My Trip

I was looking through my pictures and realize I didn't take shots of a lot of cool things. There's always next year, right? But what I do have, I just don't know what to post first. I guess I'll start with what I photographed first. This picture is taken at the entrance to the Spa at the Inn. I love the way it looks and the sound for the water rushing over is musical.
It is 10 stories, to walk to the Inn. We walked down in about 3 minutes rushing to lunch. You can't see the wings of the Inn in this picture but they jut out on both sides.
Here's the hallway to get to the elevators you walk down when you leave the cafe. It was taken at 10:30am, so the lights were very dim. These huge rocks have flecks of quartz on them. Also hidden are geodes of amethyst. Don't have any pictures of the geodes.
Here's what's painted on the elevators. A very simple ginko leaf design.
If you have never been to the Grove Park Inn, the lighting is just amazing. Here's 2 shots of the ceiling lamps that are in the lobby.This lamp is huge and notice the stenciling on the ceiling, just like the elevators but this time it's roses.
The glass panels aren't what was originally in the lamp. These are for up lighting and I don't know the reason why they added the panels later. Possibly so they cast light down too? They are made out of copper if you can't tell and are about 6 feet by 6 feet.
Another cool lamp that is huge, is this stained glass ceiling lamp in the Blue Ridge Restaurant. They serve excellent food but take reservations up to 3 months in advance so it's hard to get a table, unless you like to eat at 8pm. I highly recommend their sea food buffet. It's 2 rooms full of food and it's delicious.
Here's a picture from one of the wings and you are looking at Asheville. The GPI is built on sunset mountain so every evening you have the best views of the sky. Unfortunately there is construction going on , so ignore the floating ladder image. You can also see part of the golf course and the spa. This image is of the spa and is not well liked among a lot of purists of the Arts and Crafts movement. Many parts are underground and the light can only be brought in via skylights or inside lighting. I think they don't like the harshness of the pyramids and the sparse vegetation. When we were there, signs were posted that NC was going through a drought. So I can understand why they didn't go crazy with the landscaping.These paths go from the Inn to the Spa. The tents you see were for an Oscar party event for the locals. We were packing up on Sunday night and the people going to this event were all decked out like they were going to the Oscars. Men in tuxs and the women all decked out in fancy dresses. Seemed to be a very big event!

Back In NY

Whew what a long day!  We drove back today and it was a nice uneventful trip back.  Unlike our trip down, where we saw 9 accidents.  That's too many accidents but they weren't fatal and it was usually just one car that lost control at a time.

I took pictures and hope they came out.  I didn't have time to check.  The inn, is so big, it was like point, shoot, go!  We went to a few lectures and then had to run to eat and then be in our booth to start selling.  My feet hurt in places that I didn't know that could hurt.  

We picked up some Ephraim Pottery a piece for us and a thank you for my MIL.  Who is soooo awesome!  I came home to a clean house, (she scrubbed my sinks!  All 4 of them), flowers and clean children.  What more could an exhausted parent ask for?

I love our pot.  I have a soft spot for fish and this will look great next to our other pot.  I'll take pictures.

Just Beautiful

So it's 11pm at night and I've been having the best days. Our trip is going well at the Grove Park Inn. I took pictures but probably not enough. The place is just gorgeous. The weather is in the 50's and the mountains are beautiful in the morning.
This place is just beautiful and if you get a chance you should definitely visit the Inn. It's just superb. We've been eating lunch in the Spa cafe and it's partially underground. They created this peaceful cavern feeling with huge rocks that appear to have quartz in it. I'll have to take a picture. So you walk through this long hallway past rooms and it has the smell of chlorine, which doesn't bother me. You pass an indoor waterfalls. It's just amazing what humans have created.
We went to a lecture tonight and the opening remarks were made by Bruce Johnson who talked about the antiques that are sold at the show and the contemporary craftsmen who sell. How the contemporary craftmen are creating the antiques of the future. I felt very proud that my husband is part of this Arts and Crafts movement. It is more of a philosophy than an artistic movement. I would love to go on but I'm beat. Plus it is a 6am wake up to make it to the morning seminars. Let's hope this environmental high keeps me going. A few more early mornings and late nights before we head back home.
I'll post pictures when I get home.

The Busiest Month

Everybody would probably say that December is the busiest month but for us it's February. It's my oldest birthday on the 6th, Valentine's Day, the 15th is my niece's birthday, our biggest show of the year, and then my husband's birthday.

This show usually forecasts how well our year will go sales wise. There are gallery owner's, antique collectors and sellers, then lover's of arts & crafts handmade work. Which is sort of stressful since we depend a lot on this one show. Last year was very unusual, maybe because of the big storm but on Sunday it was not busy at all.

Last year there was a terrible storm that came through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. We of course had to drive through it! So we left way early and drove through the middle of the storm. Can you say S-C-A-R-Y. I was on the edge of my seat until we drove out of the storm, which took like 4 hours! Some of our friends left after the storm and were stuck in traffic forever. It was so bad people were running out of gas because the cars weren't moving. We learned to follow the big rigs from the storm, they always know where to go! Some of the expressways were closed because of really bad accidents. The big rigs have all the connections so they never had to turn around like we did.

The plus side is, that it takes place at one of the awesomest hotels I have ever been to The Grove Park Inn! It's located on Sunset Mountain, and you get the best views of the sun setting. We don't stay there because it costs a lot and it's a courtesy to the people who are go to buy. We are pretty much there from 8am-1am or later. So it's like we're staying there! Plus they have 5-7 restaurants and this year we remembered to call for reservations for their seafood buffet. It books a few months in advance but this year I'm on top of things!

My mother in law who is great, is staying with the kids. I have to have meals pre-made and planned. I had my oldest make a chart of each meal (she's the pickiest) what they would eat, what choices they had etc... Last year they barely didn't touch anything I made. This year she knows what's going to be served and has to stick to it or no dessert for the kids.

I wish I didn't have to be so strict with food but my oldest is very hyper when she eats things that don't agree with her body. She will flap like an autistic child because of what she ate. She is unaware that she is doing this even though she is going to be ten. We've put her on the SCD in the last 2 months and she has been improving greatly. She has been flapping less and she has found her volume control. Usually she talks way to loud but over the holidays people couldn't believe how quiet she was. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the process of digestion and how it effects children/people with gut problems. It's called Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell McBride. The book is expensive but she does recommend these sites and this if you are interested and would like to learn more. I do wish they would talk more about kefir, and other fermented foods. We make sauerkraut and will be fermenting other things over the summer when our food co-ops start up. Yogurt only has a few of the many strains of good bacteria found in the gut. While kefir has something like 28. Okay enough with all the nerdy health talk!

Looking forward to February. If I have time and remember to photograph it, I'm going to do a tutorial for a Valentine's Day wall hanging.