Excellent Customer Service at Paint Pan Patty's!

Patty and I had a brainstorming session last week in an effort to come up with some new and innovative ways to provide excellent customer service for all of our excellent customers.  After tossing around a few ideas, Patty came up with something that we both thought would be absolutely great.......install a zip line across the shop!!!  Yeah!!  The shop is nicely uncluttered now since our big cleanup with lots of walking around room so we thought the zip line would be a great way for Patty to get to you really fast when you have a question.  I, of course would be standing up on my stool at the front desk keeping a keen eye out for potential customer service needers, and then I would point Patty in the right direction.  It could work like a charm! : )

So we spent a minute doing a Feasibility Study and took a couple of aerial shots of the shop to determine the best location for the zip line installation.

Aerial View No. 1

Aerial View #2

After studying the layout for quite a minute, and with some very careful planning, we've decided that a multi-directional zip line (do they even make those?) would best benefit our customers.  You can be standing anywhere in the shop and Patty will be there lickety-split!  Genius!!  Yep, that's why we make the big money!

We're always having lots of fun at Paint Pan Patty's!  : )  Have a wonderful day!

***

Paint Pan Patty's is Ready to Re-Open!

Hello again to all of our friends and family!  After MUCH hard work and and a WHOLE ♥ LOTTA ♥ LAUGHTER, Paint Pan Patty's is finally ready to reopen on Saturday, March 3, 2012.  Rain or shine (but not tornadoes!), we'll be there.  We've worked our fingers to the bone tearing down, rearranging, dusting, painting, and we're really anxious for you all to come and check it out!

Patty & my husband, Don, working on shelving

Gwen (me!) painting shelves

In between work days, we've also managed to slip out to some of our favorite junking spots and load up on new treasures.  Patty's been hard at work pricing the new merchandise.

Patty pricing new treasures

Those of you who have actually visited our shop will remember our backroom where anything we couldn't find a place for was dumped!  Well, it's a different story now.  Feast your eyes and take a look at these Before & After's.....

Our junky backroom BEFORE.......

Our junky backroom DURING dismantle, and.......

Tah-dah!!  Our beautiful new un-junky kitchen.......

We love the green door we mounted on the wall

Cute enamel top table and recycled blue cabinet

Our refrigerator rocks next door to the Pyrex cabinet!

We added everything AND the kitchen sink!

Great.......right???  I know!!  Patty and I are very proud of the fact that this whole kitchen re-do cost us almost zero dollars.  Of course, we operate on a shoestring at Paint Pan Patty's, and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle whenever possible, which turns out to be about 99.9% of the time.  For instance, Patty found the old Hoosier cabinet in pieces on a trash pile beside the road, brought it home, put it back together, painted it blue, and now we have this great old piece in our kitchen.  I purchased the old tool cabinet at an auction for $5 and gave it a whole new life with new green paint outside and yellow inside.  It now makes a bright and colorful home for our Pyrex collection.

We hope you'll come check us out when you get a chance.  We are so anxious to share all of this funky, vintage lovliness with you!  And for those of you who don't live anywhere near Wetumpka, Alabama, USA, we greatly appreciate you reading about our little shop in the country and hope you continue to enjoy our blog.  Patty and I are always on the prowl for great new junk, and there's usually a funny story or two that goes along with our adventures.

~♥~

Paint Pan Patty's Closed for the Season

Hi Everyone!  So here I am, back from an extended bout with what I like to call TECHNOLOGYOVERLOADITIS.  Happy to report that I'm doing much better now, and thanks for wondering :-))

Patty and I wanted to let all of you know that we have closed the shop for the winter and will let you know when we set a date to reopen either in February or March.  If you have any merchandise on layaway, or need to get in touch with us for any other reason, just give us a call at either 799-9630 (Gwen) or 320-8306 (Patty).  Or you can email us at paintpanpattys@gmail.com.

During our break, we plan on refurbishing and rewonderfulizing the shop, so there will be a new look for the reopening and lots of new merchandise because now we'll have more time to treasure hunt!!  Sometimes we just NEED a great big dose of that to keep us going! 

Treasure Hunt Bargains & A True Story

Remember this Hoosier cabinet that Patty & I rescued from the burn pile during one of our treasure hunts?  Gone!  A gentleman snatched it up last Saturday before Patty & I had a chance to work our magic on it.  It would have been awesome to see it all refurbished, but we're glad it found a good home. 

Anyway, you should have been there.  The guy was so excited to get this cabinet that he actually fell off the truck when we were helping him load, and a book case that he already had on the truck fell right on top of him. 

I tell you, I was scared to walk around and see the damage, but as it turned out, he was a pretty spry fellow!  Jumped right up and got back to business.  I like to call him Mosquito Man, the way he was flitting all around.  True story..... 

Also, if you had your eye on that beautiful carved rocker that we found in the same burn pile treasure hunt, it's gone, too! 

We get some pretty wonderful old pieces of furniture in at the shop from time to time.  It's always exciting to see what's going to turn up each week.  Check in with us often, as the merchandise changes fairly often, but as you can imagine, pieces like this don't hang around long!

Thanksgiving Holidays – Good Food & Family Time!

Happy Monday, everyone!  We're on the countdown now for Thanksgiving Day, so today I’m off to buy my turkey and get it thawing in time to pop in the oven early Thursday morning.  Got to gather my coupons (because no good Junker worth his salt ever pays full price for groceries), make my list, and head to town.

I get really excited about cooking good food, being raised in a proper Cajun family down in old Biloxi!  Those folks just don't turn out bad cooks, if I do say so myself.  And on Thanksgiving Day, you'll always see a delicious seafood gumbo, oyster dressing, and potato salad on the table.  Yep.....makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  And since we’re talking about all this good food, thought I’d share my favorite Sweet Potato Casserole recipe with you.  Check it out on our Favorite Recipes page.    I’ve been making this recipe since I found it in a copy of Country Living magazine’s 1985 premiere issue of Country Cooking.  Personally, I think it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.  Maybe you’d like to give it a try this Thanksgiving, and let me know what you think.

***

Big Christmas Sale!

Can you believe that another year has passed and Christmas is upon us once again? Patty and I will be working hard this week hauling all of our Christmas merchandise down from the “attic” and getting it priced and ready to put out for sale.  We’re looking to MOVE it, so we are ready to give you some really great deals!
Starting Saturday, all Christmas items will be sold for 50% off the marked price.  However, we want to do even better than that for all of our wonderful customers who have been so supportive.  In the spirit of the season, we are offering this coupon for an extra 25% off the sale price!

So all you coupon clippers out there, cut this one out and bring it in to get your extra 25% off.   We look forward to seeing you Saturday, and a big, fat Merry Ho Ho Ho!! from Gwen and Paint Pan Patty!

Tabletop Inspiration - Short & Sweet

Do you ever have STUFF sitting around that you don't quite know what to do with, but you couldn't possibly get rid of it because you may need it someday?  If you're a junker treasure hunter, like me, it could be anything at all, but my stuff looked like this the other day......

So I'm standing there studying this wonderful pile of stuff and wondering if I should just pack it away for another time, when a light went off.  Hmmmm.......why not just pile it all up together and see what you come up with.  Turned out like this:

 Which, I decided, would look absolutely groovy on my kitchen table.  What do you think?  What are some of your inspired creations?  We love it when folks share with us.

***