Inside & Out

So here is the story of our stumble onto the LAAFF festival in Asheville, North Carolina on the first weekend of September.  (I know, I know, I promised it so long ago!)

The thing that drew Shawn in at this festival was the distant sound of bagpipes.  We saw booths being set up, and we went into a store to look for some postcards, then heard the bagpipes.  Shawn immediately had to go outside to see where they were coming from, being a proud Irishman.  So I paid for our postcards and followed him outside, where he was watching a band of bagpipers warm up for their early slot on the stage.  We had to run to breakfast at this point, but when we came back, they were performing with a nice sized crowd jamming out to their bagpipe-rock.  Even though Shawn was enthralled, he agreed to tear himself away from the bagpipers, and we began walking down a very crowded Lexington Avenue.  As we looked around, this is what we saw:

Yup, that’s right, tasty festival food, tons of fun people, some of them even in cool costumes!  We were digging the fest already.  I found some neat little “air plants” that Shawn would not let me purchase because I have a horrible case of “brown thumb.”

A few booths down, I saw a couple of awesome ladies selling bags and wall art made out of IKEA fabrics, with some Amy Butler thrown in for good measure.  Doesn’t this just inspire you to buy a canvas stretcher and a couple of yards of your favorite fabric and hang it up on the wall?  I am itching to do this now…these ladies are so smart to pre-make these for people, I’m sure they sold a bunch!

As you can already see, the booths were filled with amazing goodies, art, and delicious-looking food (we were full from our amazing breakfast at Over Easy Cafe, so we couldn’t partake of any of the tasty festie food.)  I saw another booth with handmade ceramics, including this amazing jar that I am [still] totally smitten with.  I wish I had taken cards from the artists so I could order their wares on Etsy or something.

Don’t you just love the originality of that piece?  I adore the imperfections, like the glaze dripping down…I think it gives the jar so much personality.  Then we happened upon the “Cap Man” who is named because he has an ancient pick-up truck COMPLETELY COVERED in rusty old bottle caps.  This idea is amazing for a car that’s not looking so good as it used to be.  I was very inspired by the “Cap Man’s” ride…I want a bottle-cap-covered truck of my very own!

I also like how the “Cap Man” re-used old doors, windows, and other things to make his artwork.  Nothing like taking someone else’s trash and making it your treasure!  We also saw an amazing yurt that was being used by the bicycle company that was there sponsoring the “bicycle joust.”  How fun is that?  They covered the pavement in reclaimed insulation (the soft stuff, not the stuff with the fiberglass in it) and then put some hay bales in the middle.  The bicycle jousters rode these tricked-out pony bikes and “jousted” each other. 

Also, how much do you love the pink fairy with her super-cool mom and brother?  She was adorable.  Here’s the yurt the bicycle company was using, and it kinda gives an impression of how popular this street festie was, it was packed!  But definitely in a good way, there was still plenty of room to move around and the crowd was artsy and lots of fun.

I have always loved these paper stars, and I almost lost it when I saw an entire store window filled with them!  Doesn’t it look so amazing?

At the very beginning of the morning, we were walking the streets taking photos, and we spotted this awesomely-dressed lady here:

When I saw her, I knew she must be going somewhere cool.  So we followed her to Lexington Avenue, and saw her join her friends to set up her booth.  I would like to thank this lovely lady, because she was like our White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.  She led us to this amazing festival, where we had tons of fun, and stayed over an hour later than we should have, because we were almost late to the wedding we were to attend.

As we were running towards our car, we saw, without a doubt, the coolest bus ever.  It was totally tricked out, and purple!  Need I say more?

Apparently, this company does comedy tours of Asheville, and I’m betting we’ll go on one next year, since I desperately want to get on this bus!  (Oh, did I forget to mention we had so much fun, we’re planning next year’s trip already?! )