Pampas Grass
(Playground in Riverfront Park, Little Rock, AR)
.
9 years ago
Showing posts with label Little Rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Little Rock. Show all posts
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
No Parking
No Parking, but no one cares.
(In front of the Statehouse Convention Center lobby in Little Rock, AR)
.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Skywatch Friday: Stephens Inc.
Stephens Inc. building in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. A contrail is reflected in its mirrored surface.
Thanks to all the fine folks who make SkyWatch possible. Please click the logo above for more information about or to participate in SkyWatch Friday.
.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Journal: Monday, 12/08/08
► Heading home: Jo and I slept a little late (me later than Jo) and approached loading and leaving for home at a leisurely pace. Our only deadline for the day was picking up Rusty and Bucket before Puppy Park's 3:00 PM check out time.
► Getting our personal stuff loaded back into the van -- and still leaving room for
the dogs -- proved to be a little bit of a challenge thanks to THE GIANT BAG OF PACKING. Prior to Showcase, a glassblower friend emailed and asked Jo if she wanted a bag of packing. He has a couple of sources for recycled packing material -- mostly thin sheets of foam -- and had accumulated more than he needed. Jo said, "Sure", figuring we could always work in one bag of packing even though our van is always fully loaded when we do a show. Little did she know that this one bag was about the size of a Mini Cooper. I got most of our belonging loaded and then working together Jo and I squeeze the bag of packing in between the load and the roof of the van. When we finished, I could have rolled the van and none of that part of our load would have been able to move.
► The weather had been beautiful all weekend, but was taking a turn for the
worse by the time Monday rolled around. It was clouding up quickly when we left the Little Rock area. On the way home we did a little Wally World shopping in Conway and picked up Rusty and Bucket in the outskirts of Greenbrier. By the time we got home mid-afternoon the skies were cloudy. The house insulation was doing a good job of holding in the cold air acquired over the weekend. The outside temperature was in the mid-fifties, but mid-forties prevailed inside our house. It took a while for the wood stove to take the chill off the inside air. It always does. Still, we have returned from Christmas Showcase to a house that was much colder inside.
► About all we managed to get done after arriving home was unloading our personal stuff from the van.
.
► Getting our personal stuff loaded back into the van -- and still leaving room for
the dogs -- proved to be a little bit of a challenge thanks to THE GIANT BAG OF PACKING. Prior to Showcase, a glassblower friend emailed and asked Jo if she wanted a bag of packing. He has a couple of sources for recycled packing material -- mostly thin sheets of foam -- and had accumulated more than he needed. Jo said, "Sure", figuring we could always work in one bag of packing even though our van is always fully loaded when we do a show. Little did she know that this one bag was about the size of a Mini Cooper. I got most of our belonging loaded and then working together Jo and I squeeze the bag of packing in between the load and the roof of the van. When we finished, I could have rolled the van and none of that part of our load would have been able to move.► The weather had been beautiful all weekend, but was taking a turn for the
worse by the time Monday rolled around. It was clouding up quickly when we left the Little Rock area. On the way home we did a little Wally World shopping in Conway and picked up Rusty and Bucket in the outskirts of Greenbrier. By the time we got home mid-afternoon the skies were cloudy. The house insulation was doing a good job of holding in the cold air acquired over the weekend. The outside temperature was in the mid-fifties, but mid-forties prevailed inside our house. It took a while for the wood stove to take the chill off the inside air. It always does. Still, we have returned from Christmas Showcase to a house that was much colder inside.► About all we managed to get done after arriving home was unloading our personal stuff from the van.
.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Journal: Saturday, 12/06/08
A pretty much routine day of modest sales at Arkansas Craft Guild's Christmas Showcase 2008. We were back down at the Statehouse Convention Center by 8 AM. The show closed at 6 PM. After the show we enjoyed a great potluck supper and visiting session back at our friends house.
The Peabody is a privately owned hotel that sits atop part of the Statehouse
Convention Center which is owned by the City of Little Rock. Jo and I began exhibiting at the Arkansas Craft Guild's Christmas Showcase in 1987. Since that time, the hotel has changed ownership three or four times and undergone a major renovation.
The Peabody group is originally out of Memphis and has long been associated with ducks.
Since Jo and I have been doing Showcase, the Convention Center itself has just about doubled in size. Back in 1987, it consisted of three large conventions halls (separated by movable walls), a lobby, and various offices and small meeting rooms. The only entrance was through the side of the hotel lobby. The expansion eight or so years ago added a couple more large halls (one connected to the other three and one on an upper level) plus several smaller meeting rooms and a large entrance lobby accessible directly from Markham Avenue.
.
The Peabody is a privately owned hotel that sits atop part of the Statehouse
Convention Center which is owned by the City of Little Rock. Jo and I began exhibiting at the Arkansas Craft Guild's Christmas Showcase in 1987. Since that time, the hotel has changed ownership three or four times and undergone a major renovation. The Peabody group is originally out of Memphis and has long been associated with ducks.
Since Jo and I have been doing Showcase, the Convention Center itself has just about doubled in size. Back in 1987, it consisted of three large conventions halls (separated by movable walls), a lobby, and various offices and small meeting rooms. The only entrance was through the side of the hotel lobby. The expansion eight or so years ago added a couple more large halls (one connected to the other three and one on an upper level) plus several smaller meeting rooms and a large entrance lobby accessible directly from Markham Avenue.
.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Journal: Friday, 12/05/08
► Up at 5:30 AM and back down to the Statehouse Convention Center by eight o'clock. The show opened at 10:00 AM. Jo and I didn't really need to get down to the show quite so early, but we hitched a ride with someone who did. We and two 
other artists stayed with a friend who was also exhibiting at Christmas Showcase. We usually all ride together on Friday and Saturday. I greatly prefer getting down to the show a little early as opposed to having to drive down and find a parking place for the van, especially on Friday. Of course, arriving at 8 AM made for a long day since the show was open until 8 PM on Friday.
► There's really no point in providing a blow by blow description of our sales over the the three days of Christmas Showcase. In general, our sales were mediocre -- a little bit ahead of last year, but last year was way down. The show followed a typical pattern: Saturday was our best day, Friday was second and sales on Sunday were the lowest. There were periods of time during the middle of the afternoon and late in the day when most of the folk one saw wandering the hall were wearing name tags, artists with nothing to do except visit with other artists.
► I suppose the big event occuring on Friday was the visit by Ginger Beebe, first lady of Arkansas. She and her entourage spent quite a bit of time going through the show. Ms. Beebe, her personal assistant and a couple of security guys were in our booth for a while. (A good thing Jo and I had a double booth and could accomodate the crowd.) Decorations at the governor's mansion this year included a "potter's tree", a tree decorated with ornaments made by Arkansas potters. Jo received a letter from the first lady's office several mouths ago explaining the potter's tree and asking her to submit an ornament. Jo worked on designing an ornament for a while, but the demands of needing to produce inventory for our shows eventually shoved this one-of-a-kind project onto the back burner and, eventually, completely off the stove. The gist of the conversation between Jo and Ms. Beebe was that the potter's tree contribution did not necessarily have to be a conventional ornament. Other potters had just sent small pottery items. Jo ended up donating a small creamer to the cause.
.
other artists stayed with a friend who was also exhibiting at Christmas Showcase. We usually all ride together on Friday and Saturday. I greatly prefer getting down to the show a little early as opposed to having to drive down and find a parking place for the van, especially on Friday. Of course, arriving at 8 AM made for a long day since the show was open until 8 PM on Friday.► There's really no point in providing a blow by blow description of our sales over the the three days of Christmas Showcase. In general, our sales were mediocre -- a little bit ahead of last year, but last year was way down. The show followed a typical pattern: Saturday was our best day, Friday was second and sales on Sunday were the lowest. There were periods of time during the middle of the afternoon and late in the day when most of the folk one saw wandering the hall were wearing name tags, artists with nothing to do except visit with other artists.
► I suppose the big event occuring on Friday was the visit by Ginger Beebe, first lady of Arkansas. She and her entourage spent quite a bit of time going through the show. Ms. Beebe, her personal assistant and a couple of security guys were in our booth for a while. (A good thing Jo and I had a double booth and could accomodate the crowd.) Decorations at the governor's mansion this year included a "potter's tree", a tree decorated with ornaments made by Arkansas potters. Jo received a letter from the first lady's office several mouths ago explaining the potter's tree and asking her to submit an ornament. Jo worked on designing an ornament for a while, but the demands of needing to produce inventory for our shows eventually shoved this one-of-a-kind project onto the back burner and, eventually, completely off the stove. The gist of the conversation between Jo and Ms. Beebe was that the potter's tree contribution did not necessarily have to be a conventional ornament. Other potters had just sent small pottery items. Jo ended up donating a small creamer to the cause..
Great Taste Is Everything
Yarnell's Ice Cream truck at the Statehouse Convention Center, Little Rock, AR.
.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Journal: Thursday, 12/04/08
► Sky has cleared ... north wind has backed off some, but still blustery ... temperature continuing to fall ... 25ºF/-3ºC @ 2:30 AM.
► We left the house heading down to Little Rock around 9 AM. Little Rock is approximately 120 highway miles to our south, a distance that can be driven in around three hours by me in our van. We take Arkansas Highway 65 down to Conway where we pick up Interstate 40 on into Little Rock.
► We made pretty good time during the first half of the trip, but then the stops began. We dropped Rusty and Bucket off for their weekend stay at the Puppy Park. Just a bit further down the road, we stopped for gasoline. Next came a stop at the Office Depot in Conway. After stocking up on office supplies, we proceeded to Wal-Mart so Jo could buy some cut flowers for her booth display. However, Jo found Wally World's cut flowers lacking so we headed down I-40 one exit to a large Kroger's where she made her flower purchase.
► Once back on I-40 we made it all the way down to Little Rock without stopping again. As a matter of fact, we didn't even stop in Little Rock -- just drove through and headed toward Memphis. We were staying with friends who live about ten miles outside of town and wanted to get our personal belongings out of the van before unloading and setting up at the convention center. By the time we finished getting unloaded at our friends' house, it was getting close to two o'clock. Jo fixed sandwiches and we ate lunch before getting back on the road again. We finally made it down the the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock at 3 PM.
► Setting up is one of those jobs that can ever so easily expand to fill the time allotted for it, especially when we're doing a show where we know most of the other exhibitors and can easily get side tracked into visiting with friends. When pressed, we can set up both our booths -- including canopies -- in a little over two hours. We stayed at the convention center until nine o'clock and still weren't completely finished setting up our displays. We had no problems, just spent a lot of time piddling around and checking out what everyone else was doing.
.
► We left the house heading down to Little Rock around 9 AM. Little Rock is approximately 120 highway miles to our south, a distance that can be driven in around three hours by me in our van. We take Arkansas Highway 65 down to Conway where we pick up Interstate 40 on into Little Rock.
► We made pretty good time during the first half of the trip, but then the stops began. We dropped Rusty and Bucket off for their weekend stay at the Puppy Park. Just a bit further down the road, we stopped for gasoline. Next came a stop at the Office Depot in Conway. After stocking up on office supplies, we proceeded to Wal-Mart so Jo could buy some cut flowers for her booth display. However, Jo found Wally World's cut flowers lacking so we headed down I-40 one exit to a large Kroger's where she made her flower purchase.
► Once back on I-40 we made it all the way down to Little Rock without stopping again. As a matter of fact, we didn't even stop in Little Rock -- just drove through and headed toward Memphis. We were staying with friends who live about ten miles outside of town and wanted to get our personal belongings out of the van before unloading and setting up at the convention center. By the time we finished getting unloaded at our friends' house, it was getting close to two o'clock. Jo fixed sandwiches and we ate lunch before getting back on the road again. We finally made it down the the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock at 3 PM.
► Setting up is one of those jobs that can ever so easily expand to fill the time allotted for it, especially when we're doing a show where we know most of the other exhibitors and can easily get side tracked into visiting with friends. When pressed, we can set up both our booths -- including canopies -- in a little over two hours. We stayed at the convention center until nine o'clock and still weren't completely finished setting up our displays. We had no problems, just spent a lot of time piddling around and checking out what everyone else was doing.
.
Caution: Stumbling Stoners
You just never can tell when a stumbling stoner might step out onto the roadway.
On La Harpe Blvd behind the Statehouse Convention Center in beautiful downtown Little Rock, Arkansas.
La Harpe Blvd is named after Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe (1683–1765). La Harpe was a French officer, trader, and explorer. He was the first European explorer to record the existence of a large rocky bluff on the north bank of the Arkansas River. This major outcrop of rock is just upstream from a smaller rock, where it was possible to ford the river. Had La Harpe recorded the existence of the smaller rock, it would have been the first recorded mention of the location that eventually became Little Rock, AR. Regardless of this oversight, Little Rock named a road running along the Arkansas River after La Harpe.
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
