pamgarrison

i'm such a sucker for packaging

You can't get the feel of the size from my photo, but this a a really small (slightly bigger than a child's juice box) little box of my favorite candy. I couldn't resist getting it at the grocery store the other day. Like the post title states, I'm a total sucker for packaging. Packaging can totally tip the scale on an item I'm considering.

And speaking of packaging, do you like my new blog banner? The fonts, the white label thingy (technical term for the photoshop inept), the way the flower doodles pop = yummy to me. It was certainly time for a new banner over here. Well, thanks to the fab Miss Moss, I finally have a new one.  She even has another idea in the works...lucky for me, and lucky for you too, if you pop by here on occasion, because she has such great design style! Thank you Mary Ann! xoxo

congratulations to:

 

Prize No. 1:

 

stanna rysdam said:

Love your blog and would love to win the prize...

Prize No. 2: 

Megan The Binding Bee said:

Your blog is a source of weekly inspiration for me. Thank you so much for sharing!! 

Please email me your shipping address and I'll get your prizes in the mail to you!!! Thanks for playing everyone, I wish I had prizes for all!

great big giveaway

This weekend Jenny's Crescendoh is having it's launch party. I can't believe she started her new venture only 3 months ago. I hope you've gone over and checked out the daily cool links chosen by artists. In celebration of her success, I'm hosting a big giveaway. Leave a comment before Sunday midnight (pacific time) and consider yourself entered. Wanna know what the winners (yep, there are 2 big winners) have to look forward to?

Prize number 1 will include:

Where Women Create book of Inspiration by Jo Packham and Jenny Doh:

It's a great book full of inspiration as the title promises. Lots of great studios. It's an honor to be included with the other featured artists: Danita, Connie Govea Stuart, Hanne Matthiesen, Ashley Carter, Lori Oles, Vickie Howell, Amy Hanna, Bonzie, Laurie Mika, Susan Tuttle, Ulla Milbrath, Suzie Millions, Teresa McFayden, Joanna Figueroa, Alisa Burke, Nicol Sayre, Jo Packham, Angela Cartwright, Luana Rubin, Janice Lowry, Line Christensen, and Jenny Doh. I'll be happy to sign or doodle if you are going to keep it for yourself. I'll wait to do that though, in case you want to give it as a gift.

The second part of  prize is this sweet necklace from Crescendoh. I bought one for myself and liked it so much that I bought one to include in the giveaway:

The necklace comes wrapped with one of Jenny's crochet mini hemp single flower necklace too!

The next Crescendoh product to be included in prize one is a set of stamps designed for Crescendoh by your truly:

 

Also one of their signature totes:

and I'm going to wrap it all up and ship it to you in some hand made, just for you, brown paper packaging. Hopefully you'll share with us how you reuse it:

All that is included in prize number one!!! Prize number two is very similar, but will feature a signed book from Amy Hanna

and a set of her beautiful handcrafted earrings instead of the art saves necklace.

All the rest is the same! Two great packages as far as I'm concerned. Just leave your comment and we'll see who the lucky winners are. {One comment per person please, even though there are two prizes- prize one will be given to first name drawn, prize two to the second name drawn, thanks!} All in all I think the prizes are a great way to celebrate Crescendoh's launch, don't you? Congratulations to Jenny and the Crescendoh crew!

inspired

{me between amy hanna on the left and donna downey on the right}

Well, again, another event has come and gone and I have about 3 in focus photos on my camera to show for it. It's because events are such a whirlwind of fun and focus and a flurry of activity. Inspired was no different. All I can say is WOW!  I can't even begin to sum it up, it's just something you've got to experience to understand. I couldn't believe the amount of opportunity the students had at their disposal and the energy and desire they had to participate and learn. The above photo was taken at about 10:30 pm on the last night, after teaching 9 hours that day and cleaning the room and packing up the supplies etc. And as this picture was being taken, there were still students in the classroom taking another mini class! Donna and I were joking that this was the first time we really got to talk for a second; saying goodbye. It's really that jam packed with inspiration.

Here's a photo of the teachers on the last dinner:

 

Starting on the left you see Dara Troshane, Angela Bannatyne, Suze Weinberg and her husband Lenny, Valerie and Regine Dossche, Amy Hanna, CD Muckosky and me. I loved meeting these teachers and think they're sweethearts as well as witty and fun.

And this is a quick photo Amy took of my classroom demo table. Big thanks to Amy for returning the TA trade and being such a huge help all the way around. More gratitude to all the great inspired TA's and staff, really, they had my back all the way. And big thanks to Donna and Bill too, and congratulations on another successful inspired event!

off to north carolina for inspired!

Well, there's just never enough time in the day, is there? Thanks for all the island love, I'm still loving it. I've returned the  towel bar; too big, too fancy, too expensive, I'll find something vintage over time. When I get the marble top and towel bar I'll be sure to give you updated photos.

For now I'm in crunch mode trying to get packed and ready to teach at inspired! I head to North Carolina tomorrow. If I won't be seeing you there, I'll be back blogging next week. Here are some sneak peeks at my teaching sign that will hang outside my classroom and then be auctioned off.I've been sewing paper and canvas and painting away...

  
Ok, back to the pre-teaching trip panic, have a great week wherever you are! Be back soon...

i've been obsessed

I am in love with a piece of furniture. Isn't she a beauty?  It's my new kitchen island, and it's been taking up all my "free" time for about 2 weeks straight. Here's how it looked when I bought it at the flea market:

 
 

Since this photo, my Dad has rebuilt the base for me, (upon arrival home the base fell off as did a wheel), and then I scrubbed and bleached the entire thing, (especially the yucky inside), stripped the paint off the glass fronts of 15 of the drawers (three are wood), primed, sanded and painted inside the drawers, removed hardware, (about here I started to question whether it was going to end up the treasure I imagined it to be when purchasing it), went to Restoration Hardware for paint (pale silver) and bought hardware. Realized how ridiculous their hardware prices were, made plans to return hardware (in other words, it's on my to do list). Went to Lowe's and bought the perfect handles for .99¢ a piece; came home with those to discover they won't work. I have to find hardware that screws in from the front, unless I want to completely take the cabinet apart and rebuild (uh, no thanks-not that I even could).  Then painted the front, top and one side of the outside, sanded, repainted and glazed those sides. Applied vintage wallpaper to the back, bleached, painted, sanded wallpaper. Ordered this beauty to span the entire back of the island (as the back will face the sink) Yes, it was quite pricey, but it's the only 4 foot towel bar I could find. Went on a fruitless internet search for pulls that you screw in from the front that are thin enough for the one centimeter edge. I'm sure they're out there, but I was getting cranky googling/ebaying etc.... began the second round of wondering if all this work was even going to pan out...Went to Muff's antique hardware in Orange Circle and after almost giving up even there, found 18 pulls that I hoped would work perfectly:

I think they do, don't you?!? Here's a view of the drawers before and after:

And then I started to  believe that it was really going to be as good as I'd originally hoped. There's still a bit to be done: I think I'll fill and paint a few of the holes from the old hardware, I've got to get a pane of glass to replace the one I broke while working on it, I think I'm going to have a remnant of carrera marble cut for the top so I can roll out pie crust on it,  and my favorite part: filling the drawers and putting it into use, and admiring the result of all that obsessing! I think it'd be a fortune if found this way at a cool furniture store.

{oh, and yes, that middle drawer is a mirror, I'm going to leave it that way}

After getting home from the grocery store it was great to have a big open counter to put all the bags on!

What got me all fired up to do something cool for the house was this show: oh! their kitchen table, their giant painting, their antique lanterns in the master bedroom, their basketball dome, their clever, clever ideas are soooo inspiring. Another inspiration: this cutie here, that I'm doing this alongside. I love people that love homes and share the tales of making their home what it is.

Now that that's out of my system, hopefully the regularly scheduled crafting can now resume!