Vintage awesomeness.

Check out this lovely new addition to my home!
Gosh, it's a good day when you stumble upon a groovy chair like this at the thrift store. :o)

Grand Opening Success!

Following a beautiful weekend of sunshine for the painting of the building, we were lucky enough to have another great weekend for our grand opening of The Anam Cara Collective!Erinn and I created this sign on wheels out of an old billboard I found on the side of the road in downtown Asheville. We rolled it out to the street in the early afternoon, got the cupcakes set up, stocked the wine and beer and prepped the stage for the lovely Nikki Talley. We were soooo excited to reveal all of our hard work to the public. :o)Nikki won over the crowd with her beautiful southern folk rock. Store sales were flowing. Energy was upbeat and positive. Everyone really loved the space, the vibe, the music. What a great night!Yay! A full house! Nikki Talley rocks! If you are in the Asheville area and see her playing anywhere, I highly recommend that you get the chance to see her. For show info and musical samplins', you can check out www.NikkiTalley.com. Thanks again Nikki for making our grand opening such a success!

Crafty goodness.

They say one's trash is another man's treasure. Well, that's pretty much the story of my life. I make art out of crap and try to creatively repurpose any junk I see beauty in before it makes its way to the landfill. Setting up shoppe #2 here in Asheville has been super inspiring and I have found many ways to cut corners with my moola and still make beautiful displays. Here are a few examples of my Crafty Kathy ideas to share:

I needed something to hang small print, cards, photos, etc. on the wall with. And here in NC, there is bamboo a-plenty, so I took a couple of lengths and mounted it to the wall. $1.00 in vintage ribbon and clothespins from a local thrift store later, I have a fun wall hangy thing...perfect for my homemade moustache stickers and swirly tree greeting cards! (But you could use this in your home for photos!)

I love old windows and try to save every one (and shutter) I see abandoned in piles on the side of the road. Here are a couple of examples of displays that are the perfect project for slightly cracked windows. I cut scraps of foam core and cork board to fit in the window panes. And rather than buying fabric, I found some old velvety skirts at the Goodwill, cut them up and stretched them around the boards. I used liquid nails to adhere them inside the window panes.

Now anything can hang in these windows (jewelry, photos, etc.) with simple push pins or straight pins.

This display piece I take a lot of pride in: the orange ironing board wall hanging. Here's a tip for the thrifty: visit out-of-town dumps in your travels and see if they have a swap shop. I was about an hour out of town one day and stopped at a dump (mainly because I had been admiring the beautiful sign for years). They initially told me to leave because I didn't have a dump sticker. But when I explained that I was leaving nothing and wanted to see if they had a pile of junk I could look through for art projects, they waved me through and guided me to the swap shop. And there I found this orange beauty. I yanked the legs off the ironing board and mounted it to the wall with initial intention of making a magnet display board. But then I discovered that the holes were perfectly spaced for pegboard brackets. Excellent.

This was another dump find: a rusty old cart with a bent wheel. A quick coat of paint and some fabric scraps cut to size for the inside shelves and voila!...a gorgeous plant or display stand! This one is going to be filled with funky potted plants for the Anam Cara shoppe.

Everything is coming together and we open in just 1 day! Yippie!

You know what else is cool about living in Asheville at the D.I.Y. B&B?

The kitties! This one is Marie. Or Mimi. I cannot remember. I call it Cat. (It looks like a giant here, but in real life it is teeny.)

This fluffy beast is Sylvester. But I call him Sylvia. Or Orange Cat.

Meowz!

Fringe Freak Fest!

I have been working hard here for the past 2 weeks, setting up shoppe. But you can't have all work and no play! The Fringe Fest is a staple in my winter stays in Asheville- a 3 day festival of sorts where you can, well, fly your flag. Be yourself. It's all about performance, music, dance, costume and just...being strange. Here is how our Friday Night Fringe went: Step 1.) Get fringe-on-stick.
Step 2.) Wave your fringe (see video below).

Step 3.) Watch brilliant, wacky, zany, funny small plays, beautiful dance, enjoy local brews and laugh with friends in make-shift performance studios in the River Arts District. (This stage was in a pottery studio.)

Step 3.5) Watch funny puppet shows, too.

4.) I don't know if there IS a caption for this photo...

Oh, and here is a little more Fringy goodness:

Transforming the building...

Our new shoppe has undergone MAJOR renovation. From wall building to carpet ripping-out to scrubbing and cleaning and painting...it is completely new inside and out, evoking giddy screams and "I can't believe what you have done" gasps from people who saw it when it was the infamous Beach Bingo. (Still to be determined what Beach Bingo actually was...we think some sort of underground drug and gambling operation.) We have been working night and day on this place!

This was the outside of the building BEFORE we attacked it with a beautiful spectrum of paint this past weekend. Trust me: this photo makes it look good. It was a hot mess, but Erinn, myself and many of our super supportive friends saw the diamond in the rough.

Steph- putting on the first strokes of paint!

Take a look at the sky! Nearly 70 degrees- just gorgeous...perfect building painting weather! Lots of our friends (so graciously) stopped by in paint clothes to help. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who helped make this happen!

Somewhere around 5:30 p.m., it was on the brink of dusk and Laura exclaimed, "let's put the sign up now!" (We were going to do it on Sunday.) Our adreneline was pumping and we didn't want to stop. So (despite the fact that I look like I am not helping at all in any of these pictures), I finished striping the awning and climbed the ladder 15 feet in the air to hang the giant sign I made. I completely conquered my fear of heights. Sort of.And here we are, soaking up the last few minutes of sunlight, exhausted, dehydrated and sunburnt under the fancy new sign of our Asheville business! Yay!