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Creative Books for Summer Survival

June 26, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’ve put together a fun list of creative books for summer survival. I found the hardest thing to do around here is try to curb electronic use. This stack of books is one of the things I can point Boo to when she says she is bored. It’s a mix of new additions and staples (you might notice a few repeats of past recommendations):

A little more on each one:
Art on the Rocks: More than 35 colorful & contemporary rock-painting projects, tips, and techniques to inspire your creativity. by F. Sehnaz Bac

I love all the cute ideas in this book and the step-by-step is great for any age. People have been painting rocks and leaving them around town recently and this book has the prettiest ideas I’ve seen. The fox!

“Packed with creative ideas, step-by-step projects, and endless inspiration, Art on the Rocks offers a colorful, modern approach to rock painting. Following an overview of how to gather and prepare your rocks, as well as a basic review of the tools and materials necessary for each project, three talented rock-painting artists demonstrate a range of contemporary designs featuring patterns, animals, mandalas, and more.”

Cut and Create Paper Mosaics: Craft Mosaic-by-Number Artworks with Paper Tiles, Scissors, and Glue by Chiharu Rosenberg

Boo thinks this book is a little overwhelming but I love the paper and mosaic maps included with it. I was thinking of using it beyond the book and on other surfaces.

“Simply cut, and assemble your mosaics following the templates and instructions in the book. The five included projects begin with simple mosaic scenes with large pieces and gradually move to more complex works of art with smaller, more detailed pieces. Featuring ten stunning mosaics and all the paper you need to cut and create each, this is the perfect, relaxing, all-in-one project for those interested in creating their own masterful mosaics.”

Girl Plus Pen:Doodle, Draw, Color, and Express Your Individual Style by Stephanie Corfee

Stephanie’s books are always a big hit. We love her bohemian style and how easy her drawing style is to adopt for kids, tweens and adults!

“Doodle everything from simple swirls, swooshes, and scallops to intricate and detailed designs that you can give as gifts or hang on your wall. Work on lettering and word art, plus decorative doodles perfect for prettifying just about anything. Be inspired to use your doodling skills on everything from paper and pebbles to scarves and snapshots.”

Drawing Calm: Relax, refresh, refocus with 20 drawing, painting, and collage workshops inspired by Klimt, Klee, Monet, and more by Susan Evenson

The best part about this book is all the techniques it has for branching out in other artistic styles.

“In Drawing Calm, artist Susan Evenson, shows readers how to do the same. It’s a book for everyone—non-artists as well as those with plenty of experience in a studio. Using restful, but dynamic works of art as a starting point, Susan Evenson teaches how to capture the light and peace of the master painting.”

Duct Tape Bags: 40 Projects for Totes, Clutches, Messenger Bags, and Bowlers by Richela Fabian Morgan

This is one of Boo’s favorite books. We have a huge collection of duct tape built up and she repeatedly goes back to this book for ideas and techniques on making her duct tape fashions better and better. It has detailed step-by-step instructions and all kinds of things to make from bags to wallets to luggage tags.

“A mix of pop art and urban style photos of each project and a cool vibe throughout will make you want to immediately roll up your sleeves and begin making duct tape bags.”

Perfectly Mindful Origami – The Origami Garden by Mark Bolitho

The origami in this book is incredible. I love that an entire garden can be made just from paper. Origami is an underrated art in my book. My interest was re-peaked after watching House of Cards and watching Claire Underwood trying to make her own origami. The papers included are gorgeous to look through too.

“Origami expert Mark Bolitho explains how to make perfectly formed origami objects that are pleasing to fold and make. As digital downtime becomes a constant quest in our fast-paced lives, the idea of contemplative, sloothing arts and crafts is undergoing a serious revival.”

How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum by Keri Smith

This is a long-time favorite book of ours. I’ve bought it repeatedly as a gift for other people too. It never gets old. It’s pretty much my life manual.

“Artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analyzing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists. The mission Smith proposes? To document and observe the world around you as if you’ve never seen it before. Take notes. Collect things you find on your travels. Document findings. Notice patterns. Copy. Trace. Focus on one thing at a time. Record what you are drawn to.”

Magical Miniature Gardens & Homes: Create Tiny Worlds of Fairy Magic & Delight with Natural, Handmade Décor by Donni Webber

We love fairy gardens and this book has such cute ideas. It’s helped us come up with lots of ideas for our own fairy garden!

“Create Whimsical, Miniature Gardens with Handmade Fairy Furnishings. From low-maintenance desert fairy gardens to tin towns for town-loving fairies, adults and kids alike will enjoy creating their very own miniature worlds. Complete with handmade décor like spool chimneys, magical signposts, goldfish and water lily ponds, birch and pine-thatch houses and more, your gardens will transport you into your own fairytale.”

Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes by Keri Smith

Another Keri Smith favorite! It focuses on throwing yourself off balance…going outside of the box. My favorite: Bury this book. Dig it up in three days.

“Your whole life, you’ve been taught to avoid making a mess: try to keep everything under control, color inside the lines, make it perfect, and at all costs, avoid contact with things that stain. This book asks you to do the opposite of what you have been taught. Think of it as your own personal rumpus room. A place to let loose, to trash, to spew, to do the things you are not allowed to do in the ‘real world.'”

This Is Not A Book by Keri Smith

Yes. We are Keri Smith fans. We have every single one of her books….in multiple copies.

“In this uniquely skewed look at the purpose and function of a “book”, Keri Smith offers an illustrated guide that challenges readers to creatively examine all the different ways This Is Not a Book can be used. With intriguing prompts, readers will discover that the book can be: A secret message—tear out a page, write a note on it for a stranger, and leave it in a public place. A recording device—have everyone you contact today write their name in the book. An instrument—create as many sounds as you can using the book, like flipping the pages fast or slapping the cover. This Is Not a Book forces you to ask, “If it’s not a book, what is it then?”—with a kaleidoscope of possible answers.”

Living Out Loud by Keri Smith

This is spiral bound book…a little different from the others I’ve listed by Keri Smith. It has postcards, stickers and other fun things to tear out.

“Remember those childhood days spent running in your bare feet, playing make-believe, and most of all, living life with wonderment? That youthful enthusiasm and playfulness are key to discovering who you are and what you love to do. Living Out Loud is the perfect prescription for a creative jump start to your life. Included are games, projects, activities, crafts, postcards, and playful ideas that will send you off on an exciting adventure, where you’ll discover inspiration around and within you.”

You can find other book roundups and reviews by clicking here!

The Old Whittier Hotel – A Railroad Boarding House From the Past

June 24, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

The old Whittier Hotel is a railroad boarding house a few miles away. We spent the morning salvaging some old antique doors for the Sixty-One Park Farmhouse out of it:

The old hotel was a boarding house for passengers who came into Whittier, NC by train. It’s only five miles from Bryson City and is well over 100 years old. It’s also one of the few original Whittier businesses still standing:

Gloria Nolan, who owns a small thrift store in downtown Whittier, is my go-to for history and old photos. She built an enormous model of the old town in her store. Here’s downtown Whittier back in the old days…the hotel stands right in the center of the photo:

Another view of the hotel (on the left):

The book My Mountain Granny (by Matthew Link Baker) has some more info on the hotel’s history:

Alexander Hamilton Hayes and his wife Margaret built the Whittier hotel around the turn of the century. It became known as the McHan Hotel. The McHan Hotel was ran by Eva Summerow McHan and Robert McHan.

McHan Hotel catered to large numbers of people including the drummers coming through. They would come into town, rent a room at one of the hotels, and a horse and buggy from the livery stable. They would travel around peddling apple trees, grapevines, sewing machines or anything they could sell. They would take the orders, then send the merchandise back on the train. Colonel Raymond Robbins also stayed at the McHan Hotel while on escape from Washington in 1932.

The Hotel had fourteen rooms and cost one dollar a night, including meals. The mass exodus that occurred in the 30’s and 40’s took away much of the hotel’s business. After the hotel closed, the front portion of it was used as a barber shop by Ike Parris until the mid 1980’s.

Here’s what the hotel looked like around 1900:

This is what that same porch looks like today…I took the photo as the doors were coming out:

The years haven’t treated the old hotel well:

If these walls could talk they’d have plenty of stories to tell:

A staircase to nowhere:

Layers of old wall paper:

An old sink:

The town of Whittier was founded in 1895 by Dr. Clark Whittier, a relative of Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. I found this interesting tidbit in an 1885 copy of the Friends’ Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellanieous Review:

Dr. Clark Whittier, of California, the founder, has recently purchased 60,000 acres of land in Swain and Jackson counties, and he has options of about 30,000 acres more. This land he proposes to cut up into small farms.

The unique features of the town, are the provisions made against the sale of liquor. Arrangements have ben made to prevent the manufacture and sale of spirituous and malt liquors, not only in the town, but within ten miles of it in every direction. There is a clause in every deed to land sold which provides that if at any time spirituous or malt liquor shall be manufactured, sold or given away on the land, the sale land revert back to Dr. Whittier or his heirs, upon the payment of the original purchase money.

I wonder if anyone ever got caught selling liquor?

Whittier was just a whistle-stop on the Southern Railway. The completion of the railroad in the western-most part of North Carolina brought new types of business including boarding houses and hotels.

These days the small town of Whittier is also the “North Pole” for the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad’s Polar Express that leaves out of the Bryson City depot in November and December.

I hope the hotel gets a new life one day but if it doesn’t at least a few of the doors will still stay around this area. I love that the doors we found today will add even more railroad history to the farmhouse we are renovating. I’ll have to label them somehow so people who stay at the farmhouse will know which doors were once hotel doors.

You can read more about the history of the farmhouse we are renovating here.

Daily Art – Paintings from Weeks 21 and 22

June 23, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

Someone asked this past week where I get my inspiration from when painting. The answer would be from everywhere. But I’ll try to explain a little.

The inspiration for this chicken came from lunch in a cafe. Sienna and I were on the way back from Tractor Supply one day and we stopped for lunch at the Blue Rooster in Waynesville, NC. Not only does the Blue Rooster have great food, but the entire restaurant is filled with chicken art. Above our booth was a rooster painted in front of a lavender geometric design that reminded me of wallpaper and a few days later I painted this:

Sitting at my window drinking coffee I watched the birds at the bird feeder one morning and thought “I should paint ALL the birds that eat from this feeder into one painting.” I could only fit four though:

Sitting at my blank canvas I randomly thought I wonder when the idea of using the mockingbird came to Harper Lee for her book. I decided to paint a mockingbird that morning:

I went fly fishing one day and this was a result:

I like how the rainbow trout turned out so I started sketching another animal…the animal that comes most natural to me to paint:

I finished it up the next day:

I recently watched the show Shetland on Netflix. It takes place on the Shetland Islands, part of Scotland, northeast of Great Britain. I was sucked in by the wide open spaces and the simplicity of the houses. I’m pretty sure that’s where this came from:

I’ve been collecting old tins for my Knothole boxes and this was one that I came across:

I painted this the same day (even though it’s not a daily painting)…a vintage Jello box:

Week 22’s daily paintings:

I had painted a floral painting that I wasn’t quite happy with so I made it into a background for a quote. I added a few layers of paint, sanded it down, added a few more, and then finally added a “happiness” quote:

A Swedish dala horse sits on a shelf in one of my bookcases. When in doubt…paint a dala horse:

When in doubt paint another dala horse:

I saw the Emerson quote first and then thought simple watercolor trees would go great with it:

Sometimes I just get out the watercolors and start pooling them into designs. Then I’ll find a quote that really speaks to me and I’ll use black sumi ink to paint it on top:

This might have been the day that Basquiat painting sold for $110 million dollars. I thought maybe if I start painting in the style of Basquiat I could sell more paintings and adopt more animals.

My aunt gave me a little bell that used to hang in her garden. Every day a cardinal comes and rings it right outside the window where I work. I don’t even have to see the cardinal to know it’s there. Yes cardinal I will paint you today:

Oh, and I’m still working on my quilted deer these days too….if it would stop raining and cool off enough. I’m a fair weather outdoor painter:

I do list some of my artwork for sale. You can find it on Etsy here.

All my daily paintings can be found indexed here!