a dime a dozen.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

I always keep an eye out for vintage sleds when I’m out garage saling although oftentimes they are priced way too high for me.

Such was the case with these two sleds that I saw at an estate sale a while back.

My budget is $10 or less.  You wouldn’t think I’d be able to find many in that price range, yet somehow I always end up with a few.

I should clarify that I will make an exception for this style of sled …

They are so much easier to stencil when the seat is one solid piece rather than a set of three slats.  This style is also harder to find, so I am willing to pay more for them.

All of that being said, I managed to end up with five sleds in my stash for this year.

I always wonder if the supply of vintage sleds is going to dry up eventually, but so far it hasn’t.  Well, let’s face it, this is Minnesota, we probably have more sleds per capita than most states.  They are practically a dime a dozen around here.

I like to save up the sleds all summer and then paint them up assembly line style in the fall before it gets too cold to paint outside.

I used Dixie Belle’s Barn Red, English Ivy (green), French Villa, Coffee Bean and Drop Cloth for paint.

This year I ordered a couple of new stencils from The Stencil Smith for the sleds.  My old stencils were getting a bit tired.  If you don’t always clean them properly after each use (guilty as charged), they start to lose their crispness after a couple of dozen passes or so.

I chose stencils that had lettering that was less than 4″ or so tall to fit on those individual slats.  You do have to guess at that a little because the stencils are listed with overall dimensions, not with the size of each line of text.

I used my usual technique of creating a shadow around the larger words (the middle slat) by stenciling them first in Coffee Bean, then moving the stencil slightly down and left and stenciling again in the final color.  The top and bottom lines of text would not lend themselves to that technique because they are just too fine.

Once everything was dry, I sanded the sleds to distress the edges and then applied a coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.  That will help make them water resistant for outdoor use.

I think you have two options for displaying the sleds.  You can hang them horizontally, as I’ve shown above, or you can lean them vertically (and of course you could also hang them vertically).

You can also choose to use them outside or inside.

I have several sleds that I’ve kept for myself over the years, one that I always hang somewhere inside …

one that I often hang on the potting shed …

and one that I lean on the deck.

OK, to be fair, that last one isn’t stenciled.  I left it in its original chippy red paint because it was just too good to cover up.

I have to confess that I completely forgot my plan to paint one of the sleds with the Norwegian flag, like the one I saw in the Norway pavilion at EPCOT.

Shoot!

Well, maybe next year.

In the meantime, I’ll be taking 5 or 6 sleds in to Reclaiming Beautiful at the end of the month.  However, if any of you locals readers would like to purchase one sooner than that please reach out via email at qisforquandie@gmail.com.  I have one smaller sled at $58 (not pictured) and the rest are $65.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products used in this project.

the red skates.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Time is flying by, I can’t believe it’s already October!  At this rate, the holiday season will be upon us in the blink of an eye.

That being said, I have another Christmas project to share with you guys today.

This one is sort of a semi-makeover.  You may remember that I painted up a pair of red and white ice skates last year.

The skates started out like this …

I painted them in Dixie Belle’s Barn Red and Ecru, and then replaced those old laces with some creamy white velvet ribbon.

After giving them a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax, I used them in my own winter decor hanging them from a sled on our deck.  I purposely did not add any transfers because transfers don’t always hold up well outside in the elements … especially our Minnesota winters.

But I pulled them back out a few days ago and decided that they really needed a little more embellishment.  So after touching up the Barn Red paint in a couple of spots (and yes, after a full year of curing time you can easily paint directly over Dixie Belle wax with their chalk mineral paint), I pulled out the I.O.D. Stag Tavern transfers.  I knew there was a really pretty floral image in that set that would be beautiful on an ice skate.

I chose another section from Stag Tavern for the 2nd skate as well.

I have to admit that I don’t love the pheasant as much as the florals, but that’s OK.  These skates will be kept as a pair and one is likely to hang them together with the floral skate in front, right?

I’m putting these in the pile of holiday merch that will eventually go into the shop.  But of course, if any of my local readers want to snatch them up ahead of time that would be fine as well (check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details on that).

OK, so I’m curious, did you prefer these skates in their simple red and white paint job?  Or do you think adding the transfers took them to another level?  Leave a comment and let me know.

the clementine toolbox.

Published on by Quandie1 Comment

I’ve got another toolbox to share with you today.

Here’s where this one started out …

It was a bit beat up, and a bit rusty.  Nothing that a little TLC couldn’t fix.

After giving it a good scrub, I sanded it to remove any flaking paint and a good amount of rust.  Then I washed it up again and let it dry out in the sun.  I followed that up with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss (they recommend two coats for best results when blocking stains, in this case I decided to be extra cautious due to the amount of rust).

Next up I painted the outside in my own custom mix that I call Garden Green, that’s Dixie Belle’s Acadia and Everglades combined together.

I was actually using up some of this custom mix that I had left over from a previous project, so in the end I only had enough paint for the outside of the toolbox.  So initially I left the inside unpainted while I decided on what I was going to do on the outside.

I wanted to do something similar to that previous toolbox using some white roses and other florals, but as it turned out I didn’t have any of those left.  I considered ordering more, but I have so. many. transfers in my stash.  Surely I could come up with something that would look good over that green without spending more money!

That’s when I decided that the I.O.D. Clementine transfer would be perfect.

It does have some of those white florals, but they are paired with winter fruits like pomegranates and clementines.

This transfer was part of the 2025 I.O.D. winter release, and I did use Clementine transfers on a few things last year like these books …

And these ice skates.

But I still had quite a bit of it left, so I filled up most of the space on the top and front of this toolbox.

I added a little wreath of sorts from the I.O.D. By Any Other Name transfer just under the handle as well.

Once this was done I had to decide on a color for the interior.

I ended up using Dixie Belle’s French Villa because it’s nearly the exact color of the ribbons with wording on them in the transfers.

Perhaps it’s a bit blah, maybe I should have gone with orange, or the rusty red of the pomegranate.  Then again, the outside of this toolbox has a lot going on so maybe a more simple interior is OK.

I applied a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to protect the transfers, but all of the paint was from Dixie Belle’s Silk line with its built in topcoat so the paint itself didn’t require any additional protection.

I’m bringing this toolbox, plus a couple of others in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater this evening so if any of you locals are interested they should be in the shop when it opens tomorrow.

As for the rest of you, leave a comment and let me know what you think of this one!

what the heck?

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

I decided it was time to stop focusing on the negative and look on the positive side instead.  In the garden, that is.

The ‘extreme drought’ that we experienced here in August and early September really did a number on my gardens.  I have to admit that lately I’ve been wishing it would just freeze and get it over with already.

Ferns are especially susceptible to drought conditions, and no amount of watering with the hose was able save them.

This is a good example of why it’s a bad idea to have a giant bed of ferns and little else.  I’d like to dig them all up and re-do this entire area, but it’s full of tree roots (there were two huge pine trees here that we had removed several years ago) and it would be a huge undertaking.  I’m not sure I have that sort of ambition these days.

Many of my hostas were hit hard by the drought as well.

The Sun Power hosta looks terrible.  However, some hostas are more drought tolerant than others.  The two June hostas on either side of that taller Sun Power look just fine.  Knowing what I do now, I would always opt for hostas with thicker leaves.  They are more drought and wind tolerant, they suffer less damage in a hail storm and they aren’t as appealing to deer, slugs and earwigs.  Just something to keep in mind if you are adding hostas to your garden.

But hey, I said I was going to focus on the positive.  There are still some things that look pretty darn good like the paniculata hydrangeas.

My Quick Fire Fab hedge is looking fantastic despite getting munched on by deer when the flower buds were first appearing.

And as per usual, the Limelights are looking gorgeous right now too.

This is also the time of year when the annuals really carry the garden.

I never used to plant many annuals in the garden itself, I mainly just put them in containers.  But for the last several years I’ve been popping them into bare spots.

They really don’t do much for most of the summer, but by mid-August they start to come to life.  I’m especially enjoying that pink gomphrena that’s finally popping up amongst the other plants.

I have a few coleus scattered about that have started to look impressive too.

By late September, especially this year, the annuals are one of the few things still looking good in the garden.

Of course, I do still plant plenty of annuals in pots too.

And as long as I remember to fertilize them weekly, they are still performing well.

I did change up a couple of the pots on my deck recently though.  I’d had Blueberry Muffin hostas in them along with some Rex begonias and Sea Salt artemesia.  I pulled out the hostas and put them in the ground so that they can get established there before winter.  I potted up the Rex begonias and I tossed the artemesia.

Then I popped in a couple of really gorgeous asters that I purchased at Cub (my local grocery store) for $9.99 each.

They won’t last more than 2 or 3 weeks, but at $20 for the pair they were definitely worth it.  I can always switch them out for something in a more autumn-like color in a few weeks.

While I was out in the garden taking the photos for this post I discovered this …

Wait a minute, what the heck?  A lilac?!  Blooming in September??

Apparently extreme summer stress can confuse the plant’s hormonal cycle (hmmm, I may be familiar with that feeling).  It confuses cooler fall weather for spring.  This won’t harm the plant, but there may be fewer flowers next spring.  Yet another struggle for my less than successful lilac hedge.

Before I end this post I want to share one more plant with you, Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride’.

This is a new plant for me this year.  I tucked just one of them into this little corner of my shade garden to see how it performs.  This plant is supposed to do well in moist or dry shade, it’s deer and rabbit resistant, drought tolerant, low-maintenance and cold hardy (down to zone 3).  As you can see, so far it’s doing great.  It’s still blooming at the end of September.  It doesn’t seem to have suffered from the drought despite not even being well established yet.  In addition, this is planted in one of the areas of my garden most affected by jumping worms and the poor soil condition doesn’t seem to be a problem for it.

All of that being said, I have very mixed results with heuchera coming back in the spring.  Most of my heuchera suffer from frost heaving and I end up having to dig them up and replant them in the spring, and that’s if they survive at all. However, I have it on good authority (the Impatient Gardener) that this one is especially tolerant of our severe winters (zone 5a) and it doesn’t tend to heave.

So you’ll just have to check back with me in the spring to see if that’s true for me or not.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy a lilac in September and those gorgeous asters while they last.  I’m sure we’ll get that freeze soon enough!

the somewhat Christmas-y toolbox.

Published on by Quandie3 Comments

Well shucks.  Turns out I once again neglected to get a ‘before’ photo of today’s toolbox.  To make up for it, I took ‘before’ photos of the next toolboxes I’m working on twice!  I wasn’t sure I’d taken them, so I took them again.  Turns out I already had.

It’s a bummer that I don’t have a ‘before’ of this one because it was pretty gross.  It was covered in grease and grime, and it had been written on with a Sharpie.

Oh well, you’ll just have to imagine it.  It took a couple of passes with the Dawn dish soap and hot water to clean it up.  Once dry I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out to improve adhesion just in case there were any greasy residues still left behind.  It also blocks that Sharpie ink, that stuff tends to bleed thru paint sometimes.

This small toolbox was red to start out with, so I decided to keep it red on the inside, giving it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.

As for the transfer inside the lid, that is from one of the new I.O.D. holiday sets called Stag Tavern.

More on that in a minute.

As for the outside, I painted that in Dixie Belle’s French Villa.  Once dry, I used more of the Stag Tavern transfers to decorate the top and front.

Although these transfers are from the 2026 holiday collection, I don’t think they are overtly Christmas-y.

This transfer certainly has the right colors for the season, mainly red and green.  And there is a little glimpse of some holly in the upper left.  Then there is that ribbon with a mostly obscured message … something about seasons?

So, somewhat, but not entirely, Christmas-y.

Regardless, I do think they are gorgeous.

That being said, I also find them difficult to work with because most of the elements are designed in ‘portrait’ orientation (rather than ‘landscape’) like the one shown above, and that doesn’t work well on a toolbox.

Also, because the elements are fairly layered over each other, it’s difficult to separate and re-arrange them into a wider, shorter layout without losing a lot of the design.

In the case of this toolbox, I used the “D.M. Ferry & Co’s.” and “Tavern 1875.” wording, but wasn’t able to use the center “Stag” section because the stag’s horns are layered over it.

I was able to carefully trim out some of the florals to drape down the sides of my toolbox.

But personally I find that a transfer that includes separate elements that I can put together to suit my piece is more versatile.  I suspect I might be in the minority on that though.  Let me know what you think?

Let me know what you think of this toolbox too!

hot cocoa season.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

I think it’s fair to say that hot cocoa season has started here in Minnesota.  At least, that is, if you’re an early riser.  Mr. Q and I get up early to go walking in the park before starting our day, and it was only 49° one morning last week.  That counts, right?

Well, even if it doesn’t, a few of you said that you wouldn’t mind seeing some Christmas projects here on q is for quandie even thought it’s a bit early.

So today I’m sharing the makeover of this piece …

I purchased this at a garage sale back in June 2025.  I think it was supposed to be a doll clothes closet.  I’d say it’s the right size for those American Girl Dolls, and it had a bar across the top inside for hangers.

It also came with a French provincial drawer pull on the top to serve as a handle, I suppose so you could carry your doll clothes around more easily.

I started with removing the drawer pull and filling the holes using Dixie Belle Mud.  I didn’t get a photo of it, but I also removed the rod from inside and filled the holes from it as well.

Next I sanded down those squiqqly markings so that you wouldn’t see them through my paint.  I also pulled off those little knobs to make the next couple of steps easier.

I gave the inside a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.

Next I painted the outside in DB’s Drop Cloth.  I followed that up with applying an I.O.D. paint inlay from their new The North Pole Co. set.

After sealing the paint inlay with some spray sealer to avoid smearing it, and putting the little knobs back on, I then applied a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat both inside and out.

I’m thinking this little cabinet would be perfect for placing on the kitchen counter as a little hot cocoa station for winter.

I found a pair of seasonal mugs at a garage sale to tuck inside.

And I decided to paint up the lid of a glass jar to hold marshmallows.

I started by giving the very shiny, smooth lid a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss to help my paint stick.  Then I applied a coat of the Drop Cloth and added another paint inlay from that same The North Pole Co set.  It just happened to be the perfect fit.

I’m going to include the mugs, hot cocoa and jar with the cabinet.

I have to admit that I probably won’t be able to resist eating all the marshmallows first though.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this Hot Cocoa Season cupboard.  Would you have preferred it to remain a doll clothes cabinet?  Or do you like the idea of a hot cocoa station?

This little cupboard along with the mugs, jar and hot cocoa packets is ‘available for local sale‘.

mini furniture.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

I don’t know about where you are, but here in Minnesota it seems as though fall has arrived.  The sweatshirts have come out, the swimsuits have been put away, and the days are growing shorter way too quickly.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about what sort of creative endeavors I can pursue over the coming months.

I don’t have the space to paint furniture indoors except smack in the middle of my living room, and I am no longer very interested in doing that.  So no more furniture … full sized furniture, that is.

Instead I plan to spend some time this winter painting miniature furniture.

Eventually I’ll need to figure out how to sell it.  It’s not really working to sell it here on the blog.  I will probably end up trying to get a spot at the next miniatures show here in the Twin Cities.  But first I have to see whether or not I can even accumulate enough finished pieces for that to be feasible.

Unfortunately, I’m not really patient enough to build my own miniature furniture from scratch.  I did attempt to create some miniature suitcases from the raw materials back in 2025 with somewhat mediocre results.

So I decided to invest some money in unfinished pieces.

I first ordered a bunch of items online from Walmart.  If you think you might like to order miniatures from them, I have to warn you that they do a terrible job of packaging them for shipment.  Every single item that had legs arrived with at least one broken.

That’s because none of their stuff comes in proper shipping boxes.  Each individual item is in a flimsy box like this …

which is then put into one of those poly mailing envelopes with no additional protection whatsoever.

Fortunately, I was able to put everything back together again with a little glue.

It’s also fortunate that I plan to paint all of these pieces because otherwise it would be difficult to disguise the repairs.

If you want to avoid this sort of mess, I highly recommend ordering unfinished miniatures from Miniature Crush.  Also, if you set up an account with them using this link, you will get 15% off and so will I!

I ordered a bunch of things from them …

and they all arrived boxed up nicely in a sturdy shipping box.  They also arrived within days of my placing the order … that might be partially because they are located just on the other side of the Twin Cities from me, but they also get orders shipped out a.s.a.p.

I’ve already gotten started painting with this piece from Miniature Crush …

I removed the little gold knobs from the drawers and then painted the inside of the cupboard with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and the outside with my own custom Garden Green (a combination of Dixie Belle’s Acadia and Everglades).

Once dry I added an I.O.D. transfer to the inside back of the cupboard.

Next up I replaced those original gold knobs with some cup pulls.

I wish I could give you a source for these, but they were in my stash and I don’t remember when I purchased them.  Also, they started out black and I added some Bronze Age wax from re.design with prima to them.

I’m really looking forward to painting up all of these miniature pieces over the coming months and I hope some of you will enjoy seeing them too.

In the meantime, you can check out my miniature pieces that are available for sale here.

the birdwatcher’s toolbox.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

It’s time for another toolbox.

Unfortunately, this is another one where I forgot to get a before photo.  However, I can tell you that it looked almost identical to this one …

It’s just a little bit smaller.  Same color and same general condition though.

It also received the same general prep that I do on all of my toolboxes; a good scrubbing, followed by some scuff sanding and another rinse, then a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss to prevent rust bleed through and improve adhesion of my final paint.

Next up I painted the interior of the box in that gorgeous new-ish Dixie Belle color called Sanctuary.

I also added a bird from the I.O.D. By Any Other Name transfer inside the lid.

Sanctuary is a chalk mineral style paint and does need a topcoat for protection, as does the transfer.  I went with the easiest (but not most cost effective) option this time, I gave it two coats of Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer.

As for the outside of the box, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s French Villa.  Then I added a few more images from the By Any Other Name transfer.

I’m sure this looks a bit familiar to you.  This is the 3rd time I’ve used this particular bird on a toolbox.

If interested, you can find the other two here and here.  I guess you could say I’m a fan.

The French Villa paint is from Dixie Belle’s Silk line, so technically it doesn’t require a topcoat.  However, the transfer does need some protection so I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax on the outside of the box.

When deciding what props to use to stage my photos I came across my Audubon’s Birds of America book and decided to lean into the bird theme.

This would be the perfect toolbox for anyone who love birds, don’t you agree?

To see if it is still available, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying their products used in this makeover.

the Swiss plant stand.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

Well, what do you know?  I have another piece of furniture to share today and it’s another piece that was gifted to me by Vanessa from Iowa.

If you’re keeping track, so far I’ve shared the drawers that she gave me …

and a toolbox that she sent up …

and of course that beautiful radio cabinet.

I’m so lucky to have such a generous reader.  Thank you so much Vanessa!

That’s brings me to today’s project.

Is it a small side table?  Is it a plant stand?  I guess it could be either.

The first step was to send this piece over to handyman Ken’s workshop to be tightened up.  It was a little wobbly.  He re-glued the joints and tightened up some screws and now it’s quite sturdy.

Next up I gave it a brief scuff sanding all over followed by cleaning away any dirt and dust.

Once again (much like with the sanctuary cabinet) I didn’t bother with Bonding Boss.  The existing finish was quite dry, so I wasn’t worried about adhesion.  In addition, I was planning on using a dark color so I wasn’t worried about any sort of bleed thru.

That brings me to my color choice.  I have to admit that I got it wrong the first time.  I initially painted it in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.

I wrote about this color being the ‘new black’ when I used it on this banker’s chair …

And indeed I have used it in place of black on several pieces since then.

So I painted the table in Coffee Bean, and then added a stencil in Dixie Belle’s Putty which they call a muted taupe.  This combination ended up reading too brown/beige for me.

It seems funny since I do really like both of these paint colors by themselves.  I just didn’t care for the combination I guess.

So I sanded down the stencil and painted back over everything with Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I consider this to be the blackest of the black shades offered by Dixie Belle.

Once the paint was dry, I once again added a stencil to the lower shelf of the table, this time using Dixie Belle’s Ecru.

That stencil is one of the 8″ German Grain Sack stencils from Ellen J Goods.

Next up I taped off a Swiss cross on the top of the table and painted it in Ecru as well.  Did you know that approximately 62% of the population in Switzerland speaks German?  So I think it’s safe to call this a Swiss plant stand.

Once dry, I sanded over the entire piece using one of Dixie Belle’s sanding sponges.  I like using the sponges on curvy things like the legs of this table.

It’s easier to make them look as though they were worn over time.

To finish I mixed some of Dixie Belle’s brown wax into their Big Mama’s Butta and applied it with a large waxing brush.  I follow that up by buffing away any excess with an old t-shirt.

I like to mix the brown wax into the Big Mama’s Butta because it adds a little bit of extra depth when applied over dark colors.  It also tones down the look of lighter colors to give them more age.

My original plan was to sell this table, but then I realized that it might work really well for me as a winter plant stand.

I don’t have any houseplants that live inside all year ’round, but I do bring plants inside to over-winter them.  This year I’m planning to overwinter some more rex begonias, and of course that myrtle topiary that is currently in the fairy garden.  I also have a large Norfolk Island Pine that comes in for the winter.  It might help to have another surface to put plants on this year.

Then again, maybe I’ll list it for sale and see what happens.  If you’re interested, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

what’s next?

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

I find fall to be a tricky time of the year for blogging.  Why?  Because I have to get started on any Christmas projects that are going to the shop about now.  I have a fall trip planned, so I need to get my Christmas merch ready a little bit earlier than usual this year.

But, it’s only September and I presume that no one wants to see Christmas projects on the blog already, right?  So, what’s next?

I know it’s actually time for fall projects, but I’m not really big on autumn decor.  Ironic, since this is actually one of my favorite seasons.  But for me the only fall decoration we need is that found in nature.

And maybe the occasional rusty pumpkin …

Also, I’m not planning to have a fall sale this year, so I’m not highly motivated to come up with fall themed items.

Gardening season has taken quite the nose dive over the last month or so too.  We’ve been experiencing severe drought conditions and the garden shows it.  My ferns are mostly dead, most of my hostas look a bit crispy, and I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on my ‘Sunday morning in the garden’ posts.

In addition, garage sale season really slows down here during the dog days of summer.  My friend opK and I have found a handful of garage/estate sales, but haven’t brought home any large hauls.

Last week we ended up at an interesting estate sale.  If you happened to be on the lookout for taxidermy, it was the place for you.

That is if you happen to have a spare $780 and you’re in need of a bear skin rug.

But actually, there were quite a few things at this sale that appealed to me but were priced too high for me like these sleds …

One was $50 and the other $68.  I only buy them when they are $10 or less, and I already have 5 of them for this coming holiday season!

There were also lots of really beautiful ornate gold frames (some with photos, some with art, some empty).

But again at $70 to $85 each, they were too rich for my blood.

Granted, I could have gone back on the last day when prices were being slashed, but it was the holiday weekend and I had better things to do like heading up to the lake.

I did manage to buy one thing for myself.

I don’t see these antique marmalade jars around here very often, and this one is fabulously crackled.  Also at only $12 I think it was a bit of a bargain.  Do you sense the potential beginnings of a new non-collection?

But that brings me back to my original question, what’s next?  What am I going to share here on the blog over the next month or two until it’s reasonable to start sharing some of those Christmas projects?

Maybe a few miniature projects?  Possibly some random bits of furniture?  How about a not-exactly-Christmas, but kind of, toolbox or two?

I’m really not sure, but I hope you’ll stay tuned none the less.