I do more than get by with a little help from my friends.

How to give new life to an old pair of jeans? Hand them to a friend. I gave a pair of ten-year-old blue jeans to a dear friend and longtime reader, Connie, and a few weeks later, she stitched together the beautiful skirt you see in this photo. My friends have always been a joy to me, but in Asheville, I’ve found a particularly caring and creative crew. This region both grows and attracts creative people, and I couldn’t be happier to be here among them.

The swelling crowd of creative types also makes great material for the magazine. I was delighted to meet Krista Allison, the artist behind the Canoo monsters you see at places like Asheville’s Woolworth Walk. This month, she and more than 100 artists will show their work at The Big Crafty (see story, page 28). Each of Allison’s monsters has a unique name—I own a rabbit-like Canoo creation called Sesame Bunn. They all start as nothing more than an old sweater and one of her whimsical brainstorms.

This month, I also enjoyed meeting Buncombe County’s four female district judges, profiled on page 46. They are serious women with law degrees and high-profile jobs. But at our photo shoot, they came across as warm and witty, bantering about their looks and clothing. We asked them to wear bright, bold colors for the shoot, and all four happily obliged. But on the bench, impartiality is everything—something the black robe signifies. In my interviews with them, they all commented on the gravitas of their daily decisions, which affect people’s lives in permanent ways. “When people see us wearing (the black robe), we’re a blank slate,” says Judge Patricia Kauffman Young, who started her college career studying fashion merchandising. “We’re here to render justice. If we came in looking different, it would take away from the nature of the business.”

Happy reading,

Jess McCuan

jess@vervemag.com