A World Away Is Coming to a Woods Near You

By Nancy Lendved

After a decade of fine-tuning Frontier, my joy in the everyday-ness of retail had dissipated. I sold the shop, and began selling antiques, designing interiors, and moving and restoring old houses. Lots and lots of real life happened.

I guess I must have kept a place in my heart (if not my head) for a once-in-a-while shop that I could open occasionally and by appointment. It's the perfect solution for a merchant lacking in the discipline department!

Tucked away in the woods behind my new house was a small red barn and a wretched tool shed stuffed with trash left behind by long-ago tenants.

I'd renovated much worse, so it made perfect sense that I'd utilize the structures on my property to sell my collection of art and antiques, along with many other wonderful things I no longer had room for.

But the concept of an event, a market bringing together local artists, antiques dealers, all sorts of creators and growers, was something I'd never considered. Then my design partner, James Askins, started plotting paths and clearing booth spaces in the woods. He ordered truckloads of gravel, and put up path lights he designed from felled cedars. He ran power and water to some of the booths, and before I even realized it, A World Away had been conceived.

Like everything in life, this market will evolve. There'll eventually be a little amphitheater for readings and performances, and maybe a little playground for the kiddies. Already there's a path to Sweet Olive Farm, where rescued animals play and graze at what used to be my big old house. It gives me so much pleasure to see the place full of new life, and to have A World Away serve as a fundraiser for all the magical creatures that Kat Howkins and Susan Pritchett are nurturing next door.

In our woods there'll be jewelry and pottery, textiles and paintings, salvaged building materials, and all kinds of crafts. There'll be food and drink. You want wicker? We got wicker. Funky old metal? Got that, too.

But what we have in greatest abundance in this little corner of our world is happy lunacy, a blind faith that community is what it's about, that prosperity will flow when we join together to showcase our creativity and our commitments.

We look forward to hearing the gravel crunch beneath your feet. To seeing your smiles as you catch a glimpse of your friends admiring artwork – and each other – under tall pines.

Come shine your light on us. Come to A World Away.

Saturday, November 16th 10-5
Sunday, November 17th 12-5
Reading of “Thank You, Trees,” for the little ones by local author Marilyn Gootman at 2:00 and 3:00 on Sunday

835 Parkview Drive
Winterville, GA 30683