Decoration Day

In remembrance and to honor all those soldiers who have lost their lives while serving our nation, we are dedicating this blog to all things red, white, and blue.

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Kristin.A

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painting by Alyse Radenovic

Published in 1942 by General Cable Corp.

Happy Memorial Day!

A real update blog will follow soon. This week sorella designs hits the metal smithing studio!

ahhh...the sweet smell of success

We spent this past weekend in Griffin, GA (our home town) showing off our works of art at the Hatch Market. First of all we would like to thank everyone that had anything to do with putting the weekend together, everyone at Scoop Magazine, especially Jessica W., who was able answer the thousand questions I had before the event. Everyone was so helpful, as this was our very first art festival and we didn't really know what to expect. We're so new to the jewelry hustle. Just think, it was only 2 months ago that we got the idea to make our watch/clock piece jewelry and now we're actually selling it to people. It's really humbling to hear someone say "oooo I really like this one, I have to have it, how much is it?". So, all in all, it was a success. We will have the pieces that didn't sell plus a few we came up with this week on etsy. We met so many nice people this weekend and hope we picked up a few readers in the process!! This week are filing out the paper work to get our tax I.D. number....and making our little business legit. Then on to the oh so exciting merchant bank account opening. We'll post all the juicy details, so in case you're thinking about starting up your own business, maybe our adventures will some how help you on yours.

I'm going to leave you with pictures of our sweet set-up from the weekend and some new pieces we've made. They are in the most ridiculous order because blogger is being crazy and almost caused me to throw my computer out the window. I had to give up, I've been wanting to post this since Monday :) Happy Hump Day!!!

A birdie and a gear, 16in chain

a very cool mix of materials. wood, brass, gold, jade, and sterling silver (34 in chain)

The mustache tea cup coupons we gave out for tea and cookies

Mr. Kole Hamilton made an apperance

Enameled flower, tassel, wooden gear, and brass vintage clock hand (34 in sterling silver chain)

The jewelry "trees"my dad made for displaying the jewelry, so cool.

Angie, hard at work ;)

This is us Saturday, the booth looked a little different Sunday.

Dad made these too, to hold Angie's hand designed and screen printed bags

Okay, I'm done with blogging today, now all my words are underlined and bold, how annoying!!! :) (making me laugh a little bit too, of course this happens after having all the trouble copying/pasting pictures...ARG!)

Procrastination has got me thinking. Of course when I have soo much to do, so many things to finish before this weekend..I feel most inspired to sit down and put my feelings into words..not make jewelry or finish the one billion things I have on my list. Recently there have been a turn of events that have lead me to think about how thankful I am. So often you find yourself going day-to-day, same ole routine....ignoring the special moments and wishing for time to pass quickly for one reason or the other. I'm sure I don't let those most close to me know exactly how much they mean to me or how I'm sure I couldn't live with out them. My sister is my best friend and I don't tell her that enough. My parents are my greatest source of inspiration..through tough times and great times they have always been there for us....instilling in me a true sense of what family should be. I remember my first lesson in slowing down, I'll always be thankful for Mrs. Patterson, my high school freshman english teacher. She had us read "Our Town", a play by Thornton Wilder (which I recommend reading if you haven't already) and now every time I feel like life is getting too fast or I'm getting lost in the routine, I remember the theme of that play: To find joy in the monotony of every day life, to stop and smell the roses...be thankful for what you've been given. Seems like a very poignant lesson to be teaching 14 year olds, I'm surprised and glad that it really stuck with me.

So the point of this entry: The Hatch Market is fast approaching (THIS WEEKEND!!!), we're freaking out because this is our first juried art show....first trade show...first time we're going to get face-to-face feedback on our jewelry (from strangers :). We're running around like mad women trying to make sure we've covered all of our bases... So this is for you Ang!, calm down...enjoy the days before the madness. I love you and couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else. I'll try to take my own advice too!

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!