Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Thanksgiving!

A wee break from painting and all the other things that have been keeping me busy to say "Happy Thanksgiving"!

I am thankful for:

My Lord and Savior and ALL that he provides.

My supportive and loving Family.  You all have no idea how much it means to have you here with me every step of the way on my journey.  I LOVE you all more than you can ever even imagine.

My Country. where I enjoy freedoms, rights, and privileges many others do not have.  May I never take it for granted.

My Friends who grant me unconditional acceptance and support and love and laughs.  I could not live without all those laughs girls!

My Business, each step has been a surprise and a great joy!  And meeting new people, clients, and other Bloggers has been the biggest bonus of all!

My Church, my Community, and our Schools...we are so very blessed!

And for Ellie, who told me last night, "I'm thankful to God for giving me the best water in the world to drink!"  I hope you will always remember to be truly grateful for all the graces in your life.

Blessings to you all as we celebrate another Thanksgiving!
Deb



Monday, November 5, 2012

MMS Milk Paints: Lucketts Green

You all know I am older than dirt right?!  Well, not dirt, but certainly older than most of the "up and comers" in the blog world.  I actually remember helping my Grandmother white wash an old building with milk paint back in the 60's or 70's.  I was familiar with the properties that make it both great, and kind of difficult to deal with.  It's probably what has drawn me to try and fall in love with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, and CeCe Caldwell's Clay and Chalk Based Paints.  Now there are more new products to try!  Yeah, for all of us that are eager to experiment with all these options on our projects.  Miss Mustard Seed has developed her own line of colors in Milk Paint, Absolute Vintage (Sisters of the Wild West) have a new milk paint line also.  And those are just the bloggers that I know of out there with the milk paint lines.  If you google Milk Paint you are met with a plethora of options out there.  I tell you this because I am not a spokesperson for any developer or supplier, just a great consumer of all kinds of products old and new.  An equal opportunity consumer as I remind my long suffering spouse all the time!

All that to tell you that I finally got around to trying out MMS new line.  I was feeling green that day I guess because I ordered both Luckett's Green and Boxwood.  I've only got the Luckett's on anything at this point, and here's my experience.
 I LOVE this color.  I chose to work without the bonding agent, because I wanted to see how this whole chipping thing worked.  I happen to love old chippy furniture, though I admit to being scared enough of the whole lead paint issue to feel like I have to pass on some furniture out there OR be willing to strip the entire piece and start over.  This paint gives you that "been on there forever" look and feel without the danger involved.  Love that.
You can totally see where the paint just wouldn't adhere well, for whatever reason.  For me, this was exactly the look I wanted.  Chippy, but not totally devoid of paint.
Now, the mixing of the paint myself and the lumpiness is going to take some getting used to.  I wasn't ever completely sure that I had the right consistency, both thickness and lumpiness.  Such technical terms I use huh?!  I will say even the thinner batch (I eventually added more powder to it to pump it up a bit) adhered nicely. 
I used 2 coats of the paint, carefully used a putty knife to remove any flaky areas to get my chippy look, and sanded lightly to remove any rough areas.  I don't think you would need to sand at all, but I've gotten so used to that silky smooth finish after using Chalk Paint. 
I think the sanding gave me even more variations in the depth of color which I actually like.
Sorry about the photo quality, the sun was starting to drop a bit low.  This was so fun to play with.  I love having another product in my arsenal of paints.  I know the chippy pieces are not for everyone, but hey, if I like them, there's probably a few more folks out there that will like them too!  This piece is for sale if you are reading this and one of those people ;-)! 

Now, I'm off to complete a custom piece and another in the works piece.  I have several custom pieces in line to work on and I've got tons more that I have picked up to keep me busy and out of trouble for a while!

Have a great, great week!
Deb

Linking up to:
http://missmustardseed.com/2012/11/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-13/

Saturday, November 3, 2012

NJ & Co. special event notice

Hi Local Omaha area friends!  Just thought you might want to check out this fun new NJ & Co. Special event.  Follow the below link for details.  There's still time to get into the shop and fill out your wish lists!  And don't forget to enter the facebook contest!

Go to:  http://conta.cc/Tcl15B and
http://www.facebook.com/#!/njandcompany
to see all the information  and "Like" NJ's page

As many of you know now I have a small furniture booth in the shop. I rotate items in and out quite regularly to keep it fresh looking.  So if you saw something in there a few weeks ago and it's gone now it may or may not have sold.  Always feel free to contact me to check on the status of a piece of the furniture! 

Coming up next:  A Reveal!  Finally, it feels like forever since I put something new and fresh up here for you to see.

Have a great weekend!
Go Big Red!
Deb