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.

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.