Balancing Act in a Busy World

Here at TLC Vintage Collection, central Iowa's headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan, the days just fly by. They are filled with decorating the shop, completing custom painted pieces, hunting out new pieces, keeping inventories up to meet demand and searching out new products to bring into the store!

Oh, did I mention that I still have insurance clients, two children, their spouses and four growing grandchildren, a house, a garden and, and, and.

Sounds familiar doesn't it? Change the details but your list goes on and on too! So it is a balancing act and sometimes it gets out of equilibrium -- not just for a day or two but for months on end. Welcome to starting a new business!

So honestly, I am trying to get the house and garden back under control -- a stolen hour or two at a time. Welcome to what I now affectionately call, The Jungle!

I was a Master Gardener up to two years ago, but they may have dropped me from the files as I haven't kept my certification up to date with classes and volunteer hours. So for two falls, the garden has been abandoned. Enter me with a machete and hubs with loads of mulch. I have some Roundup to back me up! Fortunately the garden had good bones and most of the beds are just weedy -- not dead! Can't wait to get the herbs planted! I can't wait for the humming birds to return! Meanwhile, the Jays and Cardinals are loving the leftover thistle seeds! LOL.

The house -- never mind. Those who fall in love with my shop would be amazed at the lack of theme at home, but we will get there!

And then there is the most important thing to remember -- family! Poor hubs retired from his career of 45 plus years and immediately got pressed into two 7-day weeks! Seriously! A Sunday class followed by Junk Jubilee, then a six day week with the Just For Her Expo.....But we did manage to take off last Sunday and have someone very special over for dinner and birthday cake!

Eisley turned three so everything was pink and lavender! And then there was trying to get four kids from one to eight years old to pose for a photo!

Well, close. But I just need to stop and smell the roses, errrrr bleeding hearts, maybe? And remember that all things do grow with love -- and that is the true balance we need!

Faux Copper Patina Tutorial

Here we are at Central Iowa Headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan -- TLC -Vintage Collection! Today we are doing a step-by-step tutorial on a Faux Copper Patina that was chosen by our Facebook followers for this neat Asian-inspired chest.

First, most pieces are easily cleaned up for painting by using dish soap and water, then rinse and dry! Really dirty pieces, use TSP and then rinse well and dry!

First coat -- don't expect total coverage. Like Annie Sloan says, just slap it on so you can get onto the interesting bits! Depending on how you want the finished piece to look decide if you will go with the grain or not.  I paint the backs of my pieces as you never know what people will look at and here in the shop, all sides are exposed usually. I am careful with older pieces or quality pieces to leave the manufacturer and shipping labels legible -- just paint around them.

Decide what you will do with the pulls and hinges. In this case, I did not remove them as the whole thing should look like a metallic, patina finish when we are done!

Sorry, the lighting makes this look like Duck Egg on the close up -- but it is actually Florence!

I have just done a coat of clear wax after two coats of paint all over! This project could be finished completely by now, but we do have customers coming in to talk and discuss their next projects....Now for some of the especially fun bits! Applying some Copper Gilding Wax and it takes very little! We carry seven colors of gilding wax: 3 golds, silver, pewter, brass and now copper!

Applied copper gilding wax with finger.

Sorry for the delay in finishing this post. We had internet issues yesterday. But here i the final after dark waxing! And we added a surprise pop of Emperor's Silk to the drawers and interior!

Around The Shop

Business is wild at TLC Vintage Collection, Central Iowa Headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan! March has been absolutely busy every single minute. Annie wanted a photo of me for her Pinterest board called The People Who Sell My Paint (check it out!). So I asked my favorite photographer, son Chris Saldanha, to snap some shots around the shop. Here they are for you to enjoy too! And thank you everyone for helping make my little shop such a success! We celebrate one year anniversary as I fly down to New Orleans April 1 for the Chalk Paint® annual convention!

Pretty as You Please

At  TLC Vintage Collection here in Central Iowa, I've wanted to paint a piece of furniture like this with Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan. Two things made me hesitate: 1) some of the inlay is so fantastic you hate to cover it up and 2) what if I couldn't pull it off. But I think it worked just fine!

This piece is a coat of Coco all over. Then Country Grey and Duck Egg in selected areas. But we didn't start out so nice. That is why I decided to try this piece first -- it was a mess.

It had a broken caster, tons of scratches, missing hardware, chipping varnish. I went at it inside and out with STP and -- unusual for me -- did a quick light sanding to the top to get rid of any loose varnish.

I painted right over the hardware with Coco. Here is what the piece looked like after one coat Coco and then one coat each Country Grey and Duck Egg Blue in chosen parts of the design.

A coat of wax, distress, rewax and voila! Buff til your hearts content. So fun, so pretty! Picked up a couple cute knobs to give it a touch of whimsey!

Create a Life you want to Live!