able to connect.

I'd like to do a series of plates for the Food Network with pictures of their chefs in the chef''s own kitchen. Then you could eat lunch with your favorite chef.

I'd like to do a puzzle plate of Chef Emeril Lagasse with all kinds of hidden food objects on it. He could use it as a fund raiser for some of his special projects with kids.

I'd like to do a picture taken by Rachael Ray at just about ANY place she's visited. Then I could cook one of her vacation meals and serve it on an appropriate plate!

Josh Turner or just about any country singer. Yeah, I'd like to have lunch with him.

Anyone know any sports figures?

Political candidates? Well maybe not.

I'd really enjoy making plates of some of the pictures of distant stars and galaxies taken by the big observatories.

I'm Air Force and Air Force Reserves. I want to take pictures of every military airplane I can find. We're planning a trip back to Dayton, Ohio to visit the Air Force Museum - the coolest place ever if you're in to military planes!

Who owns the copyright on some of those crazy animal pictures you get sent to you by email?

Who's got a picture of the white killer whale?

Anybody else got any ideas?

Lots to Look At!

2008-03-10T12:43:35-07:00

We recently added a fifth photo album to our site.

Most of the plates we make will be used as dishes. There are some photos that are really intended for display monuments, commemorative plates, and most pictures of historic sites. That's why we added the last album.

1. Patriot Plate Designs is an album of plates that we made from photos we took. Most of these designs have been sold before or have been listed on our ebay site. You are welcome to purchase any of these plates on an individual basis. The price for each plate is $15.

2. Plates to Buy will be an album of plates purchased by our customers which they are willing to re-sell. If a customer wishes to re-sell a plate, they provide us with an email address where they can be contacted. We suggest that the price for each plate is $15.

3. Plates to View is an album of plates purchased by our customers which they do not wish to sell. However, they are willing to share a picture of their plate with other customers. Get ideas and enjoy the views!

4. Fundraiser Plates is an album of plates purchased by a fundraiser focal point. Of course the fundraiser could purchase a quantity of plates from us for resale. We give them the option of also putting a picture of the plate in our fundraiser album. Plates can be purchased for $15 and $8 of that will be sent directly to the fundraiser focal point.

5. Monuments, Commemoratives, and Historical Places is an album of plates designed to be decorative, rather than used to serve lunch.

Fundraiser Ideas

2008-03-07T20:18:30-08:00

Looking for a new idea to raise money for a special organization, event or activity?

Come up with a photo that has meaning to the people involved.

Order one set of luncheon plates.

We will post it in our fundraiser photo album.

Anyone can buy one of the fundraiser plates from us. $8.00 of every $15 we collect will be sent to the originating plateholder.

For example, suppose your church needs to raise money for a special project. You are identified as the focal point. You take a picture of the church and order a basic set of dishes. That makes you the plateholder for that design. Once we have the plate design established, we will publish the plate's picture in our fundraiser photo album.

Thereafter, anyone who wants to can purchase a plate from us for $15. You can buy a quantity of the plates directly, or you can have interested parties go to our website to order directly from us. We in turn will send the fundraiser portion of the money back to the focal point.