Good Stuff in Georgia

Were I to review this week's activities...well... you would be bored. Instead, I choose to share my adventures from last week. I was very fortunate to spend a fun and relaxing few days in Athens with my aunt, uncle and cousins (one of whom was in from Australia, it was a rare and awesome treat to see her!). Think good food, good wine, and lots of good conversation. We ate breakfast at The Grit - a ridiculously good vegetarian place.

There was time to take a run around Athens and do some "hunting" in Chamblee on the way home. The Ice House offered  a gorgeous 50's sofa and a set of really nice set of Danish Modern Chairs (only $140 for all four!)

At Antique Factory, I spied the craziest and most awesome tile-top coffee table I've ever seen, and a set of Blakely Arizona Cactus dinnerware (I thought this motif was only present on tumblers!).

Last weekend was spent celebrating Mr. Cheese's birthday in a low key way: a run in the Chickamauga Battlefield, a walk around downtown and the riverfront, watching lots of sci-fi movies, eating good food, and a trip to Gateway Antique Mall in Ringgold, Georgia, where we spied mod concrete patio chairs, a Krystal restaurant tupperware set, and a fantastic 10 foot long 60's era stained glass window.

It all added up to a delightful week! 

This weekend's plans include a possible visit to our town's annual Brewfest and stuffing ourselves with my mother-in-law's famous tacos. What are you up to this weekend?

World's Longest Yard Sale - 2012

How was your weekend, my friends? Our days were spent searching for treasures at the world's longest yard sale. Over 400 miles on the odometer later, I'm sad to say that we didn't come home with much, but had a good time nonetheless.

 Saturday's Route: Outskirts of Dunlap, TN driving north to Crossville, TN.

Pretty much the coolest gimmick for a typewriter ever:  This Royal Swinger typewriter has an AM radio built in! I wanted it. I mean, I really wanted it. Priced at a reasonable $100, and the dealer even said he'd come off that price, but I just couldn't make myself pull the trigger. 

One dealer had a lot of neat signs, pedal cars, and vintage sporting goods, but his prices were way high. The sweet Orange Krate Schwinn Stinger was $950. Yep.

 We parked in a cow pasture.

 Vintage women's clothing in a mobile store. Cute!

 Lunch was a really tasty cheeseburger & tots at Little Maggie's Cafe in Pikeville. This cute restaurant is owned by members of Mr. Cheese's family, and the building was built by Mr. Cheese's grandparents in 1947.

Sunday's Route: Lookout Mountain, TN driving south to Gadsden, AL. We had never driven this route before, and had no idea what to anticipate. For the first he first 40 or so miles we saw only about a dozen vendors set up. But then... 

 Things got a bit more exciting when we arrived in Mentone, Alabama - a cute artsy town.  I'd love to have visited this place on day one of the sale (Thursday).

 We took a wrong turn, which took us off the mountain, but it was a lovely (if accidental) side trip.

One thing that we spotted over and over in Alabama were vendors selling tires. This was the most sculptural tire display.

 Cute little old store - I cannot remember where in Alabama this was, but it was definitely rural.

Although the 2012 yard sale proved to be mostly just scenic driving, the hunt is always fun and it's an adventure to travel down new roads. The tentative plan for next year is to take the trek up north to the Ohio and Michigan leg, where the surely the midcentury treasures are easier to find.

Stay tuned for some exciting news this afternoon...

The World's Largest Treehouse

Yesterday my friend Megan and I made a trip to the world's largest treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee. I had visited the treehouse with Mr. Cheese last summer, but I could return to this remarkable place a hundred times and still find something new to see. 

The (awesome) grafitti collection continues to grow and grow. Names, quotes, and little drawings cover the interior walls of the treehouse, left by visitors from all over the country (I even saw a couple of passages in German). Those images will appear in a future post - it's a collection good enough to stand on it's own. A winter trip to the treehouse is definitely in order, as the trees mask the bulk of the structure.

Oh, and a word to the politicians out there: I could totally see one of you guys ripping off my flag/Jesus field image for a political ad. Don't.

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye Summer 2010. We had fun...
Watching Sailboats at St.Augustine Beach...
Camping in Florida in record breaking 98 degree weather...
On lookout for bison, wild horses, and alligators at Payne's Prairie...
Lovely lazy days and sunsets in Cedar Key...


A weekend of kitsch in Cherokee, North Carolina...
Teaching a nephew to ride a bike...
Good times, summer. See you next year.

Eudora Welty: Photographer

Before Eudora Welty became a successful writer, she began taking pictures while working as a publicity agent for the WPA in the 1930's, taking candid snapshots of Depression-era life in her native Mississippi as well as New York City. In 1936 she was first published, and she had her first solo photography exhibition in New York. As she would later reminisce in her memoir One Writer’s Beginnings, “The camera was a hand-held auxiliary of wanting-to-know.”

1936 - Girl on Porch (auspicious coincidence)
Ruins of Windsor ( Gibbes Museum). I find this one haunting!
The Rides - State Fair (Garden & Gun)
Title unknown (Up Mississippi)
Title unknown (Garden & Gun)
I stumbled upon a 1989 NY Times interview with Ms. Welty regarding her photography and the beginning of her writing career. Definitely worth a read!