Pamela Bates "Bates Mercantille and Co"

My name is Pamela Bates and I live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire (East coast of the United States) NH, where I’ve lived my whole life with the exception of when I attended college in the Bronx. My husband Garrett is from Dublin and we visit our family there as often as we can. He is my sounding board for all of my ideas (his honesty is very helpful) and supports me in everything I do. I work in my home office and am lucky to have company in the form of one content dog, who can most often be found sleeping soundly by the fire. Creativity is something that has always been a part of my life. I remember selling rocks that I painted pictures on - door to door in my neighborhood. We also had quite a theatrical neighborhood and the gang was always putting on shows that other kids actually paid to see. My parents encouraged creativity and even designated a wall in our basement as our ‘artist wall’, where we could paint whatever we wanted. I have a love for neat vintage items- especially those that look a little time-worn. I like to think about who owned an item before me and what it meant to them. In my other life, I work with small business people to positively position their businesses, which can find me writing, designing logos, postcards, ads or what have you. I easily get lost in design. I like to make things for those I care about whether it's something I design on the computer, like stationery, or something I do with my hands like arts and crafts, or food that makes their bellies happy. I just picked up pencils and pad again and am loving drawing- I’ve been attached to my computer for too long and feels great to be creating in that way again! You will often find me with a camera in my hand taking pictures of just about everything. I find inspiration just about anywhere, whether it’s something somebody says, the beach, a picture I see in a magazine, a line in an old book, a color or a sunset view out our front door. I am never at a loss for finding inspiration for creating. It’s everywhere! Most recently I’ve been designing lots of printable wall art that is sold in our etsy shop. It makes us very happy to be selling to folks all over the world - from Australia to Scotland to North Dakota! It makes me even happier that people like my designs enough to purchase them. It is so wonderful to be doing something that I love, that others appreciate as well. I plan on adding some of my drawings to our shop in the near future, but continue to expand the printable products available through BatesMercantileCo. on etsy. As it often takes a good period of time to finalize design projects for my other business, to be creating, for the sake of creating is very refreshing and good for the soul!

You can find them at:
Etsy http://www.batesmercantileco.etsy.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bates-Mercantile-Co/130985580303407