Ginny from the Blog

Instead of spending Black Friday at the mall, why don’t you do up the big shopping day craft style? The annual Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild show starts Friday at the N.C. State Fairgrounds and is an awesome way to inject some Carolina flavor/creativity into your holiday gifts.

OK. I’m completely biased. I make at least 1/3 of my Christmas gifts every year. And one of my favorite low-key weekend pastimes is wandering around the N.C. State Fairgrounds at the flea market. So an excuse to spend the weekend at the fairgrounds perusing fine crafts, pretty much is the epitome of all I want in holiday shopping (so long as we’re leaving the Apple store out of the discussion). I’ve never been to this event before, but I have high hopes.

So here’s the deal: The show is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Exposition Center at the fairgrounds. It features over 100 booths with everything from pottery, clay, sculpture, wearable fiber, blown glass, jewelry, metal work, wood work, furniture, photography, printmaking and mixed media, according to the show’s website.

The only catch is it costs $7 to get in, but guess what? The organizers have given me 2 free tix to give away! So how am I going to decide who gets them? (BTW, this is the first ever giveaway on GFTB). Well, I’m thinking I’ll keep it simple. If you legitimately want to go, just be the first to say so in the comments section and you get them.

ALSO … I saw a big sign outside the state fairgrounds that says the flea market is open for Black Friday!!!! It’s open Saturday and Sunday too.

OK. Don’t forget. First to say they want the tix to the Craftsmen Guild show gets ‘em. Happy Shopping!

I’m giving you a little over a week to plan for a weekend event that I predict will be the most fun and the best value: Mountain Aid 2009.

The weekend concert at Shakori Hills aims to bring awareness to mountaintop removal and creating a clean energy future. Gates open at noon Friday June 19 and the two-day series climaxes with Donna the Buffalo. Then you can wake up in your tent Sunday morning and leave.

If you haven’t been to the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Chatham County before, then Mountain Aid is a good way to ease yourself into it. You can camp on the beautiful grounds (the Shakori Hills festival farm is a little less than an hour from downtown Raleigh and Durham) and take turns dancing to about a dozen bands over the course of the two day event.

I’m a big fan of Shakori Hills after camping out there for the spring grassroots festival.

Tickets for Mountain Aid 2009 are $22.50 in advance or $30 at the gate. There’s a $10 tent camping fee, but I highly recommend spending the extra dough to spend some time out in the woods. Kids 12 and under are free. The money will benefit “Pennies for Promise.” Here’s an explanation of the campaign:

To build a new school for the children of Marsh Fork Elementary. Located in Raleigh County, West Virginia, the school is threatened daily by a 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment in the hills above them.

Here are a few bits of advice if you plan to camp there:

* Bring closed-toe shoes. There’s a gravel road and rocks in the campsite. It gets very dark at night. You’ll thank me later.

* Bring a cooler of beer if you plan to drink. Coolers are allowed and you’ll be happy you brought your own.

* Bring bug spray and have your camping partner check you for ticks often. Trust me on this one.

Finally, the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival happens twice a year. Tickets for the fall festival go on sale June 22 and are $20 cheaper if you buy them early, so it might be worth marking your calendar if you plan to buy a festival pass this year.

I was walking through Crabtree Valley Mall last night and spotted a Gloria Jean’s coffee shop, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’m all about local coffee shops, but the franchised Gloria Jean’s holds a special place in my heart. I worked at one in college for extra money during holidays and summers. It was my only mall job, and I loved it.

Truly, their coffee (paricularly the frozen drinks) are so delicious. They have this stuff called cappuccino chiller that is basically like Starbucks’ bottled Frappuccino, only so much more delicious. There was a time in my life when I probably consumed more of that than water (and I gained a few pounds to prove it).

Anyway, there’s already a Gloria Jean’s at the mall in Cary, but I never go there. But Crabtree Valley Mall and I are like BFFs, so with the addition of a GJ’s, I might just have to marry it.

For the record, I was not paid by anyone to say this. And I usually shy away from promoting specific corporate places, but I had so much fun working at GJ’s in college and truly love their coffee, so I feel I must spread the love.

If you visit the GJ’s in the mall, order one of my favorites:

*Cappuccino chiller (ask them to mix it with chocolate milk for optimal results).

*Malted Mocha Chiller (this is what I had last night).

*Hot White Chocolate Chai (so good).

I’ve been honing my thrift shopping skills since fourth grade, when I used to pick through the boxes of a corner store thrift shop in Chicago looking for something trendy that I could afford with money I earned from doing household chores and from our regular summer lemonade stands.

In high school, we had about 50 minutes to leave campus and scarf down lunch somewhere (because eating in the cafeteria at a school that opens its campus at lunch was so uncool). During my freshman year, when I had yet to make friends with anyone who could drive, my friends and I would occasionally walk to the Rescue Mission and Bargain Box to shop instead of eat.

So I was a little disappointed in myself when my best friend asked me where the good thrift shops were around here. I told her about my personal favorite, Thrift World in Durham (pictured above). In Raleigh, I’ve been to the Goodwill on Hargett Street and Cause for Paws on South Saunders Street.

As for vintage shops, I’ve been to Time after Time on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Dolly’s Vintage in Durham’s Brightleaf Square. And Vintage Nation (anyone know if this place still open, BTW? It has looked closed the past couple times I’ve passed by) and Father & Son Antiques. I would recommend all of these places in a heartbeat as they are reasonably priced and have eclectic selections.

(I snagged this 101 Dalmations dress at Vintage Nation for $20 earlier this summer).

There’s also Everything But Grannies Panties in Durham, which I haven’t been to in years. It’s not the best place to snag clothes, but if you’re looking for some awesome kitsch and aren’t clausterphobic, then go get lost inside (although maybe it’s not open anymore either).

So please help me beef up my Triangle thrift shopping skills. Tell me all the thrift shops I must visit and why (do they have crazy kitsch, cheap retro clothes, more modern, trendy stuff?). And let me know which ones aren’t worth my time.

I found myself in a Super Wal-Mart today for the first time in more than six months. I wasn’t there to pick up some cheap bread, deodorant or Tupperware though. I was there to see former president Jimmy Carter. No Joke. Carter was signing copies of his latest book “A Remarkable Mother.” I picked up a copy for $15.97 (a decent discount from the $22.95 suggested retail price) and stood in the long line, already more than 200 people deep an hour before the signing was scheduled to start. I met some nice folks who held my place while I went around to scope out the scene and interview some people. You can read the story I wrote and watch the video I made for MyNC.com here.

Carter was sitting behind a plastic folding table in the little room where they keep the restrooms. If you’re even remotely familiar with the layout of a Super Wal-Mart (I am b/c that was one of the only places to hang out after 9 p.m. in my hometown) picture this: The line stretched from the restrooms, down the aisle between the baby clothes and the regular kids clothes, then down the long aisle that separates the grocery section from the rest of the store and then all the way across the front of the store.

But organizers said Carter, a prolific author of more than 20 books, usually tries to fit in at least one Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club into his book tours. The former peanut farmer was buddies with the late Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s founder.

So what do you think about Carter coming to Wal-Mart? Does it make sense since he used to be buds with Sam Walton? Or should he avoid helping out the mega chain?

For the past week, there has been a U-Haul stationed outside the Hardee’s on NC 54 and Harrington Road in Durham selling UNC Final Four T-shirts. I chatted with the guys running it today (they work for Chapel Hill Sportswear) and they said they’ve sold about 700 to 800 T-shirts since Sunday. They set up shop on the street corner because it can be difficult to find parking at the Chapel Hill Sportswear shop on Franklin Street and this new spot offers a prime selling location.

They said they got permission from Hardee’s to sell T-shirts from the parking lot. Apparently, their informal shop drives additional traffic to the fast food restaurant.

The line outside the Apple store Sunday morning at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. This was about 10 minutes before the store officially opened.

I’ve needed glasses for a while. I can’t read the signs hanging in grocery stores telling me what aisle the rice is in. I can’t read street signs from far away, making finding new places difficult. And it’s tough to spot hot guys across a crowded bar when I have to squint. So today I got glasses.

Can you guess which ones I picked?

A. B.
C. D.

E. F.

G. H.

For the record, I wasn’t seriously considering some of these. The ones I picked should arrive in two weeks.

While driving through the parking deck at Crabtree Valley Mall yesterday, I spotted 17-year-old Katelin Gragg walking into the mall. You couldn’t miss her in the dark garage because she was glowing in her chartreuse slip. But alas, I couldn’t just get out of the car to photograph her for my fashion blog, so her cute outfit slipped out of my life.

Lucky for me, I spotted her inside and she agreed to be photographed wearing this vibrant chartreuse-colored, chiffon slip over a black turtle neck sweater: “I just had to add color,” the Hickory, N.C. resident said of the slip, which she scored from Urban Outfitters.

Turns out a lot of the men in my life aren’t familiar with chartreuse. I thought the green-yellow color was well-known, but apparently not. A few weeks ago, I took my surrogate father to every shoe store in The Streets at Southpoint in search of a pair of chartreuse-colored flats. He had no idea what we were looking for until I likened it to lime green. (We found a perfect pair of Steve Maddens, BTW, but they didn’t have them in my size and I can’t find them on his Website).

Then yesterday, while at the mall with one of my guy friends, he admitted he had never heard of the color. He even asked me to spell the word, which I think threw him off even more. I made a $1 bet that the sales clerk in J. Crew would know of the color, but he didn’t. Out of four clerks in the store, two knew what I was talking about. I’m not clear on whether I won or lost that bet, but he hasn’t asked for his dollar yet.

Apparently there are a few variations of chartreuse, according to the always trusty Wikipedia, read about it here, if you’re so inclined. Or just take my word for it, chartreuse is hot and you should try adding some of it to your wardrobe this spring.

So you tell me, have you ever heard of this color?