What's new at The Loft - Episode 113

Spring Break in Asheville - Part 3

Hope you enjoyed the last post of the gardens and flowers at the Biltmore Estate.  At the end of our wonderful day touring the gardens , we headed over to the Deerpark area, where the stables are and took a lovely and peaceful carriage ride through the woods which went around the back of the estate.

Day 3 in Asheville

We reserved our 3rd and 4th day in Asheville for going downtown and doing some shopping.  Asheville has a reputation of being an "arty" city, will lots of galleries and artists of all kinds, so I of course expected to find lots of places to buy supplies for my own arts and crafts endeavors.  And rather than have to use the yellow pages or the internet to search for fabric, yarn and art supply stores etc, our hotel had a wonderful brochure of just what I was looking for. So after breakfast on our 3rd day we headed downtown where I went in search of interesting things and new fun things to play with. I've highlighted somethings below.

Purls Yarn Emporium

 Tipsy Star Quilts

Ashlyn and Cassidy playing with various camera's while mom is shopping for fabric at Tipsy Star Quilts

That is one big iron!!!

This was an old Woolworths store converted into a half art gallery/half diner where we had lunch.  

Bought some sweet stuff here 

Here are some other things I saw while out shopping that captured my interest

DAY 4

Because I was disappointed in my endeavor on Day 3 to buy a lot of fabric, my husband was nice enough to take me out to Asheville Cotton Company., which is a little bit of a ride outside of the downtown area.  Their ad said that they had over 8000 bolts of fabric in the store and while I didn't count them, I think the pictures below show they had a lot of fabric (sorry about the quality of some of the photos, it was hard to take pictures while holding multiple bolts).

My husband and kids didn't want to come into the store so believe it or not they went to the grocery store a little down the plaza to get some snacks, then went to Starbucks for Vanilla Cremes (steamed milk) and then waited in the car while I shopped.  The ladies in the store were so helpful and very cooperative as I brought them bolt after bolt of fabrics to cut.  I walked out of the store a little less than 90 minutes later with $125.00 worth of fabric.

After my desire to purchase a lot of fabric had been satisfied, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while and then stopped at the Folk Art Center for a look around.

Well I hope you enjoyed today's post.   My next post will feature pictures from our last day in North Carolina where we went for a ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.  Comments are always welcome so drop me a line and let me know what is on your mind.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 112

Spring Break in Asheville, NC - Part 2

What says spring more that beautiful flowers!  On our recent visit to The Biltmore Estate in beautiful Asheville, NC we had the pleasure of being able to see their gardens in full preparation mode for their Spring Festival which was to start just two weeks later.  I took so many pictures of the gardens that I could do several posts on them but for this one I thought I would share just some of photos taken on my iPhone.

Flowers being grown inside the conservatory

These photos and lots lots more were taken over a two day period because we only had a short amount of time to tour the gardens after going through the house and we had reservations for a carriage ride later that afternoon. Unfortunately our carriage ride was rained out for the first day so we went to Antler Hill late in the afternoon and looked around the shops and museums where the Biltmore Estate Winery is. Check out my super8 video on what the family thought of our first day.

Hope you enjoyed Day 2 in Asheville.  Your comments are always welcome so feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.