If you love art, spending time with your family and free stuff, then you’ll have a great time this weekend! This Saturday, September 25th (always the last Sat. in Sept.) is Arts Alive Free Museum Day; no passes required and no residency restrictions.  Last year my husband and I got a very late start with our little boy, so we were only able to make it to the Museum of Fine Arts (St. Pete). This year, we are determined to see more than one. Here’s a list (taken from stpete.org) of local museums you can visit for absolutely FREE this Saturday:

• The Dali Museum 1000 3rd St. S. www.thedali.org or 727-823-3767.
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum 2240 9th Ave. S. www.woodsonmuseum.org or 727-323-1104.
• Florida Holocaust Museum 55 5th St. S. www.flholocaustmuseum.org or 727-820-0100.
• Great Explorations Children’s Museum • 1925 4th St. N. www.greatex.org or 727-821-8992.
• Morean Arts Center and Hot Shop • 719 Central Ave. www.moreanartscenter.org or 727-822-7872.
• Museum of Fine Arts • 255 Beach Dr. N.E. www.fine-arts.org or 727-896-2667.
• Pier Aquarium 800 2nd Ave. N.E. www.pieraquarium.org or 727-895-7437.
• St. Petersburg Museum of History 335 2nd Ave. N.E. www.spmoh.org or 727-894-1052.

So grab your family and take advantage of this great deal! I think we’ll try to make it to Great Explorations and The Morean Arts Center this time to see the Chihuly Collection. Which museums will you visit for free? To learn more about our local museums and other activities going on this weekend, click here.

Last year at the Museum of Fine Arts all the kids were invited to make their own art to display.

How sweet is this!

We all know of a little place in town that has the best food and service. They make you feel at home. We’ve already told you about Bubbie’s Brown Bag Cafe. Now we want to hear about your favorite “hole in the wall” place. It could be an old-fashioned hot dog joint downtown, a family owned Greek restaurant or a cafe with amazing desserts. Just email us a photo of yourself at your favorite place and we’ll post it to our Hole in the Wall photo contest album on our agency’s Facebook page. The winner will receive a $25 VISA gift card that can use to buy their next meal at their favorite little place to eat or whatever they want. So share the love and tell us where you like to eat! Who knows, it could be our next favorite place. I bet the owners would be excited for a little publicity.

To learn more about how to enter this contest, please visit our Facebook page and read the description on the Hole in the Wall photo contest album. Thanks for participating and good luck!

If you own or run a restaurant in Tampa Bay, give us a call (727-394-1890) about commercial insurance and we’ll give you a free quote. You can also get a free insurance quote online at our virtual insurance office, www.patronsinsurance.com.

Speaking of free stuff, you can always get a free insurance quote at www.patronsinsurance.com. You can easily get yours on your lunch break!

The first is Noble Pig. I StumbledUpon it and was hooked when I laid eyes on these gorgeous eggy rolls.  This one is more than a food blog. It’s also the story of the birth of a family’s vineyard in Oregon. The author, Cathy, is a food and wine fanatic. She posts recipes for magically delicious drinks like Butterbeer and comfort food with a twist like Gnocchi Mac n’ Cheese and teaches Wine Tasting 101. You’ll love her photos too. They make me want to lick my computer screen. Don’t worry I know better. I hope you’ll find some good recipes here and try them out at home. Someday I will too.

The other blog that I’ve discovered is Baked Bree. This lovely blog is written by a woman named Bree who lives in Sacramento, CA. She’s a mother of three who loves to cook and take photos. She describes her blog as “a love letter to everyone that [she] have ever cooked for.” She also takes amazing photos of her food, showing her readers every step in her recipes. I like the way she shows a photo of all the ingredients first, so you can get a quick idea of what’s in the dish. Some of the recipes on her blog that got me really excited are her homemade Bread and Butter Pickles, Milk Chocolate Pudding and a lovely Black Bean Soup (a major upgrade from mine). Plus she has several delicious looking recipes for homemade ice cream that make me want to go out and buy an ice cream maker.

Share a link in the comments section below. Here’s a new food blog that my friend Lizz just started. Her recipes and writing are equally and unbelievably flavorful. Please check it out and tell her Jenn (at Patrons) sent you! Do you have a favorite food blog? Or one of your own? I’d love to hear about it!

Click to view slideshow.

A friend and former co-worker of mine recently announced that her husband was opening a new barbershop. When she told me the prices (just $6 this week only!) he was going to charge and that he cuts kids’ hair, I knew I had finally found a place to send my husband and little boy. Adam Crowley and his business partner John (also a barber) opened up the doors to the American Classic Barbershop in Pinellas Park, Florida yesterday. Since Alistair’s hair was covering his handsome brown eyes, I was anxious to get him in. My husband Dan can go another time.

The shop is located at 4201 62nd Avenue in a short shopping strip. It was a little difficult to spot, though. You just have to look for 42nd Street because the plaza signs don’t stand out. There’s plenty of parking at the plaza so you can park in front of the shop. The shop itself is a work in progress, however it’s not a construction zone. They have two barber chairs and plenty of seats for waiting customers, including a church pew! They hope to mount a couple of TVs on the wall in the future so you can watch sports while you wait. They also have a kids section along the back wall of the shop, which includes a TV with kid-friendly movies, toys and cars. We had a hard time tearing Alistair away from the play area to get him in the chair. Once we did though, he loved the cute sea creature cape Adam put on him. He loves hammerhead sharks and sting rays.

Adam was very patient with my squirmy 3-year-old; it went much better than I expected. I thought for sure Alistair would be afraid of the clippers than he was. After using the clippers, Adam went back with the scissors to make sure it was perfect and to get around his cute little ears. His hair was a bit shorter than I like, but that’s okay because I rarely get his hair cut. So if you’re looking for a place in St. Petersburg/Pinellas Park to get your child’s hair cut, you need to try Adam at American Classic Barbershop. Don’t forget to tell him that Jenn at Patrons Insurance Agency sent you!

If you’d like your Florida business featured on this blog and become a Partner of Patrons, please call us at 727-394-1890 or email us at tim@patronsinsurance.com.

I’ve had this famous poster for several years now. I love it because it reminds me about the strength of women. Many of us work at home, just like the majority of women pre-WWII, but that’s our choice. We take care of the house and kids, but we also run businesses and work for others in our home offices. I’m more than a Stay At Home Mom. I also promote insurance agencies, babysit and tutor students in math. Then there are the women who are a part of the workforce, who still take care of their families and homes. My friend Amy keeps her house in perfect order, but she also coaches at her kids’ school, cleans houses and does data entry for a lawyer. She’s one of those Super Moms. Neither is better than the other. Both types of women have that do-what-you-gotta attitude and that’s what makes them strong.

So don’t forget to thank the women in your life today for all their hard work. Remember their work doesn’t stop just because it’s Labor Day. The dirty dishes and clothes, hungry mouths and crying babies won’t give her a break. However, you can help lighten her load by pitching in. I know I appreciate all the help my husband does after a long day of work and school. I love it when he helps with the dishes and gives the boys a bath; few things are more romantic. Men, I think this is true for all women.

Happy Labor Day, America!

*Photo Credit: History.com

However, if you’re looking for something more elaborate, you could just purchase an All Access ($30/year) or a Pro account ($249/year). For $249 a year you can make music as long as you want, as many as want. Unlike the free account, they won’t be branded–no Animoto graphics for you. With a professional account you also have the option of downloading your videos so you can upload them where you please and create DVDs. Members with free accounts can email their videos or share them on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace and a few other places. Videos can also be embeded on a person’s website. However, the video above had to be exported to YouTube first, then the embed code for that was used here on this blog.

I like using Animoto because I know next to nothing about editing videos, but I do like to showcase our commercial clients, like Rejuvenation Station Studios. I usually export my video creations to YouTube and then share that link on Twitter and our Facebook page. If you’d like to try out Animoto for yourself click here to create your free 30 second video. Don’t forget to show us what you made!

Debbie Murray

We’re happy to announce our newest Partner of Patrons, Banyan Tree Catering. If you’re looking to cater an event of any size, on any budget, you need to call Debbie and Nevar Murray of Banyan Tree Catering. You may have seen Debbie on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) with world-renowned chef, Wolfgang Puck. In fact, they’re on the air all weekend, for Wolfgang’s 12th Anniversary, selling all kinds of wonderful WP products like a rice cooker, 3-in-1 blender, convection oven, knife set, grill/griddle and a cook set.

In addition to being an on-air demonstrator, Debbie is also a cookbook author (she has 8 published so far!) and has been catering for the elite in Tampa Bay. Her beautiful daughter, Nevar, recently worked the star-studded  Governor’s Ball and other red carpet events with Wolfgang Puck.

This mother-daughter duo is known for making delicious food that looks amazing. They cater weddings, dinner parties, graduations, benefits. Patrons Insurance Agency customers can get a special discount of 10% off. Just print out your coupon here. You can also find Baynan Tree Catering on Facebook.

Contact Debbie at 727-403-4978 or debbie@banyantreecatering.com. Don’t forget to tell her that we sent you.

Just recently the time came up to purchase a new car for our family. Our sedan served us well, but its time had come. Not only did it not start at times, but the cooling system was gone. (Who doesn’t like pulling their car over to cool down every 10 minutes? Oh, wait, that’s me.)

In our car search, as a family of four (with two small children) the main things that we were concerned with were safety and affordability. A good look over government crash test ratings immediately ruled out some car options. We wanted 5 stars on all impact angles, and 4+ star rollover.

After we had a list of  attractive and safe options, we evaluated cost. The true total cost to own a car is much more than ticket price alone. Factors like gas mileage, dependability, and cost of repairs can quickly make a car more expensive over the life of your five-year loan and beyond.

As a family, we also wanted a car with some features (power locks and windows are a must with two small children!). But, too many features–however fun or useful they may be–can quickly add up to a greater number of very costly and unnecessary repairs in a few years.

Depreciation is also something we wanted to consider, as paying a little more now was worth getting a much larger resale or trade-in several years from now. Lastly, we were concerned with the cost of insurance, because our insurance premium would be just as regular a payment as the car payment itself, and last as long as we owned the car.

A helpful website in this process was Edmunds.com. Some especially helpful information were professional and customer reviews, cars’ true market value so you don’t overpay, current dealer incentives so you don’t miss out, and details about features and gas mileage.

There are also some tools that were valuable, especially the True Cost To Own calculator, which takes many of the above financial concerns and calculates the approximate true cost to own over a five-year period. We were surprised to find that despite differences in ticket prices, our two final choices of a Honda CR-V and a Mazda 5 were essentially the same price, total cost to own.

Due to better reviews and more space, we decided that the Honda CR-V would be the right car for our family. Finally, to help us find the right time to buy, we were even able to utilize the Predictive True Market Value to get the best price for our vehicle!