The American Craft Council Craft Show in CLT

The American Craft Council Craft Show is this weekend at the Charlotte Convention Center. Many artists from NC and the SE Region will be there. We thought this piece from
Frank Saggus (GA) was especially cool.

Pandora Radio - Free programmable radio

We're no music aficianados but our friend Gav showed us Pandora Radio. This is an ad from their site.

Eileen's in South End, Charlotte

Eileen's has CUTE fashions - especially handbags - for unbelievable prices. And it's in one of our fave hoods, too. Near Price's Chicken Coop.

Obsessed with Fall Colors

Not the leaves on the trees, although they are quite beautiful this time of year in NC, we're talking about ApartmentTherapy's Fall Colors contest. Some of the homes are so amazing - not because they're HUGE or sparkly or hi-tech, but because their owners have really gone all out with color. Check out this apartment in Kentucky.
Our faves are the ones where the walls aren't necessarily painted.

Adel Abdessemed

Adel Abdessemed is an Algerian artist who lives in Paris. This is a terra cotta sculpture of a burned-out car found in Paris projects. It was featured in ArtForum's online mag, which has improved SO much over the past couple years.

The Taj Mahal

Our friend Mark is in Afghanistan now and was able to take a little trip to India recently.

Pretty amazing.

African Artist Lolo Veleko

Detergent Bottle Lamp

Another amazing idea from Readymade Mag. We are going to make this lamp as soon as we finish our bottle of TIDE. Yes, we use Tide, so sue us. The enviro-friendly detergent bottles wouldn't have the same Jasper Johns/Andy Warhol thing going on anyway.

Nappin in Nashville

Andy caught this guy getting a little shut eye on the street in Nashville today.

Burda Style - Online Sewing

Instructions for making a girl-shirt out of an old T-shirt
IN 2 MINUTES!

LA Store Reform School

Reform School is a cute online store that started as a storefront in LA. They promote limited edition objets by artists as well as home stuff, clothes, baby stuff, jewelry, etc., all with an emphasis on the sustainable. The website design is just incredible. The pieces above are Test Tube Kids by Sarah Neuburger.

Port of Oakland by Mike Kimball

Melinda worked with Mike Kimball when we lived in San Francisco and Oakland. This is from the same series of prints that are in the show Melinda curated called Merge, part of which was installed in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's building in Oakland, CA. Other artists in Merge included Chris Peterson and Bob Chapla. Check out Mike's newer work on his website. It's interesting to see what he does with the "grid." The possibilites are endless.

TRKFLD Bags

We know the makers of TRKFLD bags and love the bags. Melinda wants Mi (pictured here). *Hint hint Andy* In CLT you can get them at the very sweet NicheMKT in NoDA.

Sound Art: Janet Cardiff, City in a Soundwalk

Andy found this interesting idea that's really a combo of sound art and walking tour ala museum exhibition (via cellphone in this case). These tours are based in NYC, but artist Janet Cardiff has made her own works in several other cities as well (Pittsburgh, Florence, SF, London). In Cardiff's artwork, the viewer gets a walkman, dons headphones and follows the map/instructions provided. Melinda saw Her Long Black Hair in Central Park in NYC 2004. It was an amazing art experience. The City in a Soundwalk is the same type of thing but more free-form with your phone and LOTS of artists contributing, which is a wonderful thing.

Make your own knickers

A couple years back Melinda bought a pattern for DIY knickers (British for panties). We can't find that pattern but have been searching for another online. Finally, Melinda found one. The pattern that Melinda bought was less boyshort than this one and more traditional brief/panty, but this one is great & super versatile.

The Penguin Drive-In, Charlotte, NC

In the top 2 restaurants in Charlotte is the Penguin Drive-In.  It's burgers, dogs, corndogs, deep-fried pickles, chili fries and much more super yummy stuff.  Plus budweiser tallboys, PBR & a great wine list.  What more can you ask for?

Ever Ridden in Critical Mass?

It's the funnest. Usually the last Friday of the month and usually happens in most cities. In SF, we'd take over the streets for one glorious night of riding bikes without worrying about cars.
Charlotte's trying to get one going and it meets up in our new hood. This is the announcement for September.

Pillowcase Skirt Courtesy of ReadyMade Mag

Here is one of the cutest and cheapest ideas we've seen in a while (since 2004 Oldham Rocker Tees): a pencil skirt made from an old pillowcase! Sewing is only relevant if it's also cost-effective and if you're good at it. This, like the '04 Rocker Tees, is made from something readily available and is also customize-able which means no matter how bad a seams-tress/-ter you are, you can always say you custom tailored it to your own specs. It was forwarded to us by ReadyMade in the mail, here it is on the World Wide Web.