Difference between ButterStix and Dustless Chalks?

Have you gone to a store and picked up a package of chalk, and it reads, "dustless chalks" but when you buy one and open it, you come to realize it's not dustless afterall? In fact 99% of all dustless chalks are not dustless, and when you touch them, it feels so dry, grainy and chalky.. In an age where parents and teachers are dealing with increasing cases of allergies and asthma in children, and dry erase boards have replaced the traditional chalk boards in classrooms, we have longed for nostalgic chalk boards, and chalks as how adults remembered them when we were students. Only we forgot about all the dust that comes with chalks! Well, Jaq Jaq Bird's ButterStix would be called "dustless' but because "dustless" doesn't mean without dust, we coined the term"zero dust" because there is no dust in our chalks. And YES it is chalk, only it can be used in other surfaces too other than your chalkboards: walls, containers, plastic cups, wine glasses, glass, plates, counter tops, any non-porous surface! It is also patented, and exclusively formulated to make sure it's safe, non-toxic, that it erases! Not an easy task to accomplish!

Buy one at Jaq Jaq Bird

ABC Show 2012 Under Construction

As I stated in my earlier post, moving to Japan really brought my business to almost a complete halt, but I made headway when it came to production, and manufacturing, etc. If you are thinking of starting a business like this, securing manufacturing is your number one priority. You stand and fall under your manufacturer. If there is one thing that keeps me up late at night, it's my manufacturer, and making sure quality isn't being compromised. There are other major issues too, but this one is by far the biggest one. I love my current factory. They are wonderful people. I'm so glad and blessed to have such a great team that works for me.  Okay, back to the booth.. so I hired a handy man here in LA, and he's great.  I wish my husband can help with the walls, but we have no tools in the house to build something like this, and not sure how handy he really is (haha) I wanted to do a hard wall this year because I think the hard wall will give it that polished and finished look I want to achieve. Here is a video he did of just the set up.

I wanted to paint it too, not sure what color... so I'm still figuring it out. I went to Home Depot last week and decided I might want to have a chalk board finish on the walls, afterall, what's what I sell: Chalk Mats! The paint world is a whole different culture and the array of finishes they offer overwhelmed me, especially in the area of chalk paints! Home Depot and Lowe's sell your standard black and green chalk board paints, but there is something called tintable chalk paint where you can mix a custom color to achieve the same effect! I did some research and found a company that sells tintable chalk paint. I am excited to try it out, the paint just arrived this week:

I had heard of Hudson Paint, but it was super expensive. Afterall it's only a wall that I'm painting, and their paints for a quart started $25.00.  The tintable chalk board option isn't cheap either, but at least I can customize any color at my local paint store. Hudson Paint gives you a swatch of colors that their chalk board paint comes in.  It's going to be super fun painting (that is, my hubby) and dabbling with different colors! The problem is I have to wait until my husband's fiscal year end closes out next week, because he has no time to help me this week. I'm so anxious to try!