The Green Warehouse And Rural Studio, Newbern

The other day when we were in the Black Belt, we went to Newbern and saw some other Rural Studio projects, like the fire department / town hall - this was the first new public building in the town in 110 years:

Just a small-small distance from there, on the other side of the street is this:

Okay, are you thinking like me? Like...ohmygosh that is William Christenberry's famous green warehouse? It is!

So of course I got pics of the baby with it. You know me. Some people have pics of their kids with Donald Duck at Disney World and I have mine in front of The Green Warehouse.

Okay! So this is the area behind Rural Studio Chantilly House - the 1830s/'40s Chantilly House used to be in Greensboro but was moved here to Newbern to avoid demolition - the amphitheatre and Subrosa Pantheon. There's a bottle tree there, too:

The wood shop:

Tin. Rusted.

This is the Patrick House designed/built by the RS:

The 1887 Spencer House has been renovated and added on to by the RS and is where faculty lives (Jessie - we stopped here for a minute and talked with Don, who of course remembered you and we, of course, talked about how wonderful you are):

This is the back of the house, above. If you sit on the front porch, you can just look out at the green warehouse all day.

Behind the Spencer House is this guest pod:

Inside - license plates lining the exterior entrance wall:

The RS also did some work on ball fields:

...and just a little outside of town is this stand for an organic farm:

Butch Anthony did all that great metalwork with the signs, etc on the outside.

Ah, this isn't even everything around Newbern...

Independence Day Wreath

This year for Independence Day, I came up with the idea of using bandannas in red, white, and blue to make a wreath. It was really fast and easy, and Shug had the best time playing with the extra bandannas. Peek-a-boo!

Materials:

The outer ring of a wire wreath form (I think mine was about 21" or so across)

bandannas - 5 each of red, white, and blue for this one

Directions:

Cut each bandanna into four equal squares, then make two opposite sides of each square meet to make a triangle, then roll the triangle into a tube, then tie it onto the wreath form:

You could make each color alternate, but here it's done four of each color:

I like the way this turned out!

Hummingbird Cake

Last year, Shug's birthday cake was the Baked Alaska at Antoine's in New Orleans. This year - since we stayed in town - rather than getting something from a bakery, I wanted to make him a cake myself. And since my baby likes bananas and pineapple, what better than a Hummingbird Cake?

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2-1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 large eggs, beaten

3/4 cups vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

8oz can crushed pineapple, with juice

1 c. pecans, chopped roughly plus another cup or so for outside of cake

2 bananas, chopped

Cream Cheese Icing:

2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened

2 lbs. confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*. Butter and flour three 8" cake pans. Place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each to make certain the cake won't stick.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the Kitchenaid and mix together.

Add the eggs one at a time until each is incorporated, then the oil. Next, add the pineapple with juice, bananas, vanilla, and pecans. Be careful not to overmix! If the batter seems a little 'loose', add a bit more flour until you get a good batter consistency.

Pour the cake batter into the cake pans and bake at 350* until set, about 25-35 minutes.

When the cakes are cool, make the icing. Just beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla in the Kitchenaid:

Spread the icing between each layer of the cake and all along the top and sides. Sprinkle with pecans all over:

Shug loved it - okay, we all loved it. Yum!

In The Window

In downtown Greensboro, there is a shop called 'Alabama Home Respiratory' - and these two vignettes make up their window display:

Yeah. Av knows a couple of people who used to be on the radio in B'ham. Back when the Seniors tour had their local golf tournament at Greystone, they would take their mannequin called "Zelda" and dress her up. They would put her on a lounge chair in the yard - which was right next to the golf course - and unless you actually got close, you'd have thought it was just a woman sitting out there watching the golf tournament.

Reminds me of Dottie in Starkville.

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Bergdorf Goodman's 5th Avenue and 58th Street in NYC is - from just last week through July 20 - using pieces from the American Visionary Art Museum in their windows.

Part of the Batimore Sun article reads:

There will be a window filled with wooden critters sculpted by Clyde Jones (including a pink horse and a turquoise dog), another filled with Devon Smith's robot family (including a robot dog). There will be a display of the jaw-droppingly intricate line drawings of Ted Gordon, whose faces are drawn without pen ever leaving paper, and a window devoted to the "Aliens vs. Angels" chess set crafted by Lyle Estill.

"I think this exhibit will be a delight that is very tasty in the palate of New Yorkers," says Rebecca Hoffberger, AVAM's founder and director, who will be in New York for the display's opening on Friday. While acknowledging that New Yorkers are "a tough bunch to impress," Hoffberger has no doubt they'll like what they see staring back at them from the Bergdorf Goodman windows.

I looked on Flickr to see if anyone had put pictures up yet of the new displays and found this one.

Missionary Mary Proctor

Wednesday's Tallahassee Democrat ran a story about Missionary Mary Proctor having her home and studio vulnerable to being lost due to a $5000 debt to her landlord.

These are some of her pieces that I've taken pics of from different art festivals:

A portion of the article reads:

“I haven’t been able to go to shows, because people just aren’t supporting as much as they used to,” Proctor said.

Proctor said she’s made about $8,000 to $10,000 a year within the last year, but she remembers a time when she averaged almost twice as much.

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“I’m a minister through art, and tell me how many ministers aren’t needed,” Proctor said. “I’m a visionary because I use my paintings to show people how to live and have inner peace in these times of chaos. I’m in trouble now and I need help from the community.”

Proctor will have an art sale Saturday at her studio located at 3919 Woodville Highway, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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They say that you can reach her at her also at missionarymary ---AT--- comcast ...dot... net

Her official website is here, and although it's very most likely best to purchase directly from her at this time, she's also represented (and you can see more pics of her work) here, here, here, and here.

American Artisan Festival

This past weekend, we went to the American Artisan Festival in Nashville. This was the first time we had ever been, and some of the artists there were completely new to us - like these pieces by Linda and Rick Bachman from Aurora, Colorado:

This one above is called "High Noon" and his eyes shift from left to right as well as the target at his tummy.

"Grandfather" clock:

"Mark Twang":

This *gorgeous* pottery is by Amelia Stamps:

If she exhibits at this festival again next year, I'll have to get at least a couple of pieces.

These are all bottle/wine stoppers made from vintage doorknobs, pool balls, faucet handles (and more) by Knobstoppers:

This vintage flatware chandelier was made by their 'sister' company, Cake Vintage Table & Home:

When I saw that chandelier, I was thinking "wait - I've seen something vaguely similar in my Wisteria catalog...".

If you go to the Cake website, take a look at the really pretty linens. I have some burlap that I've been planning to print with a chandelier stencil that I have, and what they do is hand-screened with kitchen designs. I've also been planning to make a banner with my burlap and use some really ornate lettering - I'll probably post that project next week.

Oh! And if you click on 'limited edition vintage', guess what they're selling? Vintage French sacks (remember talking about how expensive those are?).

Next is Holden McCurry's art. This is one of the prayer towers I have of his - I got it because it reminded me of First Presbyterian in Port Gibson with the hand at the top of the steeple:

Inside each of the towers is a little slip of paper, which is meant for the owner to write his/her prayer or wishes:

Here's the church:

The hand in more detail:

...and after I bought the prayer tower from Holden a couple of years ago, we found a church in Alabama that also has a hand at the top of a steeple - the 1839 Mooresville Brick Church:

Closer view:

So anyway - Holden had a great selection with him at the festival:

They're just fantastic. I'd love to have 20 of them and put them everywhere.

One of his new projects is making these 'journey boats':

He has a selection of them here.

We took pictures with the boys at Dale Rogers' metal sculptures (his work is *amazing* - there are pieces at his website that he didn't bring and are just crazy-good). Love the giant dog with the bone cutout:

Right now, Dale is doing 'The Big Dog Show' which is the largest solo sculpture exhibition in New England.

Loved this festival and can't wait to talk with some of my artistic friends about showing next year!

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The next huge-huge art festival we're thinking about going to is in July at the Southern Highland Craft Guild 62nd Annual Craft Fair in Asheville. The list of exhibitors is here.

...then there's the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (we won't make that, maybe next year...), Folk Fest in August, Atlanta Arts Festival and Monte Sano Art Show in September, Bluff Park and Kentuck in October...

National Sacred Harp Convention

Late last week, the National Sacred Harp Convention was at a church just south of B'ham, so I took the boys to the singing (if you're not familiar with the name, but saw the movie Cold Mountain and remember the music from it - that's sacred harp).

Beautiful! I took a small-small movie, too:

At last year's convention:

This was from the first Sacred Harp singing I'd ever been to - a couple of years ago in Montgomery at the Archives building. *Oh* it was the most beautiful singing I'd ever heard...and since I uploaded it to YouTube, it's had over 10k hits:

There's also an excellent documentary about Shape Note called Awake, My Soul.

Pie Lab

One of the main things we wanted to see in Greensboro was Pie Lab - there were signs downtown for it:

Here it is! Could it be any...cuter?

...and what's really genius is the sign, which can be reconfigured to spell out different words:

See how it's done, with bolts and washers and...um...what's that other thing called...oh I don't know all my hardware-y words. You probably know what those other things are, though. Wing nuts maybe?:

There was a nice article that came out about Pie Lab just late last week, after we were there - part of it reads:

PieLab, the newest eatery to open in Greensboro, Alabama, would be a familiar space to creatives who frequent their local cafes. It's a place you can order a slice of Chocolate Bourbon Pecan pie, maybe some lemonade or coffee, read a book, sketch a picture, review the day's headlines with your neighbors. Except PieLab is not really a cafe, it's a space created by fourteen designers as part of the design-for-good movement Project M, hoping to draw the community in to a neutral space for conversation and connections. And of course, because of one very obvious reason: Who doesn't like pie?

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Bielenberg was inspired in part by architect Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio, a program where architecture students built homes and public buildings for impoverished residents in rural Alabama. Bielenberg's connection to the cause was so strong that after visiting Mockbee's home base in Hale County, he decided to locate Project M there on a more permanent basis as M Lab, building upon its gravitational pull that attracts designers and architects who want to do good.

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The entire article is here. Gorgeous interior pics are here.

Greensboro, Alabama

Coming into Greensboro, we found the Hale County Animal Shelter that the Rural Studio designed/built:

In town, Mustang Oil is an...well, an institution. When the NY Times came to town, they even mentioned it as one of their "places to eat" in their "On the Path of Walker Evans" piece from April.

They wrote: Mustang Oil (2205 West Main Street, Greensboro; 334-624-9301) offers a local menu. Fried catfish with two sides, including fried okra or baked beans, is $8.99. Grilled catfish is $12.99. Diners can fill up their gas tank after dinner at one of the two pumps.

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Someone had a dinosaur in their front yard:

This is my favorite building downtown:

...so of course I had to get a pic of Shug walking in front:

In 2005 I took this pic of the building when it was this blue color:

Rural Studio's HERO Knowledge Cafe:

Downtown:

Ah, like this old Allstate lettering:

2 Bruthas Music Shop:

This is the Dorothy Wilson home, built/designed by the Rural Studio in 1996:

I'm going to have to look up this house:

Next: Pie Lab!

On The Way To Greensboro

These are just a few pics on the way to Greensboro:

Rather than put up scarecrows, the people that had this garden hung up clothes on hangers:

I think this was on County Road 38, I think near Sawyerville. The sign at the top reads "Apostolic Faith Church of Jesus Christ Temple". It was just very simple and beautiful and had kudzu growing all around it.

Reimagined Feed Sack

I can't remember which, but one of my so-super-expensive-I-only-buy-when-it's-on-clearance catalogs had a few pillows made from antique French feed sacks. Gosh they were *so* pretty.

Except...although the French words and designs looked really nice and different and lovely (there are several sacks on eBay if you want to make pillows yourself), I decided I'd really rather get something with some connection to home. Sure enough, on etsy, Catnap Cottage had a vintage Alabama Feed Mills feed sack pillow. Perfect!

Love it - Cindy made it so quickly and shipped it out really fast. Some of the pillows she does are with vintage textiles and others are with reproduction fabrics.

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Wisteria has table runners made from antique French feed sacks at $399. Okay, maybe it was my Wisteria catalog...

Open The Grill, Holy Smoke, NE Or Just N, And Rebel Cheese

Just in time for Father's Day, we got the new Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book.

...which we will be cooking from for the next couple of weeks, probably!

It's Av's favorite ribs place, with of course a great sign:

They've won all kinds of awards, including Memphis in May 1st Place Pork for years in a row. I've never been to MiM, but I have been a couple of times to its (unaffiliated) kosher cousin - the ASBEE/Kroger Kosher Barbecue Contest and Festival, also in Memphis. Here are some pics from one year we went:

Yeah! Also, I'm not sure if they still do this, but Corky's, whose owners are Jewish, once or twice made a bunch of kosher barbecue, ribs, chicken, etc. and shipped it all over for a Memphis school fundraiser. I don't know if they de-treyfed everything temporarily or made it all in a different kitchen or what.

Well, back to Big Bob's...a couple of places have reprinted recipes from the cookbook, including dry ribs, loaf pan chicken and (gasp! my fave!) white chicken sauce. Yes, yes, yes.

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The Huntsville Times has been doing a 'best of' feature and last month they had a poll for "Best Barbecue in Northeast Alabama".

I'm not sure *why* they made it NE AL and not just all of north Alabama...H'ville isn't exactly in the middle, but...if you ask most people what a city in NE AL is they would probably come up with Scottsboro or Ft. Payne more times than H'ville. Anyway.

Okay, so they had the poll for best bbq and Big Bob's only got 8% of the vote (which, to bring up the directional thing again, Decatur is north-central and not NE so maybe that had something to do with it). Still. Eight percent!

The winner was Big Cove BBQ in Owens Cross Roads and second place was New Market BBQ. Definitely need to try both of those now.

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Garden & Gun has a photo gallery that includes Big Bob Gibson's at last weekend's NYC Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Picture #12 shows Jim 'n Nicks (also from AL) serving a plate with smoked sausages and some really good-looking pimento cheese. Yum. Oh, and at the festival they even had seminars, including:

A native of New Orleans, Chef John Currence of Oxford, Mississippi’s City Grocery Restaurant Group designs his menus around classic Creole French and Deep South technique with a backbone of local and seasonal ingredients. So it’s no surprise to learn that when it comes to tamales, John doesn’t limit himself to beef and corn husks. Watch as he demonstrates his recipes for dressed up Mississippi Delta Tamales – contemporary versions of the region’s signature preparation – including one featuring that old Southern favorite, Pimento Cheese.

The next time we're in Oxford, we've got to go to his new restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast which has already been recognized by Esquire and Bon Apetit. And at the bottom of BBB's website, the fresh-squeezed juice is mentioned along with where they source different ingredients, including this:

We use Mississippi State cheese whenever we can...only because there is no Rebel Cheese, which would surely be more tasteful and refined.

Love it.