Guild Fair

Last week was CAAS in Nashville, so this week must be Guild Fair in Asheville. The Guild is the Southern Highland Craft Guild. I do the show twice a year. Before the show opened on Thursday I grabbed my camera and quickly took a few pictures to give you a glimpse of what my booth looked like. Looking at this picture, it's nice to see that several prominent items on this picture have new homes!

 What I looked at all weekend were these rocking horses made by Russ Jacobsohn. He's such a talented guy. He makes these incredible horses. I'm afraid this picture is a bit blurry. Sorry! The tortoise and the hare rocker in the background is awesome. I think he should have charged for picture taking. All weekend kids of all ages flocked to his booth and checked out the horses. The number of children who left screaming because they couldn't keep the horse was more than a few. Tons of pictures were taken with the child rocking happily on the horse. Russ is a great guy and always ready with a story or two!

A big part of each show is deciding where to eat when we leave in the evening. Staying at a hotel, even the Extended Stay where I stay, still means enjoying some company for dinner before heading back to my room to hide.  Wednesday evening Judy had to go to Lowe's to pick up some lights because hers weren't working. As she drove there she noticed that the chinese place we always go to had been bulldozed and they were building a 3 story building there! Will Chinese be back? We'll find out probably next year.

Thursday after the show we'd decided to meet friends at Three Brothers. We always go to Three Brothers. Great Greek salads and an all American kind of place. Well, we pulled up and the place was empty with signs on the window. After 52 years.....yup, closed July 1.

So, we waited for our friends to arrive and decided that on the way back to the hotel on Tunnel Road, we'd stop at Tripps. We've been there before, it's easy in and out and probably not a huge wait.........sign on the door, after 27 years.......they closed overnight one day. No one knew they were closing.

We didn't want to go to Cracker Barrel or a chain restaurant. We go there all the time. I was thinking about a restaurant I've driven by every day down there. Always there are cars there. It's Cornerstone Restaurant, another independent place. We tried it out of desperation, asked if they were planning to close, no!! So we ate dinner there Thursday and Friday. The food was great and we have a new restaurant to go to each time we're over there!

My other story is about my hotel room. I checked in Wednesday afternoon. They'd messed up my reservation but she remembered me calling the week before and knew it was their problem, not mine so I got a room. I hauled up the first load and the door was open. A guy was washing a paint brush in the kitchen sink. Yeah, he'd painted the bathroom door and the window sill. I'm not even going to ask why.

It dried quickly but I got concerned about the smell when you walked in. Even with the air conditioning on high you could tell they'd just painted, so I went down to the desk and asked about it. The hotel was full and I really didn't want to move anyway, so they gave me a nice discount for each night. I ended up just having the fan on and the windows opened at night. It was cool enough up in Asheville to do that. I have my reservation already for the fall show and had them print it out for me!! Hopefully someone won't go in their computer and mess it up again this time!

So that's my week. The show was interesting and I did sell things to people from as far away as Texas and New Zealand. I sent things to the Folk Art Center shop, Allanstand and have things set aside for several other shops. That means when I get back from Canada I have to really get to work and weave hard before the show in October!!

Thursday I'm heading north to visit my family for a few weeks. DH and DD will stay here with their jobs. I try to go home for several weeks each summer and I love the drive even if it is 2000 miles each way! That reminds me, I do need an oil change.......

Maybe I can get a warp on the loom yet before I leave.......

Carol