For the Home

Studio A at Pink Dog Creative is pleased to announce pysanky classes in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC. In this workshop we will be making beautiful Ukrainian Easter eggs – pysanky.

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Asheville is very conscious about shopping local and supporting our local business owners and economy. However, not everyone shops local all the time - I am sure some of our residents may not shop local at all. Many people shop online to take advantage of great discounts and savings. If you are like me, your go-to website for price comparison and purchases is Amazon.com. This holiday season, don't feel guilty about shopping online when the situation calls for it, because now even when you shop through Amazon a portion of your purchases can support a local nonprofit. 

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Have you ever walked down the streets of Asheville on a crisp fall day, wishing you could capture that essence in a bottle? A local company is working on doing just that, in candle form. I met with Frank of Asheville Candle, to experience these wonderful scents for myself and chat with him about this new local startup. Asheville Candles mission is to restore the art of candle making by using only farmers soy and a fine grade of perfume oils, creating scents that name specific local and streets of Asheville. 

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Halloween has come and gone - what are you going to do with your pumpkin? Don't let it rot and toss it - we have other ideas that you can use that jack-o-latern for! From compost to pickling, chicken food and pumpkin puree we can satisfy your frugal mind and soothe your eco friendly soul.

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Studio A Invites You To Grand Opening Imagine being surrounded only by things that are hand-made, created with love and inspired by spirit. Studio A is one such place where the vibrant artist, Andrea Kulish creates handmade lamps, pysanky eggs, mixed media art as well as silkscreened t-shirts. She invites you to Studio A Grand Opening: two days of celebration, creativity and live demos. Andrea creates the shades for her handmade lamps using an array of unique handmade paper, photographs as well as fabrics. She welcomes interior designers, businesses as well as individuals with a specific idea for interior decor to consult with her for custom-made lamps. For the lamp bases, Andrea collaborates with Asheville’s own metal artists Tina Councell of Iron Maiden Studios and Mark Schieferstein of Skrapmonkey turning each piece truly artisan-made. As for her inspiration, she says, “After making hundreds of colorful handmade lanterns for the annual lantern parade around Jamaica Pond in Massachusetts for two years in a row, I wanted to make something that would enable me to play with color and light and also be more permanent than lanterns.” She names her lamps too. For example, she created a pair of lamps inspired by the mother humpback whale and her calf, Salt and Zelle, which adds a …

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While the definition of art is widely controversial in itself; Asheville is one of those rare places that defines its own eclectic culture and culture of art.  Art in Asheville is from the ground up; literally.  Art of a garden,  a gate,  driveway, the hand made home with no electric tools, or only from items of the property in which it rest.  Or yes that typical piece in the park, in your living room but expanded in Asheville to dinnerware, furniture, clothing and everything you touch or touches you from head to toe.  Asheville allows the individual expression of art in every aspect of life. So walk (read) with us in this column as we experience everything Asheville has to offer in  “Art Asheville Style”.  The typical Asheville resident takes everything into account when choosing to live here, and those who settle here for life take on the Art Asheville Style starting at their driveways.  Gate or no gate we all enjoy the beauty of each welcoming entry as we take in the views from our cars driving in our mundane work life from place to place. Thus I start our walk at the driveway! Any drive way… so today we …

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Hi everyone! I shared on my facebook page a few weeks ago a photo of the antique iron bed I had found here on the property. I have been wanting to restore it forever it seems, but didn’t get to it until last week. Here is what it looked like. There were several iron beds here that my grandmother had painted white, however, everyone thought this was a 3/4 bed, so it escaped the white paint, thankfully. My plan was to just use it as a headboard, then when I measured it, I found it was indeed a full size. I scrubbed with a mixture of vinegar/water and steel wool. It was a really messy job, but worth it. It had never been painted and looked like it was originally black with the top scrolls brass. I then sprayed the whole thing with Rustoleum metal primer, and this is what it looked like. I finished it with Rustoleum “Oil Rubbed Bronze” after several coats of .97 flat black paint. I don’t recommend the cheap spray paint. Just go ahead and buy the Rustoleum, because it will go much farther and is so much easier to spray. I used one can …

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There is nothing I love more than aged, plaster walls, and I have been wanting that look for years. I finally just did it. I had some fabulous inspiration photos… This one from Spanish photographer Montse Garriga Grau HERE .   This one from Sweet Southern Vintage.. For my version, I first used joint compound, which I scraped on and off until I got the look I wanted. After it dried, I sanded just a bit, then painted with “Geneva Swan Grey” Colorplace paint in a flat finish from Walmart. I then mixed a couple different shades of light grey and brown and brushed them on where old walls would naturally be darker. It was not that easy, but I love the look. I changed a few things on the buffet including adding this inherited vintage lamp, and my dwarf Alberta Spruce in the ice bucket. My mom brought over some old family photos which I just propped up and decided I liked them that way, so they stayed. This is definitely not a look for everyone, but it definitely gives some character to the room.

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