Carver Junk Company — Milk Paint

You read that right. Miss Mustard Seed, Marian Parsons, the famous blogger, home decorator, author, furniture refinisher, and namesake of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint is partnering with Carver Junk Company to bring you a hands-on workshop in October! 

Chad has been working with Marian for a few months to set up this workshop. We'd originally been discussing having her fly in for a weekend a teach a full-day session combined with one of our other events. After their initial conversation, Marian asked Chad to sit tight on planning, because her family was in the process of moving for her husband's job. Turns out, they were working on their move...to MINNESOTA! We couldn't be more thrilled to have Marian right in our own backyard. For 4 years, we've been carrying her paint line in our stores, and communicating with her virtually, but never in person.

Needless to say, we're thrilled to meet her, and we know you will be, too. The workshops are scheduled for October 21st: 8 am - Noon and 1 pm - 5 pm. Each one is limited to 48 people, which means plenty of quality time with Marian and the CJC team, talking all things Milk Paint. Marian will speak, instruct, and do a Q&A throughout the day, and we'll provide snacks, drinks, additional instructors, and a beautiful project. Due to the size, they'll be held off-site but just down the street from our Chaska location, in the historic Chaska Mill building. 

Here's the scoop, and link to registration for the events.  

 

Our team has created a project that will allow you to learn a variety of techniques using a variety of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint products, and at the end we'll assemble it into a gorgeous finished piece of art for your home! Choose between welcome, home or family as the word art on your piece. The finished projects are approximately 18" x 24," and are perfect for placement in a gallery wall (imagine "family" surrounded by family photos) or entryway as a "welcome."  

....just kidding! We aren't changing our name, but our new store did open in downtown Chaska today, and we couldn't be more excited! When we've opened previous locations, we've sort of just opened the doors, painted a couple of walls, and moved in. But we've learned a ton over the last 4 years, about what works and doesn't for displays, for checking out, and for storage and organization. So much thought went into this new location, and we're really proud of how it all came together! It's all our Pinterest dreams come true, in our own little store. Those of you who have shopped during our craziest events know that the checkout counter was always a bit [ok, ok....a lot] of a bottleneck at the Carver store. We always had multiple people running the checkout, but usually they were ringing people up on their phones, extra ipads, etc. You'll be happy to hear that the new Chaska store has two full, permanent checkout stations, so we can get you through the lines even faster [which means more time to actually shop, right?]   Beyond that, we've created spaces for all of the apparel and accessories that used to be staged & stacked wherever we had space. Our building is the old Carver County State Bank, and our bigger selection of apparel & accessories is in the old vault! It's such a fun space, and has already been a huge hit this weekend. We're excited to continue bringing in fun new items throughout the year.   The bulk of the store is made of three rooms that are staged with our typical furniture and accessories. We've added some handcrafted metal & wood shelving to the main room to hold more of our handmade & vintage-inspired items, leaving more space on the furniture to showcase ideas on how to set them up & accessorize them like you would in an actual home. Our vendors have outdone themselves with staging, styling, and the incredible furniture and decor items they've brought in for this event: You can see the shiplap wall that Chad added behind the checkout [which was no small feat with the steel studs, uneven walls, and crazy floors in this place]. "Let's put up some shiplap, it'll be quick." Famous last words, my friends....choosing the paint color for that wall took just about as long. The final space in the new store is the dedicated DIY workshop, where we'll be able to hold more painting & crafting classes. We already have a full schedule up for June, and we're excited not only to be doing more of our own classes, but to be partnering with other small, local businesses to offer workshops. Knot & Ivy are doing two macrame workshops on June 18th!   One of our vendors saw the space for the first time last week, and asked me "Is this like a dream come true?" I almost burst out crying. I realized we had been running so hard, for so long with all of our recent events, and trying to get the space ready, that we hadn't stepped back to actually take note of the fact that this store is our dream come true. What a great reminder to slow down a bit, and enjoy all of this. So this weekend, we're taking it all in - we've spent each day in the store ourselves [which doesn't happen as much as we'd like, with the business to run, and furniture to paint]. We're chatting with our loyal customers, and getting to know all of the new people coming through the door. We're sitting back and reminding ourselves how incredibly lucky we are to have such incredible, hard-working, dedicated and talented vendors that fill this beautiful space with all the things we love. We think [and hope] you all will love this new space as much as we do. We'll continue to be open occasionally [one full weekend each month], with special pop-up events most months, as well as workshops throughout each month. You can always find our schedule online, under Visit the Stores. We hope to see you soon! Chad, Brandy & the CJC team    

If you stopped out at the Carver store for our Occasional Weekend Event in June, you probably noticed the great vignette behind the checkout counter. It was created by Gabe from Cotton Seed Designs, to showcase a bit of her style! The {shoppable} display included chippy old windows, copper and brass accents, pineapples, wood and metal textures, and a green, white, and dusty pink color scheme. <3 We've told you a bit about Gabe before, in our previous Vendor Spotlight series, but wanted to share a few recent projects she's brought into the stores. Her items can be found at both CJC locations. Some of these are still available - call or message us on Facebook for details. Go ahead and Pin them, if you need some furniture inspiration!

All you Apron Strings and Dried Lavender fans, tune in....these pretty, fun colors are going into retirement. Miss Mustard Seed released a new color line last year, with six European-inspired colors {which we love, btw} and it's time for a few of the original colors to say au revoir. Purchase online before they're gone:      Apron Strings is a personal favorite of mine, so I'm a bit bummed to hear it's going away. If you remember, we used it as the coral color in our daughter's nursery, and I still love it as much as I did then. So much so, that Chad has his lacquer spray color-matched to Apron Strings, too! {on that note, if you want something custom painted in this color, we can make it happen}. Dried Lavender has always gotten a bad rap, in my opinion. It's not as purple as people seem to assume, based on the name. It's actually a beautiful dusty gray color with just a hint of lavender undertones. Our vendors have painted quite a few pieces with it, and customers are always surprised when they hear the name of the color! If you love them, scoop them up now while they're still available! Looking for some new color inspiration? Head over to our Pinterest board: Inspiration: Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint or check out the new colors below!          

Can you believe March is over, and it's April already??  Our March Madness Milk Paint Contest was a ton of fun, and we had thousands of voters over the two weeks. We're excited to do it again next year. On that note....we're so excited to crown our very first March Madness Milk Paint WINNER:

Brooke L (find her on Instagram for more of her fun projects) Brooke will receive a code for $150 worth of milk paint from Carver Junk Company!

Thank you to everyone who entered, voted and shared! We also chose a winner for $50 worth of milk paint, from the thousands who voted: Amy McCaw, we'll send you a message! Lastly, we're offering 10% off any milk paint purchases from our website through the end of the day Friday (4/8/16). Use code MMMPC at checkout. Happy Painting, everyone!