Dale Avenue Community Mural

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Dale Avenue . Southeast Roanoke

This neat mural was designed by North Carolina artist Brenda Councill and drawn by local artist Scott "Toobz" Noel and painted by volunteers! I snapped this quick photo while waiting in the drive-thru yesterday at Arby's ;)

I came home and Googled for more info and found THIS news story which tells a little more about it like the fact that Toobz modeled it after the tree that is in front of the fire station right across the street, which I didn't know till now...So, I need to go back and get a pic of the tree and see if I can fit more of the mural into a picture as it is quite long!

The name "Toobz" might sound familiar to some of you because he's quite a busy muralist having created many around the area which I've shown you some HERE

Linking up with Monday Murals

Parking Garage

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These cut outs brighten up a boring old parking garage on Campbell Avenue . Roanoke

It sure is hard getting back into the routine after a nice 5 day weekend!

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Welcome to Roanoke

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Downtown Roanoke...

photobombed...that's my oldest son Christian!

Linking up with Monday Murals & Through My Lens

School starts tomorrow...boo!

Corpse Bride

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Zihuatanejo, Mexico

This was taken from my seat at a restaurant we ate at when we were walking around Zihua on night. It was a rainy night and we saw a crowded little restaurant filled with locals so we decided to stop for some tacos. We sat out on the sidewalk, right along the street. A stray dog was there, visiting our table, and the tables to the left and right of us. Being the dog person I am, I was thinking how rude everyone was for just ignoring this poor little hungry dog...soooo, I threw him some scraps of my tacos when Nick tells me to stop doing that. "Stop right now!" he says. He told me everyone was watching me with shock when I started feeding the dog. Then a little boy from the next table took some scraps in a napkin and walked the dog across the street to feed him. LOL...I guess I looked like a heathen, feeding the dog right where I was ;)

Ugh, I developed a horrible, HORRIBLE sinus infection. Remember when I told you I wasn't feeling well? Well, I felt like junk all weekend long. My head was killing me and I could barely be up off the couch. I took some decongestants all weekend and am feeling so much better. Sinus infections are no joke! Hopefully that's all behind me now!

Linking up with Monday Murals

Through My Lens & Monday Murals...Durham, NC

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Durham, North Carolina

On Saturday we took a little drive down to the Raleigh/Durham area and spent the day. I can't find a thing out about this mural. I saw one write up briefly mentioning it along with a "Drag Bingo" story and stating this was created by an HIV/Aids artist...then a blog just labeled it as the "9th Street Bakery Mural"...I grew tired of looking so whichever it is, it is colorful!

More on Durham throughout the week!

Linking up with Mersad's Through My Lens & Oakland DP's Monday Murals

Happy Monday!

Monday Murals - Raleigh

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Corner of W. Martin & McDowell . Raleigh . NC

In my extensive Googling quest this morning I have concluded that this is the work of one Taylor White. That's about all I can come up with. I found her website HERE ...she's done quite a bit of stuff in Australia I see...but this cool mural is all stealth like, nothing comes up. I did Google Earth it and you can see the building it is on HERE and that was taken in 2012, no mural...Google Earth is pretty fun to play with. I was able to back track because right up the street on W. Martin is Berkeley Cafe which is a pretty cool little joint we hung out at for a while. Great food too! We had a turkey sandwich with applebutter...I didn't even know those 2 things went together but it was so dang good!

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Monday Mural - Stampede

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Appalachia Press building, 108 Salem Ave. S.E.

Found this on the mural HERE : This second mural workshopped by the teens in the Roanoke Youth Arts Connections program required approval from the Roanoke Architectural Review Board as Appalachia Press is in a historic building. The exposed raw brick, though ideal for a cave painting scene, made for a difficult surface to paint on. Artist John Kayrouz created the design, inspired by the Lascaux caves in France, based on the teens’ idea, and Mim Young and Scott Noel painted it themselves. Young sees the cave art as providing a sort of bridge between the modern, avant garde art museum next door and the historic district beside it.

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Sorry I wasn't around last week. Nick took the week off and I was still so busy getting all the Christmas stuff finished. Planned to be around for Willy Nilly Friday but just didn't make it...Will be up and running this Friday!

Monday Mural - Bait, Tackle & Seafood

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On the side of the building....

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...the front....
Nick wanted to get some steamed crabs to take to the beach. Ran in here to see if they steam stuff to go but nope, they don't!

This place is in Hampton.

Linking with Monday Murals because yeah, it's Monday...again!

Monday Mural - Bartleby Hopsworth

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FLYING MOUSE BREWERY
221 Precast Way
Troutville

We have a new brewery in Botetourt! The Flying Mouse. This is Chris and his sidekick Bartleby Hopsworth. Chris is one of the 5 partners @ Flying Mouse and the creative genius behind Bartleby, the "determined" little mascot. You can see his artwork all around the brewery and although this isn't a mural per se, I think it would be awesome to see a big Bartleby Hopsworth mural out front welcoming guests. Maybe in the future?!

We stopped in yesterday afternoon and had a beer and a look around. 3 of the 5 partners were there and so nice to give us a tour and tell us all about their vision for the brewery and all the hard work and sacrifice it took to get here.

The Flying Mouse is opened on Friday/Sat/Sun with live music and food trucks on Saturday afternoon/evening.

Tomorrow I'll show you a little more :)

For more info on the brewery and Bartleby the flying mouse, visit their website HERE

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Monday Mural - The World is a Village

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Located in Grandin Village by "Toobz" Muir

In Grandin Village, outside the coffee shop Cups, Toobz has rendered giant-sized likenesses of Roanoke’s dame of diversity, Pearl Fu, and Grandin Village caretaker James Tarpley in “The World is a Village.” From an article in the Roanoke Times

See more of his work HERE

Linking with Monday Mural

Monday Mural & Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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Some green graffiti I saw in a parking lot on our way home from the St. Patrick's Festival downtown. Linking with Monday Murals....

And here's a few shots of the festival:

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Sunny and warm Saturday at the festival and today we are having a snow day! We ended up with about 1-2 inches of snow this morning. Crazy weather!

Monday Mural - Summer Harvest Goddess in Pittsburgh

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"The Sprout Fund provided the information for Summer Harvest Goddess:
Summer Harvest Goddess exemplifies a very site specific Sprout Public Art mural, in that Kelly and the South Side Local Development Company wanted to have a mural that referenced the weekly farmer’s market that runs in the summers in the area adjacent to the wall. Carolyn chose the classic image of a woman holding a cornucopia as the mural’s central figure, showing the bountiful harvest of produce available at the farmer’s market. She also snuck in a few Pittsburgh references, like a dinosaur and a Steelers scarf, to localize the image. The mural reflects the style of Kelly’s personal illustration work, but achieving this required some inventiveness on her part. She wasn’t able to get the precise stroke that she wanted from a normal paintbrush, and decided to dip an ear of corn from the farmerâ??s market into her bucket of paint to create a more graceful line! Kelly’s striking color choices and signature illustrative style can also be seen in her 2009 Sprout mural in Troy Hill."

Info from Pittsburgh Murals

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All our snow has been melting quickly...school is on a 2 hour delay this morning...ugh...Monday!

Monday Mural From Pittsburgh

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While in Pittsburgh last year we noticed this public restroom. Thought it was pretty cool, never seen one like this. Unfortunately it was closed for use. One night while leaving an establishment right up the street from here, we saw a man doing his business right on the sidewalk...number 2 might I add. Christian named him the "Uni-Pooper". When he finished he just hiked his pants back up and took off running across the street. Had the public potty been opened none of us would have had to go through this experience...or maybe not...

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Monday Mural - Blacksburg

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A random mural in Blacksburg. I combed the internet looking for info on this one and nothing came up. I did learn that there was a whole mural campaign in Blacksburg to clean up unwanted graffiti. It would be handy if the town had a website listing the murals, locations and artists since it was whole project and all.

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Monday Mural - Blacksburg II

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Blacksburg

I showed you one half of this mural HERE a while back and totally forgot to show you this half...so, this is the other half ;)

Happy MLK day...school is out in observance. Is it out where you are?

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