Magic Wineglass Tours

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  • Good Times at PAII

    Good Times at PAII

    It should come as no surprise that my closest friends are innkeepers.  Right now, most of them are at the Innkeeping Conference put on by PAII (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) in Little Rock, Arkansas.  They’re posting on facebook, and sending me email, and telling me what I’m missing…  as if I didn’t know!

    At last year’s PAII convention, in Charleston, I took reams of notes.  Everything from wedding contracts to food photography was covered, including all the stuff you expect to see about internet presence and good website design and stain removal and breakfast recipes.  There was an astonishing amount of information – far more than I could absorb – and I’ve still only put about 20% into practice.  (Isn’t that always the way?)  So I really didn’t have an excuse to spend the thousands of dollars it would have cost to attend the conference this year.  Cardinal rule:  All Expenditures Must Be Justified.  And I couldn’t very well justify it as play time, since we just spent the first part of a week in New Orleans with a dozen of us, and then a bunch of us went sailing to the Caribbean.  Oh yes, I qualify for the ‘plays well with others’ t-shirt.

    Lots of information from the conference is online for me, and we have friends/innkeepers in attendance who are coming to visit us when it’s over, and I’m sure they’ll be bubbling over with insights and new products from the vendor floor.  And still…  I am sooooooo jealous.  I want to hang out with my buds!  I want to take reams of notes!  I want to try new stuff!  I want to… um… sleep on substandard hotel sheets with flat pillows and get up predawn to drink hotel coffee with powdered creamer from a styrofoam cup and hike to the convention floor… no… wait…  (Oh baby, B&Bs have spoiled me rotten for the good stuff.)

    [SIGH] Ok, that’s the stuff you put up with to go to the conference.  But it’s worth it.  It is.  And next year, I’ll be back at the PAII conference.

    That is, unless I can get ten besties onto another cruise ship.

    Now:  If only we could convince the cruise lines to make a wonderful breakfast…

    .

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  • Words with Friends: the game that ate the space-time continuum

    Bad news.  I have discovered Words with Friends.  So from now on, I’m going to stay up far too late, oversleep, and not want to cook breakfast or make beds or answer reservation requests.  But hey, I’m winning…

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  • Royal Wedding vs Timberwolf Creek 😉

    You’ll never have to wonder about why I love my brides…

    It’s a facebook love-fest!

    And yes, these are my brides.

    And yes, the “Like” is yet another bride.

    And if I wait a day or two, there will likely be more, but I am just so pleased.

    My brides are The Best.

    ~

    Oops! I didn’t see that Tanya also ‘liked’ this right before I ’snipped’ the image. Didn’t mean to be misleading… She’s not my bride, but she is my niece, and if we’d been having weddings back when she got married, maybe she would’ve been my bride, too!

    ~

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  • The Perfect Coffee Mug

    We leaned forward to listen, as one of the ladies prepared to tell us about her requirements for a Perfect Man.  He would be tall, she said, and employed.  Funny and smart go without saying.  She restricted his age to 35-43, and begging your pardon, he simply cannot be a democrat.  We sat back and laughed, and discretely surveyed the dining room.  Hey, you never know.

    So here I am this morning, preparing to tell you about my notion of the perfect coffee mug.  Like my friend’s ideal man, it must be taller than round.  It must also fit on my cup warmer.  Even though it takes me an hour in the morning to savor that first cuppa, I enjoy my coffee scaldingly hot, so a cup that fits on the warmer should have a flat bottom (I’ve no idea what my friend’s requirements are in that area) so that it will actually keep the coffee hot.  Most commercial cups, which bore me to tears, have a concave base that doesn’t make contact with the warmer, and I’m back at the microwave every few minutes.  That said, it really can’t be a commercial cup.  There are just too many really fine potters out there that can make a beautiful coffee mug, and these North Carolina mountains are right smack in the middle of clay heaven.

    A brief aside about our clay…  It’s so special that Wedgwood China imported it in the 1700s.  It was taken to port via the Indian Road (now I-26) to the port of Charleston and shipped to England.  Josiah Wedgwood pronounced it remarkable and called it Cherokee Clay.  There you are, a special nod to today being Earth Day.

    Back to the Perfect Mug.  It should have a pleasing appearance, that evokes some uplifting emotion.  It should feel wonderful – the handle should be easy to use, your thumb finding just the right place, and the rim should be thoughtfully crafted so you don’t get that aggravating drip down the side.  It should be exactly the right size to hold a bit more than a tea cup, but not so large that your coffee’s bound to cool.  It should invite you to lean back and wrap your hands around it on a chilly morning.  Decorative, certainly, but being decorative can’t outweigh function… like those silly handles your fingers won’t fit in, or square for the sake of being square, or squat, just in case that’s adorable.  Flared rims may be unusual, but that’s because they’re difficult to use.  As in architecture, form follows function.  And it should be hand-crafted.  I don’t want to ‘make do’.  I want to Enjoy.  I want to Savor.  I want to Appreciate -both the coffee and the mug it’s in.

    I’m just guessing that my friend would also like to find a man crafted here in these Smoky Mountains, with a pleasing appearance, who feels wonderful, and is just the right shape, who works flawlessly and is prepared to help her enjoy a cup of coffee every morning.  I hope she finds him.  I’ve found my mug.

    Here it is.

    Coffee by the Creek - New Timberwolf Creek mugs from Deneen Pottery

    Made in America.  By hand.

    In case you’re wondering, our mugs are handmade by the good folks at Deneen Pottery.  And the coffee that goes in them is Elida Estate, from Panama.  We’ll be happy to send you home with both.  Come enjoy your next cup on the porch by the stream, under these tall trees, at Timberwolf Creek.

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