Paint company sells packets for testing

Paint company sellspackets for testing
Portland, Ore.-based artist and color consultant Gretchen Schauffler sees no reason why shopping for paint shouldn't be as fun as shopping for lipstick.
So her paint company, Devine Color, makes paint you can sample for about $3.75 each in minipouches that look like trial-size cosmetics.
"I wanted women to be able to toss the samples in their purse, take them home and have fun testing them out," says Schauffler. "I like to call my products 'girl paint,' because they coat the walls like a good face cream."
Her simple idea has been a smash. The two-ounce packets, displayed in swiveling carousels, will cover an area about four square feet. Consumers who have trouble picking paint colors can thus avoid a garage littered with barely used quarts of peony pink or Navajo white.
Schauffler developed her own line of paint in 2001 with a regional manufacturer. Her palette of 128 rich, dusky hues -- formulated to be a bit thicker than most paints, with a yogurtlike consistency -- was inspired by what she calls the color-challenged winters in the Pacific Northwest. Colors carry names like Devine Pine and Devine Fog. About a year ago, the products started rolling out nationally, and they are now carried in 250 stores and through www.devinecolor.com on the Web or by calling (503) 675-9519.
Stewart's favoritesavailable at Kmart
Martha Stewart doesn't have much time these days to scour flea markets and yard sales for the vintage floral and plaid tablecloths and dish towels she uses at all her homes. But fortunately she has copied her favorites under her own label for Kmart.
The Martha Stewart Everyday cotton towels come in stripes, nostalgic florals and a gingham print with rickrack trim; they are sold in packs of seven for $9.99. The 1940s-style tablecloths, priced from $7.99 to $12.99, have old-fashioned floral motifs and are coated with vinyl on top and backed with soft polyester. One improvement over vintage table linens: no ironing.
Slugs crawling amuck
Look for slug damage on young container plantings and vegetables.
Weeks of rain have caused a rapid increase in the slug population.
The mollusks are most active at night and early morning, and they can kill seedlings before they reach maturity and disfigure older plants.
Targets include hostas, lamium, strawberry, tomato, lettuce, chard, sweet potato vine and dahlias.
A slug bait containing iron phosphate is effective and safe for pets.
Wooden chairsare custom-painted
Artist Cheryl Driscoll never set out to own and operate her own business, the Silly Goose Shop, on the Web. While she'd dabbled in sketching and painting since she was a child, art was never a business venture for her. That was until she was laid off her job as a psychiatric social worker. When her little girl hit the terrible twos, Driscoll turned to art, developing her "Time Out" chairs -- illustrated, kid-size (27-inch-high) chairs that feature quotes such as "Having a hissy fit" or "Crocodile tears."
"I used to use terms with my daughter like 'stop squawking at me' or 'stop pitching a fit,'" Driscoll says. So the chairs were born. She paints the quotes along with the animals or other characters on wooden chairs. She also creates animal chairs, as well as fairy paintings, garden fairies and painted night lights. Driscoll will custom-design if there's a particular animal or character in mind; she'll even paint a child's likeness on fairy paintings, for an extra fee.
For more information or to order, visit www.thesillygooseshop.com.
Book introducesChinese home style
It's East meets West inside the home with the new book "Chinese Style -- The Art of Living" (Conran, 2003, $34.95) by Bradley Quinn.
If you'd like to incorporate a bit of Eastern design in your home, check out the book, which traces Chinese design from the minimalism of the Ming era to the lavishness of the Qing dynasty, and offers stunning color photos of entranceways, dining-room tables and more. You'll get an overview of ancient traditions that explains the various styles.
"Chinese Style -- The Art of Living" is available in bookstores and at Amazon.com.
Combined dispatches