TLC Vintage Collection Newsletter Volume 10

March 2014
Volume 10

NEW CLASS OFFERINGS OVER NEXT FIVE WEEKS!

Here is a quick peek at our next few classes. See end of newsletter for details and classes through July!

March 8 – Chalk Paint® 201 – 9 am to noon Saturday – Frottage (create a travertine or slate look!), wax rub-offs (great for recreating frames), wet wax distress (dreamy distress look), and upholstery painting (great for updating out-dated furniture).
March 10 – Jump Start! – 6 to 7:30 pm Monday – A quick kick-off for those with no time on how to paint and wax using Annie Sloan’s great products: Chalk Paint® decorative paint and Clear and Dark Soft Wax!
March 15 – Kitchen Cabinet and Built-ins Rehab – Noon until 4 pm Saturday – How to prep, choose a style, execute a practice board to upate your kitchen or family room!
March 22 – Wood Icing™ -- 9 am to 4 pm Saturday – Learn how to ice your furniture or décor, as you would ice a cake! This amazing texture paste allows you to have raised reliefs with stencils, lace, stamps and more! Great for decorating wood and cigar boxes! Don’t miss this – it is only held about once a quarter due to minimum number requirements.
March 29 – Artisan Enhancements Special Effects – Noon to 4 pm Saturday – Transfer images from paper to furniture or décor! Gild with ease! Crackle made easy! Products you don’t know about but will love to use!

UPCOMING EVENTS!

Junk Jubilee – April 25-27 – TLC Vintage and its collaborators have decided to go with a theme for the spring show! We are excited and working hard in advance of the event. State Fairgrounds, 4-H Building.

Guess what the theme of our booth will be?  

TIP OF THE MONTH

Ways to keep your paint fresh on your shelf! Like to have lots of Chalk Paint® colors on hand, but worried about spoiling or wasting paint? Here are important tips!
Use a syringe to syphon out paint and place it in a separate container for painting. This will prevent contamination from bacteria on a brush. It will help keep lid clean so it seals tight without a buildup of dried paint.
Never add tap water to your can of paint. Tap water contains bacteria that will cause mold to grow on a closed can of paint. If you add water to the can, make sure it is purified or distilled.
Use flip-lids to help keep you can sealed. These and syringes are sold at TLC Vintage Collection.
Our newest product is three sizes of Paint-Eze (all the same price). Part or an entire can of paint can fit into these plastic bottles. They have a silicone nipple that never blocks up with dried paint. We are converting to this use in our workshop we like them that well!

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Buffing brushes – Oval shaped large and medium size beautiful mahogany shiny brushes with a hand strap and black bristles. Perfect for buffing up a shine!

TSP – Degreaser you need to use any time you undertake painting something that has been in a kitchen. Scrub well with TSP, then rinse well and dry – off you go to a successful paint job!

Gilding Waxes – Great highlighters in gold, silver, pewter, brass! A final finishing touch after you have waxed to add a little sparkle. Or, stencil with these great waxes or create a glaze! We’ll tell you how!

THREE GREAT FACEBOOK PAGES!

Garage 9, Des Moines
Caryville Country, New Virginia
Annie Sloan Unfolded, New Orleans

WORKSHOPS

Chalk Paint® 101 Plus!
Six starter paint techniques plus clear and dark wax methods! $85 in advance.
April 7: 6 pm to 9 pm May 3: 9 am to noon
June 9: 6 pm to 9 pm July 12: 9 am to noon

Chalk Paint® Jump Start!
All new mini starter class. Just an hour and a half! $50 in advance. All held 6-7:30 pm except where noted otherwise.
March 10 April 14
May 10: 10-11:30 am June 16 July 14

Chalk Paint® 201 All New!
More amazing paint techniques of Annie Sloan! Crackle, frottage, wet wax distress and more! In advance $85. All 9 am to noon Saturdays, except where noted otherwise.
March 8 April 19
May 24 June 28 July 22: 6- 9 pm

Chalk Paint® Your Kitchen Cabinets & Built-Ins! How to renew your dated cabinets at a fraction of the cost without replacing them! $135 in advance. All noon to 4 pm unless otherwise noted.
March 15 April 12 May 5: 6 to 10 pm
June 14 July 26

Wood Icing®
Learn how to "ice" wood, just like you would ice a cake. Create your own textured and built up decorations instead of purchasing plastic or wood appliques! All classes 9 am to 4 pm with break for lunch. $150 in advance

March 22 May 18 July 19

 Artisan Enhancements Special Effects!

Crackle, Pearl Plaster, Transfer Gel, Venetian Plaster and easier than ever before gilding! Fun beyond description! Noon to 4 pm $140 in advance

    March 29       May 31     June 21  

Studio Time -- by request!
This can be a tutoring session, a time/place for you to bring in and leave a piece of furniture to work on with helpful oversight, or a girls' afternoon or evening out. $25 per hour for individual, and adjusted for groups. Requirement that you purchase and use our materials and supplies for your project. Call to reserve and check availability.
Class Size & Cancellation Policy: We maintain the right to refund your money or arrange with you for a different date if we do not have the 3-4 people necessary to make a class viable. If you are ill or weather prevents travel, you may reschedule to another date within six months of the date you originally scheduled. If your plans change we need a two week notice before the class date if you want to be rescheduled. Under two weeks there is no refund and if your spot is filled we will allow you to reschedule, otherwise your fee is forfeited.
TLC Vintage Collection 7518 Hickman Road, Windsor Heights (Des Moines) IA 50324 Telephone: 515-276-1577 (shop)
Email: tlcvintage@tlcvintagecollection.com Website: www.tlcvintagecollection.com Blog: www.tlcvintagecollection.blogspot.com Facebook & Pinterest: TLC Vintage Collection

Travel Elixer For Burnout! Recap of Building a Business!

Building a business from scratch is kind of like pregnancy -- except the condition lasts a lot longer! TLC Vintage Collection is the second business I have built from ground up, so I knew what I was getting into! Like a planned pregnancy, it all begins with an idea -- Wouldn't it be great to have a child --- OR, in this case, have a quaint little paint and vintage shop? And in both situations, conception is a great deal of the excitement and fun! LOL

I didn't have nine months to come up with a name though. I had about a minute and a half when I successfully phone interviewed with Lisa Rickert, CEO of Annie Sloan Unfolded, in August 2011 and she approved me to become the first Iowa stockist for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan. "What business name should I put on the contract," she asked. Out popped a very "Janet is a Virgo" buttoned-up name: TLC Vintage Collection LLC. And so a business was conceived without a lot of thought to the name. I so wish it was something catchier, like: Vintage Flair, Capital City Emporium or Vanity Flair! Fortunately, my talented son Chris Saldanha is a graphic designer and came up with a logo I like very much! He knows me well.

That was a Wednesday, and Chalk Paint® would arrive for sale in Iowa two days later! What's a gal to do? Well, I contacted a lawyer to form an LLC, started this blog, build a sales on-line website at www.tlcvintagecollection.com, reserved a locked case at The Brass Armadillo, and I am not sure when I first set up the TLC Facebook page....it is all a blur that first 48 hours --including emptying out part of the garage to have a spot for the paint! Fortunately, the weather was not hot and the paint could be in the garage for a month or so.

Within a month -- which had included arrival of the paint, 10 day trip east to do my training in High Point, NC -- and a whirlwind of sales from my home, the antique mall and on-line -- I needed to expand and opened a booth at the mall. Here was our feeble first attempt!

Two months later we expanded at the mall again, got rid of the case, and put the paint out where people could take it from the shelf to checkout themselves. All this done without a bank loan, but not taking any money home either. Everything we made went into more inventory. And the hunt began for the next step -- retail space. I compare this point to the time in pregnancy when you don't want to admit that your jeans just won't work anymore and you have to opt for maternity clothes. Growth is inevitable and requires change.

Sherwood Forest Shopping Center on Hickman Road in Windsor Heights, bordering Urbandale. Why? Loved the half tudor look, loved direct path from either I235 or I80W-I35S, and easy enough from the northern side of the city freeway. Price was right, lots of parking for customers and delivery semis, location great just 5 minutes from home, open floor plan!

Things were a bit slim when we opened. And our paint display was a bit -- well, basic! But it was April and we were going to Junk Jubilee for the first time, had been to our first Annie Sloan convention and were about to launch our first teaching workshop in our new space! Operating on slim margins -- and quite frankly still are!

So that was the first eight months of TLC Vintage Collection and Chalk Paint® at its new Central Iowa Headquarters! And now it is almost two years later! Our work has become a bit more sophisticated and our workshops more frequent and varied in topic. Taking furniture from this look....

To this look....

Improving our display from this look.....

to this look.....

So I am a little on the edge of burnout, so I am hitting the road with my gal pal Lynn. Travel has always been my elixir  when I feel fried! I have wanderlust which led me to a life in Europe in my 20s and early 30s. It has taken me to wonderful places on this continent, in the Pacific and throughout Europe. But now there is nothing like a Junk Jaunt with a friend -- with just a little bit of Thelma and Louise in us to make it daring but not dangerous -- to refresh the mind and the soul. So spend some time here on our blog this week as we head out on a plane in predicted winter mix tomorrow for Texas in search of rusty gold and vintage finds!

Never Too Much Junk!

I love junk! Digging through it, walking through it, picking out the good bits, imagining what you can do with a divine find! It just wasn't a fit for TLC Vintage Collection really. So we have opened a new shop just across the parking from our front door! Introducing you to:

Sweet City Salvage

We have been open for one month now and folks are really enjoying it! Look what we brought in yesterday!

At SCS we have a number of terrific vendors! TLC Vintage of course, but also 2 Crazy Redheads, Sheldahl Crossing, Junk de Jour, Jules and Shuffle Designs! With that group of characters, you will always find something new and interesting has been dropped off for you to discover on your next visit!

I often wonder what is so great about junk? It is definitely the thrill of the hunt. I know, because even when we have plenty of inventory, I still get a yen to go looking. Like today! I need to get ready for the Home & Garden Show that will be 12 hour days Thursday through Sunday of this coming week -- like pack things, finish displays, build a power point! But what do I really want to do? Ummmmm go to the monthly Flea Market at the State Fair Grounds. 

So no matter if the garage and basement are full, there's fresh snow and ice outside, and we are open today, a girl still wants to go junkin'!

Revisiting Toile Fabric on Furniture!

Fabric applied to wood furniture is still one of my favorite concepts. I guess I dreamed it up in the middle of the night a year or two ago. I used toile wallpaper the first time!

Then I tried toile fabric!

And now, we have done a beautiful antique wash stand in Charcoal Toile from Annie Sloan's European Fabric Collection! Don't you love it? We do!

We love your paint #Annie Sloan! and we love your Fabrics too! Check out my earlier tutorial on using fabric or wall paper to face drawers and doors on your furniture paint projects!