we’ve moved…but i think we’ve got it just right! our two shops are now combined into one terrific space in east memphis.

after listening to feedback from our customers over the years, we have a new location now that will be the easiest for the most. our shop & studio at 600 south perkins road will offer longer open hours, more convenient parking, lovely neighbors (yep – social & therapy with all their beautiful gifts and cute clothing right in the same building!) and all of our products, workshops, staff knowledge and creative energy in one place. we couldn’t be more excited!

{*though the address is south perkins road, our door and parking face onto southern avenue. overflow parking during the day is available across the street at theatre memphis, or just to the east at oakleaf lane offices for our evening workshops and events.}

our grand opening in september featured events with lisa rickert, founder & CEO of jolie paints and ave home, and we had a blast! over two days of open houses, workshops, and a designer chat, lisa shared her paint know-how, design industry forecasts, and trend reports along with generous dollops of her entrepreneurial spirit and advice.

open hours are now tuesday through friday 10-6, and saturday 10-2, with other times available by appointment or by chance, and during workshops.

to continue to serve our customers all over the area, we’ve launched a’ call & collect’ service. for those who just need one more quart of a favorite color, or an additional waxing brush, paint pad or bundle of buffing cloths, just call us. we’ll have your package ready for pick up (at no charge) the next afternoon at maggie’s pharm in overton square, southern avenue company in germantown, or smallcakes in collierville. (think of it as mrs. jones prime!) the minimum purchase for call & collect is $35.

we had a wonderful almost-nine years in midtown and five years in germantown, and are so grateful for the love and support there. we look forward to so many more opportunities to serve you in our new location…come see us soon!

a solid old estate-sale chest of drawers that came our way needed something….we just weren’t sure what. then, one of our favorite customers brought in an inspo picture ripped from traditional home, and it was game on.

to create the pine-grain texture we’re glimpsing in the original, we mixed a golden-yellow paint with saltwash™, and applied it in long, grain-y strokes. once it dried, we painted on layers of an emerald green.

distressing with medium-grit sandpaper revealed a little bit of all of the layers and colors, giving a ‘deep’ finish. a layer of  clear wax with a little dark brown tinted wax mixed in mellows out and protects the paint.

we kept the original knobs, painting them dark gray and then using a black wax to finish them up.

(i love that buffed-wax gleam.)

SaveSave

fancy flea day dawned beautifully crisp and clear. vendors? check. food trucks? check. stage? check. workshops all set? check. kristin wolter-canfield of everbloom design helped our staff create an early-spring welcome for our guests with plenty of daffodils, sunflowers, tulips, and hydrangeas. we were ready!

bobby lanier, the esteemed germantown gentleman for whom the park is named, officially opened the market with a ring of the farm’s bell. after a welcome from the vice-mayor, mary anne gibson, marian parsons (miss mustard seed!) and shaunna west (ahhhh! we were totally fan-girling!) – the dynamic duo of diy – took the stage and began with a milk paint demo.

then, the market was on in earnest. vendors showed their beautiful, one-of-a-kind wares, lucy farmer and meriweather adams taught hands-on workshops, demos and chats continued on stage, and a lovely day passed way too quickly…

 

(marian looked so great in one of our linen aprons, we had to let her take it home!)

again, our most sincere thanks to the germantown park district (pam & joni, i’m looking at you!) to all of our amazing guests, vendors, and speakers, to team mrs. jones for all the support and logistics help, and to kayla stanz for all these gorgeous photos of the unforgettable day. we’re looking forward to next year!

all i can say is wow – and thank you! when the opportunity arose to bring some of our most wildly creative and inspiring friends to town for a day, we jumped at the chance to celebrate with a fancy little flea market. we’re very grateful to the city of germantown’s parks & recreation division for their kind sponsorship of the beautiful farm park, to everyone who came out to enjoy the day with us, and especially thankful to our out-of-town visitors who made the flea especially special…having miss mustard seed, shaunna west, lucy farmer and a host of terrific vendors all travel to memphis for our event was truly kind of unbelievable.

on friday, in addition to giving interviews for ‘local memphis live’ (thank you, lovely amy speropolous, for sending a crew to the shop to make it easy for us!) marian and shaunna taught two lucky workshop groups.

the morning group learned to ‘step up to milk paint’, and mastered basic techniques plus a few bonus tricks. in the afternoon, it was time for ‘i heart milk paint’ with more layers, mixes, and methods. marian and shaunna really are the dynamic duo of diy, and it was a huge treat for all of us to have their experience, energy and enthusiasm wafting through the studio all day.

that evening, we had a barbecue supper for our out-of-town guests and flea market vendors at our germantown shop. it was great to wind down a bit after the workshops and for the vendors to get to know each other before the flea. marian was super-game about trying everything…pulled pork, hush puppies, king cake (thank you, donna & jessica!) and pimento cheese…all our extremely refined local faves!

next…time to flea!

 

 

SaveSave

someone out there (thank you!) kindly nominated my journal for a homie award at apartment therapy in the home project & diy category.  so, if you would like to, hop over and cast a vote.  (note: you’ll have to scroll pretty far down the page!)

(this concludes my shameless self-promotional plug for the day.  you may now return to your regularly scheduled web-surfing.)

thanking goodness that the world didn’t end a few days ago, mr. jones and i welcomed the new year with friends at our house for cocktails & dinner…our favorite night of the year.

it was a great chocolate-brown-and-gold opportunity to use a new stencil from wallovers to make patterned table cloths…

another pattern from stencil me in that made perfect mayan-calendar-esque placecards (on pre-cut round cardstock from michael’s – who knew?)…

to gild rocks that charlie collected for me, along with flower pots…

and for meg to dip oreos (which bear an alarming resemblance to the mayan calendar!  have you examined an oreo lately?) into almond bark and edible gold glitter as take-away treats.)

votives were dipped into modern masters‘ tequila gold paint for a sparkly, drippy rim.

as a final (cheeky!) goodbye to 2012, my pal perre created a mayan temple out of goat cheese, with red pepper jelly standing in for the human sacrifice.  hilarious and yummy!

other than a little rain and the fact that our friend john did not wear a feather poncho as promised (technical issues, i am sure!) it was a lovely night.  happy 2013 to you all.

just taking a minute to wish you the merriest of christmases, and thank you to all of you who have shown so much kindness and support and patience as we’ve muddled through our first holiday season as a for-real studio.  i especially want to thank laura beck, graphic designer extroirdinaire, for creating this fab re-cycled/re-glammed wreath for our window…which, along with a gorgeous flower arrangement from jeniffer church, comprised me & mrs. jones’s entire holiday decorating scheme…but there’s always next year, right?   (ps – if you’re interested in ordering one of laura’s wreaths, let me know.  they can be tweaked for any holiday or occasion!)

we’ll remain closed to enjoy the days our kidlets are out of school.  see you on january 3rd for regular open hours, or for cooper/young night out that evening from 5 until 8.

in honor of elvis week here in memphis, we’re celebrating at me & mrs. jones with a little giveaway.  when you purchase a quart of chalk paint™ in pink cadillac pink or blue suede shoe blue (which all the rest of the year are known as antoinette and aubusson) you’ll receive a pair of our handy utility brushes…our way of saying thank-you-thank-you-very-much.

{and if you need a guide to all things elvis to get you through the week, or you’re a memphis music fan, click on the photo above to get more information about the app my friend sally walker davies and i created (with graceland’s blessing, natch) all about the king.}

…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, unashamed “item has been removed.”)  several 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 now he’s gone. but this crazy little exclamation mark in our hall this morning made my day:

i can’t quite figure out where the light was coming from, or what it was bouncing off, but redorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet snuck in here somehow.

thanks to all who played the giveaway game, hazarding a guess at an annie sloan color pairing i am getting ready to put on a table.  you sent in so many gorgeous combinations…they are all destined to become samples at the studio!  however, no one entered the right one…old white and old violet…so, i put everyone’s name into a hat and my handsome and charming assistant, charlie (despite his broken collarbone) reached in and pulled out the winner…

amanda jones!  (no relation, by the way.)

many thanks to everyone for participating…i wish i had tickets to the annie sloan event in nashville to give to all of you lovelies for playing…i hope to have more goodies to give away soon.

(amanda, please look for an email with details.  congratulations and thanks!)

please don’t be fooled by the lack of posts…january has been non-stop motion! stay tuned for a lacquered china cabinet in gorgeous shades of gray, a pine dresser & hutch glam-ified for darling twin girls, walls with stripes and gilded crowns, glazed bookshelves, and all the details on the weekend renovation sessions going on at what will soon be mrs. jones’s new studio.

(our 17-year-old will may have found his calling – he enjoyed the demo work a little too much!)