by thesavageway | Jul 25, 2014 | community
Calling all NoDa neighbors! The inaugural NoDa Neighborhood Veggie Swap is happening this Saturday, July 26 in the gravel parking lot behind Smelly Cat Coffeehouse.
Do you grow a garden with an abundance of one or two kinds of vegetables? Want to see all of those tomatoes or peppers go to good use? Come out from 9am-2pm with your extra vegetables and swap with your neighbors.
Local urban farmers Scott & Joey from Linwell Farms NoDa will be on hand with a bunch of Malabar spinach, mint, lemongrass, sweet potato greens and a variety of hot peppers!
Organizers are hoping to make this a monthly event that brings the neighbors together and builds a sense of community in NoDa.
Don’t have a garden? No worries, everyone is welcome to attend! There will be lots of community activities happening including food truck Boone’s Bar-B-Que Kitchen serving up tasty food, a cold brew coffee & tea table from Smelly Cat, local honey vendors and more!
This is the perfect accompaniment to the already existing NoDa Farmers Market that happens every Saturday from 10am-2pm at The Evening Muse / The Daily Press . There is nothing better than local food and good coffee to bring people together.
Come out on Saturday for an awesome NoDa afternoon and share the vegetable love!
by thesavageway | Jul 24, 2014 | services
Photography. There truly is an art to taking a photograph. Your professionals have gone to school and studied the craft for years to master this art – and it shows. But, in this day in age, most people have a smartphone with a built-in powerful camera. The opportunity to take a beautiful photo is just a finger tap away.
Here at #thesavageway, we watch social media all day long and we notice photos. Some are high quality and creative while others are out of focus or have terrible lighting. We know that not everyone is a professional photographer, but there really is no reason to have a blurry photograph let alone post it to your Facebook page. Knowing how to use your phone’s camera is one of the first things that we teach our clients.
When we are not teaching how to focus on an iPhone, we watch the photo trends (yes, there are trends) as we are scrolling through our news feeds. The easiest portal to analyze is the visually driven Instagram. Past trends that we love include the personal point of view that traveller @MuradOsmann does so well.
We also adore the Where’s Waldo angle of @AndrewKnapp who finds a way to add his dog Momo in every picture.
One of the photo trends we love these days is the foodie “aerial view.” This bird’s-eye view allows the audience to appreciate the overall scene and gives a different angle of food.
A few of the Instagram accounts that do this overhead view very well are national accounts @SweetGreen and @ThugLifeForevs .
Left: SweetGreen Right: ThugLifeForevs
Locally we appreciate what the guys at @ThePlaidPenguin are doing and love how @KeiaIsHungry utilizes this angle.
Left: The Plaid Penguin Right: Keia Mastrianni
These images always get us to stop scrolling and look. They are clever and memorable. Exactly what a photo on Instagram is supposed to do. This bird’s-eye view is a great way to showcase food pictures. It shows the beauty of food that a close up doesn’t always capture. Photo trends come and go, as all trends do, but a quality picture lasts forever.
by thesavageway | Jul 9, 2014 | community
NoDa, Charlotte’s historic arts district, is home to all things local: restaurants, breweries, shops, coffeehouses, music and more. It is hard pressed to NOT walk down the street and stumble upon a hidden gem; a local love. For the ladies of #thesavageway, this fact is true everyday of the week, except Saturday morning. On Saturday, we crave local vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat. We WANT local options yet we have to travel out of the neighborhood to satisfy those cravings. Until now. Beginning Saturday, July 12, NoDa will host a farmers market!
The folks from The Evening Muse & The Daily Press have partnered with Atherton Food Hub to bring a weekly local, neighborhood solution to grocery shopping.
“Everyone in NoDa has been asking for a grocery store or a farmers market for quite some time,” noted Evening Muse/Daily Press owner Joe Kuhlmann. “We have a space that was not being utilized Saturday mornings and we wanted to open it up and use it to better our community.”
The farmers market, held inside The Evening Muse, will bring fresh food that has been harvested 24 hours or less from time of sale. Atherton Food Hub Founder, Pat Farrell, is beyond excited to bring another local market to a Charlotte neighborhood.
“Our mission is to assist local farmers in marketing their food so that they are able to move and grow more produce,” said Farrell. The NoDa farmers market is another great step in helping these farmers remain sustainable and profitable entities.
Photo Credit: Diedra Laird
Expect to find delicious seasonal, non-GMO produce from farms less than 100 miles away. And if products like animal protein, eggs or cheese are on the shopping list, simply place an order for pick-up and it will be available the following week.
Stop by this weekend and sample produce, talk to the Atherton Food Hub team, sip a coffee or cocktail (yes, the bar will be open too) and get to know the neighbors.
NoDa is already home to so many local things that are embraced by the Charlotte community. A farmers market is the next logical piece to the neighborhood puzzle. The neighbors are buzzing and (needless-to-say) #thesavageway is beyond excited. So cheers to local food. Cheers to farmers. And cheers to Saturday mornings in the ‘hood buying groceries!
Details:
Event: NoDa Farmers Market
Location: The Evening Muse/The Daily Press
Day: Every Saturday
Time: 10am-2pm
Payment: Cash or Credit accepted
Drinks: Café & Bar Open
by thesavageway | Jul 1, 2014 | clean graffiti, services
How many people ever have the opportunity to meet the leader of their industry? The “Steve Jobs” of what they put their heart and soul into? Well #thesavageway had the opportunity to do just that this past weekend. We (Torrie & Paula) headed to Nashville, TN to meet the European “Godfather” of reverse graffiti, Jim Bowes.
Jim Bowes , Sustainable Advertising Pioneer, has been practicing natural media in the Netherlands and throughout Europe for over a decade with his company Green Graffiti. They offer a huge range of natural techniques including sand stamping, moss graffiti, milk paint, reverse graffiti and more!
When #thesavageway started doing Clean Graffiti over two and a half years ago, we did some research online to see if other people were doing this around the world. Sure enough it was an established art form in Europe . There were not many companies to be found, but one of the biggest and most active online was Green Graffiti. We would see Jim comment on articles and give his insight ANYTIME reverse graffiti came up in an online post. He was obviously knowledgeable and had a voice in this “green” movement. Seeing natural media from his perspective was very insightful from our location in Charlotte, NC.
Finally, after admiring his work from afar we decided that we were going to reach out. We said, “Screw it, let’s email him and see what happens.” Sure enough, he emailed back, we set up a Skype session and Jim started interacting on all of our social portals. We were blown away at how receptive he was to what were doing here in Charlotte.
Oddly enough, Jim, who is based in the Netherlands, was going to be in the States at the end of June – Nashville, TN to be exact. There was not even a question for us; we were about to take a road trip! We were going to meet the “Godfather.”
Road Trip.
7 hours outside of the Queen City, we get into the heart of Downtown Nashville and settle in for what was sure to be an experience. It felt a little strange to be in another state, meeting a person that we did not know nor did we ever think we would have the opportunity to meet. Imagine meeting Richard Branson or Bill Gates – that just doesn’t happen everyday. He lives and operates on the other side of the world! Regardless, we knew that we were there for a reason and that we were going to embrace whatever knowledge this man was about to drop on us.
The Meeting of the Minds.
We met in a suburb of Nashville called Franklin (think what Ballantyne is to Charlotte). The hustle and bustle of this little city during lunch rush did not stop us from grabbing a cold beer at a local brewery.
It must be noted that there’s never been an instance where three strangers were more excited to meet over beer and talk about a city’s dirt!
The conversation flowed really well. We talked dirt, concrete, city laws, billboard waste – the topics were endless. We discussed #thesavageway, Clean Graffiti, our experience and challenges and he did the same. It was nice to chat with someone who has walked in our shoes. Someone who sees Clean Graffiti as we see it – a HUGE asset!
It is not often in life that you are given an opportunity to sit down in a business conversation with a person who is not only a competitor but also a cheerleader. To sit face-to-face with a guy who BELIEVES in Clean Graffiti the way that we do was a pretty awesome feeling.
After the Dirt Settled.
We walked away from our meeting with the “Godfather” more confident and assured that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing in this life. We felt proud of our Clean Graffiti journey knowing he has gone through some of the same things and has come out stronger and more innovative in the end.
Jim brought up a fact that we have continued to reflect upon. He said, “It takes a brave soul to do what we do.”
We agree! Non-traditional marketing is not suited for everyone. It takes the right person for Clean Graffiti to succeed: it takes ethics, long term vision, a passion for sustainability, a little bit of risk taking, and most importantly gusto!
Who knows if we will see Jim again or what collaborative projects may be in our future – be we do know that we went to good ole Music City in order for our path to cross with the Godfather’s. That reason may not be perfectly clear just yet – but we do know that we will continue to live our lives with gusto until we figure it out!
by thesavageway | Jun 26, 2014 | community
At #thesavageway, Yelp is an app that we use on a regular basis. Anytime we want to find the closest Thai restaurant or if the auto shop will be open at 8am, we check Yelp. In fact, it is a HUGE asset when travelling because we can rely on the local’s perspective on the best places to try!
What you probably didn’t realize about Yelp is that they also throw amazing parties throughout the year that incorporate a charity – Yelp Helps! Usually these parties are for Elite Yelpers (private events for those Yelpers that have reviewed a TON and meet the qualifications), but one glorious time per year, they throw a big bash for the public. This year it was the Summertime Soiree held at the Neighborhood Theatre in NoDa! And the best part is one of our clients, Green Teacher Network, was the official charity of the evening!
Green Teacher Network’s goal is advancing academics, environmental sustainability, and health through schoolyard gardens. They are working with a variety of organizations (like Friendship Gardens, The Health Department and 18+ more) in order to bridge the gap in communication between teachers and available garden resources. They are a big resource for teachers and garden volunteers both with online portals and interactive Quarterly Workshops.
Needless to say, when Nikki, Yelp Charlotte Community Manager, offered GTN the charity of choice position, we were BEYOND grateful! The opportunity to be in front of 500+ people and gain some awareness for what GTN is doing in the community was awesome.
The night was full of support for GTN, local restaurant samplings, beer, live music and live ART!
In total, the Yelp Summertime Soiree raised $1,224.00 for Green Teacher Network. It was an honor to have GTN involved and to be a part of this awesome community event. Way to go Nikki – keep on Yelping on!