Homestead Ballroom Gold - By Valspar Paint

It's not quite official yet, but when I saw the color of the newest prototype plush toy for Faith, and saw that it was too yellow, I had to do something. I explained to Norma, my good friend who is handling the production of the plush toy through Cher Marketing, that we really needed a more accurate match. That's when I got the idea to literally take Faith to the local Lowes store and have their expert paint person do the best he could matching a card or twenty up against Faith's backside.

As one might expect, the top of the dog is not the exact color as the bottom of the dog. For that matter Faith's saddle or back area is a completely different shade of golden brown than her underside. What was really funny is that her ears are actually a little darker than the rest of her, but when Norma's company presented the first prototype with darker ears I was so quick to nix the color difference. Wow, I guess I don't spend enough time staring at my dog! She's so normal in that aspect! The project assignment turned out to be quite the little adventure.

Laura and I simply walked Faith through the front doors of the Ardmore, Oklahoma Lowes just off I-35 and Exit 32 South. We found the nearest handy-dandy associate which happened to be Kelly. We explained the situation to Kelly, and he took it from there. Now, naturally you just can't ordinarily walk a dog through the front doors of a business like Lowes without permission, but Faith is a bona fide Therapy Dog so she gets a few special perks for being so. She was admired by dozens of patrons and of course recognized as well. Camera phones came out and she was "on" again; she felt at home.

Kelly introduced us to Rocky Black, the man behind the paint counter. I suppose it works out well for Mr. Black to be in paint! His name embodies EVERY color possible! He was tall, handsome, sweet, and young, and completely up for the assignment. He got RIGHT on the job AFTER he took a few pictures of Faith for his fiance PFC (U.S. Army) Rachelle Higgs of Lone Grove, OK. Rocky said she'd be thrilled to know he not only met Faith, a contemporary Army buddy, but also that he was the one who helped us find the RIGHT color to send off to Norma to get over to the stuffed toy company so they can do another prototype with the new adjusted colored fur. Not that having a very yellow Faith toy is bad; but it should be as accurate as possible, right? LOL

Faith did her best to stand still, but she was a little leery of what Rocky was trying to do. We started off with the more famous brands; Laura Ashley, Eddie Bauer, and even Olympic, but wound up choosing a color from the Valspar paint collection called "Homestead Ballroom Gold". For those of you interested in seeing it online you would be better served going to Lowes and asking to see it in person. The online version is too light and seems a bit matte to me. Nevertheless, here is the link that will take you to Valspar's sight and to the color itself. http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Match-of-Valspar-3003-7C-Homestead-Ballroom-Gold-p/mpc0098980.htm

Upon deciding which color best fit the mutt -- allowing for shading, and a bit of vanity touch ups from the aging white hairs coming through her admitted golden tone, we feel pretty good about the match. It isn't perfect, but Faith isn't all that perfect either actually - - just most of the time. I tried matching up my own skin tone too and found that I'm more of a fair to beige boring than anything else. I would love to find a darker freckle on my pale pasty skin and claim it as my overall shade; but alas I am dull. LOL

There you have it. I have e-mailed Norma and given her the go-ahead to send the Valspar's Homestead Ballroom Gold color numbers to the stuffed animal company who will remain anonymous for a little while longer - - believe me, we will shout it from the rooftops when it is the correct time to do so. Not only that, we're hoping to get a commercial out of Lowes now - - wouldn't that be fun? Maybe we can do it in connection with a charity drive and have fun with that. My mind is just going in all directions. By that time PFC Higgs will be married to Mr. Rocky Black and maybe we can get the two of them involved with the filming if the director allows it. Why not? We can dream - - and in color apparently.