NEWS FROM THE VILLAGE

Celebrate Small Business Saturday by Shopping Locally

The day after Thanksgiving in the United States has long been referred to as “Black Friday,” a day when retail stores across the country hold big sales and welcome throngs of holiday shoppers looking for that special deal. However, in recent years, the day has become more of a mass exodus to the big box stores and national chains as folks line up early to be among the first to get their hands on limited offers for big ticket items. Some of these big retailers have begun to open earlier and earlier each year for the event, with several now opening on Thanksgiving evening to get a jump on the Black Friday craze, disrupting employees’ holiday time with family and causing smaller retailers and “Mom & Pop” stores to suffer as their customers flock to the well-hyped super sales. In response, several small merchants, together with American Express®, organized Small Business Saturday, a day when everyone is encouraged to shop locally while taking advantage of some special offers as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Boston Chronicle Visits the Inns & Spa at Mill Falls

Shayna Seymore interviews Rusty McLear.

While The Inns & Spa at Mill Falls and the surrounding village of Meredith, NH are popular Lakes Region destinations, well known to many people within as well as outside the area, these local treasures are about to gain an even wider audience and greater exposure, as they have been featured on a Boston travel show that is scheduled to air tonight!

Shayna Seymore and Bob Oliver from Boston Chronicle visited Meredith last month on October 15^th and 16^th, staying overnight at the Lodges at Church Landing, the latest addition to the Inns & Spa at Mill Falls. The two were in town to film a segment for a series that the show produces called “A Tank Away,” which features great places to visit within a tank of gas from Boston. The special series is filmed every season, and the Chronicle crew timed their visit to coincide with the peak of fall foliage in the Lakes Region. Read the rest of this entry »

NH’s Common Man Restaurants Help with Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

In keeping with a long tradition of community service, The Common Man Family of Restaurants has once again reached out to assist those in need—by offering direct help as well as raising funds through the generosity of its patrons—this time in the efforts to aid people and communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy last week.

Thousands are still without power in New York and New Jersey, and the recovery has been complicated by this week’s Nor’easter. However, as the relief effort continues, the folks at the Common Man have donated food to the Jersey Shore and are working hard to raise funds for the American Red Cross NH Chapter. The popular family of restaurants is running a program for customers who dine at any of their locations to be able to easily contribute to the relief funds. Read the rest of this entry »

The Inns & Spa at Mill Falls Named One of Top 45 Hotels in the Northeast

Chalk up another award for this lakeside getaway—the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey has recently recognized the Inns & Spa at Mill Falls as one of the Top 45 Hotels in the Northeast!

The Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Survey began in 1988, and since then has been listing the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruises, and airlines based on real travelers’ experiences. The online questionnaire contains lists of candidates in the various categories, and individual candidates are judged by relevant criteria for each group. In the hotel category, the ratings are based on Food/Dining, Location, Overall Design, Rooms, and Service. Those that receive a required minimum number of responses are deemed eligible for a Readers’ Choice Award. Each candidate is rated by the specific criteria on a five-point scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. Those scores, which represent the percentage of respondents rating a candidate excellent or very good, are averaged to determine the final score. Read the rest of this entry »

Meredith “Trick or Eat” Happening This Sunday!

Now here’s a twist on trick-or treating that has plenty of treats for grown-ups (and kids too)—live music, a historical walking tour, and samples of specialties from local restaurants, all in one event! It’s the very first Meredith Trick or Eat, the signature “fun”raiser to benefit some great community organizations in the Lakes Region.

Meredith Trick or Eat will take place this Sunday, October 28^th from 2 – 5 pm in beautiful Meredith Village. The event is a collaboration between Better Together, the Meredith Pathway Committee, the Greater Meredith Program, and several local businesses. Members of the Meredith Village Pathways Committee will be dressed in period attire as they lead groups on a walking tour of Meredith and relate historical tidbits about the village at various stops along the way. Read the rest of this entry »

Explore the Lakes Region During NH Open Doors Weekend

Inside “The Arts Collaborative” Gallery: Collaborative TV Lift Cabinet and Lamp featuring woodwork and copper metal panels by Steven Hayden Arts, wrought iron frame by Winnipesaukee Forge; Copper-glazed raku-fired ceramic Wishing Vessels by Steven Hayden Arts; Wrought iron branch and candlesticks by Winnipesaukee Forge

As we begin to embrace the beauty of autumn, thoughts turn to road trips and wandering through quaint towns with all the unique galleries, shops, and restaurants that each village has to offer. This is also a great time to visit farms, orchards, and wineries, as the harvest is now brimming with the fruits of the summer’s work and new ciders and wines are now ready to enjoy. In an effort to promote the best New Hampshire products and crafts and make it easy for visitors to find our hidden treasures, several organizations have come together to create NH Open Doors, an annual weekend-long touring and shopping event that spotlights the extraordinary talents that make New Hampshire such a special place.

This year, NH Open Doors takes place the weekend of November 3^rd and 4^th. The statewide event began in 2005 as the League of NH Craftsmen Open Studio Tour, focused on promoting the artwork of the League’s juried members. In 2008, the League partnered with New Hampshire Made to attract more participants and a wider audience. The two groups expanded the tour to encompass a broad range of New Hampshire products, services, and attractions, renaming the event NH Open Doors. During the Open Doors weekend, visitors to the Granite State can find distinctive products that are made in New Hampshire, get a jump on holiday shopping, and enjoy special events, such as craft demonstrations and workshops, hayrides, food samplings, special menus with local foods, and musical performances. Read the rest of this entry »

Oglethorpe Fine Arts & Crafts a “Favorite” in Meredith

If you’ve ever been to Meredith and the Mill Falls Marketplace, chances are you’ve strolled by Oglethorpe Fine Arts & Crafts as you’ve made your way by the famous waterfall. And chances are you couldn’t resist coming in to take a look at all the beautiful, handcrafted items that are on display in this open, bright, and airy shop. Indeed, the store itself is a work of art as it highlights the artistic creations of over 500 artists from across the country, and features pieces that can be used and enjoyed in our everyday lives.

“Oglethorpe Fine Arts & Crafts opened its doors in May of 1994 with a focus on quality American handcrafts from the beginning,” says Katheryn Rolfe, owner of this unique store, which is committed to showing people how easy and gratifying it is to integrate art-quality craft into our lives. The shop started in a space of approximately 900 square feet and has since grown to about 2000 square feet, with several small increases over the years as surrounding shops moved away. This allowed Oglethorpe to increase its space without having to move. Says Katheryn about her spot in the Marketplace, “I absolutely love my location with the views of the pristine waterfall and brick walkways.” Read the rest of this entry »

Columbus Day Weekend in the Lakes Region

Fall Foliage Special Train, Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad

This is the pinnacle of the season—the sun is warm, the air is crisp, and the colors throughout the Lakes Region are glorious—welcome to autumn in New England! For residents and visitors to New Hampshire, the high point of fall has long been Columbus Day Weekend, when peak colors often coincide with the three-day holiday. This year is no exception, with the foliage expected to be very colorful in the central part of the state over the next few days. Here are some fun ways to enjoy the scenery this weekend: Read the rest of this entry »

Local Artists Selected to Exhibit in the Award-Winning Paradise City Arts Festival

Steven Hayden Arts Mixed Media Wall Sculpture; carved cherry and wenge woods, “flame-painted” and acid-etched wrought copper, forged steel.

Two of Meredith, New Hampshire’s premier artists, Steven Hayden and David Little, have been selected from among nearly 1000 applicants to participate in the prestigious Paradise City Arts Festival at the Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton, Massachusetts this coming Columbus Day Weekend, October 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th.

Steven Hayden is a wood, metal, and ceramic artist, and David Little is an artist-blacksmith who has done much of the metalwork throughout Church Landing and the Marketplace at Mill Falls. Both artists are juried members of the League of NH Craftsmen. Hayden and Little have a long history of collaborating, and continue to work together at The Arts Collaborative, a new studio space in Meredith that is owned and managed by David Little and his wife, Heidi, who is also an artist. Hayden and Little were selected to be among only 275 participants in the Paradise City Arts Festival after thousands of images were reviewed by the show’s jury last April. The applicants’ work was judged on the basis of imagination, technical excellence, design, and originality. Steven Hayden Arts and Winnipesaukee Forge are in very good company, since many of the works by the exhibiting artists are displayed in major collections, museums, and publications around the world. Read the rest of this entry »

New Ways to Leaf Peep in NH!

It’s that time already—the air is crisp and the warm sun is shining on the bright colors of early fall. Some of the leaves are beginning to turn red, orange, and yellow as the foliage season gets underway in New Hampshire, and there are now some great new ways to track how the colors are progressing and plan your autumn trip to the Granite State to catch those colors at their brilliant peak!

The New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism Development’s website, Visit NH, has a foliage tracker that maps out the colors as they change day-by-day and region-by-region in the state. To find out where in New Hampshire the leaves are at their peak, visitors to the foliage tracker page just need to hover the cursor over a date on the calendar for a quick map view of the predicted color range, from green to peak to past peak, or click on an individual region for a detailed foliage report. Read the rest of this entry »