Update on the life and times of the Palmisanos

We had an amazing weekend filled with friends, family, and flea markets. The parents came to Athens to hang out, along with their 3 other "children". Needless to say our house was packed, but packed with looove :) (Imagine me saying that in my deepest Al Green voice) Anyways, we spent Saturday morning perusing the aisles at the J and J Flea Market and then in the afternoon we did yard work and planted flowers. I know it was exactly what my parents wanted to do on their mini "holiday"....but me and Angie have not been successful in the threats we've given our landlord to cut our grass. The backyard had literally turned into a jungle...giant grasshoppers and all. Sooo, Dad came to the rescue and now our yard is livable again. He's pretty much our super hero :)

We also went downtown Saturday night to watch some friends race in the Twilight Criterium...I'm still completely amazed at how they go almost 35 mph around those corners and stay on the bike. AND they go around the 1km loop 80 times.... how I have no idea. The longest bike ride I've ever been on was 18 miles and my bum never forgave me for it.

All in all, a good weekend. Although you'll notice I said nothing about designing jewelry or working in our little sweat shop. That's because we didn't. AH! and the Hatch Market is in 2 weeks. With that being said, you'll understand why there won't be many posts in between now and then. (MAY 9th and 10th in Griffin at Special Occasions on Tenth St. Music, Good Food, and Indie crafts. Be there or be square!) Time to get to work!


Here is what I accomplished, with my mom's help of course. (all pots courtesy Brad Robinson and Christopher Brewton, Pictures done by me :))


















We got a huge jewelry supply shipment monday and are currently working hard to get prepared for next weekend. We'll blog and show off the new designs laterrr. HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!

Read Yer Manual

So I finally figured out how to take clear shots of jewelry up close. You have to switch your camera to macro mode...which is usually represented by a flower. (yeah, I totally had the whole "Oh that's what that little symbol means! moment) So my advice when you don't know how to use your technology.. read the manual.


Here is a picture of the ring that I love, made by Kristen Fountain Davis Designs, that actually does it justice.

Lovely isn't it

Spring has sprung!!

Right now we're preparing for the HATCH MARKET in Griffin Ga on May 9 and 10...a very good place to go for something unique and handmade for Mom's day!!! And we're in the process of putting more up on ETSY...which we're working on tonight as a matter of fact. We've got SO many cute ideas and just had a huge shipment of antique watch gears and parts come in, make sure you check out our etsy shop located to the left of our blog!!!




So, the main purpose of this blog is to provide me(erica) and Angie a creative outlet where we can write about all the people and things in our lives that inspire us and to also document the process of starting a small business. This week we will be getting our very own tax I.D. number, how exciting!! (note sarcasm) But we figure we should be able to write off all of these business expenses and make ourselves legit. We should also let you know that we are running our business in a very "green" way. Everything from our 100% recycled/biodigradable jewelry boxes to the recycled materials we use to make the jewelry to how we are going to recycle all of the other parts of the clocks we're not using (currently these parts are living in a box in the dining room, we'll let you know where/how we are able to recycle them). It's important that we leave only a very small carbon footprint and we're working hard to do so.



I also wanted to post some pictures of a ring I just got from Kristen Fountain Davis Designs (visit her etsy shop!!), the pictures do not do it justice...for some reason the automatic focus on my camera is not automatically focusing!! (HELP!) so either way, you should check her out, she makes the little birdie nest ring in whatever size you want and I've had nothing but compliments on it. Thanks again Kristen!!

ADORABLE!!!

(That Star Wars coffee mug was a birthday gift from Jason, a co-worker's son, Yoda is on the other side. He said he got it for me bc I'm short like Yoda...but I like to think it's bc I'm wise like Yoda. :)



Here are some pictures from this weekend!! For a second Friday night I thought we might get blown away by a tornado, but the weekend actually ended up being beautiful and the dogs had an extra special easter playing soccer in the back yard. Mom gave us the cutest easter presents (age does not matter in our household) and Dad made us all fresh blueberry pancakes Sunday morning. Thanks for being such amazing parents, we really lucked out. :)

Tucker has little man syndrome...

Me and my child

My Mom's green thumb still amazes me

My Mom and the biggest baby of them all, Sake

The girls

the end :)

Austin, Texas!!!!

Hi everyone! So I just visited Austin Texas--- Home of the Longhorns! I had never been to Texas and I always heard of how fun it is in Austin. We went to visit my roommate --Robbi's dad, Toni, who was more than excited to show us a good time and life around Austin. We stayed at the Driskill Hotel (http://www.driskillhotel.com/) which is right on 6th street---where the craziest bars and live music can be found!! (we were there the week after SXSW). I especially loved the whole art scene, there was an open air market near the campus where most local artists can set up shop and sell their handmade treasures. We also visited a small art gallery called "art on 5th" (http://www.arton5th.com/) ---obviously located in 5th street. There was a really awesome jewelry show going on while we were there and since Erica and I have been into the jewelry making I wanted to see what other artists were doing. (Very Cool!!!)

The people were so nice and laid back, we met some cool kids who took us to this park called Barton Springs, the springs is well known bc it stays 68 degrees all year!! There were dogs running around, frisbee throwing and bud light!...good times had by all.

Toni also took us to a Longhorns baseball game...it was hard to cheer bc I am a Dawg! but we had a good time. We ate the most delicious foods, I can't really remember all the names of the restaurants, but everything was so good...especially the steaks!

The last night we went to this small restaurant where this local band "Carolyn Wonderland" was playing, Toni is a huge fan and was pumped to take us the see them. I loved the whole show! she played the guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, and trumpet!! amazing! ----check them out on youtube and http://www.carolynwonderland.com/ !!!

All that said I had an amazing time and will definitely be visiting again in the near future!

M is for Milk

My dear friend Michelle Pieper gave me the inspiration for this blog. She told me about this very interesting underground movement where people are choosing to drink raw or unpasteurized milk instead of pasteurized milk. It's part of the whole raw food movement with the idea being that cooking food or pasteurizing it takes away from its nutritional value. The process of Pasteurizing was invented by Louis Pasteur, a French Chemist (freshman chemistry rears it's ugly head) and entails a process of heating the substance (in this case milk) to really high temperatures and then rapidly cooling it down. It's considered adequate for destroying almost all yeasts, mold, and common spoilage bacteria and also to ensure adequate destruction of common pathogenic heat-resistant organisms. BUT it also kills beneficial bacteria, which is why there is this whole underground movement to consume only unpasteurized milk. The raw milkist say that if the cows are healthy and organic, then the milk will be too. One of the reasons pasteurization was so important was because cows were prone to getting bovine tuberculosis which can be passed on to humans through their milk. Nowadays we don't worry about that threat. Honestly, when I think about unpasteurized milk, I get this horrible image of frothy, smelly, chunky milk that should not be ingested by anyone...especially me. After reading alot on the subject and becoming completely obsessed with raw milk, the image in my mind has changed. What I was picturing was non-homogenized milk....GROSS. I'm all for more nutritious milk but I'd still like it to be sterile white and consistently watery :) . You're probably wondering why an entire post is about milk...well, anyone who knows me (Erica), knows that I'm slightly addicted to milk. I drink it ALL the time, but got concerned when I started reading about how many antibiotics and hormones dairy cows are given. Those sort of things are passed directly on to their milk and are not taken out of the milk through the pasteurization process. It's not a huge concern if you're not a big milk drinker, but for me and little kids, it's bad news. I'm making the effort to change (which means I'm trying really hard, but those cardboard half gallon , smelly, organic milk cartons are EXPENSIVE). I'm truly intrigued with the whole Raw Milk idea and need to try it. It's only legal to buy the stuff in some states and South Carolina is one of them. So me and Michelle will be hittin the road soon to taste test this controversial drink. We'll let you know how it goes and if we'll be boarding this band wagon.



I'll end this post with a picture from my weekend. We celebrated Mooch's (Michelle's) 27th birthday in Augusta. The town was preparing for the Masters coming up this weekend and the azaleas were in full bloom. OH! and I found some really cool antique watch faces downtown at one of the many vintage shops they have. I'm excited to see what we'll make with them....stay tuned.

www.designsbysorella.etsy.com

We have officially opened up shop online at: http://www.designsbysorella.etsy.com/

We hope you like what you see! Keep checking we will be posting new pieces asap!

xoxo, Erica & Angie