Art in Asheville

We went and had a lovely weekend in Asheville, one of our favorite places to visit.

Days of great food, gorgeous weather and finding new wonderful local artists.

I was drawn to this adorable owl locket by Marisol Spoon...

But was drawn to their amazing art in hand carved frames.  I had to take this lovely one home.

I love that the Fall art and antique shows are gearing up. There are always some great discoveries out there!

Big Banding and Swinging the Night Away

I just got back from yet another trip. This one was pure fun.  My favorite hotel, the Grove Park Inn, was having it's Annual Big Band Weekend.  We had never gone but we got a great rate and we love Asheville and it was a chance to dress up, so heck yeah.

Being January, it was great to snuggle in front of the Great Hall fireplace for a while.

This even was so much fun.  It's a formal event and the Saturday night dance has the Glenn Miller orchestra playing.  So amazing music in a beautiful setting. It is tied in with the USO which really added to the feeling of stepping back in time a bit.

And, there were some serious outfits and some seriously good dancers.  Of course, the age range skewed mostly older but these people know what they are doing on a dance floor.  (Fun Fact: I grew up traveling on cruise ships and have done a fair amount of dancing to Big Band over my life).

The fashion was formal but was interpreted all along the Big Band/Swing timeline.  I saw some great 40s fashion, beautiful ball gowns and some slinky backless numbers.  I went a bit more 1920s inspired in a beaded Vivinne Tam dress, while the husband wore his tux, red plaid bow tie and vintage owl cufflinks that I found for him.

I wore my Oh, Deer! Jamocha art deco-y t-straps along with black fishnets.

Here are some better shots of the shoes and dress details.

I definetly want to go back next year, but I think we need to take a few dance lessons first.  I did not get to dance nearly as much as I would have liked to.  I also think I want to go for more of a long swirly dress next time.  They played a number of waltzes and I think the music and a long 30s "Thin Man" era dress would be great.

And while our trip was brief, we did manage to eat at two of our favorite places in Asheville.  For lunch on Saturday we ate at Chai Pani, which is this casual India street food (or chaat) restaurant.  It is a savory paradise.  We got samosas, an uttapam with masala potatoes, okra fries and bhel puri (a snack mix with puffed rice, cilantro, onions, tamarind and more).

Then for dinner we went to Plant, our new favorite restaurant in the world.  I'm totally serious.  It's amazing and so good we were back there 15 hours later for brunch. Between the pumpkin seed crusted seitan, the amazing soup (always get the soup), the best cinnamon roll I've ever had and a cannoli, I'm stuffed. 

Oh.  In addition to getting a huge scramble and home fries (SL got the biscuits with homemade sausage and gravy) I got a big bowl of cheese grits. And did I mention that all of this is vegan.  Yeah.  It's amazing.

So now it's time to unpack and meals we have to make ourselves.

Silence is Golden

Sorry about all the quietness around here. It was my birthday on Thursday and I took Thursday and Friday off of work. We don't do a big celebrations for birthday's or holidays but the hubby did decide we should drive over to Asheville to have lunch in our favorite restaurant.

It seems a bit crazy to drive over 2 hours just for lunch. We planned on staying longer but a big storm rolled in so we had to bail.

My favorite restaurant anywhere is now Laughing Seed Cafe. The restaurant is vegetarian/vegan but it is the best food anywhere. And the most inventive restaurant around. It get so bored with seeing the same five ingredients show up over and over no matter how good or inexpensive the place. Laughing Seed tries new things! It's really the best food and get rated #1 in the city all the time.

We had their amazing sushi of the day and then hempnut burgers with their delicious jalepeno fries.

Even though we were sort of stuffed, you can't pass up their desserts. I love their chocolate raspberry torte but today we tried the Maya chocolate cake. OMG, so good!

We don't do a lot of gifts, because we figure we get stuff all the time but I was surprised with aWendy Brandes Asterisk ring to add to my Swear Ring set. I can't believe those sneakys surprised me!

Now we're just doing a massive cleaning inside and out. I've been polishing silver and clearing out books and stuff for donations and an overhaul of my bathroom cabinet. Why do I have 20 mini-bottles of shampoo and conditioner? I feel like a hoarder!

Anyways, I'm going to get back to my laundry. Thank you all for the birthday wishes!!!

Days of Intention - Day One: Mountain Retreat

Scenario:

A peaceful and regenerative day mixing the beauty of the mountains with the indulgence of a spa.

I have the type of job that needs you to be constantly "on" - talking with clients, collaborating with in-house partners, running around and generally dealing with tons of content and stimulus all day long. When I get home, it's quieter but there are still lots of pets and then writing too. Sometimes I just want to go sit in my closet in the dark! A spa day is my perfect antidote to this. I love to do a full day mini-retreat where I spend most of the day relaxed in a robe and silent, except for maybe some bubbling water. Speaking only to order a light meal or some tea, I can be calm, guiltless, without phones or computers and just read a book or close my eyes.

Ideal date:

March 27th


Image via Sea Otter Woodworks

Asheville Weekend Outfit at French Broad Chocolate Lounge

We had amazingly gorgeous weather here this past weekend. We've been testing the dogs out at new boarding places so, since we didn't need to rush back to pick them up, we decided to take a drive over to Asheville. The skies were blue, it was cool but not cold and the leaves were perfectly red and gold everywhere.

We really adore Asheville. And we have to always eat at least one meal at Laughing Seed Cafe. If you haven't been, please make a point of going there.

Instead of wearing the typical jeans and a sweater, I grabbed my new stripey dress from Anthropologie and, even though it is a great Summer dress, when it's paired with grey tights and a cozy over-sized cardigan, it's perfect for Fall.

I always end up with few goodies to bring home. This time it was a new tee from Circles & Squares, they have the cutest prints and the softest shirts, a moleskine from Malaprop's bookstore and some chocolates from French Broad Chocolate Lounge.

Sheer silliness....


I kept the jewelry simple - a vintage Trifari owl necklace.

The bow on this actually ties in the back but since I was wearing a sweater, I tied it in the front so it would show. I did have a pair of black gloves I bought on my honeymoon and so I used my vintage mock croc bag.

For a workday I would wear this with heels but to traipse around the hilly streets Tibi flats are more in order.

We've been wanting to check out the French Broad Chocolate Lounge for a while. Named after a local river, this place is cute and filled with amazing chocolates, drinks and pastries.

We got two liquid truffle hot chocolates. And this is real hot chocolate in the French style, not hot cocoa like you normally get in America.

We of course had to bring some of their truffles home, especially because they make vegan ones with a coconut milk ganache. They are decadent and I'm inspired to do some ganache experimentation of my own now.

I also bought some new chocolate bars I've never tried before. I'm always on the lookout for a new brand to obsess over.

Another wonderful day in one of our favorite cities.

Beautiful Living at Bele Chere

Yesterday we went to the Bele Chere festival over in Asheville.

Asheville is one of our new favorite towns. We've gone there about four times in the past year. Ever since our first visit, we just keep going back. It's a small town and, while we've already walked all over it, there are still tons of places to go and restaurants to try. And it's something like #2 in the country for micro-brewing.

Asheville has some really cute architecture and the people are an interesting mix of hippies, artists, environmentalists and foodies. The town prides itself on being weird so how fun is that? This is the place where we saw the naked bike ride through downtown on a previous visit.

We ended up just making this a day trip. With the drive only being a little over 2.5 hours, we left early and got there just before the festival started up for the day. Not only were there a ton of vendors but we went to our favorite stores too. Plus the Asheville style of window shopping is fun. I love this display of star lanterns.

But this silly display of yard art violence was even better. You have to view this bigger and see the other two shots I have, here and here to really appreciate it.

But of course it's the people that make the town the weird, fun and welcoming place that it is.

This image below is a pretty typical example of the types of folks you see around town. The town can be a bit "crunchy-granola" but also you get a good variety of food and music and experiences. We like the local co-op grocery and that you can find a wide variety of organic and vegetarian foods.

The festival brought out bagpipers in kilts...

little cuties like this one who was enjoying an a cappella group (this is a very family friendly town)...

plus I saw some great street style, from a little punk-y...

to this very stylish pair.

We ate lunch in an Irish pub/restaurant and then hung out at Jack of the Woods, our favorite (non-smoking, music every day, kids welcome, micro-brew) pub.

We did get some old favorites and made some new discoveries while we were there. Our first stop was at Chocolate Fetish for some of the our favorite chocolates, behind only Vosges. Then we stopped at a few of the mineral stores in town. I was looking for a piece of pink salt and found a great salt lamp. We also got some jams from Imladris Farm, who have their stuff everywhere in local stores and coffee shops. They ship so let me recommend how yummy they are.

We discovered a new brand of chocolate which I can't wait to try. The Maglio chocolate bars are single origin chocolates and we got the Africa, Equador and Extra Bitter bars. I like dark chocolate so it will be interesting to see how good they are.

When I met this lovely girl on the street dressed in layers of vintage with a parasol, we struck up a conversation, since I had my parasol too. She told me about the store Vintage Moon which I had missed on previous visits. I was glad I stopped in because it's an adorable little store jam packed with clothes, hats and more. I got this black lace robe-y item - great for layering and to pick-up on all the lace sure to be around this Fall.

And I fell in love with these cute sweater clips. I may even wear them on some v-neck shirts as a sort of necklace.

As we walked along we took a ton of pictures and sent Tweets. We laughed when we saw this sign for folks to get updates on the festival via Twitter. You can't escape it!

I put up a TON more pictures on Flickr including some cute doggies, so check them out. And don't forget - sign up for Twitter and we can "follow" each other.