When I do my little turn on the catwalk

Well, it's fashion week in Charleston, and although I'm actually in Dallas (researching stories) I did have a chance to recently interview a true emerging designer whose designs will walk the Marion Square runway as part of Eden Boheme's show. Her name: Stephanie Teague. Her background: Charlottean, model, Miami maven, and most recently, hot new designer.

She's one of those people that have always cut up their clothes. You know those girls in high school that took the necks out of their sweatshirts or made a dress into a shirt and then used the leftover fabric to make all of her friends bracelets? Well, that was Stephanie. But she kept doing it after high school, learned more about fashion from wearing some of the best designers in the world on the catwalk, and her stuff just kept getting better and better. And now its good, really good.

As part of getting her designs out there, she started a shop on Etsy. She immediately started selling (sorry to the thousands and thousands that this DOESN'T happen to), and now she can barely keep up with demand. And then there is the fashion week thing, and a solo show at New Orleans Fashion Week ...

You can get the whole story here. And if you *ever* ask me "Who are you wearing?" the answer might just be "Stephanie Teague."

I'm positively bubbly

After 5 years of covering the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, I finally got a ticket to my most coveted event -- Bubbles and Sweets. The evening did not disappoint, so check out my review here:

http://www.charlestonscene.com/news/2010/mar/10/bubbles-and-sweets-bubbly-good-time/

You can't read Flannery O'Connor with spring fever

I recently pulled out Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge to reread. It was a rainy February, damp and chilly in an endless cycle it seemed, and the stories fit. I'd first read this book in high school (it was THE book that cemented my going into college as an English major) and was amazed at the flow, the tight stories, the spot-on characters with deadly demises.

I'd also taught this book in Southern Literature, and my classes, esp. the ones at Belmont Abbey, had a lot to say about it. So all that's to say, I thought I knew this book.

Whoa, this book is depressing. Let's just say, things do not end well. Men have problems with their mothers and women have problems with their egos. "The Greenleafs" matched my mood one day, "Everything that Rises Must Converge" another. I was reading it differently this time, looking for the writing clues, using it as a learning tool. Yes, it was depressing but beautifully depressing like a scarred desert landscape (or something).

But then a redbud tree bloomed, and that was it. Forget the scarred landscape. I can't read Flannery O'Connor when I have spring fever.

It's Time

Although the fiction project is still a little kite floating in the market sky, it is time ...

Time for me to write another book proposal. Now, this did not come out of left field, as I have been batting around this idea for some time (in writer speak, that means mentioning it randomly to friends and family in the middle of a discussion about Christmas gifts, who had a baby or what was their favorite meal @ the Glass Onion). Still, having an idea and writing a proposal are two different things.

It has to be formal. It has to be informed. You have to know about the possible market competition, about the possible outlets for sales. It has to be organized (not like my verbal ramblings), and in short, I have to sell the idea.

Now, this is for another non-fiction book, and I'm pitching it to a new publisher. Although I've been down this road before, this is the place for me where the blank page is daunting. I haven't quite got up the courage to put something on that blank page, but I'm working up to it. I have saved the blank document in my book proposal file. :)

A go-to store to add to the list

My husband is a good gift-giver. He really tries to think about gifts and often gives me significant things -- a piece of pottery, little one-of-a-kind trinkets and jewelry that has a story. I thrive on this. But he has a secret.

In every one of the places we have lived together, he has a go-to store, a place where, for any occasion, he can go in and find something I will like. It's always a store that is part art gallery, part gift shop, and eclectic, filled to the brim with goodies. And once he finds it, he knows it.

If we ever move to Asheboro, I have his go-to store all picked out ... Circa Gallery.

A few weeks ago on a blustery but sunny day, I got to wind through the countryside to this little NC town, known more for the zoo than anything else. But what I found was a little oasis in a couple of downtown blocks where I could have happily wasted an afternoon. Circa would be the center of that afternoon.

Filled with art of various mediums, jewelry and even handmade soap (I love to smell handmade soap!), this gallery stocks close to 80 artists and is at the forefront of an evolving Piedmont art scene. They have good stuff, shiny stuff, colorful stuff, warm and fuzzy things, and plenty of space to browse, to stop, to take a closer look. Go, but be warned, it could become your next go-to store too.

I'm Wild for Wild in the Kitchen

For this year's Southeastern Wildlife Exposition section in the Post and Courier, I had the opportunity to write about a new program which focuses on S.C. products and local chefs using those products (read article here on p. 10). Part "state fair" tent and demonstration kitchen, Wild in the Kitchen was a great event B. and I got to attend this past weekend.

Besides seeing a great cooking demonstration by Fred Neuville, here's what we sampled as a roving breakfast of sorts -- remember, all produced in S.C.-- in as faithful an order as I can remember:

-- boiled peanuts
-- a pork rind with barbecue sauce on it
-- a tortilla with barbecue sauce on it
-- creamy cheese grits
-- dry wine from noble grapes
-- semi-dry wine from muscadine
-- bloody mary mix
-- quail
-- more cheesy grits
-- pimento cheese
-- pickled okra
-- chocolate milk from the Coburg dairy

And then I was hungry for lunch.

Positive Art

Positive gets a bad rap. Pollyanna. Naive. Pipe dream.

Critical people are often seen as smart. Discerning. More in tune.

Truth is, it's often harder to be positive, to step over the ease of doing nothing because there is no use. I like positive people.

Edwin Gil is one of those people. A visual artist who transformed a youthful rebellious streak into an adult rebellious (or activist) streak that says "This does not have to be the way it is," he is using what he knows, art, to bring awareness of the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in the Latino community. He is speaking out when so many others are holding it in. He's tweeting. He's posting on facebook. And he's painting. And his paintings are cool.

I met him through his upcoming new exhibition, "Positive Art.". Who knew painting could be brave?