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Running a Business

buying & selling antiques

the fabric & Lucketts furniture

Do you remember when I wrote about my guest room a few weeks ago? I showed a scrap of fabric that I’ve been holding in my stash for about 12 years. I love this fabric and it was, unfortunately, discontinued. I held onto my one yard remnant, feeling it was too precious to even use. I laid it out on the guest bed as I was playing with fabric options for pillows and the duvet cover. The fabric looked so beautiful with the hand painted bed, but I didn’t have enough to make much…maybe a pillow. And I couldn’t find the fabric anywhere. Well, my blog readers came through. Suzanne came through, to be more specific. She had a few yards of the fabric in her stash and, more than that, was willing to sell all of it to me. It came last week and I will admit to hugging

April 30, 2014 29 Comments

buying & selling antiques

The "Lucketts is worth hours in a car" giveaway

A few weeks ago, I did a little brainstorming with Heather, the very hard worker and organizational genius behind the Lucketts Spring Market. (She’s also the vendor Boots & Burlap at the Lucketts Store. Killer stuff.) Anyway, we thought it would be fun to partner up on a few giveaways leading up to the big weekend, which is May 17-18, 2014, 10 am – 5 pm. I usually offer some giveaways on my own, but this year, because we’re partnering up, I have one of the best prizes ever. Not only do winners of these giveaways get money to spend at The Lucketts Store and at my booth, but they get early entrance to the fair. Yes. That’s right. Thirty glorious minutes to shop before the gates are open. As Jeff Probst would say, “Worth playing for?” If you don’t think so, take a look at some of the goods

April 28, 2014 145 Comments

buying & selling antiques

a balance, a baby quilt & a pair of chairs

Yes, I’m showing off more of my finds for the Lucketts Spring Market you’re going to get a lot of that over the next few weeks. It’s approaching fast! I still have some freelance things to wrap up, but I am almost done with those. This weekend, I’m heading to Salt Lake City to teach a milk paint workshop at the SNAP conference. Traveling is always tiring, but it will be a nice break from all of the work at home. Once I get back…it’s all about Lucketts…painting furniture, more shopping, upholstering, pricing and planning. Normally it’s a stressful time for me, but this year I’m more prepared than ever and I am really excited to delve into all of the projects head on. Painting furniture is like therapy for me. So, I should feel like a new woman once Lucketts is here! Anyway, here’s one of my favorite finds

April 21, 2014 19 Comments

buying & selling antiques

cleaning the basement & a stool for Lucketts

Today, my mom and I spent a few hours cleaning out the basement. After all of the project-finishing, organizing, cleaning, shopping for Lucketts, shipping for the online shop, etc, the basement was a mess. I can tolerate a messy basement for a while, because I can close the door and not look at it. There comes a time, though, when I’m tripping over things and can’t find things and it feels like things are everywhere and they are crowding out my productivity and creativity. We worked really hard and both the old and new parts of the basement are cleaned and organized. Everything that’s finished for Lucketts is priced and packed… …and we have a holding area for pieces I’m still working on. It feels amazing to have those spaces cleaned and ready for work! Next week I hope to get some of these pieces finished, so I

April 11, 2014 21 Comments

Running a Business

Building a Creatively Made Business 2.0

*** this course is now closed *** Those who have followed my blog since I started in 2008 know how far my business has come. Mustard Seed Interiors was born after a teary breakdown on my sofa and a strong push from my mom and was launched with hours of painting wooden ornaments at my kitchen counter to sell at a craft fair. MSI has grown to a blog with over 1 million hits a month, a Milk Paint line sold in over 230 retail locations around the world, a book and so much more. Sometimes I even need to pause and be in awe of how an accidental entrepreneur, amateur photographer, self-taught DIYer got here. My family was so supportive along the way, but I wish I had a community to plug into. People who could talk to me about social media, marketing, taxes, business strategy…just everything. I had

April 5, 2014 106 Comments

buying & selling antiques

Pricing & Pieces to Paint

My dining room table was filled with pieces to price for Lucketts, mostly ironstone, and the living room was pretty cluttered as well, so I decided to get that taken care of. Before I got to all of the pricing and packing, I had a conference call with my MMSMP retailers in the UK. The girls came from all over…Scotland, England and Ireland. It was so exciting to talk to them about my vision for the brand, ideas and tips. So often it’s just me in my basement or me pecking away at my computer and it doesn’t hit me how much my expectations have been blown out of the water. In fact, just last week I learned that we have a retailer coming on in Dubai. Like, THE Dubai. Not Dubai, Wyoming or something, but THE Dubai. Crazy and very humbling. Anyway, after the call, I got to the pricing.

April 1, 2014 25 Comments

buying & selling antiques

Last Week's Finds

When I get home from shopping, I like to open all of the bags and boxes and spread everything out on the dining room table. I think it has to do with feeling a sense of accomplishment. This is what I did today. It’s harder to feel that when it’s out of sight. I think it also makes my hauls look more impressive. I do live in an area where ironstone is a pretty regular find, but it’s not like I walk into a shop and it’s all piled neatly waiting for me. This spread was collected from four different stores over hours of scouring booths and shelves. I also don’t get it all at bargain basement prices. Sometimes I do find a plate for $.50 or a pitcher for $5.00, but most of the time I buy ironstone because I love it and want a lot of it in

March 29, 2014 37 Comments

Running a Business

Show Business | part 4 :

As I’ve been posting this series about being a vendor at antique shows, I’ve been asked a few questions. Some of them involved pricing and negotiating, so I thought I would chat on those topics. I was a shopper at these events long before I was a vendor and that helped me with the decisions made about the kind of vendor I wanted to be. I wanted to be the kind of vendor I like to shop from… great stuff, great prices, friendly and helpful. And, given the wall of people who run to my booth each year at Lucketts, I think that approach has really paid off. So, how do I approach my pricing? I’m not going to give a specific number for things, because the nature of antiques and handmade/hand painted items makes uniform pricing difficult. I’m going to talk about my approach generally. First of all, I

March 25, 2014 21 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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