photographs and words by rebecca wood
dahlia bouquets
Instant Inspiration
fall wreaths
a few falls ago, we had a great time adding things to simple grapevine wreaths. we cut the marigolds to have about a 2" stem...then we just stuck them through the grapevine...ditto with the magnolia leaves and fall foliage. there's no limit to what you could do! even if it only lasts for a special dinner party, it's worth it in fun!
photographs and words by rebecca wood
TREEHOUSE Atlanta!
In addition to helping with the beauty everyday, I also own and run a small kids shop and creative space in Athens. It's called TREEHOUSE kid and craft and it's been chugging along since 2010.
This past year my sister, Kim, has been working for me and we came up with the idea of opening up a "sister shop" in Atlanta. After many months of hard work, late nights, and sore bodies, we open our doors today.
Last night as we closed the doors, ignoring many details that can be completed over the next several months, my heart filled with so much joy and pride. i am so excited to meet our new community!
Here are a few images throughout the past couple weeks of putting this new shop together!
we will be throwing an opening party today from 5-7, if you are in the atlanta area, please join us!
TREEHOUSE kid and craft
533 A W. Howard Ave
Decatur, GA 30030
photos and words by kristen bach
beauty in chaos
this is my favorite time of year, melancholy and joyful beauty all mixed together. i adore the end of the garden and the wild chaos of death and rebirth. get out and enjoy before the first frost. gray days are best.
photographs and words by rebecca wood
magnolia drape
i tied a string of magnolia leaves and hung it at the top of a window...i love how it looks from outside!
photographs and words by rebecca wood
20 years with rinne
rinne came to ask me for a job at the studio 20 years ago. we couldn't afford to hire anyone, but when i received her handmade thank you note in the mail, thanking me for talking to her, i was sold, and knew i needed to have her around.
rinne and her photos are magic, and i knew right away i needed to let her follow her inspiration around the studio. rinne's photos always made us look good, and projected the beauty and creativity i tried to inspire. we sort of 'grew each other up'. we shared a lot of ideas, inspirations, and hard work. her insights and ideas always helped me to grow my business.
rinne took over 30,000 pictures (with a film camera!) at r.wood studio, documenting the process, people, and plates. she was able to hone her skills and vision before she left the studio to start her career as a photographer. she is now very successful. we still love to get together for brainstorming and flower arranging and photographing, and still collaborate together on our blog, beautyeveryday.
rinne IS instant inspiration, and i've been so lucky to have her in my life these 20 years!
photograph and words by rebecca wood
atlanta magazine's HOME
we have been friends with annette joseph for probably 15 years...it has been fun to watch her career grow and she has remained as fun as she ever was...she reached out to us this spring and asked us to host and style a supper for atlanta magazine's newly relaunched magazine, Home. we immediately thought about using sweet olive farm as the setting and began asking various friends if they would contribute to the party...our friend mimi agreed to help with the food and our friends bain and amanda said they would help with the beverages...
we picked a spot in the piney woods, and brought in everything that was needed for a dinner- the tables, plates from r.wood studio, flowers, etc...we loved the improvised crudité platters that we banged out from a slab of wood and nails...! and, kristen made some gelatin-printed napkins and also set up a kids activity, a nature weaving craft. while we were setting everything up, a few farm visitors came and checked in on us (see below)...
around supper time, our families and friends arrived and we all sat down and enjoyed a great meal and delicious drinks together. thanks, annette, for letting us have fun like this!
photographs by rinne allen & kristen bach
waiting on martha dinner
a few weeks ago, we helped decorate the shotgun house for an athens chef's dinner for waiting on martha. the dinner was hosted by our friends from the southern coterie and included beautiful handmade creations by r.wood studio and mespeak design, and incredible food by the national, seabear oyster bar, home.made, and condor chocolates.
we took our inspiration from one of our favorite plants, pokeberry, and dyed the linens to match. rebecca hung some of her pokeberry drawings on the walls, too.
photographs by rinne allen & kristen bach
wildwood revival
this past weekend, i had the pleasure of experiencing wildwood revival, a small music festival on the outskirts of athens. the festival describes itself as being 'a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll, and everything in between'. you could camp by car, tent, or trailer in the rolling countryside next door, so we chose to bring our dear little teardrop camper. upon walking up to the festival, you came upon a grand italianate plantation, and to the left was an open air market, wine truck, and the amazing barn with the glowing lights reading 'wildwood'. one thing for sure, I will be back next year.
photographs and words by kristin karch
alabama on alabama at heath ceramics
a little bit of the South has made its way westward, to heath ceramics' new exhibition space the boiler room. titled 'alabama on alabama' (because the entrance to the exhibit conveniently sits on alabama avenue in san francisco), the show includes work by southerners and longtime collaborators, butch anthony, and john henry toney, as well as our own rinne allen.
alabama chanin and heath ceramics have had a creative friendship for many years, which has yielded a beautiful collaboration in the form of heath's alabama chanin-designed dishes. here in this show, the full range of what alabama chanin can create is on view, with their indigo overdyed & appliqued quilts, their signature hand-sewn garments, and stacks upon stacks of their swatchbooks filled with samples of their unique fabrics for viewers to flip through. complimenting the handwork of alabama chanin is the work by the other southern artists that have worked closely with alabama chanin over the years, and everything feels synergistic and cohesive.
rinne recently went out to heath to give a talk about her harvest project, and shares some images from the show with us here…
word and photographs by rinne allen
sunrise
there is one amazing field in athens that has the most beautiful fog. before the sun comes up, there is a thick blanket of fog over the landscape that slowly dissipates and turns into glowing sunlight.
photographs and words by kristin karch
roots and branches
i love to study the upturned roots of all these washed up trees! mandalas everywhere, polished by the sea and bleached by the sun. how i wish i could take one home with me to hang on the wall and study forever!
photos and words by rebecca wood
Northwoods dispatch: artist's point
Just moments away from our family cabin there is a little city called grand marais. we always love to stop there and walk along the shore of lake superior. we wandered over to artist's point this time and were in awe of it's beauty.
photos and words by kristen bach
maine dispatch: shipwreck
there are so many things we love about maine, but one of the things we love the most is that we are at the shore or on a boat everyday. we talk of sailors, boating, and the lore surrounding them often...stories about seamen, pirates, old salts...so, seeing this shipwrecked vessel on monhegan island was like a dream come true for my children; they explored it, inside and out, with their friends. the tugboat, the D.T. Sheridan, ran aground in 1948, with the crew walking away unharmed. it turns out that part of another shipwreck (from 1957) lay upon the rocks too.
words & photographs by rinne allen
firecracker chanterelles
if you have ever went foraging for chanterelles you may know how hard these firecracker chanterelles are to find. throughout the decade of foraging, I have only found them once and there were only 6 or so tiny shrooms! they are super small....and spicy. the other day my husband spotted these from a drive in the north georgia mountians. he pulled over and we found hundreds of them! an exciting find!
seed life skills
our friend chef hugh acheson recently started a non-profit called seed life skills , and i recently spent time with them in the classroom and in the teaching garden at clarke middle school here in athens, as they learned to make pickles with hugh and almeta tuloss, director of seed life skills.
as they write on their website, "Seed Life Skills is a living curriculum dedicated to empowering youth to be sustainable stewards of food and financial resources; while emphasizing innovative and handcrafted approaches to core and community lessons."
go check out their good work!
words and photographs by rinne allen
sweet peach's sweet spots!
since the fall, we have been working with our friend pamela of sweet peach on a guide to 50 of our favorite spots in athens...the free printed guide will be available in just a few weeks! we wanted to share a sneak peek today, as we all proof the guide in preparation for sending it off to the printer...
it is a beautiful little guide and will share the sensibility of pamela's guides to atlanta that she has produced over the last year...the wonderful sarah neuburger of the small object illustrated the guide and her style makes it all the more special.
we love sharing what we love about athens, so keep your eyes open for the guide around town!
crafting with magnolias
there is a constant supply of magnolia leaves around here and are one of our favorite craft supplies. we love to spray paint them for a blank canvas, glitter them for some sparkle, paint or color them, and string them up for a burst of color in a room. harvest some magnolia leaves and make something this weekend!
farmer's market inspiration
'tis the time of year for farmer's markets!
there is so much inspiration at markets...from getting inspiration to cook to color, shape, and texture...take a moment and really look at what is on offer and get inspired!
words & photographs by rinne allen
spring studio day
a few weeks ago, two friends and i spent the morning at the brickhouse, in the company of a handful of other creative women. it was the first in what will hopefully be a regular series of creative workshops. called Studio Day, the intent of these workshops is to step inside a creative space and have unhindered creative time. beginning with a morning coffee and light breakfast and ending with a homemade, healthful lunch, this particular morning was spent wandering the grounds of the brickhouse collecting beauty, making light drawings, and thinking about composition. we shared the things that inspire us and focused in on creating and learning, without distraction. it was very rejuvenating, and inspiring!
words and photographs by rinne allen