I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, but I did get a chance to paint some pieces in the workshop. And it was awesome.  I made a few of my milk paint videos… …showing how to mix the paint and what to expect when working with a powdered paint… While making the video, I refinished the top of this piece and painted the base in Lucketts Green… …and started working on this one to showcase my black – Typewriter. I’m enjoying this one… I hope to have something to reveal tomorrow. The winners of the Goose Creek Candle Giveaway are… Judy (tjgibson84), Cynthia Briggs, Nancy Salamo, Lonna Berridge, Ashley Yasek and Kelly of Dragonfly Ink Designs.  Congrats, ladies! For those of you who didn’t win, remember you can use coupon code 1062512 when you check out and you’ll receive 30% off your entire order.

 I have to laugh because I had no idea when I had the thought of having my own milk paint line, then presented it to Homestead House, then announced it on my blog that it would totally takeover my life!  It’s been nuts and amazing all at the same time. I have started pinning confirmed locations of my retailers and we’re at 50 so far.  Fifty!  And I still have some more orders and applications in my in box.  I wasn’t prepared for that at all.     After printing about 30 applications and orders on my little $50 printer, I gave my husband the business card and sent him to the store to get a more professional printer/scanner/fax/copier.  The first time I printed wirelessly was magical.   Faith, my new assistant, will be starting in a few weeks and it can’t come soon enough!!  I’m still going to do a LOT

I am learning all sorts of new things as I’m working on launching a paint line. One of those lessons has been on the universal language of color. In order to communicate with the designers I’m collaborating with, I have had to learn the standard, the reference point, so we’re all looking at the same color. I have lots of paint decks (I am bit of a junkie), so I thought I could just pull out the Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams color that was closest to what I was thinking for one of my 12 colors. Well, that’s not the case. That would probably work in a pinch, but it’s not the standard. The standard is Pantone.       So now I have my color reader and my Pantone paint deck and I am able to find the Pantone color that matches my custom milk paint color.      

I have been a glutton for punishment the past couple of days and have voluntarily cleaned out my basement.  You have to remember that the original part of our house was built in the 1940’s, so we’re talking a snarl of wires, pipes and cables about 18″ above my head along with masses of cobwebs.  It’s dusty, dark, buggy and it had gotten way out of control.  So, I organized, cleaned, purged and I am now totally gross.  It was well worth it, though, and I’m going to have a yummy dinner and watch a movie with my man tonight. I also finished my milk paint color samples.  I wanted to have them completed, so I could bring them to Haven…WHICH IS NEXT WEEK!!  Holy schmoly. Here are all my legs…like a chorus line.  (Kiss today goodbye and point me toward tomorrow…)   Here’s how they started… I still need

Since I announced that I would be coming out with my own paint line, I’ve received lots of questions about Milk Paint.  I’ve made some video tutorials showing how to use the paint, different techniques and the best way to use the companion products that will be sold with it, but this is just a quick introduction for those who are like, “Milk Paint…what?!”     So, what is Milk Paint? Well, first of all, it’s nothing new.  It’s been around for hundreds of years and has even been discovered in cave paintings and Egyptian tombs.  It’s made of milk powder, lime, and pigment, so it’s all natural and behaves very different from its more modern counterparts like latex and acrylics.  It comes in a powder form and you mix it with warm water prior to use.  It provides a beautiful matte finish that shows amazing variances in the color. Why