The Little Nuthatch

While in North Carolina this month I went to The Big Crafty indie craft fair in Asheville. Lots of talent there! The place was packed! It was difficult to move around, I was frustrated with the crowd but hopefully it meant the artists had lots of sales. It was cool to see some new stuff.     So She Sews: E. Paige Smith Duft: The Runny Bunny: Margaret Couch Cogswell: Arts Alive by Kambra: Rockpile Bindery: Canoo:

More on North Carolina... It rained for a few days and eventually turned to snow. That was the first time I had ever seen snow falling and how exciting! It started to snow in the night and in the morning I was so happy to see it was clear and sunny and there were patches of snow and lots of frost to go out and enjoy! We made a cute tiny snowman family... Oh, they melted within a few hours...

I met a happy little rock and a happy little leaf in North Carolina.  

On my second day up in North Carolina we went to the beautiful Grove Park Inn: A historic hotel built in the 1910's, built with giant stones and two huge fireplaces inside, little touches of art nouveau on lamps and wallpaper, and gorgeous views. Very cool! They host the National Gingerbread Competition every Christmas so we went to check it out. Some amazing work. The Gingerbread Competition inspired some cookie decorating later in the week... Not as amazing after all those houses, but I got my fix!

  I've just returned from a week in western North Carolina, enjoying some cold weather and celebrating Christmas with my family. Our first day there we went into the town of Weaverville for their Christmas parade. They had a great school band, many jump ropers, unicyclists, boy scouts and girl scouts, and a lot of country charm with horses and tractors! The photo above is from the Vance Birthplace. We went there in the evening for their Candlelight Christmas, where they demonstrated Christmas in the 1800s. Now a couple parade photos. Santa!!