the country living fair & friends

this weekend the country living fair came to my neighborhood

 just around the corner

in my little town

and

it was wonderful!

within the first hour

i had passed sue whitney

(we made eye contact. she smiled. )

met jennifer lanne

( my favorite artist)

had a reader introduce herself

(that was very cool)

spent half my money

& met up with two awesome friends

that had flown in from vermont & west virginia

i could hardly stand it

it was completely overwhelming

some of the artisans i have followed for years,

seen in magazines,

 and communicated with in the blogosphere.

to see them in real life

was beyond exciting for me

as soon as i walked in i made my way over to the

earth angels tent

and spent an hour

maybe more

trying to decide which jennifer lanne original i would purchase

there she is....

cute, talented & funky

debbee thibault and her gorgeous line

 jennifer's paintings are spectacular.

my personal favorites are her acrylics on linen

the jen o'connor

i felt completely underdressed at this point.

after i took my stalkeresque photo

i did actually introduce myself.

jen is incredible!

meet carolyn,

a sweet reader that introduced herself & made my day

met another reader, beautiful danielle

who i hope to see again soon at lakewood anitque market :)

 

next booth was french laundry home

while i was making my first ( of three) purchases

the owner looked up & realized we knew each other

debbie & i owned neighboring shops years ago.

hers , antiques

mine a gift shop

she has since relocated to highpoint n.c. and has begun this gorgeous line.

she is featured in this month's country living magazine

from the looks of things

 i think

her booth sold out within the first two hours of the three day event!

then the big thrill~

i met up with ashley & jerri!!

ashley , jerri & i have been blog friends for the last year or two.

we have been chatting for the last several weeks about meeting up.

they are awesome

even cuter in person

talented, fun, silly and gorgeous.

oh, before i forget...check out this link for images

of ash's wedding.....wow.

(insert here...my daughter told me that non-bloggers

assume that when you say "blog friends"

it means you met in a chat room

& have a sketchy relationship!

cracks me up!)

by that point

we basically chatted our way through the rest of the fair.

as i said, i blew the budget within the first two booths!

 would love to bring home one of these fab chairs!

 ashley & jerri being the cutest mother daughter team.

love them.

the score of the day

was this chalkboard!

exactly what i was looking for

jerri & i lugged that bad boy for what seemed like a mile

only to have me drop it  two feet from my car.

& it broke

fantastic.

but being the rockstars they are, jerri & ashley helped me put it back together

& get it hung.

love it!

we ended up spending the entire day together

& even cruised target.

who says i don't know how to show guests around atlanta?

the next night

 we headed to one of my fave pizza joints in buckhead

 savannah's bestie, bailey, even joined the girls plus dan night of fun

 let me just say

i feel totally blessed to have precious new friends

who are so awesome, they actually feel like old friends

(ps, all my girls loved them too!)

 ok, back to the scores

when i wrote 'the menu' on said fantastic chalkboard

this is what i got~ 

dan said....hmmm....where are we going to eat that?

emily said.....what are apricot glazed pork chops?

madison said....no way are you making a red velvet cake.

aren't they funny?

you can't appreciate it's ginormousness from my pathetic images

but it's totally a who's your daddy piece

finally

i own jennifer lanne paintings.

oh happy day.

i have written a few times that while taking art lessons

i often times used jennifer's paintings as my inspiration

& learned to use color by painting her work

in my rookie manner

these are gorgeous!!

i bought the freckles painting which is an acrylic on linen with velvet trim

sigh

&

 the little miniature too

couldn't resist another out of sequence shot of the chalkboard

i love her so much i feel i should name her

& give her an identity

 the jewelry was incredible.

seriously.

bought this little 5x5 canvas

with my favorite lewis carroll quote

 some lovelies from the french laundry home line

shoot...just realized i forgot to photograph the pillow i bought

my sweet friends have flown back home

my wallet is empty

but my heart is full

 think i need to start saving for next year's event. right now.

now it's time for me to whip up some apricot glazed pork chops

and

a red velvet cake