Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and 10,000 views!

It is a foggy morning here as I write this. It happens when the seasons are in transition. Cold air meeting warm air and all that.

When I looked at my stats today, my blog had hit 10,000 views! It might not seem like a lot of views for some bloggers, in fact some of them get that many in in a day probably, lol, but for for me, this is a big milestone and worth mentioning.

Speaking of blogs with a lot of views, most of you are probably familiar with Miss Mustard Seed's blog, but if you're not, you should pay her a visit. She is a great inspiration to me when it comes to painting furniture and decorating, etc. She has evolved from mere blogger to authoring her own book and creating her own line of milk paint. (And all this while raising two little boys!)

A while back, she was approached by Homestead House Paint Company, a milk paint company located right here in Toronto, Canada. They asked her to create her own line with her own colours. It has been interesting to watch her progress, hard work and finally, success in creating this line.

I have used milk paint from this company many years ago on a couple of furniture pieces. Milk paint applied to raw wood is virtually unchippable. It's the best paint adherence there is. On varnished and painted furniture, you have to use a bonding agent to make it adhere, otherwise the paint chips in places, but this can be highly desirable for a wonderful distressed look. Milk paint is an old paint formula, it is organic, biodegradable and has zero VOC.

Yesterday, I stopped at a Home Hardware, a Canadian chain of hardware stores, and I was surprised and thrilled to find Miss Mustard Seed's paints!

 The colour I bought is called "typewriter", a wonderful black with slight brown undertones. I have a music sheet cabinet that I envisioned painting in black, this will be perfect to test it.

I also picked up a free colour chart:

The colours Marian (Miss Mustard Seed) chose were inspired by favourite objects. You'll find posts about what inspired each colour.

I bought the bonding agent as for the piece I want to paint, I don't want too much chippiness, but rather just a bit of wear.

Can't wait to use it! 

If you want to learn more about milk paint and how to use it, visit Marian's blog to view her tutorials.


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Antoinette shelf and some sad news

First off, I'd like to take a moment to mention my blogging friend Suzan's latest post over at Simply Vintageous. In the blogging world, you get to "meet" virtual kindred spirits with whom you connect over similar passions, in this case, refinishing and painting furniture. Suzan had discovered such a friend at http://www.laurenlanedecor.ca/. Tara, the young woman who authored the website and blog, recently died tragically. She was 31. She had left an accounting job to pursue her passion of painting furniture. She had just posted about how excited she was to introduce Miss Mustard Seed's new line of milk paint. Planning for the future. 


Her life might have been short, but she lived it right: plan for the future, but live like there's no tomorrow by pursuing your passion. I did not get a chance to discover Tara or her blog, but learning of her passing is inspiring me to turn things up a notch and just bite into life with even more intensity. May she rest in peace.

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When I think of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Antoinette colour, I infallibly think of Marie Antoinette. It's such a soft, feminine colour, a beautiful pink, a not in your face kind of pink. It's a Grande Dame colour. Very ladylike, very proper. Fit for a Queen.

I picked up this little shelf for a whole dollar at a garage sale. It's only plastic but it's so very well detailed, it looks like carved wood. 

It was originally gold and had been spray painted brown. The brown had to go. Had to. 

Since it's such a feminine motif, I thought of Antoinette right away. 

The dark wax was very appropriate for this piece and it enhanced the flowery details in the most wonderful way.

Could you see this in a little girl's room, accentuated with pretty "objets"?

Or it could be a sweet "ciel de lit" over a baby girl's crib. Something like this:

That's what a whole dollar can get you these days, folks. You just have to see the potential.

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