Shhhhhsh. Don't tell my sister I'm blogging her presents today!

Uh-Oh! Not ready for Christmas here!

2 days til our Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Give Away! Have you put your name in with me? If not check out yesterday's blog on how to still get some chances in.

Meanwhile, I've been dashing around and not getting everything done. So I am declaring it a Paint Day! I have a special someone who is getting furniture for her Christmas gift. Hopefully she is not reading my blog today. She is expecting the furniture that she already picked out "someday, when you get around to it." Well, why not for Christmas. It's my sister and I love her and since we shared a room for some 14 years or so, I guess it is appropriate she picked bedroom furniture!

She also picked out colors to match some family hand-me-downs errr....heirlooms, Mom's copies of

The Blue Boy and Pinkie. Now here is the things most people don't know. These two paintings were painted by two different painters about 25 years apart AND the costumes are 150 years apart in style! But the two were not linked til a collector purchased both of them around 1920! Yet most of us and the world associate the two because they are such a beautiful match! One critic considers them the "Romeo and Juliet of Rococo portraiture." But I digress....

So today I will take photos as I go and do a number of blog entries so you can see how efficient and fun it is to work with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. And the results, beautiful! Check back in!

Three Days Left to enter Iowa's Great Chalk Paint Giveaway

Just wanting to post another look at the rules. I am emailing this link to some past customers who I haven't seen enter the contest! Today earn another chance by leaving me a comment on whether or not you think you will register to go to one of the workshops during the Annie Sloan American Tour Visit the website for details!

TLC Vintage Collection and JH Design Studio are giving away this sleighful of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint products for Christmas! We are celebrating the announcement of the 2012 Annie Sloan American Tour!

Follow instructions below to win -- no purchase necessary -- a chance at this gift:

-- 2 cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, two cans of Annie sloan Soft wax (dark and clear), 1 Annie Sloan Quick and Easy Paint Transformations, 2 paint brushes, 2 small wax brushes and 1 handpainted color chart! (sorry the sleigh is just for display purposes!)

AND if you win the above

-- the winner's name will be entered into a drawing for a chance for $350 towards an Annie Sloan American Tour Workshop spot in their area or an equivalent value of Annie Sloan paint products.

Here are several ways to enter the contest, whether you buy our paint or not! Do them all for multiple chances that I will put in our fishbowl!

1) Become a follower of this website like my other followers on the right -- just hit the enroll button and follow the instructions and leave me a comment! Help me reach 200! Ambitious I know, but I want to be followed!!!

2) "Like" the TLC Vintage Collection Facebook page and leave me a comment

3) Become a follower of Annie Sloan's Blogspot and report back to me by email at janet@tlcvintagecollection.com what her most recent blog was about. Go to http://anniesloans.blogspot.com/

4) Go to http://www.anniesloanunfolded.com/event and report to me at janet@tlcvintagecollection.com which Annie Sloan 2012 American Tour stop is closest to you. Even better, sign up for the workshop while you are there and tell me you did!

5) Visit our new retail location in Laurens, Iowa at JH Design Studio. Jan Hersom will help you sign up for our drawing! Visit Jan's website http://www.jhdesignstudioia.com/

6) No purchase is required if you do any of the above steps and make sure I know about them. But if you do purchase paint at The Brass Armadillo in Des Moines and you email about the color and day you purchased or from my website http://www.tlcvintagecollection.com/, your name will also be entered into the drawing.

So many ways to get your slip into my fishbowl. Check back often and comment on my blog and we will have a new blog daily til Christmas! Our drawing will conclude at midnight December 23, 2011

Three Day Countdown to the Iowa Great Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Give Away

Time is running out to get entries into our fishbowl for the Great Iowa Chalk Paint GiveAway! Just today through Friday night and then it's time for the drawing! I'm excited!

Just a reminder of what our winner gets!

2 quarts of chalk paint -- their choice of colors!
1 can each of clear and dark wax
2 small wax brushes
2" paint brush
3" paint brush
Annie Sloan's 50 Quick and Easy Paint Transformations book
A hand painted color chart
Entry into Jolie Designs contest for a registration (or paint value equivalent of $350) at one of the 2012 Annie Sloan American Tour Workshops!

If you have not yet entered, please pull up my Dec 5 blog and read the instructions. If you have already entered my contest, earn another chance by emailing me your favorite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint color!

Annie Sloan Demo House??? Can I do a house makeover???

Our house is a typical year 2000 suburban home. Medium oak woodwork everywhere, white vinyl panel doors, textured ceiling, two story, laminate wood floor, inexpensive white kitchen cupboards. The living area gets lots of use! And the kitchen? Well, let's just say I love to cook. Everything is pretty dated. The two rooms I like the most are the dining room which I feel I got "just right" and our bedroom that I did years ago in a deep blue Ralph Lauren suede paint finish. That was before my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint experience.

The redeeming part of this otherwise dull house is that it sits on .44 acres backing to woods and a park. Oh yes, I love to garden and am a Master Gardener. We have deer (often), occasional fox, ground hog, and a large variety of birds -- ranging from some very busy humming birds this year to turkey buzzards and bald eagle sitings!

So, now I am thinking ambitious. An Annie Sloan Demo House? Re-do room by my house using Annie Sloan products? From paint to wax to lacquer! Can I do it? Is it too ambitious? I'm thinking start small -- the ground floor guest bathroom. That will give me experience with walls, cabinet and floor. I'm excited and intimidated by the prospect -- but heaven knows this house needs a major makeover!

Only problem? So many color choices! That is why I will fall back on the color expert -- Annie herself! If you visit http://www.anniesloan.com/ you will discover that if you click on each color Annie gives combination advice! Or pick up one of her books.

Meanwhile get signed up for the workshop closest to you during the Annie Sloan American Tour I'll be at the Oak Brook workshop with lots of my colleagues. Will you be? Let me know! Good for another entry of your name into the Great Iowa Chalk Paint Give Away!