Iluvasheville.

I am getting ready to take a quick jaunt down to my favorite city at the end of the month and cannot wait! While I do not plan on spending a giant chunk of the winter down south this year, I am anticipating a few trips. In getting all excited to be in the heart of that wacky city for 6 fun filled days, I got to browsing through some Asheville pics from this past spring...The Sky Bar: a fantastic place to see the sunset, enjoy a glass of wine and view the whole city I took Jim up there (via old fashioned, slightly sketchy elevator) on a whim and we enjoyed a glass of white as the sun set the night before I left to come back to NH

The architecture in Asheville is so varied and beautiful. There's literally art on every street corner!

Ahhhhhhhh... IcannotwaitIcannotwaitIcannotwait. Weeeeeee!

Doin' Flipz!

I have been painting quite a few murals lately, and this one was a fun challenge. First of all, I had to paint a portion of it on a trampoline! The goal: fill a GIANT gymnastics studio with some elements that would fill the room, match the color palette and be easy to paint around. This was tricky.

These are some of the inspiring elements I came up with (note the trampoline location!)...

I think my old high school English teacher, Mrs. Beaudin would approve of this wall...

That was fun. But it certainly reminded me that I am no acrobat. :o)

Crafty Kathy: pimpin' out a vintage suitcase

This groovy suitcase was my grandma's from before she married my grandpa. It has her initials embossed on the top and is so beautiful, but the inside smells not so beautiful. So it has become a prop in my store. It already had one old label stuck to it (the middle round one), and I decided that I was going to add more bling. I picked up these labels in MY travels and decided to give some new life to this treasured vintage piece by mod podging them on. Mod Podge is awesome stuff, man. You can stick anything paper to anything: furniture, walls...anything.

And it dries clear. Now it's a beautiful piece that shares a piece of my grandma and my travels in one. I just love it! :o)

Tip: if you want to make something like this, scope out thrift stores and yard sales for old suitcases. Save those wine bottle labels or use squares of funky paper and a lil' Mod Podge to create a vintage piece of awesome!

BIRTHDAY SUSHI!

OhmygoshIlovesushi. I am beyond excited that we now have raw fish delight up the street. The restaurant has been open for 3 weeks and I have been there 5 times. I love, love, love sushi.

I got to eat this. Yum. In Plymouth, NH? Try Fugaky. You will not be disappointed. :o)

Money for gold!

Here's a cool thing that is happening around these parts! Got old gold? Friends of the Arts and Artistic Roots (the groovy co-op on Main Street that I just joined!) is having an "Out with the old, in with the new" party on August 19th. They have a gold lady there...someone who is weighing your old jewelry and giving CASH on site for it. Aaaaaand, there will be a room full of jewelry makers on site for you to spend your moola. My momma (Earthwear Jewelry) will be one of the vendors and is going to have a table of her fancy jewelry designs. This should be a ton o' fun (and FINALLY- a place for your old 80's, mismatched gold bangles to go to die!) Come on out!

Triple Meat Threat.

You know when you are STARVING and you are standing in the grocery store like an idiot, wanting one of everything?

Me too. Happens all the time.

I was hanging out in the meat section of Bob's Shurfine, practically foaming at the mouth one evening on my way home from work. I LOVE their meat section. Not really sure why. But I do. I was staring at all of it, trying to think of the crunchiest, cheesiest, saltiest, meatiest combination and it came to me:

Chicken cordon bleu subs...with pepperoni and sauteed mushrooms. Yesssss.

Ingredients:

Sub rolls

butter

garlic

swiss cheese

crumbled bleu cheese

sliced ham

chicken tenders (uncooked)

sliced pepperoni

I did a basic garlic rub and splash of Italian dressing on the chicken tenders and threw those on the grill. While that was grilling, I opened 2 giant sub rolls (not cutting all the way through) and (inspired by the Biederman's balboa) made some garlic bread out of the rolls. While that toasted, I flipped the chicken and sauteed a few mushrooms in splash of olive oil on the stove. My vision started to come into reality when I heard the *ding* of the toaster oven and then I assembled. Oh yes, I assembled.

On the garlicy (lightly toasted) rolls, I sprinkled some blue cheese so it got all melty. I layered ham. I relayered blue cheese. I grabbed the chicken tenders and tossed those on next, topping the chicken off with the sauteed mushrooms...and probably more bleu cheese. Pepperoni came next and I topped it all with Swiss cheese. I threw the sandwiches under the broiler while I poured myself a frosty beverage and once that cheese was melted to perfection it was time.

Triple Meat Threat. Gross and awesome and delicious. Suck it, Martha.

Mmmm...melty cheesy goodness.

Oh, my poor arteries.

Vegas, baby!

It was so completely whirlwhind, that it was almost like it didn't happen. But now that I have finally gotten around to downloading all of my pictures, I guess it's true: I did go to Vegas last month! Jim and I flew in Friday morning. We were there by noon and home by midnight on Sunday. Perfect.

Now I had never been and neither had Jim, so we had to get in some of the Vegas staples: the MGM lion... We saw Cirque de Soleil. I couldn't sneak any good pictures inside, but I did convince the ticket guy to pose with me...

We tooled around the casinos in our bathing suits...

...and lounged in the sun at the resort at Mandalay Bay, the hotel we stayed at. The weather was absolutely perfect!

And of course we went out at night and had ourselves a hootin', hollerin' good time. And that's all I'm going to say. :o)

(What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.)