Thanksgiving in the ATL

It has been tradition for my family to meet in Atlanta for Thanksgiving for years now. My mom's brother and his family live in the suburb-turned-town of Sandy Springs. So this was the second year in a row that I drove the ten hours down to Georgia to spend a few days with the fam. My husband Drew stayed at the homestead, spreading the last layers of straw mulch and teaching our chickens to use their new ramp to sleep in their new CABIN! He wasn't alone for Thanksgiving, though; he joined his mom and other family members here in Virginia for a nice, quiet meal. Mine? Not so quiet, but that's what's so great when ten family members are sleeping under one roof...

Uncle Rick likes his banana raisins. It looks like they're almost ready.

The queens of the big day, my mom and Aunt Sara. They were marathon casserolatiers.

This year marked my sister Isadora making her first gravy.

'Nuf said.

Group shot.

Another tradition: Puzzlin', the official post-Thanksgiving sport at the Cherry household.

I was able to visit my friend Jocelyn from college while in town. She recently started playing the ukulele, and performed for her sisiter and myself. We were both sniffling, in tears, after her rendition of Famous Blue Raincoat.

On the last night in Atlanta, Uncle Rick dusted off some home films from the Cherrys' childhood. My dad set up his Flip Video on a tripod and recorded the silent films for the sake of living in the digital age. The old machine smelled wonderfully of an old library, and it was amazing seeing how much this younger generation takes after the elder...

My late grandmother, Jeanette, showing off the family car.

My mom in a high chair, being taunted by her brother, Rick. Things haven't changed a bit.

The running joke the entire time was rooted in how annoyed my uncle gets when anyone leaves a water glass unattended. Throughout the day, one by one, my mom put every glass from the cupboard in random places around the house. This one is in the pantry. Another awaits Rick on his bathroom counter. And another he won't find until the next time he drives his car.
I love my family.

Visit to a Local Artist

My husband and I visited the home, studio, and gardens of Donna la Pré this week. She animatedly gave us a tour of everything, from her garage-turned-art studio, around fruit trees to her herbal Cat Garden ("It attracts all sorts of birds and bugs and bees..."), to her self-designed English-country potting shed, all the way to her kitchen for tea. See my blog post about her garden at Immortal Mountain.

When we pulled up to her house in the mountains of Rappahannock County, Virginia, we saw a light on in what appeared to be her garage. As we walked closer, Donna met us outside of the structure, saying she had been working in her studio all day, and asked us if we'd like to see inside. Entering her workspace, we were greeted by the sound of opera music and one of her cats, Beauty (Sassafras was nowhere to be seen).

This is one of Donna's inspiration boards. Her background is in painting, but her studio is filled with soft things of all shapes and sizes. She makes a menagerie of little creatures reminiscent of fairytale characters, such as these floral-frocked rabbits, which she sells on her Open Studio nights. Donna embraces femininity, as vintage bedsheets and tablecloths of various shades of white hang randomly around the studio, ethereally suggesting spacial divisions.

This is inside the potting shed. She designed the building herself, and even helped to lay the unfinished brick floor. I really liked the utilitarian lighting choice.

An example of one of Donna's woodland scenes. How adorable are her little booties?! Just a sample of what to expect for her upcoming Open Studio, December 11 & 12 in Washington, VA. She's also working on a lovely holiday series of velveteen birds. Visit her current garden website here; I'll post a link to her art website as soon as it's up and running!

It took me long enough...

These are two pieces I created a little while ago, but was recently inspired to finally FINISH! Hooray! Oh, it feels so good to have two finished pieces to look at, to touch, to wear if I so desire-- instead of casting cursory glances at a (beautiful in its own way) pile of beads and felt, with rippled, unfinished edges, beckoning me to polish them off.

The following are photos I've taken while on walks through our woods with my husband. These are what have been inspiring me: the seemingly endless grays and browns of the mountain trails, but lo and behold, a neon yellow fungus!

A cluster of turkey tail mushrooms blooms out of a decaying log.







A bumpy fuschia fungus seeps out of the gray.







A family of puffballs inhabits a piece of wood.

New Pieces for The Purple Fern

As promised, here are two of the new pieces I just finished for the Purple Fern...

I possibly took for granted the 5+ years of beading that cultivated my inner perfectionist. I see now where I need to get back into practice a little, craftsmanship-wise, but overall I'm pretty happy with them. I hope they make the next home they go to happy, too. So, onward now! More things to create. Practice makes perfect, after all.

I'm Back!

cadyn cherry mosch + andrew speziale = cadyn speziale!

Well, I've been on hiatus for a little while, give or take a couple years. But I'm making (what some might call) art again, and I couldn't be happier. A brief chronological list of some events that took place between my last post and the present:

• Inducted into the natural foods industry while living in Brunswick, GA
• Effectually became temporarily distracted from creating objets de desire
• Got engaged to the love of my life
• Bought a house in the mountains of northern Virginia
• Moved to said house and commenced major renovations
• Welcomed, yet again, with open arms to a local natural foods place of employment
• Together with Andrew, started a homestead permaculture/food forest project, Immortal Mountain
• Got married to my wonderful husband, Andrew (hence the name change)
• Finally decided I had neglected my beading supplies cabinet for long enough, and that it was time once again to pick up my needle and felt.

Whew! So you see, it's not that I'd given up art. Little did I know this intangibility had been hibernating inside of me for two years. And now it seems to be emerging. At first, just a little: a pair of earrings here, a handmade card there. But now this entity is positively bubbling over with potential.

I recently made twelve pairs of earrings to put on display at my mother-in-law's booth at the Strasburg Emporium. And I just finished a trio of embroidered beadwork for the Purple Fern in Winchester, VA. Next on the agenda is to touch base with my first-ever retailer, shopSCAD, in Savannah, then hit some DC boutiques in the Georgetown area. Pics of my new work to come...

I just thought I'd re-introduce myself to the world.

New Places, New Faces

Whoa, has it been a while! So sorry. But Drew and I have finally moved! Things have been absolute chaos for the past few weeks, but we can now officially declare historic Brunswick our home for the next year. We got this great old Victorian house to rent that has pretty much everything I could ever want. And Brunswick's not too shabby, either. I know it's hard to say Brunswick without sounding southern and thinking of a certain stew, but it's really nice here. It has all the best parts of Savannah: the beach (which we're a lot closer to than we were in Savannah), big oak trees, old Victorian houses, lazy attitudes, tons of antique shops, and Michael's, Target, and T.J. Maxx, too! But it's way more quiet here- no sirens, no traffic, no yelling on the streets at 3am. And we've met lots of weird people, everyone's a character. Not that I don't miss certain things in Savannah, like my family and some friends I had to leave. But I'm not too far, it's just a little over an hour drive. So I feel like I've moved, but not really. It's kind of the perfect stepping stone, seeing as I've lived in the same place for almost 25 years. So I'll post photos in my next entry, I promise! Our house is pretty cool. So keep a lookout! Until then...

One More to Go...

Another successful craft day! (See my lovely new banner?) I don't know if there were less vendors this time, or we were all placed closer together, but it seemed like fewer people participating. I must say, my hand-me-down parasol from my sister came in handy today. All day. The sun was BLAZING. It got up to about 92°, and my sunburn is proof. I wore sunscreen everywhere except right under my neck, and oh my god is it red! Another lesson learned. But I met new and returning crafters, exchanged info, and spread the word about the next craft show. Which is TOMORROW! Whew! I was planning on just leaving all my stuff packed in the car, but Drew ended up calling halfway to Brunswick (where he has to commute like 5 times a week to band practice) saying his car broke down. So I unpacked everything and rescued him of course. So please come out tomorrow if you can! It'll be at the Blowin' Smoke BBQ courtyard on MLK from 4-8pm. Wish me luck, and I'll see some of you there!

(I need to get me one of them tent things)

Well, I'm off to another craft show tomorrow. It's in the old Sears parking lot at Henry & Bull again here in Savannah, so please try to stop by! It'll be from 9am-whenever the crowd dies down. I'm making a banner for my booth this time...

I made a major trip to IKEA in Atlanta this past weekend. Aah... IKEA-land... My parents needed to go, and they were renting a U-Haul trailor (!), plus my cousin was graduating high school, so I decided to tag along. And I ended up getting a new couch and new dressers. What?! I know, I know, but I had been planning it for so long, and I actually had an envelope I was saving money up in for the couch. We really needed it, the old one was absolutely shredded from the cats, not to mention disgustingly stained beyond repair. But you'll be glad to know that I'm still getting rid of excessive crap around the apartment, too. (And everything there is so darn cheap and well designed, it's just easier to get it rather than come up with excuses not to.)

Also, while in Atlanta, our family friend and insanely amazing artist Curtis Bartone was having a solo show, and we were able to stop by the reception. If you're in the Atlanta area, it's definitely worth stopping by. It's called Any Given Moment, at Gallery Stokes, 261 Walker St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30313. Stop by Fridays 12-6 or Saturdays 1-5 to see an extraordinary show. And there just happens to be a painting right when you walk in of our lovely bantam hen Loretta! Curtis came over one day to shoot photos of them, and now she's the star of his show! How cool is that!

I'll be pretty busy for the next couple days, as there's ANOTHER craft show on Sunday. This one will be from 4-8pm at Blowin' Smoke BBQ on MLK. I'll try to post again soon after that!

Hunger: double portrait of Loretta being eyed by a weasel.

Oh, Those British

If I ever move to the UK, then THIS is where I want to work. Or intern. Or maybe just be slave labor. It's called Miss Print London (and how perfect is the name?!), and Yvonne and Rebecca Drury run this little print shop. Everything they make, including fabric for their cushions, wallpaper, and lampshades (three of my favorite things, incidentally) are all hand printed by these two women. I found them while perusing ApartmentTherapy, one of my little addictions, and their designs immediately screamed out at me. I make designs like this! I mean, not exactly, but check out my pillows I did for Working Class Studios on my website, and you'll see what I mean (link to my website on right). They combine my two biggest inspirations: mid-century modern & botany. And those colors! Like buttah! Well I don't know if I'll be moving to London anytime soon, but maybe I'll shoot them an email to say hi.

oh, p.s. The yard sale was another success. I've started a New Couch Fund, so the money from yesterday went right into that envelope!

And don't you love their display at ICFF?*

A lampshade from their website, www.missprint.co.uk.

Another photo from ICFF: a juxtaposition of lampshade & wallpaper.*

*These photos are from the lovely ApartmentTherapy website.

Clearing the Clutter

Hi. My name is Cadyn, and I'm a hoarder.

For the past couple months or so (when Drew and I started to seriously discuss moving), I've been going through a material purging phase. It's weird-- not wanting THINGS has always been so foreign to me. I never understood the shopping buddy that could just pass up that really beautiful (and useful) robin's egg blue tea kettle. And it was on sale! I'm a nester, so I'm always looking for ways to spruce things up: rearrange furniture; paint existing furniture; buy decorative things, organizational things, cleaning products, fabric, ribbon, lotion, clothes, shoes, more clothes and more shoes, food, more food, movies, books, new sheet sets; improve my life somehow.

OK, you get the picture. I mean I didn't just buy things blindly. I made sure there was intention behind that purchase. But when I realized I had five (yes, five, although one was broken) different kinds of coffee makers in our kitchen, and I had stopped drinking coffee about 4 months prior, I decided to get rid of some. My parents' neighborhood was having their seasonal community yard sale in a few weeks, and I made the decision to not only help them get rid of some stuff, I was going to start really clearing my clutter.

I've never thought of myself as a hoarder, but in retrospect, I think five coffee makers for someone who doesn't even drink coffee constitutes a hoarder. But I was one in disguise. You'd never know it by looking around my apartment. You see, I was an organized hoarder. Everything had a place, at least. But what I've taught myself in the last couple months is that even if there's room for it doesn't mean I have to own it. I am not ashamed to say that I am a total sucker for packaging. Ahem, check out this Martha Stewart goodie below. Now who doesn't need some adorable boxes to give out your homemade cookies in?

But I can appreciate the beauty of products without bringing them home with me. I love looking though Domino and Cottage Living magazines, and thought I got inspiration from them. But I literally keep myself up at night sometimes wondering why my own nest, my sanctuary, never looks as good as the ones in the magazines. Disregarding the multi-thousand dollar sofas and rugs, it's the lack of clutter that makes those rooms! Duh!

Why had I never seen it? So now when I get an urge to improve my life somehow, I look around and I don't think about what the room needs. I think about what the room can do without. I made $100 at my parents' yard sale from my things alone, and I'm proud to say I'm having another yard sale soon with my friend Orea. I have an ongoing pile on the chair in my studio of things to take out to the sale. It's a slow process, this purging, but it's oddly satisfying. Just a little here, a little there, then wait a couple days to see if I miss those things. And the funny thing is I never do.