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community
next to christ church on edisto, there is a wonderful community building, equipped for cooking or meetings. i love a red roof faded by the hot hot sun.
photographs and words by rebecca wood
winterville is located just outside athens, although technically it is part of at the athens/clarke county community...they have a sweet little community garden right across the street from their community park. the community garden is vibrant and well-utilized- there is always something growing there!
photographs and words by kristen bach
we are excited to announce that we are hosting a creative workshop, in celebration of spring and flowers and beauty...it will be saturday, april 30, 2016 at sweet olive farm, just outside athens...with our friends from mandy from moonflower design, photographer paige french, wild food, & our very own rebecca wood...it will be a refreshing and rejuvenating day!
read below for more info,
and please, join us!
click here to sign up!
saturday, april 30, 2016 . from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
at sweet olive farm outside athens, georgia
spend the day with us, noticing and learning about the beauty around us on the grounds of sweet olive farm animal rescue in winterville, georgia, just outside of athens. we will walk the woods and the fields, gathering ingredients that we will use throughout the day as we learn new things from our friends: flower farmer & floral designer mandy o’shea of moonflower design, photographer paige french, the ladies from Wild Food, and artist rebecca wood of r.wood studio. no experience is necessary, just an open mind and a willingness to try something new and creative.
each participant will also receive a copy of our book, beauty everyday.
sweet olive farm is an animal rescue farm and event venue just outside of athens, georgia. in addition to their animals, they have a restored barn, victorian home and cottage, and woods and fields for roaming.
flow for the day:
9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: welcome coffee & nibbles
10 a.m.: foraging walk and flower arranging lesson with mandy o’shea of moonflower design
noon: color & composition: photographing flowers & arrangements with paige french
1 p.m.: a healthy, fresh lunch using some foraged ingredients and other local goodies with the ladies of beauty everyday and Wild Food
2 p.m.: drawing from nature with rebecca wood: looking at flowers and learning to sketch them, simply
3:30-4 p.m.: closing
please join us!
we are very excited to have our friend natalie chanin in athens for a few days! for those of you who are local, she will be giving a free talk tonight (friday, jan.29) at the UGA chapel at 5 pm...!
natalie was recently featured on the moth and told the story of her returning home to alabama, after years away. also, the bitter southerner recently wrote of her work too.
please take a moment and learn about natalie and all of the great work she and her company Alabama Chanin does in her hometown of florence, alabama, and come out to her talk if you are able.
words & photographs by rinne allen
a longtime reader of beauty everyday asked us to share some places where we find inspiration...online.
while we do not spend as much time as we once did online (thankfully!), there are still a few places that we consistently go to for inspiration...and we have enjoyed finding small moments of inspiration in other digital mediums, like instagram, podcasts, etc....plus, it feels as if our community has widened because of the connections and inspirations we have made (& shared) through these new realms.
here is a list of some of our favorites, in alphabetical order, grouped by format...
ONLINE:
3191 miles apart:
the two friends behind 3191 were really at the forefront of the blogging movement, and all these years later, they still inspire, sharing simple everyday moments & ideas from their respective homes in california & maine. since i spend time in maine every summer, i love that i have gotten to know one of them contributors, maria, and i love keeping up with the life & seasons there through her pictures. and, 3191 will be publishing another book, soon! - rinne
http://3191milesapart.com/
alabama chanin's journal:
our friends at alabama chanin put so much into their online journal, with thoughtful new posts every day. i have learned so much from it, about the south, food, making and more! - rinne
http://journal.alabamachanin.com/
behind the scenes at the american museum of natural history:
i love just peeking at this page for inspiration about the specimens in their collection and the stories behind them. - rinne
http://www.amnh.org/explore/behind-the-scenes
archives of Bloom magazine:
when Bloom was in print, i felt lucky when i got to see to actually see it...which wasn't often. now that it is no longer in print, i love that they share part of their visual archive online. - rinne
http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/
my new roots:
sarah britton, of my new roots, cooks the way I want to eat. every recipe in her book and blog is mouth-watering to me, so when I need some food inspiration, i head over to her site! - kristen
http://www.mynewroots.org
orangette:
when I was expecting my daughter 6 years ago, I read molly wizenberg's first book, "A Homemade Life". Her book completely made me fall in love with her writing style, her approach to food, and her buckwheat pancakes (which I ate nearly everyday until I gave birth). 6 years later, I still love to read her blog! - kristen
http://orangette.net
rural studio's archive of projects:
we have written about our love for rural studio before, and have gone there to visit many times. if you haven't explored their work in rural alabama, take a moment and click through the link below...it will definitely leave you inspired! - rinne
http://www.ruralstudio.org/projects.html
sweet peach blog:
our friend pamela writes the blog sweet peach. we have collaborated with her on some projects over the past few years, and i always love to read her updates on what's going on in the south and hear about new companies and makers. (editor's note, pamela is refreshing her blog at the moment, but stay tuned!) - kristen
http://www.sweetpeachblog.com/
textile arts center blog:
i love dipping into the textile art center's blog to see what they are up to and to get inspiration for projects. i love reading about their creative workshops & community projects! - rinne
http://textileartscenter.com/blog/
PODCASTS:
the southern foodways alliance app & podcast:
we have long been fans of all the SFA does, and now anyone can enjoy it anywhere via their app and podcast! A good place to listen to short stories from Southern folks and their connections to food. - rinne & kristen
https://www.southernfoodways.org/gravy-format/gravy-podcast/
SFA app
Splendid Table:
I have been driving to Atlanta a lot for work and have been loving to catch up on podcasts. this is one of my staples for my commute. - kristen
http://www.splendidtable.org/
INSTAGRAM:
@7.6inthethird:
believe it or not, it's all photos of forgotten and dilapidated tennis courts, taken by my friend (and, kristen's husband), josh skinner. the photos are artful and evocative, and you can't believe how many dilapidated tennis courts there are! - rebecca
@andrea_gentl:
andrea gentl has worked as a photographer for many years and i have long admired her work. her instagram feed often provides me with inspiration for color palettes and ideas, or gives me a quiet moment with beauty. - rinne
@egould_:
this is the instagram account of the curator of gardens at monticello in virginia. i love being able to see this historic landscape & the change of seasons through her eyes. - rinne
@geninne:
i love her photos of her dreamy southwestern adobe house and studio. she does wonderful animal and bird drawings and watercolors, and carves her own stamps of the same. inspiring and dreamy. - rebecca
@kathydanmala:
she lives on the west coast and does flower mandalas most everyday; right up my alley! - rebecca
@sugarhouseworkshop:
i have young children and enjoy the tiny glimpses of the rural handmade life shared here by this homeschooling mama. - rinne
@voices_of_industry:
i still feel new to instagram, eventhough i have been on it for a year now. adele stafford, of voices of industry, was one of the first people that i discovered on instagram that made me look forward to seeing what she created next...i love following her work as a weaver. lucky for us, adele just relocated to north carolina from california, so hopefully we will see more of her, in person! - rinne
enjoy!
our friends mandy and steve invited a great group out to their farm last week, to help harvest the last of their flowers before the first frost arrives...
they had set up little work stations for each of us to do some flower arranging, on old bee boxes...buckets of flowers lined the greenhouse that we used as our work area, with more flowers spilling in from outside...
some of our favorite folks came along too: ginny branch, megan fowler of brown parcel press, and susan hable from hable construction. and to make the day even better, it was rebecca's birthday...a great way to spend the day...surrounded by friends, flowers, and creativity!
we all brought vases from our collections to use:
rebecca takes pictures inside the dogtrot:
mandy and steve arrange side by side...
the light inside the greenhouse was a amazing, and rebecca and mandy had also set up different backdrops around the property: a dark one, a blue one, a white one, one with pattern...plus there was a ton of texture from the barn and outbuildings themselves...
afterwards, we shared a great potluck meal and visited as we lunched...it was a great day!
thanks, too, to our friends at Terrain, for writing a little bit about this party in their bulletin!
words and photographs by rinne allen
it's so much fun to wind around the hills and hollers of old tobacco country. the steep green hills going up to the sky, and the old barns, many blackened by the application of used motor oil (to preserve the wood back in the day). this distinctive white building stood on a hill at a crossroads. it was sheltered by an enormous old oak tree. a man came by and told us it was an old community building that had served as a courthouse and a schoolhouse, and now was just used to store old christmas decorations.
photographs and words by rebecca wood
we have been friends with annette joseph for probably 15 years...it has been fun to watch her career grow and she has remained as fun as she ever was...she reached out to us this spring and asked us to host and style a supper for atlanta magazine's newly relaunched magazine, Home. we immediately thought about using sweet olive farm as the setting and began asking various friends if they would contribute to the party...our friend mimi agreed to help with the food and our friends bain and amanda said they would help with the beverages...
we picked a spot in the piney woods, and brought in everything that was needed for a dinner- the tables, plates from r.wood studio, flowers, etc...we loved the improvised crudité platters that we banged out from a slab of wood and nails...! and, kristen made some gelatin-printed napkins and also set up a kids activity, a nature weaving craft. while we were setting everything up, a few farm visitors came and checked in on us (see below)...
around supper time, our families and friends arrived and we all sat down and enjoyed a great meal and delicious drinks together. thanks, annette, for letting us have fun like this!
photographs by rinne allen & kristen bach
our friend chef hugh acheson recently started a non-profit called seed life skills , and i recently spent time with them in the classroom and in the teaching garden at clarke middle school here in athens, as they learned to make pickles with hugh and almeta tuloss, director of seed life skills.
as they write on their website, "Seed Life Skills is a living curriculum dedicated to empowering youth to be sustainable stewards of food and financial resources; while emphasizing innovative and handcrafted approaches to core and community lessons."
go check out their good work!
words and photographs by rinne allen
since the fall, we have been working with our friend pamela of sweet peach on a guide to 50 of our favorite spots in athens...the free printed guide will be available in just a few weeks! we wanted to share a sneak peek today, as we all proof the guide in preparation for sending it off to the printer...
it is a beautiful little guide and will share the sensibility of pamela's guides to atlanta that she has produced over the last year...the wonderful sarah neuburger of the small object illustrated the guide and her style makes it all the more special.
we love sharing what we love about athens, so keep your eyes open for the guide around town!
the folks behind the popular athens-centric website, the broad collective, are unveiling their new physical space this weekend.
after working on the space for months, husband and wife josh & alex brown will open Broad 9A on saturday, may 2 at 7 p.m. with an open house & party. meant to be both a co-working space as well as a venue for workshops & events, the space is a physical manifestation of what they have been trying to do online over the last year: bring together the creative community of athens. we think their idea has hit at just the right time and look forward to seeing it grow!
for more info, visit their website, or head over to the space to check it out for yourself!
plus, we happened to visit on the day that they were painting their new mural with artist bryn rouse...bryn was drawing the design while alex painted...
words & photographs by rinne allen
last weekend, georgia organics held their annual conference in athens. it was a weekend full of learning and inspiration, and meeting great people. i traveled around to many of the farm tours to take photographs for georgia organics and wanted to share a sampling here...there were many other inspiring farms on tour this same morning!
first stop on the farm tour, little flock, part of the community meat co:
then, we saw our friends at mills farm, home of red mule grits:
then, we were on to woodland gardens:
and, then, the day ended with lunch at the west broad market garden:
photographs by rinne allen
the last few fridays we have featured places or organizations we love, with the hopes that some of you reading may want to support them over the holidays...by spreading the good word or donating to the organizations themselves...
there are so many worthy organizations out there, both close to home and further afield- it makes it hard to choose which one to feature today...but, we decided that we would talk about an organization that helps some of those who need help the most: the hungry children of our community.
the Food2Kids program through the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia provides food over the weekends for children in our local school district, and across the wider Northeast Georgia region as well. through this program, the neediest children are given backpacks of food to take home each weekend, to insure that they will not go hungry from the time they leave school on friday to the time they return on monday morning. the backpacks are filled with food that is nutritious and also food that does not require cooking, so that nourishment is easy. while the food bank receives food through donations for its other programs, the Food2Kids program does not accept donation of actual food, therefore it depends on monetary donations to purchase the food that goes in the backpacks each weekend.
please consider a donation to this worthy cause this holiday season.
