Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 54 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

Sixty-One Park – A Farmhouse Restoration

March 10, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

“Houses carry the atmosphere of their past.” -Isle Crawford

You know I love restoration and trains and history…that love has led us to yet another project. This sweet little 1940’s farmhouse in downtown Bryson City has been neglected for a long time…but we immediately saw something in it:

With our friend Jaime Perkins and his wife (also Jaime) we decided to just jump right in and try to save this old house. All four of us immediately knew we could make it into something amazing for visitors looking for a unique place to stay in our small town. I didn’t even know the actual address of the property until after we had put in an offer for it a few weeks ago…and when I read it off the paper I knew that’s what we needed to call it: Sixty-One Park

The farmhouse was once owned by the town’s railroad telegrapher Cecil Plott and his wife Mildred. Their son Tom still lives in the area and was gracious enough to meet us at the house yesterday to paint a picture of what it was once like. He has some really great stories to tell and we all just followed him from room to room as he and his wife Judith looked around for the first time in about thirty years. In the photo below Mr. Plott was showing us where the old coal stove used to sit that would heat the living room. On the opposite side of the wall was the wood stove for cooking. As a young boy he was responsible for keeping the kindling chopped. The coal stove was eventually switched to kerosene.

“I could only carry one gallon of kerosene at first and it was a long way to the woodshed to get it. Eventually I was able to carry five gallons at once.”

We really want to honor the history of this house and its connection to the railroad so it’s going to be a fun journey to follow. I’ve always wanted a farmhouse…and a beautiful, inspiring place where people can gather. I feel like this is a dream come true.

Brett and Jaime couldn’t help themselves and started demo this morning before they both went off to work. Here’s the upstairs landing where the three smaller bedrooms are. We will be adding a bathroom upstairs too.

I’ll be posting photos of the restoration and history as we go. I’ll try to round up summaries in blog posts but to see the progress real time and for updates on when we might actually start taking reservations check our the Sixty-One Park Facebook Page and Instagram page!

One Painting a Day – Week 7 and 8

March 5, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

One Painting A Day for 365 Days. Catching up on my daily painting posts. This is everything I painted in week 7:

A tiny watercolor trout. I loved painting this one! It turned out much better than I thought it was going to:

A few watercolor hearts. I love Jane Davenport’s new line of watercolors at Michaels….they are so rich with pigment:

I spent this day working in my art journal using Jane’s washi tape line too:

A small watercolor moon. I added the quote to it afterwards because it needed something extra:

A tiny abstract painting on an easel. This one was fun…I actually cut out the teeny tiny paper dolls to use as a stencil. It would have been easier if I’d had some teeny tiny scissors:

We went to eat dinner at the Hemlock Inn one night and I took this photo from the porch:

I was inspired to paint one of the rocking chairs:

I spent this particular day doing some little portraits of Happy. Doesn’t she look pleased? Yay for a happy customer. Portrait customers can be very fickle.

And here’s everything I painted in week 8:

I didn’t paint the background of this painting…it’s a vintage thrift store find…and I just added the quote to it:

One day I painted a rooster. It’s layered acrylic on wood panel:

A pink and blue Choose Joy watercolor:

A formal portrait of Happy. I love her crown of flowers:

Roses in watercolor:

I’m learning my scientific fish names. This is a bluegill I painted. It’s a Lepomi macrochirus. A mouthful. Much easier to say bluegill, bream, brim, or copper nose:

An abstract forest and quote. I was very happy with how this layering turned out. Some experiments work…other’s don’t. This one worked. And I love John Muir.

And I keep going….I can’t believe I’ve made this far.

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!

Cabinet of Curiosities: Shadow Box Ideas for Collecting

March 3, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’m always asked what I do with all my found objects and collections….I display them. I use shadow boxes, glass boxes, mason jars and almost any type of display I come across. I shared the sea glass box in yesterday’s post:

I like to photograph found objects in collage form first….that’s one way to “keep” things without actually keeping them. But I’m a found object hoarder:

The good news is that I have a thing for shadow boxes and they tend to keep my collections pretty organized…especially since I probably start a new collection every single week:

A few vintage Smoky Mountain pennants I found (three starts a collection right?) needed a good display:

I just pinned them to a back-loading shadow box I found a Michaels. If I find any more I’ll probably just get a larger shadow box and create a circle shape:

This one I hung on the wall:

A collection of arrowheads I put together for a friend’s new rental cabin. I attached (permanently) to the linen backing of the shadow box using liquid nails. If you don’t want to attach things permanently you can add a layer of cushion and fabric so that they sink and sit right against the glass.

The attached arrowheads:

These three shadow boxes are top load which I love because they can be changed out easily. I keep them on a large table in our living room as “specimen” boxes:

Visitors love to open the boxes and go through the trinkets and found objects. I add to them almost daily:

And what about these other random objects:

And things like seashells?

I use these rustic divided shadow boxes for some of them and other I put into inexpensive quart mason jars:

The boxes are supposed to hang on the wall but I stack them horizontally on a shelf with the jars on top and around them:

I always laugh when overhear Sienna when new friends come over to the house:

Friend: What’s with the doll heads in a jar?

Sienna: Oh that’s just my mom’s creepy stuff.

I must be winning at parenthood. You’d tell me if I wasn’t right? And one day I will open that oddity museum I always dream about: Ashley’s Cabinet of Odd and Creepy Curiosities. Maybe that will be Sienna’s first summer job…tearing ticket stubs.

Don’t feel too sorry for her…she has boxes of her own. I couldn’t get photos of them because they are stacked high on a shelf in her closet but I did get a photo of this shadow box that hangs on her wall. It’s also front opening and every time we visit a historical landmark, national park or museum we purchase a pin. They are all in order so it’s fun to look back to see where we’ve been:

All of my boxes are from Michaels. They have a great selection and in many different sections if you look around.