View from the Porch - Weather wonders

On Saturday night we witnessed the most amazing light show from our porch.

We watched a lightning storm to the North for and hour and a half, it was like being in a movie theater.

The interesting thing was that the storm never reached New Bern and most of the lightning went from one cloud to another with little of it actually heading toward the ground.

When we lived in the mountains in Colorado we never saw lightning but we would see double and triple rainbows on a regular basis.

Many times we drove through one like driving through an arch and many times one end of the rainbow would be in downtown Aspen, what does that tell you!!

It was a great place to live but we also love living in New Bern, we've been here 20 years in 2009, hard to believe, and today is our 25th wedding anniversary!

New Show Sally Sutton

We've got a new show that will open on September 1 - New Paintings by Sally Sutton

We love Sally's work, she uses an amazing amount of color in her work and bold brush strokes.

We're calling this show Color and Light.

When Sally is asked about her paintings she says: "I grew up with Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Bonnard, Gauguin, and Munch.

As a child I would get out the large heavy book of paintings and spend hours going through it until I was living in visions of great works of art.

I was especially attracted to Impressionism and wondered about effects of light and color.

Sallys mother was an art teacher so she got her start at the kitchen table.

I learned at an early age to put my feelings and emotions in a painting to create an atmosphere of a particular time and place.

Sally completed her BFA in Illustration and Standard Teaching from California State University, Long Beach, California she then studied at Gwent College of Higher Education, Caerleon, Wales, She completed her Teaching practice at Caerleon Comprehensive School, and has studied at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California.

Her work is in many collections including Wachovia Bank, Central Carolina Bank, Durham Regional Hospital, Duke University Medical Center, UNC Hospital, Alamance Regional Hospital, SAS Institute, Nations Bank, GTE, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Tokyo American Club, , Northern Telecom Japan, Inc., Nippon Telephone and Telegraph,.and other domestic and international private collections

And don't forget ARTWALK which is Friday September 12 from 5-8 pm. Come enjoy a walk downtown, see all your friends and stop in for some refreshments! This month we'll be serving wine from Fraser's.

Other shops and galleries will be open for ArtWalk, enjoy a fun evening strolling our Downtown. See more of Sally's paintings on our website. For more information contact us info@carolinacreations.com.

View from the Porch - New Marina

We are getting our new marina across the street from our house!

Very exciting. This is part 3 of a 4 part development on East Front Street.

We love watching the boats sailing around and this just means they'll be more of them.

We've had some people ask why we would want to live right here. When we bought our house next door much of the traffic from hwy 17 went right by our door, there was a dead gas station where our new house is and until just 2 years ago there was a dead gas station where the Galley Store is now. Behind it was what was left of the Holiday Inn.

What it is becoming now was what we hoped would happen. Many old timers said it would never happen.

Slow Blogging

I've been trying to get caught up from being in NY so have been slow in blogging! Here are some photos I took.

This first one is from our hotel window.

So is the second.






I didn't really take a lot of photos since we were really there on business and didn't have a lot of time to tour.

The weather was beautiful!

I did like all the squares with plantings, I'd forgotten how many there were, it's been many years since we'd been there.

The photo of all the flowers is at the Flower Market. Next time we go we'll try to get there earlier, we understand it's quite a spectacle.

Just back from NYC

Michael and I just arrived back home from NYC. We went looking for new things for the gallery, to go to the Whitney, and to bum around for a couple days. We ate some good food, saw some friends and walked, a lot.

First the Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the Whitney reminded us how far ahead of his time he was, and how difficult it was for a regular person like me to understand his ideas! They have a dymaxium car there, the first time I had seen one in real life, it is great. Michael said he had seen one before but it was being used as a chicken coop in Arizona.

We stayed at the Hilton Times Square. The hotel room was beautiful and we even had a view of the Hudson River. The number of people on the streets in that neighborhood was staggering and the noise constant (but not in our room!). As I said we had a lot of fun and it was exciting but it sure was nice to get home to the quiet.

Tomorrow I'll stick in a photo or two.

Good night! Jan Francoeur

Buckminster Fuller

Before we moved to New Bern we lived in Colorado.

Michael worked for John Denver and we got to meet many very interesting people, Buckminster Fuller was one of them. He died shortly after we met him.

Michael was the land manager for the Windstar Foundation just downvalley from Aspen. Bucky did quite a lot of work around Aspen including designing a biodome at Windstar.

We are looking forward to seeing an exhibition about him and his work at the Whitney in NYC.

The things that impressed me and that we participated in were his world game that we played with students from across the country. "World Game Workshops put participants in charge of the world for four hours, arming them with information they need to become global problem solvers. During a fast-paced global simulation, participants become regional leaders, news reporters, and representatives of international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations. Work together to identify global problems and develop sustainable solutions.

Participants are armed with the latest data and equipped with natural resources, money, energy, technology, military expenditures and food as they are actually distributed in the world today. Played on top of the world's largest and most accurate map of the planet, participants negotiate with other regional leaders to find global solutions for local problems."

And the biodome that was built at Windstar, which was passive solar greenhouse with integrated growing system. "The purpose of the “Biodome Project” was to design and construct integrated fish and vegetable producing micro climate systems, in a range of sizes, that could be transferable to a variety of climates and utilized in rural or urban settings.

The essence of the Biodome Project was to demonstrate practical, local, organic methods of producing food through stand alone, self-sustaining, affordable systems that conserved water, land and energy. The Biodome concept was a much needed model for an agricultural system that embraced sensible food production from the small backyard plot to large scale farming.

One of the things Michael is intrigued with is the Dymaxium Car. More about that later.

It was an exciting time for us! For another blog, other things we did while we were in Aspen. Going to this exhibition has sent me down a path of memories.

Yates Mill

Have you ever been to Yates Mill? It's just up the road.

Tim (aka T Rader) brought in his newest painting today. So I had to do a little research about it.

The mill began operating on this site in Wake County in approximately 1756 and is currently the last mill of approximately 70 that were in and around that County.

The Yates family continually operated the mill from 1863 to 1947. It was then owned by a corporation, and sold to North Carolina State University in 1963.

The mill stood vacant for several years until Yates Mill Associates, Inc. began restoration efforts in 1988.

The mill is frequently open for historic tours and corn grinding is demonstrated on specific days. Modest fees are charged for mill tours. For details of the schedule contact the park staff at 919-856-6675 or go to the web page at www.wakegov.com/parks/yatesmill.

You can read more about Tim, see other paintings and purchase them on our website by clicking here!

It's been a busy time in Downtown New Bern, looking forward to seeing you!

Jan Francoeur - Carolina Creations

Very cute New Bern Goblet - just in

We are very excited about our new New Bern goblet!! The goblet is made in the USA by Libby, it has a very nice weight, and of course they are also printed in the USA. It is ours exclusively.

They are $17 each. Put them with our tea towel and a bottle of wine, what a gift! Our Donna suggested serving wine in them at your dinner party then letting the guest take it home as a gift.

To order just click here!!

Christmas Downtown New Bern 2008

Our Dickens of a Christmas in Downtown New Bern is coming together. I've started another blog about that (yes I do have a life beyond the computer - kind of) .

While our big events will be listed on other websites some of our other information won't be, like whose will be open when and some other details. This is a work in progress, I've just been putting things on it for a week so still have a ways to go.

The calendar will always be at the top of the blog and details on the individual items will be below. So bookmark http://www.downtownnewbern.blogspot.com/ to keep up to date on what's coming in just a few short months!!

We've launched our new Carolina Creations Website

Now you can shop online!!

This is our new look!

I've been working on the site for several months - but I'm sure there are some things that could be better.

If you see anything wrong or have ideas how it could be better I would really appreciate your input! Please email me at janet@carolinacreations.com.

I hope you'll check it out at www.carolinacreations.com

New for Baby

Last February we met a talented potter and painter Debbie Dean. We asked her to make some bear and baby items for us and they arrived today!

These pieces can be purchased by the piece or a baby set of 3.

Prices are $24 for the mug, Bowl $29, Plate $31

Other patterns are the sailboat and rabbit.

Cute!

Also look for our new look on our website coming this week.

We have been working on making it easier for you to order from us online.

I'll send a newsletter out announcing the launch as soon as it happens.