Thursday, December 18, 2008

Our trip to Biltmore...






Totally forgot to tell you all about our trip to the Biltmore Estate. We had a blast with our friends Jimmy and Shelley. The hotel was fabulous. Asheville is a bit of a weird city. Hippies, rolled cigarettes, odd restaurants, etc. On 2 occasions, we did walk into a restaurant, order a beer, and pay the tab. No food, no hanging out... we looked like tourons, not locals. Biltmore was great. We toured the winery, went on a Land Rover off-road ride, and saw the Biltmore decorated for Christmas at night. I wish we could have taken pics inside the house- but thats a huge no-no.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas Tour 2008

A little peak into our home at Christmas. Sorry some of the pics are blurry.









I'll take that, thank you very much.


So randomly I'll check out craigslist just to see what people have out there. I have been successful selling items and buying one item before. One day a few weeks back, I randomly searched "Pottery Barn". Not looking for anything in particular, I just checked out what people had listed. I have always wanted a full length mirror to prop in the hallway, but when I came across this little diamond, I knew it was perfect for our bedroom. We have all white furniture (and I hope soon to be RH silver sage walls- cough , cough, wink, wink, nudge, nudge). This mirror is 65" tall and very heavy. Guess how much? $35. Yep, that's right. It's not PB, but very similar. My mom and I went to pick it up on a Friday night (yes, I'm that cool). I am still excited at what a bargain I found!

Poor little Jack...


If it can be done, he's gonna do it. Houdini himself. Jackson has been there and done that over the past 4 years. Let's see.. Ate 5-6 chocolate candy bars- Check. Ate 8 chicken wings- bone included, Check. Got out of his crate and hung himself by his collar, Check. Drank a pot full of hot dog water, Check. I'm sure there are other things I'm not thinking of right now, but the latest has to do with his toenail. Apparently he broke his toe nail pretty good at the beach a few weeks back. Long story short, the vet told us to give him an aspirin for the pain until we got him to the vet in the morning. We gave him Tylenol. BIG MISTAKE. It very well could have killed him. After staying up all night puking his poor brains out, he broke his nail again and Zack took him to the vet. 1 surgery to remove the toe nail and bag of fluids later, he was doing just fine. Fast forward 6 weeks. His toe is about twice the size it should be. I took him to the vet this afternoon, and hes back on antibiotics and pain med to get his toe back to normal. Seeing you son walk around like a tripod is no fun, he looks too pitiful. So I hope this works and Jackson gets back to normal- if there is such a thing.

Growing Like a Weed...

Last week I painted a growth chart for a nestie friend. She was kind enough to let me borrow the comforter, so I could match the colors accordingly. I think it turned out adorable and I look forward to painting more of them. I have done 2 in the past, but they are in lala land with the rest of my images from '06-'07 on the crashed hard drive. How do you think it measures up?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Step right up!

Thanks to my wonderful hard drive crashing earlier this year, I am limited on the amount of pictures I still have. I learned my lesson, invested in a back up external hard drive and try to upload my pictures to a web gallery like flickr or kodak. Here is a stool I painted for a co-worker to give as a shower gift. It's a timeless gift that can grow with a child. Many people use them in the nursery to prop up mom's tired feet, then move them to the bathroom to help little ones up to the sink. A stool is a something that will never go out of style!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!


This weekend we are heading to Asheville. As a 2nd anniversary present to each other, we decided to take a trip up to Asheville to go to the Biltmore Estate. We are going with our best buds Shimmy and Jelley. We're pretty excited because of all the times we have been before, we've never been there during Christmas. We are taking the evening candlelight Christmas tour, which promises to be memorable. I'm all about finding a deal- so here's what we did to make it more affordable.

1. Lodging. This is a major cost. On our trip to Atlanta this past summer, I used priceline.com for the first time ever. Saved major $. So we did it again this time. We are staying at the Renaissance Asheville. Online, 2 nights would have cost $318 without tax for each couple. By using priceline, I was able to get 2 nights for $154 (including tax) per couple. Talk about savings!

2. Biltmore tickets. We are taking the candlelight tour on Sunday night vs. Friday or Saturday. Savings $20 per couple. Every little bit helps. Plus, we are thinking that less people will be touring on a Sunday night vs. Friday/Saturday. Plus we saved even more by going before Thanksgiving.

I'll let you know how the trip goes, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Friday, November 7, 2008

That's so trashy!


My mother in law is obsessed with palm trees. Palm tree earrings, pajamas, cups, soap, pillows...the list goes on and on. They got a new 5th wheel a few years ago, and the one thing palm tree she didn't have was a trash can. I take that back. She did have one- if you count an old trashcan she stuck a palm tree grippy cut out on. You know that kind you would have used back in the day on the bottom of your bathtub. So I took it upon myself to paint her a coordinating trashcan. Lots of very detailed artisan skills went in to this design. You truly wouldn't understand these techniques unless you were trained by a professional- like papertowel painting, q-tipping, and painters-taping :) This is a plastic trashcan from Rubbermaid that is designed to use plastic grocery bags. Trash is allowed to look pretty too!

It's about that time again...


This time last year, we had Christmas card photos taken. Yeh, I'm weird like that. Can't you just look at Z and see how thrilled he is to be sitting in a field, shoeless, in a green chair. They were great photos taken by Jen Lee. She doesn't live in NC this year, so we're probably just gonna set the camera up ourselves and take a few. I personally, think its great to include or have pictures in your Christmas cards. I for one, love to see how people have changed, families have expanded and babies have grown. For many, this is the only connection we have, so I like to make it a personalized one. We have done this over that past few years with my side of the family, so its one I'd like to always do with mine and Z's little family. I'll be sure to post our Christmas card whenever I have the right pictures.

Where the magic happens...

Vinyl letters from etsy seller Elephannie. She is awesome to work with!
Where I paint. It's never this clean. Ever.
My closet. It was stuff with random things, now its stuff with random things in organized bins:) We moved my craft table into the closet to free up some floor space in the room. Z and I made cornice boards that conceals the top nicely. My mom sewed all the curtains.
This is a set of cubes from A.C. Moore. We put them on their side, painted them brown and added legs from Lowes. My mom sewed a coordinating cushion for the dogs. I lucked up and found the matching bins at Lowes for $6.00 each.
Shelving is hidden by curtains, trimmed in brown with blue polka dots. Stripes are 12" wide and were a bitch to tape (just ask my lovely, darling, patient husband.)

byPAMI meet blog. blog meet byPAMI.

So I guess I'll start my blog the way most people start theirs off. I'm new to this. I don't really have a vision about which direction it's going to take. I'll use it as a place to display recent paint orders and crafts. I'm sure I'll probably throw in some personal stories as well. I'm pretty Type A and call things like I see it, so def. don't expect for me to hold my tongue here. Don't try to correct me on my grammar or spelling- just understand there will be plenty-o-errors, and I'm ok with that.