empty bowls

Vespertine is hosting the silent auction items for the CORA Food Pantry "Empty Bowls" fundraiser. It will be a fabulous event held on First Sunday October 4th from 12-4 at the Courthouse Circle. Buy a ticket for $15 and have your pick of a beautiful handmade bowl donated by a local artist, then get it filled with delicious stew or veggie chili made by the Heads Up Therapeutic Riding program volunteers. Feed the needy and help little children develop better motor and communication skills (and a love of horses too, I bet!)~ can't get much better! And, stop by Vespertine to bid on Julia Kennedy's fabulous painting Empty Bowl #2 or my sterling silver handformed "empty bowl and spoon" necklace with vintage German glass. My colors were inspired by Julia's painting, it is really beautiful!

luxury soap

Hannah pulled a new trick out of her bag while making this batch! She stuck little sparkly glycerin stars into the goatsmilk soap to create a really magical "Three Kings" bar. It has Frankincense, Myrrh, and now, Gold (mica powder that is). I sliced them nice and thick and each one has a star and other golden shapes floating throughout.

New things around the Shop:

This window was fun to put together, wood fired sushi platter from local girl Lara Okeefe with ring and button canapes and Moonspoons~new product coming soon!

New flavor of gauzy hairpins with gold highlights and Japanese seed beads made with real gold.

These colors look so amazing on the dark chain.... mmmmmmm lovely!

what's for lunch take 2!

Boy, what a day! So, I got a new camera (Nikon D60 if anyone is curious) and I was so excited to have it and to have my little japanese miniature foods.. I was snapping away and coming up with terrible pictures... about the time I figured out I had my exposure and flash compensation reversed and sorted that out, one of my lights just lept off the table and broke. It's always something... I went home and stayed up very late waiting for guests to check in who didn't show up, but, I read almost all my manual! Gee, that was a little complain-y but I think I got it all out.

Today is a new day and I am armed with a new light stand bulb and an extra clip light that I have affixed at an alarming angle to my hanging ceiling light. I present you with: Miso soup.

I'm going to have my second cup of coffee now and work on my depth of field a bit more........

what's for lunch?

Well, I actually had fabulous moussaka from Angelina's.... but aren't these little Japanese miniatures amazing? Look at the translucence on that roe in the cone sushi! I luckily stumbled upon someone on etsy selling these cuties, and have now tracked down the company. They come in little boxes and you don't know what meal you are getting 'til you open it up! Too Cool, and they are coming to Vespertine soon!

Two Years at 64 Hillsboro Street!

Here's a little trip down Memory Lane as I celebrate 2 years at my current location! When I started renting my Hillsboro Street space, I had a limited amount of time to haul my stuff from my old space to the new one, which was full of paneling and phone lines, and get Open before I hemorrhaged any more money. I also had the added hurdle of having the current space full of office furniture that the old tenants left when they took their investors' money and moved to South America (I'm totally not joking there), and the AC Unit did not work. And it was August.

I'd like to take this moment to give a very heartfelt shout-out to my dear friends Marc and Cynthia who hauled all the furniture away, painted, raised lights, hung arches, and answered my call of "Heeeeelllllppppp!"
Love you guys.

Marc wanted to hang himself he was so hot. Note the two-tone shirt created by sweat.

Cynthia, also hot and sweaty, watches Marc on a ladder while he probably is giving orders for our next task. Note the furniture everywhere and the hideous spicy mustard colored trim that was everywhere too...

And look at me now: http://www.jessicabenton.com/stories/vespertine/
*lovely "after" photos by Jessica Benton