Cranking Out More Designs

I am having a blast designing invitations and custom prints for friends and family, in addition to making more samples. Here are a few of my latest projects. Please remember custom designs just start at $5! Please contact me for more details.

The Newest Painter

We've grown by 4 feet. And no, I'm not pregnant with twins. My childhood dog who will soon be 16 is now a permanent resident at the Painter house.  My parents brought her up a few weeks ago to take her to my brother-in-law who is a vet. We all thought he would say  it was time to put her down. She wasn't eating well and was barely getting around. Well that soon changed. She got a great report. She does have arthritis but  he advised us to give her baby aspirin and a vitamin supplement. You would not believe the difference these two things have made.  We've seen a drastic change since we started doing this. Before she wouldn't attempt to climb our deck stairs and now she is up and down them all day. She also is already at her food bowl waiting to gobble down every bite when we go to feed her. At this rate she may very well live forever. She has been doing so well here we decided it was best for her to spend her final time with me. Plus I think my parents were happy I finally came back for my dog.  Dad said she just missed me.  I seriously doubt it considering I've been gone for nine years! Libby isn't the biggest fan of Missy but she mainly just ignores her. Thankfully Missy is an outside dog and very low maintenance. She is a sweetheart. Welcome to the Boro Missy. 

Day 5: 30 Days of Thanks

I'm thankful for our sweet lil pup that has been in our lives for 4 years. She's our baby. She's the perfect fit in our little family. She loves sleep like her momma and golf balls like her dad. I know it may seem trivial to some but we are very thankful for our Libby.

May Recap

I am starting to see how complex the blogging world is for me and many others I know. When I have a lot going on and a lot to write about, then I don’t have time to blog but when I do have time that means I don’t have a lot going on and not much to say….

Anyways, once again it is the end of another month and I am wondering where it went. It has been extremely busy at work. Our 4th wedding reception is this Saturday. We also had a Mother’s Day Brunch. I was fortunate enough to have my mom, grandmother,my mother-in-law, and my best friend’s mom, Julie, attend. My best friend was unable to make it home for the weekend so her “adoptive daughters” (aka Trina and I) wanted to be with her on Mother’s Day.

My mom, me, and my gran

G, my mother-in-law, and me

Me, Julie, and Trina


We also celebrate my sweet great nephew’s 6th birthday last week with a bowling party. My mom and dad also came up and spent the night with us that evening. The older I get the more and more I enjoy my parents company. It was a short but very sweet time.

The birthday boy and his Mel

John and Papa Billy

Me and John


This month has also been a month of sickness for me. I’ve been home the past two days with high fever. My doctor had me panicked this morning thinking I had walking pneumonia because of the tightness in my chest and my annoying cough but thankfully my lungs checked out okay this morning. They are treating me for it because of my history but are thinking it is a bad viral infection. I am hoping and praying to be more of my normal self tomorrow and be able to put in a full day’s work. This is the second time I've been really sick this month. Plus, our first anniversary is this weekend and I cannot be sick!!! So prayers are appreciated. But it doesn't look like someone has minded that I've been home sick.

(Sorry for the poor quality. Camera phone.)

My Weekend Blahs

It’s Friday and I should be screaming from the rooftops TGIF but I’m not. Instead I have what I call “my weekend blahs”. It’s Friday night and don’t get me wrong I am thrilled to off work for two days especially after a day like today when I have seen and talked to a million clients and lunch was at my new normal place and time, my desk at 2 pm. But as thrilled as I am, I’m also a little down. I come home every Friday evening to husbandless household and it pretty much stays like that except for a few sporadic hours here and there. So that means just me and Libby. HOME ALONE ALL WEEKEND! I love that dog to death but she’s pretty boring. I can’t exactly share a glass of wine with her or go to dinner and a movie. I never want my husband to change careers because he is following his dream and doing what he loves and that is what matters most to me.

So I try and keep myself busy but it’s hard. How much shopping can a girl do on the weekends without breaking the bank? And has far as hanging out with friends, most of friends now are married and have hectic schedules just like my own. And there’s another thing when I do have fun things to do then I either have to work on the weekends myself or I am so exhausted from work all week that I dread doing them. It is like I can’t win. Are you starting to see why this titled this blog, “My Weekend Blahs”?

I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m really not. I just wish I was a little more “normal” when it came to my weekends. Enough complaining for now! I am tired of hearing myself whine. I promise for a more upbeat post next time.

Our Thanksgiving

We just had a great Thanksgiving. We met my parents and our friends, the Pace family in Franklin, NC at the Pace’s cabin. There is something about the mountains that is so relaxing. As I would step out on the front porch and could hear the running water of the creek, I would think to myself there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now. I’ve been vacating at the Pace’s cabin since I was fifteen years old. I have so many great memories there and I am so happy we got to spend our first Thanksgiving as a married couple there.

On Friday of our trip we went to Highlands. We LOVE Highlands. It is such a fun mountain town about thirty minutes away from the cabin. They have a lot of cute shops and it is a very dog friendly town. People walk their dogs as they stroll in and out of shops. We bought Libby a new winter coat just so she would fit in. It looks like it should be right off the pages of Southern Living. That is probably why it was featured in a story two issues ago. It is just a peaceful and fun place. I wouldn’t want to spend anywhere else shopping on Black Friday.

As we headed out of town on Saturday we stopped and took some pictures of the mountains and stood in awe of God’s creation. When we got home I was able to reflect more on my time there while I was reading my nightly devotion. It was from a devotional book that our church produces each year for the month of advent. I wanted to share a piece of that devotion with some our pictures from the mountains because this is exactly what I felt standing there taking pictures but not sure I could have put my thoughts so poetically.






“I believe we are drawn to the mountains. They rise is majestic glory surrounding our country. Their height and beauty are no accident. They are created by God. Some are shaped by folds, others by faults and some are shoved over others in a process called overthrust. God made each in a demonstration of his power. The same Creator who pushed together some dust and breathed into the breath of life, mashed together the rocks of the earth to create the high places that draw our attention.”

Only My Dog

We found out on Monday from our veterinarian, who also happens to be our brother-in law, that our sweet Libby most likely has a dog food allergy. More specifically she probably has an allergy to either chicken, beef, or corn, which are the main three ingredients in most dog foods. She’s had a serious of health problems and behaviors that have led to this assumption. We are now having to buy her lamb and rice dog food in hopes that she is able to eat that but if she is allergic to the lamb and rice than we will have to go to more extreme measures like making her food. So far it looks like the lamb and rice might work and she actually likes it more than she did her old dog food.
This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with allergic reactions with Libby. Her last set of vaccinations a month ago resulted in a trip to the emergency vet clinic in town because she broke out in hives and her entire body started swelling once we got home. It was horrific. We found out after a serious of steroid shots and dosages of Benadryl that Libby is one of the small percentages of dogs that develop allergic reactions from vaccinations. And now it seems she is among the even smaller percentage of dogs that are allergic to dog food.
Greyson keeps kidding me that only my dog would have all these allergies because I also have a long list of allergies. It’s almost like she is my child who has inherited these things from me. Let’s just hope she doesn’t get all my other bad qualities. Ha ha!

Libby's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated our baby Libby’s second birthday with a cookout with friends. It may seem a little silly that we had a birthday party for our dog but we’ve wanted to have friends over all summer and it was a reason to celebrate. And since she brings so much joy to our lives it was only appropriate for us to have a little party. For dessert we had strawberry cupcakes (which she had last year on her birthday) and sugar cookies shaped like dog bones. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIBBY!

Lessons from Libby

Greyson and I have already have a child together, her name is Libby. Well actually we have a dog but considering how much both of our lives already revolve around her, I think we should have the right to call her our child. We constantly joke about how good of a life Libby has. But we both realized lately there are 3 great lessons we could learn from her that we came up with together as we were talking the other night.

Lesson 1: Show your love for one another. Neither one of us have never been ignored by
Libby when we walk into the front door. She is immediately runs to us and tries to jump to the top of our heads to greet us. At night time, she always gets on the couch with me and tries to give me kisses and then snuggles with me. Libby is constantly showing her love towards us. Each morning when I wake up it is like she hasn’t seen me in days. The constant show of love is a great reminder to us how we need to show each other how much we love one another and never assume the other person knows.

Lesson 2: Love unconditionally. It doesn’t matter if we have just scolded her within seconds her tail is back wagging. She never holds grudges towards us. She forgives instantly. I’ve been told the key to a successful marriage is forgiveness. Holding grudges does nothing but build up anger. May we forgive as easily as Libby.

Lesson 3: Be content with what you have. Libby eats the same food every day. She plays with the same toys everyday. She stays at home almost all day every day, yet she is content with what she has. Each time she hears food being poured in her bowl she comes running. She plays with the same toys for hours each night. Fetch never gets old. TRUST US! We’ve probably spent over 100 hours in the last year just playing fetch with her. She is content and grateful for everything she has. It’s as if she takes nothing for granted. I hope Greyson and I will do the same and always be content with our earthly possessions and with one another. And may we never take one single moment we have with one another for granted.

As you can see Libby is more than just a dog to us. We have not only had to train her but she has trained us on some valuable lessons as we begin our lives together.