Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Chalk Paint® decorative paint is the best paint in the world

Chalk Paint® decorative paint by the amazing Annie Sloan is the best paint in the world.  Why, you ask?  Sit down and grab a cup of tea, I have so much to tell you.  Here are a few reasons why I believe it and am shouting it to you all from 35,000 feet in the air (hooray for in flight wi-fi!):

We have Annie.  For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Annie, she's amazing, kind, humble, unassuming and the creator of the amazing Chalk Paint® decorative paint.  Here is a link to her site if you want to learn a little more about her.  This is me meeting Annie for the first time in England last September in Oxford, England!

- Chalk Paint® has been around for over 22 years.  The paint, the wax, the Annie!  Annie created Chalk Paint® and it has withstood the test of time.  It's a symbiotic product that can be layered on one coat at a time almost always without the need to sand.  NO MORE STINKY PRIMER!  It goes on furniture, floors, walls, metal, wood, you name it...with ease!  Why NOT Chalk Paint®?!


Me with our educator, Barb Skivington
High Point, NC August 28, 2012
- When you take a workshop, you aren't just learning from someone who sells Chalk Paint®, you learn from a stockist who has been TRAINED by a certified stockist within the Chalk Paint® family.  Early Sunday morning, I hopped on a plane bound for Greensboro, North Carolina by way of Atlanta to attend our Chalk Paint® certified stockist trainer session for two days.  Every Chalk Paint® retailer goes through an amazing two day course to learn everything they need to know about the paint.  How many paint distributors do that??  There is a great amount of effort that goes into ensuring that our retailers are well versed in Annie's full line of products.

I even had the pleasure of meeting this amazing girl, Christie Carter, from Carter's Cottage.  She is a stockist from De Kalb, Illinois.  It was an eventful start to my week.  I have backed up paint deliveries to make this week and some pieces of furniture to paint and Chrissy has some surprises in the Eco Chic warehouse for me to check out once I get back home!

And now that I have eaten two $7.50 box lunches on this flight after racing from Atlanta's terminal D to terminal A in under 10 minutes flat between flights, I'm signing off.  I was starving, don't judge.  For $15, I ate 1 bag of roasted almonds, 1 sliver of smoked gouda, 4 crackers, 1 sliver of cheddar, 1 sliver of brie, 2 Twizzlers, 2 Oreos, some grapes, a few apple slices, 2 bites of a low carb bar (that WAS in the same box as the Oreos, go figure), 8 nachos with mild salsa, and a Coca Cola.  I call that an in flight buffet!



But WAIT!  I almost forgot this...

ANNIE SLOAN 
FABRICS 
are
coming
in a few weeks!!







Sunday, August 26, 2012

Patina Decorative Finishes STUCK on plane for Chalk Paint®

Boy it takes getting stuck on a plane for me to sit down and blog.  I'm on my 6th hour of flying from San Francisco to High Point, North Carolina.  Other than California, North Carolina is my second favorite state in the U.S.  I dream of renting a house on the North Carolina beach in the summer with our family.  I won't have much goofing around time because it's a quick trip this way for some Chalk Paint® decorative paint training.  I splurged on Delta's wireless for my trip, $40 for a month which seems like a lot, but I don't sit still well at ALL so that was $40 WELL spent.  But, see I even busted out a blog post!

I'm on my way to North Carolina to meet up with Annie Sloan Unfolded for a certified stockists' training session with the fabulous Barb Skivington from Faux Works Studio.  I'm so excited finally land in North Carolina and take it all in!  Dinner tonight and lots of painting in the next few days.  The best part is I had no time to get a mani and these ladies and gentleman WON'T mind a little paint stuck under my fingernails!!

I'm so grateful this week that everyone at Soul Food Farm is okay, the animals, and the house because this was a photo I took from the farm a few days ago:




It came so close to destroying everything.   But, my people are okay and that makes me okay.  Nothing could keep me from being by Alexis' side that night.  My heart sunk as I could see the fire from the highway.  This is the third year in a row a fire has threatened their world.  These two girls right here are MY people:  







So, it's time to sign off so they can land this plane.  I just got another dirty look because I pretended not to hear the "It's now time to shut off all electronic devices at this time" PA announcement.  But, wait, one more pic before we all depart...

It looks like I'm not in dry, brown, firey (sad face) California anymore...