(Please note this contains an affiliate link by which This Place I Belong can profit. However, I never recommend a product I don’t believe in.)

I almost walked on by. The display booth was stunning but it was obviously a specialty paint booth and to be honest, I just wasn’t that interested. 

I use paint, a lot, and I’ve tried most of them. I’ve used latex, enamel, spray paint, milk paint and a whole host of chalk paints, from Annie Sloan to the stuff you mix yourself by adding powder to latex. I just didn’t really think anything in the paint world could surprise or impress me. 

Boy, was I wrong! 

First, I noticed the intricate designs painted on signs, pillows, bags and even drinking glasses. It turns out that all of those designs were stencils! These aren’t your ordinary stencil designs. These had so much intricate detail. I just could not fathom how they could get those looks with a stencil. 

If you’ve used stencils, you know they are usually designs cut in mylar. Even when they are carefully applied with spray adhesive and dappled on with a stencil brush, paint can tend to bleed around the edges, especially with more intricate designs. These were different. The designs had minute details and even the finest of lines were crisp and true. 

Now they had my interest! 

I waited for an opportunity to talk with the lady who seemed to be in charge. That lady was Amy Howard, of Amy Howard Home and she was launching her newest business,  A Maker’s Studio. 

“For the last 20 years, Amy Howard Home grew from leading the interior design market by restoring and building luxury home furnishings, to providing makers with a distinguished class of artisan-quality paint products and training.” 

Amy says the thing that set her furniture apart and allowed her to command high prices was the finishes. So when she talked about this new line of products I listened. 

I was captivated by the new stain/sealer she’s developed. With it you can change the color of wood in a single step. No sanding and no sealing. This product will do it all. I’ve spent hours stripping, sanding and refinishing wood. This could be a game changer!

She showed me the quality paint tools available and talked about the dyes she’ll release in the coming weeks. With them you can stencil and remake upholstery! What?? My head was spinning. 

She reached for a pillow cover.  She had applied gold leave to the cover, using one of her stencils. Just beautiful!

When she opened a sample jar of her Chalkart paint it was thick and creamy, kind of like pudding and I’d honestly never seen anything quite like it. She explained that it’s used with the stencils and a little scraper kind of tool. A little goes a long, long way. If you don’t seal it, it’s fully washable, allowing creative people to easily change their decor with the seasons. 

If you want something more permanent, she has a paint for that as well. It’s called Rescue and Restore Paint.

Then, there was the thing that grabbed my attention in the first place.  Amy removed a stencil from it’s package. The thin, silky stencil was akin to silk screening. The stencil comes with an adhesive back, making it easy to apply and use. It’s washable and re-usable up to 30 times. Amazing! I’d never seen anything like this and I could not wait to try it. 

Fortunately, she was giving a workshop where I’d be able to get my hands dirty and actually try the Chalkart paint and the silk stencils. 

And guess what?! On August 23rd, you have an opportunity to try the products as well. Amy is organizing virtual and live gatherings for people to create and fellowship together. I love that idea! August 23rd she’ll feature the Farmhouse Chic kit. Be sure to check it out!

If you’re in my area and interested in doing this, let me know. We’ll gather at my house. I’ll provide the wine and cheese!

Ok. Now that I’ve shared that, it’s back to the story.

At the appointed time, my roommate and I made our way to Amy’s workshop. We listened while she talked about the products and watched as she demonstrated their use then we worked on our own little projects. 

When Amy talked about the opportunity to sell these products, I was intrigued. Because the nearest Annie Sloan retailer is over an hour and a half away, I’ve been considering partnering with a chalk paint manufacturer to carry their products. This product line offered great paint and so much more. 

Then she started talking about her real passions, about the things that drive her. She shared her passion for mentoring and helping women, for using the products to help people relieve stress, connect with others and build community. 

She talked about the vision of the company.  “A Makers’ Studio empowers the modern creative woman to make a difference in homes and hearts. Our mission is to support her with in-depth education, unique projects, and meaningful work as she leads her community in crafting a beautiful life.” 

I loved her heart! Making a difference in homes and hearts sounded a lot like creating beauty in space and finding beauty in relationships, the mission of this blog. 

That might have been enough to sell me, but when Amy shared her vision of using proceeds from A Maker’s Studio to raise millions of dollars to combat human trafficking, time stood still. 

Suddenly, I was back in Colorado, at our local county fair, near one year ago. I was visiting with another mom.  She often has foster kids and has even adopted a couple. I inquired about the two little girls she had in tow. I had never met them. She explained that they were foster kids, rescued from a sex trafficking ring that operates out of a nearby city. I don’t remember for sure but I think the girls were 2 and 5 years old at the time. 

In that moment my heart broke. Watching the girls run around in their little cowboy boots, playing with the animals and knowing they had endured horrors beyond what I can even imagine brought tears to my eyes and an ache to my heart that remains untouched by time. 

I think about them often, and the godly man and woman seeking to give them a home, to bring some measure of healing to their little hearts, to create beauty from tragedy and to give those little girls a hope and a future. 

Then I remembered the Facebook post I saw on our community website just a couple of weeks ago. It was a picture of a van and a warning. The van had been in our area, it’s driver attempting to capture and kidnap young girls to be sold into trafficking. I showed my girls. I emphasized the need to be aware and alert at all times and to let me know where they are and where they are going. Then I prayed. For safety, for protection, for the girls and the families touched by monsters like this. 

These were the things going through my mind as Amy spoke. “How can they ever believe there’s a God who loves them when they experience the things they are experiencing and no one is coming to help?” she said. “We can make a difference in the lives of these woman and little girls.” 

And I knew. I knew I wanted to use and sell her products. This Place I Belong is about creating beauty in our spaces and finding beauty in connection. Sometimes, when we connect with people, it’s messy. It’s ugly. It’s hard. We get our hands dirty and sometimes the pain of others penetrates our own hearts. But we do it anyway. Sometimes it takes a while for the beauty to become evident, to sprout and grow, much like a seed. Sometimes we have an opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives and nothing is more beautiful than that. 

Not all of us can be like my friend and foster and adopt little girls. But when we need paint or a stencil we can choose a company committed to making a difference in the lives of women and girls.