…isn’t that what they say imitation is?  so, i would say “thank you”, but a recent incident may force a change in the way mrs. jones conducts things here.

long story short: thank goodness my true blue friend helen morris has sharp eyes for things in addition to great design…she brought to my attention that an etsy seller (who shall remain nameless) had copied an original stencil pattern of mine and was selling it as her work.  bad karma, right?  the kicker: she also swiped my accompanying photograph and was using it as a way to sell the stolen stencil design!  brazen!  shameless!  outrageous!  (is anyone else shocked by this?)

after my emailing her directly and notifying etsy, she de-listed the offending stencil and photograph.  (without an apology, just a terse, gallingly unashamed “item has been removed.”) other (much more seriously prominent) stencil designers, from whom she has stolen numerous images and designs, are taking legal action.  magpies, beware!

from now on, it seems that watermarking images will be a must.  since it is too daunting to consider going back and editing every photo i’ve ever posted, i am just going to have to rely on your kindness and decency so that i may keep sharing (as i’ve been so happy to do) without worrying about things being misused, or proper credit not being given (which is turning into an expensive problem, seeing as how my intellectual property attorney bills by the text/minute/email.  ouch.)

and while i realize that putting images online at times begs for a good copy & paste, and sharing sites such as polyvore and pinterest have blurred the lines of what’s permissible to virtually borrow, please let’s get back to the basics…be kind, share (carefully), give credit where credit is due, don’t touch things that don’t belong to you without asking first, do unto others, etc. etc.

thus concludes my rant.  thank you for listening.

(above photo really unrelated to anything, really…it’s a little plaque i made for the broom closet door at the studio – which is where i would like to lock a particular etsy seller.  there.  i’ve said it.  anyway, the details: silver leaf over henrietta chalk paint.  vintage vacuum stencil from stencil 1.)

and just like at home, setting the dates for the parties was great motivation to get things finished up – there is just one room left to go.

(the gorgeous flowers that lovely jeniffer church sent look just like the ones on the cover of annie sloan’s book, don’t you think?)

i am so grateful to my family and friends for helping me pull everything together…hanging gigantic bulletin boards, hanging lights, hanging light fixtures (all mainly at the 11th hour), for arranging and sending gorgeous, happy flowers, bringing yummy food and celebratory-type gifts, hauling and icing down drinks, and just generally for being there for me over the past months as i’ve prepared to take this leap.

in other late-breaking opening news, i am so excited about my wonderful new neighbors!   sew memphis has just opened around the corner, and midtown massage & bodywork is opening on may 28th right next door.  when you come to cooper/young, please pop by and see them too.

we had a super-fun workshop last saturday…four lovely students (all at varying levels of experience) each brought a lamp base (3 brass, one ceramic) in for a re-vamp.  they did a fantastic job, as evidenced below:

(patty, who swears she has never painted anything before, scored this great brass lamp at the oxford goodwill for $3.99 and put the coolest crusty weathered zinc finish on it, using graphite and louis blue chalk paint as a base.)

(lisa’s lamp was rescued from their flooded hunting camp.  the brass finish was ruined, but she made it fabulous with annie sloan’s olive and old ochre, and pewter gilding wax.)

(jackie has had this ginger jar lamp since high school – it had been frighteningly bright and shiny, but she made it gleam like old polished plaster with country grey and old white under annie’s soft waxes.)

the group learned three different annie sloan chalk paint finishes, and chose one for their lamp.  during “dry times” we chatted about fix-ups for shades, favorite places to flea, and alternate methods using metallics.  it was a wonderful group – i can’t wait until they come back with pictures of their finished lamps in situ.  gold stars for everyone!

(matt went for a mellow antiqued gold finish for his floor lamp, beginning with graphite.  bravo!)

…and, hopefully, now you don’t.

with the craziness of renovating the studio and keeping all other current balls in the air, it was fun to take time out to work in a little nancy-drew-ing and repair a lovely client’s concrete floor.   annie sloan chalk paint in old ochre was a great starting point: close to the background color of the existing floor and providing an excellent bond to the concrete.  a little tweaking with tinted glazes and it was ready to seal.  (and now, the home is ready for the realtors’ open house.)

four samples for a lovely client considering treatments for a beautiful cypress-paneled library in a home they’re building.  different paint washes combined with tinted and gilt waxes…which one will they choose?

my seeking a way to display samples of all of annie sloan’s 29 fabulous colors intersected directly with my friend chris garner‘s desire to try the chalk paint and to divest himself of some frames from the “scratch & dent” pile at his shop (from where, as you know, the most gorgeous frames and mirrors come.)  it resulted in this happy situation on the walls at my studio:

now chalk paint shoppers can easily see, touch, and compare all the hues.  there is lots of fabric-swatch-holding-up going on too, which is really fun to see.

(here is a “before” of my haul from his attic:)

and just wait until you see the gorgeous moldings chris is creating with some of annie’s colors, her waxes, and a little gilding.  i can’t wait to show you.

among all the wonderful antiquing spots in our neighborhood (just check the studio page for a list) there is a great j.u.n.q.u.e. shop just around the corner from me & mrs. jones on central avenue – gary’s antiques. gary and his cohorts comb estate sales, flea markets, auctions (and, sometimes, i think, the curb) for their signature crazy blend of merchandise. he also occasionally builds tables from reclaimed pieces, such as this one i snagged recently…the base is an old plantation desk whose slanted top had been lost/stolen/ruined. gary constructed a new top and refinished the whole piece.

i love it for its size, sturdiness, bottom shelf, the original brass banding at the bottom of the legs, and extra-tall height…counter stools will fit nicely some day when it has retired from its new job as display in the shop…but the new finish was very, well, new. here it was before:

and after:

the finish is annie sloan’s paris gray with clear wax over it, a distressed band of old white on the edges, and dark wax rubbed into the knots and exposed wood for a tiny bit of age.

please don’t tell gary that i painted over his stain & varnish! i’ve also just come home with a long farm-style table that he built using a set of old turned legs that will serve as worktable in the classroom. stay tuned for that transformation, coming soon.

yes, this is she, herself, our annie sloan.  a really truly lovely lady, gifted artist and artisan, colorist, teacher, designer…chock-full of humor, honesty, integrity and generous heaps of creativity.

and i do mean generous.  she will share every bit of inspiration, knowledge and experience she has just to try to make sure your project turns out well.   120 lucky attendees and all of annie’s stockists from our region spent monday in nashville in an annie immersion.  the day began with breakfast and a meet & greet, then a two-hour talk and demonstration by the fabulous mrs. sloan.  she gave all sorts of tips on mixing colors and patterns, the history and stories behind several of her colors, and a sneak preview of two wonderful books she has in the works, along with fabrics and new hues coming in the next few months.

following lunch, we broke into smaller groups for hands-on instruction.  the day wrapped up with a sociable hour while annie kindly signed books and samples and took photos with her many adoring “sloan rangers”.

and talk about the stars aligning…annie’s nashville visit coincided with the fab fairgounds flea market.  what a treat all the way around.

here is a before & after of some fab estate-sale chairs in which anna baskin lattimore spied the potential.  they arrived like so:

and now are at home freshened up with beautiful new upholstery and sleek coats of benjamin moore’s palace white, #oc.100:

of course this so-shiny-it-still-looks-wet look is only possible with hollandlac brilliant.  i’ve recently had some good questions about working with this amazing (but sometimes tricky) fpe paint, and will try to answer those in a post coming soon that will feature the third chair in this set, done up in a gorgeous green.

this project will go down in history with the young joneses as “the great wall of oxford”.  a super-darling and enthusiastic lovely client invited me to oxford, mississippi to give her built-ins a soft, furniture-y, distressed finish.  in all of our excited back-and-forth about finishes, colors, and timing, i sort of breezed past the photos of the space she kindly sent – without asking for measurements. let me repeat: i did not ask for measurements. imagine, then, me peeling into town on two wheels with three days set aside for the project, and finding that not only is her lovely home lovely, it is large. really large.  here is the before (with a base coat – benjamin moore’s linen white, #912):

she kept me exceedingly well-fed (pimiento cheese from olivia’s food emporium, burgers from phillips grocery, chicken-salad-salad from panini, home-made bran muffins and banana nut bread – all divine!) & caffeinated, though, and somehow (helped along by taking the twelve shelves home to do over the weekend) it all got wrapped up on time.

(my highly-skilled, artistic client and i had also discussed a layered, distressed finish for her kitchen island.  with the tight timing and spring break looming, she was game to take brush in hand herself and let me coach her through doing the island from the next room, rather than wait for another opening in the calendar.  she did a fantastic job!)

back in the great room: layers of paint (pratt & lambert’s contemplation, #19.28), wax, and glaze later, things will look really fabulous when she adds her choice of hardware, lines the backs of the wire cabinet doors with a silk & linen burlap, and gets the books unpacked and shelves arranged.  until those photos arrive, here is a sneak peek:

i am so glad she called.  it was really fun.