Back to my 4-H Days!

I loved 4-H, and all those years of projects and hauling things to the Pocahontas County Fair has paid off in many ways during my life. But I must admit that it is probably due to Lanore Thumma and Shirley Ludwig up in Laurens, IA who were the Swan Lake Everreadies (don't laugh) leaders, that I can make a pleat, a dart, do hidden stitch and refinish a piece of furniture! I can still repeat the 4-H pledge!

 

The best change since then is a miraculous paint that allows you to paint over most anything without stripping or priming! How happy I am not to be working with caustic stripper something we were not so fortunate to have 45 years ago. But today I get to combine to of the three different year curriculums we had -- sewing and home furnishings -- in my new life as an artisan!

 

 

 

Thank goodness that Annie Sloan came along and 23 years ago developed this awesome Chalk Paint® decorative paint for me to get involved with and that around ten years ago, a woman named Lisa Rickert discovered it hidden away in England and brought it to us across the big pond.

 

Best yet, Chalk Paint® is made right here in the Midwest by Davis Paint Company in Kansas City!

Plus it is ever so green and is saving a lot of old stuff from going to the landfill. From old barn wood to shipping pallets to vintage furniture, repurposers, upcyclers and decorators are making homes and offices more interesting by incorporating the past. And that makes me feel, downright patriotic!

 

So let's keep on "Making the better best and the best better!" What have you repurposed today?© by TLC Vintage Collection!



 

 

Junker Girlfriends & Life Truths

At TLC Vintage Collection, central Iowa's go-to place for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan, there is no longer time for procrastination. Let me explain!

I have two junker girlfriends that I get together with at least once a month for our "fix" on junking. We share some pizza, some laughs and some life truths in the course of a few hours! In between all that we work on projects and try to keep each other from pilfering good little junk bits and pieces from each other! Like that odd shaped key or that sparkley bit off of a Chico belt -- you hear me, Cheryl? LOL

I digress from the true topic -- my procrastination. I looked around my workshop this week and was disheartened. Several pieces of wall decor in half finished states, the bottom of a huge china cabinet that is unfinished so not marketable yet, a curio cabinet that is really about an hour from completion, plus miscellaneous "good ideas and best intentions" spread across my work tables! Sound familiar?

Then there is all those ideas I have for spring that include a lake/seashore cabin decor display and a sun room display (guess who has spring fever???) All need painting.

Then there is the entire floor of the shop, plus a lot of the walls that still need paint and finish! Plus the fireplace that is in want of a hearth and backdrop!

I think you get the picture -- after all these pictures are worth at least a thousand words of my continued procrastination. As I told Cheryl the other night: It is so much more fun to start a project than to finish one! Yep, she said. At the beginning of the project all your imagination is going into it and you are excited and working fast and furious. Then.......you hit a bump in the road -- execution did not play out the way it looked in your head! OR you come to a part of the task you don't like to do! Ummm, that bottom part of the china cabinet means crouching/lying on the floor with my head inside the cabinet to finish the lower shelves! 

OR you find that perfect piece of furniture with the beautifully turned leg and artful carving and you just HAVE to get started on it! 

Cheryl laughed, saying a good deal of why she likes to get together is that being around me validates her own experience about procrastination! I am NOT alone! She realizes she is not odd or different. Ha! Well maybe we are -- but I would hazard a guess that in this line of work we are not alone! How many half finished projects do you have going?

And she also loved how I kept misplacing things -- my cell phone, my hammer, the gilding wax, cola, my mind........'cuz she does that too!

In Case You Missed It!

TLC Vintage Collection is the Central Iowa headquarters for Chalk Paint(TM) decorative paint by Annie Sloan! It's been fun building this business which includes classes, custom furniture painting, resale of vintage furniture and decor and much more. But being a former journalist, I do like getting some ink to spread the word about the business. So in case you missed it, check out this article from The Business Record!

Opinion

12/21/2012 7:00:00 AM THE ELBERT FILES: Painting her way out of retirement • Business Record columnist • Email: daveelbert@bpcdm.com • Phone: (515) 988-3787 © 2012 Business Record BY DAVE ELBERT Columnist Janet Roewe Piller, 60, has been preparing her whole life for the unusual business she opened last year, TLC Vintage Collections. Her Urbandale store mixes high-end paint sales, furniture refinishing and adult education with a touch of flea market from its location in the Sherwood Forest Shopping Center in the 7500 block of Hickman Road. Janet Roewe (pronounced RAVE-ee), grew up on a farm in northern Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University before launching an eclectic career that took her to Washington, D.C., London and Switzerland as a writer for Commodity News Service for more than a decade. A divorce brought her back to Iowa in 1987 so she could raise her two children near family. She worked as a legislative aide before Democrat Ed Campbell helped her get a position as a marketing executive at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, which led to a similar position at West Bank. She started her own insurance agency from scratch in 1995, specializing in coverage for collector cars, while she built a full line of coverage for clients. In 2007, she married an old boyfriend, Des Moines Register business writer Dan Piller, and in 2010 she retired from insurance sales at the age of 58 with a plan to work on her garden. Instead, she found herself going to garage and estate sales and buying kitschy items that she resold to a wide circle of friends. At one sale, Piller purchased a corner desk that she wanted to refinish in a shabby-chic style. But she didn’t want to spend hours stripping and sanding. She remembered reading a blog about a type of refinishing that didn’t involve the use of caustic strippers and which dramatically reduced the amount of time and effort. “The blog led me to Annie Sloan, a decorator and inventor of Chalk Paint 22 years ago in Oxford, England,” Piller said. “She and I emailed, and we got a kick out of it, because she had been a young woman in London at the same time I was there, except she had an all-girl rock band, called The Moodies.” The correspondence led Piller to Annie Sloan’s North American distributor, and in August 2011, she became the Iowa retailer of Annie Sloan paints. “This is great for Janet,” said husband Dan Piller. “Jan has a real flair for decorating, and now she has an outlet for it.” By the time she retired from insurance, Janet Piller was also a very smart businesswoman. She was able to launch TLC Vintage Collections with no bank loans, relying solely on her own modest initial investment and her profits from buying and reselling old furniture and other knickknacks at flea markets. Piller initially leased a booth at the Brass Armadillo Antique Mall, where she displayed and sold her refinished furniture, while explaining that others could do the same with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Her business moved into an 1,890-square-foot store in Sherwood Forest on April 1 and has been busy ever since. “My philosophy is buy low, sell low and sell a lot,” Piller said. Items in her store are priced from less than $5 to about $200. The paint is her real bread and butter. It sells for $36.50 a quart. That seems high, she admits, adding that what people don’t realize is that they don’t have to spend money and time stripping furniture. “Just wash it with soap and water, let it dry and paint,” she said. Piller also sells Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, which is another non-caustic, low-effort way to shabby-chic furniture.

Read more: http://www.businessrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=50&SubSectionID=276&ArticleID=19626&TM=24009.14#ixzz2Gubc8cQt

New Year's Day Paint the Town Party!!

Escape the endless roll of Bowl Games, and hurry over to TLC Vintage Collection 9 am to 5 pm New Year's Day! Open workshop all day. Hands on instruction as you paint a piece of decor or furniture for me in the shop! Of course, if you want to buy something or paint and materials, you certainly can. But heaven knows, there is plenty of my stuff there to paint!

Bring some wine  if you like, and I will provide plenty of things to munch on if you get hungry. Stay as long as you like. But careful, I may have you paint a wall if you aren't careful! Or you can purchase one of Annie's new books, Work Book and work on some pages right in my workshop!

Let's Paint the Town and have some fun! We'll stir up some new ideas for decorating in 2013! Meanwhile, here are some things that are happening in the shop right now! The possibilities are endless!

 

Due to arrive Sunday, a fireplace mantel for the north wall! Maybe we will paint that if I get it installed!

 

How about a little Gypsy or Boho style! It makes me smile every time!

 

I am not sure what you call this style! But this table is great and has two side tables that need to be painted to match!

Need practice waxing things? Hopefully this china cabinet will be painted completely by Tuesday and you can learn waxing techniques! Stop by and try whatever you like!