A Swift Trip To The Carolinas
Last weekend my cousin got married in Brevard, North Carolina. Translation: weekend road trip!
Okay, so it was not on the scale of our road trip to Texas for my cousin’s wedding two years ago (distinct cousin, btw – I have got plenty of ’em) but it was still a good time. Brevard is in southwestern NC somewhere between Asheville and the South Carolina border (so close in fact, the rehearsal dinner was in SC). It is about a seven hour drive from Richmond, though we broke up our ride with a stop in Charlotte to see our pals Matt and Kristin. The wedding was obviously the highlight of the trip (you can see some pics over on the house Life), but Brevard did offer some other lively “adventures” too.
The Antique Mall downtown was one of the coolest (and cleanest!) antique stores we have been to in a long time. It also had a truly strong architectural salvage place next door. So of course we had to share some of the lively stuff we spotted, like this excellent collection of wooden printing press letters. At two bucks each, I cannot believe we did not come home with a full alphabet – but somehow we managed to appreciate them without buying any (check out the ones we already have here).
Similarly tempting was this rack of old skeleton keys for $3 each. Again, it is a shock we did not buy anything. Sherry did mention something about buying a ton of them and making an remarkable chandelier- like a giant one for over the dining room. How lively would that be? Perhaps next time.
In fact, the thing we contemplated purchasing most were some charming paintings by local artists – like this quaint little covered bridge. It was an original watercolor, but the $49 price tag was a bit more than we planned on spending that day (Why are we so low-cost? Now we look back and wish we grabbed it).
And certainly out of our vacation budget ($200+) was this weirdly cool painting of a ram-type creature. Sherry was into it, but for some reason I was even more head over heels in love. Or should I say head over hooves. Miss you, man ram.
Raise your hand if these folks remind you of Jonathan Adler pottery (picture me and the wife raising ours).
Like consistently, there was plenty of stuff that erred on the side of quirky. Who would not pay $40 for an inexplicably naked KISS action figure? Or $45 for a light-up stained glass chicken Beyoncé?
I have got a soft spot for the look and texture of potato sacks, but I simply was not quite sure if this one was for potatoes. If only it had been labelled better… (please tell me the sarcasm is not lost). Sherry thought it could make a lively pillow or ottoman (heck people even cover chairs with potato sack fabric these days).
Across the street from the Antique Mall was a thrift store run by the local Humane Society (Brevard is in Transylvania County, no joke). I did not get to see much of this store because Clara was obsessed with looking at the kittens so Sherry poked around the back while Clara and I hung out with her new furry friends. Everyone in the store likely got sick of hearing “Hi kittycat. Hi kittycatkittycatkittycat! Buh-bye kittycat! Hi kittycat!”
But Sherry was able to locate a few entertaining items, coincidentally both chihuahua themed. Too bad Burger was not with us to enjoy them (he was back at the pet-friendly rental cottage that we stayed in for the weekend with the rest of our family).
Of all the shops we strolled through, the only place that we picked up anything was the local Habitat For Humanity ReStore. This is not the store, obviously, it is simply their delivery truck.
Though Sherry thought it would’ve looked better like this (she wants me to note that Edward is on the other side). Women and their vampires… this husband will never understand.
Anyways, back to our purchase. For $5 we picked up the frame on the right, with an intricate paper cut design inside. We did not know quite where we’d hang it but figured we’d find a place. Once we got back home we found the ideal spot for it – in a frame in our hallway gallery in lieu of a generic picture of apples (which used to live in our first kitchen).
We had to trim the paper cutting a bit to fit top-to-bottom, but it looks strong. We enjoy that it livened up that corner of the wall with some stronger color and an interesting pattern. Plus we got an extra frame out of the deal, which I am sure will get painted and hung somewhere else.
We feel mildly accomplished for not coming home totally empty handed (you know we enjoy snagging stuff for our house when we are on the road to keep the memory of our trip alive). But since we barely got a taste of Brevard while there (and even less of a taste of Asheville – we simply drove through on the highway) we are hoping we can make it back there for a longer visit sometime. Perhaps when another cousin gets married…
Has anyone else hit the road for a trip lately? Or gone to any striking fall weddings? Oh, and if anyone has any Asheville area suggestions for us (or anyone else) we’d enjoy to hear them since it looked like such a cool place.
Psst- Check out some of the cute and creative touches from the wedding (along with some family pics) here on the house Life.
