when it rains.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

You know what they say, when it rains, it pours.

It has been raining here a bit lately, but in this case I’m referring to toolboxes.

I seem to come home from every neighborhood garage sale with one or two toolboxes.  Plus my friend opK has found a couple of them for me.  And, my reader Vanessa has sent one up from Iowa (thanks again for that Vanessa!).

I hope that the market for upcycled toolboxes doesn’t dry up any time soon, because I have quite a few on hand to paint.

Here is where today’s toolbox started out …

It was pretty dirty, and starting to get a bit rusty.  So I gave it a good scrub, followed by sanding down some of the rust.  Then after letting a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss dry overnight, I painted it inside and out with their French Villa Silk Paint.

Once the paint was dry, I used my electric palm sander to distress it back quite a bit.  I wanted to bring back that worn look.

Once I’d wiped away any dust from my sanding, I started creating a design using the I.O.D. By Any Other Name transfers.

I began with all of the images that had white roses.

But ultimately I decided to add in a couple of pink roses on either end at the bottom to fill out the space.

I added a butterfly and a bee too.

Although the Dixie Belle Silk paint doesn’t require a topcoat, I gave the outside a coat of clear wax to protect the transfers.

With that, I have to get outside and clean up a bunch more toolboxes to prep them for paint so I’d better get at it!

This toolbox is for sale locally, you can find those details here.

the benefits of begonias.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

If you’ve followed me for long, you know I like to say ‘never say never’.  I definitely tend to change my mind over time about things that I like … or don’t like.

For example, I once thought I’d never use sparkly gold shoe laces, but I did.  I also thought I’d never wallpaper again, but I did that too.  Well, it was in miniature so maybe that doesn’t count?

I also thought I would never want begonias in my garden.  You know I have a lot of shade, and any list of ‘flowering annuals for shade’ will include begonias.  So it was a bit unfortunate that not only did I not really like the look of them, I also had trouble keeping them from getting root rot.

But that was when I thought the only begonias out there were the old ‘wax begonias’.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think those are even remotely pretty.

Then I discovered rex begonias.

That variety is Shadow King Cherry Mint.

They do flower, but clearly they are grown for their foliage rather than their flowers which are usually hidden beneath the foliage anyway.

I first planted them in my front window box and discovered that they absolutely love it in that north facing location.

This year I tried a couple of new varieties in the window box.  Here is Escargot …

along with a Sea Salt artemesia (on left) and purple heuchera (on right).

I added this fun spotted begonia (sorry, I didn’t keep track of that one’s name) to the front window box too.

I also planted up some pots on the deck with the Cherry Mint rex begonias along with Blueberry Muffin hostas,  and more of that Sea Salt artemesia.

The beauty of these sort of combos is that they don’t rely on blooms to look good.  Also, in the case of these pots on the deck, I have a matched pair on either side of the door and one gets much more sun than the other.  So the sunnier one would always have way more flowers than the shadier one when I planted flowering annuals in them.  This way they look more balanced.

Another huge bonus to rex begonias is that they are easy to over winter as houseplants.

  You also can easily propagate more of them from cuttings.

  So they can be an excellent way to save money by not having to buy new plants every year.

And actually, if you are budget minded, this is the 2nd year for those Blueberry Muffin hostas too.  I pulled them out of the pots last fall and put them in the ground, then when they came up in the spring I dug them up and put them back in the pots.

They are getting a bit too big for the pots now though, so I may not be able to use them there again next year.  However, I can find a spot for them in the garden so they won’t go to waste.

But not only am I now loving the Rex begonias, I’ve also discovered some hybrid begonias that are much prettier than those old varieties like this Elatior begonia …

It’s planted with a Diamond Snow euphorbia and a Summer Breeze caladium.  This pot is in fairly deep shade, but it does get some early morning sun from the east, and that begonia is absolutely covered in blooms.  Not only are the flowers larger and more vibrant than those old wax begonias, but the foliage is prettier too.

I put three more of this variety in the planter on the potting shed too.

I recently read that you can overwinter these begonias as house plants as well, so I may be giving that a try this year.

I could really cut down on the cost of filling all of my planters in the spring!

How about you?  Do you like begonias?  Maybe you even liked those old wax begonias?  Leave a comment and let me know.

the primrose isle box.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

Are you wondering whether or not I ever buy anything at my own occasional sale?

Well, if so, the answer is yes.  I do usually find one of two goodies that either Sue or opK bring to sell.

At my recent sale, I purchased two items.

First up, this fabulous planter.

I love the shape of it, the swag detail and most of all the patina.

I planted it up with some heuchera, coleus and a begonia.  It’s perfect in this shady spot in my front, north facing, garden.

I also purchased a metal box with a hinged lid.  Unfortunately I totally neglected to take a ‘before’ photo of it.  Darn.

But here is the ‘after’.

I’m tempted to call it a recipe box, because it is hinged like your typical metal recipe box.  But it’s about twice as tall.  It’s also made out of very heavy duty metal, it’s not flimsy.

Even the hinge seems quite substantial.

It seems like this box must have had a more industrial use, rather than just as a simple recipe box.

Regardless, I’ve given it a whole new look.  After giving it a good cleaning and a scuff sanding, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out.

Next I painted the inside in two coats of Dixie Belle’s Guacamole.

Once dry I sealed it with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.  After allowing that to dry thoroughly, I added a transfer from I.O.D.’s By Any Other Name set inside the lid.

I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Ecru, then after sanding to distress the edges, I applied various bits and pieces from the I.O.D. Primrose Isle transfer collection.

I wrapped the florals around each side.

These side views also show you how substantial the seams are on this box as well.

I finished off the box with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

Now all that’s left is for someone to decide what to use it for.

If you’re someone who either sends a lot of greeting cards or receives and saves a lot of greeting cards, this box would be the perfect size for them.

I am not really one of those people though, so I only had flash cards to use for the photo shoot.  But you get the idea, right?

What would you use this box for?  Leave a comment and let me know.

If you are local and in need of a really cool, and substantial, box check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page!

industrial stools.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Earlier this year I purchased another short industrial wheeled stool at a garage sale.

You may remember that I painted a very similar stool back in February 2025 …

That first one has a simple Swiss cross in black and white, and I actually kept it for myself (which tends to be a rare thing indeed).  It’s super handy for sitting on while cleaning out lower kitchen or q branch cupboards.

I painted a 2nd industrial stool back in July of last year.

For this second version, I took it up a notch by adding an I.O.D. paint inlay in the center of the cross.

I liked the result so much that I decided to just repeat it on this newest find.

First after a good cleaning, I painted the stool in Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Then I taped off a cross and painted it in Drop Cloth.

Before the 2nd coat of Drop Cloth was dry, I applied the I.O.D. paint inlay.

These particular circular designs are from their Floriography set (and if you aren’t familiar with paint inlays, check out my how-to post).

Once again, I loved the result.

So when my neighbor, nnK, brought me a stool that she picked out of the trash I decided to do it again.

This one took a little more prep work.  I had to scrape some peeling paint, then give it a good sanding on the top to smooth the surface out a bit.  I also had to pry off some old metal ‘feet’ and replace them with new plastic feet (mainly because one of the original feet was missing and I couldn’t find a replacement to match).  Luckily my handyman Ken helped with that part.

After a thorough cleaning (it was totally filthy too), I decided to give this one a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear Bonding Boss before starting to paint.  There was a fair amount of rust and the Boss will prevent most of it from bleeding through my paint.

Next came two coats of Caviar and the Swiss cross in Drop Cloth.

At this point let me say that I.O.D. claims that you can get two or even three uses out of their paint inlays.  I have found that I am rarely happy with the image I get with a 2nd use.  I shared some of those results in this post.

Also, sadly, the Floriography paint inlay only comes with two versions of the round label (there is a 3rd round design, but with a crest of some kind rather than typography), and I had used both of them.

I did briefly consider just ordering a new Floriography set for this last stool, but at nearly $50 it didn’t seem like a wise choice.

So I decided to go ahead and try to get a 2nd use out of the paint inlay that I used on the shorter stool.

Truly, it’s not bad, just a bit more faded.  But I definitely prefer the more crisp and defined look from the first time around.

That’s just me being picky though.

Overall, I think both stools turned out pretty cool.

I had both of them at my recent sale, but unfortunately neither one sold.

But I’m sure they’ll go eventually.  I’ve listed them on my ‘available for local sale‘ page just in case any of my local readers are interested.

As for the rest of you, leave a comment and let me know what you think of my industrial stools!

my secret weapon.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Before I get on with today’s post, I have to tell you all that I totally dodged a bullet in the garden this week.  Storms blew through our area on Friday night, and some areas very near me (including my sister’s house) were hit with large hail.  If you’d like to get an idea of how much damage some gardens saw, check out this video from Laurel Rose Gardens.

Fortunately I only got pea sized hail in my garden and it didn’t do any damage at all.  Thank goodness.

Now on with our regularly scheduled programming.

During the course of my recent occasional sale, I received quite a few compliments on my gardens.  People especially loved the fairy garden.

Everybody loves a good miniature, don’t they?

But my full sized gardens got a few compliments too.

Someone asked me what my secret was for having such lush gardens, and I had to honestly say it just simply takes time.

I’ve been gardening in this space for 38 years.  And really, it has taken that long for my gardens to look like they do now.

Of course, this isn’t the first year that they’ve looked good, but I bet it took at least 20 years or so before they really starting looking pretty good.  It definitely does not happen overnight.

You know the old adage, the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.  But I would say it takes five years or more for most plants to really fill in nicely.

However, I must admit that the Sun King Aralia (a.k.a. Golden Japanese Spikenard) is an exception (the chartreuse shrub below).

I just planted that last year (replacing the previous one that died during the ‘bad winter’) and it has already filled in.

But most of my best looking plants have been around for a decade or more like this clematis.

Not only does it take time for plants to get established and fill in, it also takes time to learn what plants perform well in your particular space.  There are so many factors to consider; is it sunny or shady, what kind of soil do you have, how harsh are your winters, is it a protected spot, is it wet or dry, what about deer or rabbit pressure, and how about insects?

For example, I’ve given up on roses because I can’t deal with the Japanese beetle problem.  I’ve also given up on tulips because the damn deer kept eating them.

I tried growing fern leaf bleeding heart near one of my fountains and quickly realized that they hated being wet all the time whereas astilbes and hostas love it.

Speaking of astilbes, they are always categorized as a shade plant but in my garden they don’t perform at all in full shade.  They need either morning or evening sun to bloom.  They also need wet shade, not dry shade.  They shrivel at the first sign of drought.

I also tried the Endless Summer macrophylla hydrangeas for years before realizing that they were never going to flower the way I wanted them to.  I would only get 2 or 3 flowers every year.  The paniculatas, like Limelight or Quick Fire Fab, work so much better for me.

Not only does it take time for plants to get established, and time to learn what works well in your garden, it also takes a fair amount of time to maintain a garden.

In my opinion, there really isn’t any such thing as a low-maintenance garden.

True, some gardens require more maintenance than others, but they all require a bit of work … especially in the spring and fall.  But I am out in my garden pretty much every single day in the summer too.

I don’t have a ton of weeding to do since my gardens are really full.  There isn’t a lot of room for weeds to take hold.  I do get out in early spring and try to remove weeds and put down mulch (I like to use Espoma Land and Sea compost as mulch) before the plants fill in which also helps prevent weeds.

But there is a lot of other maintenance to do like deadheading, pruning, treating for pests if they become a problem (those darn earwigs!), pinching things back, and fertilizing annuals.

And then there is the dreaded dividing.

I have to admit, dividing established plants can be pretty back-breaking work.  Especially ginormous hostas …

Which is why so many of mine go undivided.  FYI, from left to right that is Sun Power, June, Krossa Regal (not 100% sure of that one) and Guacamole.

However, I did decide to tackle dividing my purple irises this past week.  You may remember that I said they looked better than ever this year.  Here they are in bloom a couple of weeks ago.

But they were really packed in there.  Plus there was a huge daylily that was growing amongst them (and guess what, deer love chomping off daylily flower buds almost as much as they like tulips).  I also have a short iris in there that has been almost totally taken over by other things.  I really like this one, and it’s one of the earliest to bloom, so I wanted to give it more space to thrive.

So it was time.

It’s actually not that hard to dig up irises, they are very shallow rooted plants.  But the problem with dividing irises is that the garden looks pretty ugly when you’re done.

They will recover, but it will take some time.

In this case, I also pulled out the hostas that were creating a front border in this section of the garden.  As you’ll remember, my neighbor had a huge maple cut down and now this garden has far more sun than shade.  As a result, those hostas were getting scorched.

So out they came.  I’m replacing them with Rozanne perennial geranium and Lady’s Mantle …

But it’s definitely going to take time for this section of the garden to fill in again and look good.  Probably a couple of years at least.  Plus, I’ve never tried Lady’s Mantle, so it remains to be seen whether or not it’s a good choice for my garden.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, I’ll just focus on enjoying other areas in my garden that are still looking pretty good this year and thankfully haven’t been damaged by hail.

So now you know my secret weapon for creating a spectacular garden, time.  Speaking of which, I need to go spend a little time in the garden right now.  I hope you’re getting out in your garden today!

best sale ever?

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

My sister and I have made it a tradition each summer to get to the Nokomis neighborhood garage sales in Minneapolis.

Our parents both grew up in the Nokomis neighborhood, so we usually take some extra time to drive by their old houses and reminisce.  Last year we even stopped by my mom’s childhood home and the current owners gave us a tour.  Some of my grandmother’s peonies were still going strong in the garden.

Considering that my grandmother probably planted them in the 1940’s, that’s pretty amazing.

The 2026 Nokomis sales were this past weekend, so even though I was a little burned out after having my own sale, my sister and I hopped in her car and headed out on Saturday morning.

We started out optimistic, there were over 60 homes participating.

The first sale we stopped at was obviously an antique dealer of some sort, but he had some reasonable prices on things.  Many of his items were toys that we’d played with as kids.  I have to admit, I always feel a bit old when my childhood toys are considered antiques, lol.

I did purchase one item from him, this vintage suitcase.

It’s in fairly good shape, and I love that it has a monogram.

I’m picturing it with a stencil added … something like this suitcase I painted back in 2022.

Or, maybe it needs some floral transfers like this one?

Unfortunately, things went pretty much downhill from that first sale.

We ended up at several sales with vintage items that had antique shop prices, and lots of sales with lots of cheap junk.

We were drawn in by this sign …

but it definitely was false advertising.

That award might actually go to the sale that opK and I went to last June in So. St. Paul.

I hope those people are having a sale again this year.

Eventually my sister and I gave up on the Nokomis sales, we didn’t even bother doing a drive by of our grandparent’s old houses.

Instead we got a table on the patio at the Tipsy Steer, had a couple of cocktails and a really delicious salad.

So all was not lost!

Now it’s time for you to weigh in, what would you do with that suitcase?  Add a stencil?  Add some floral transfers?  Just leave it alone?  Leave a comment and let me know!

adding a little rust.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

As I was preparing for my Carriage House Sale, I decided to rusty up a few things to sell.

The tall pot is plastic, the finial looking thing is that heavier resin stuff, and the smaller pot is clay with some sort of faux finish on it.

I knew they would all look better rusty.

Then, while I was at it, I also decided to add a little rust to this buddha.

I know he doesn’t look too bad to begin with, but in person he did look a bit too faux.

He is also made out of a heavy plastic.  I was slightly stunned to find a Bachman’s price tag on his bottom for $79.99.  What?!  Did someone really pay that much for him?  As you can see, he’s only about as tall as a watering can, so he’s not large.  Seems a bit crazy to me.

Anyway, I treated all of these items to the same prep.  After cleaning them with some Dawn dish soap and the hose and then letting them dry, I gave them all a coat of Rust-Oleum flat black spray paint as a primer.

Dixie Belle does make a product called Prime Start that you can use as a primer …

but I prefer to have black as a base coat.

You can use any flat black paint, so I’ve often used Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky or Caviar, but sometimes spray paint is just easier.

Once the spray paint was dry, I applied a coat of Dixie Belle’s Iron paint using a stippling motion.

The Oval Medium synthetic brush from Dixie Belle works perfectly for this.

The stippling motion is important because you don’t want any brushstrokes.  The activating spray will pool in brushstrokes making them stand out more.

Once your first coat of Iron paint is dry, stipple on a 2nd coat and while it’s still wet, spray the piece with the Dixie Belle green activating spray.

Now, we wait.

I find that the rusty finish takes a while to develop.  As in several days at least.  If you leave the item out in the rain that helps even more.

But be patient because the end results are worth it.

At least I think so.  I like a good rusty finish on garden items.

Buddha looks amazing tucked into the garden.

The tall urn planter looked pretty plastic before, but now looks like it could be a genuine iron planter.

I had all of these items at my Carriage House Sale and they all got snatched up by some lucky buyers.  Now I’ll be on the hunt for more cast off items that can be improved with a little rust.

Have you tried any of the Dixie Belle Patina Paints?  Leave a comment and let me know how it went.

my favorite climbers.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

First up, thank you to everyone who came out to the Carriage House Sale.  It was a lot of fun despite the fact that it rained and the temperature dropped to the mid-50’s.  Brrrr.  I thought it was ironic that we had hot weather (mid-80’s) for our October sale last year, and cold weather for our June sale this year.  Welcome to Minnesota!

Anyway, the rain has cleared away leaving some beautiful, although probably cool by most people’s standards, weather behind.

Personally, I like a sunny day with temps in the upper 60’s and low 70’s.  They are perfect for gardening!

Today I thought I’d share a tour of my clematis.  I know I’ve shared most of them here before, but I do have a couple of new ones.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of my favorite clematis.

This one always looks amazing.  I should knock on wood because I’ve had other clematis over the years that have gone from looking fantastic year after year, to then mysteriously disappearing over the winter.  Fingers crossed that this one won’t do that.

My Roguchi clematis continues to perform its head off too.

This clematis doesn’t have the massive showy flowers that so many do, instead it has these charming violet bell shaped flowers.

But it blooms all summer long, it’s super vigorous and it’s in pruning group 3, ie. the easiest, most fail-proof pruning group.  The rabbits take care of that for me over the winter by chewing them off at about rabbit height.  All I have to do is pull the dead vines off my arbor in late winter/early spring which takes about 2 minutes.  The plant comes back from the bottom and climbs to the top of the arbor again by early June.

That’s it on the right side of the arbor above.  Last year I planted a Rebecca clematis on the left side.

It’s doing OK, but now I kinda wish I had just planted a 2nd Roguchi on the other side so that they could grow up and meet in the middle over the top of the arbor.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I need to keep an eye out for another Roguchi, huh?

I have another bell shaped clematis called Betty Corning (also a group 3 clematis).

This is its third year, or its ‘leap year’.  You know, first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap.

It’s sharing a trellis with another clematis that I’ve had for years.  I’m fairly sure it’s called The President.  Back in 2024 it was absolutely stunning …

It filled out most of that trellis.

The we had what I like to refer to as the ‘bad winter’.  That was 2024/2025.  I lost a lot of plants over that winter, and this clematis barely came back last year, and isn’t looking a whole lot better this year.

Part of the problem may be that it belongs to pruning group 2, which you aren’t supposed to cut back to the ground, however the rabbits don’t seem to realize that.  I’m still hoping it will fill back out eventually.

Another clematis that is finally coming into its own this year is the Huldine that I planted on an old ladder leaning on the carriage house.

This is another one from pruning group 3, are you sensing a theme here?

It has sweet and simple white flowers that work beautifully against the red carriage house.

It is said to be a vigorous climber, growing up to 20′ tall.

This next plant isn’t a clematis, but it’s so gorgeous that I had to share it with you.

This is a Grandpa Ott morning glory, and I also planted it on the ladder together with the Huldine.

You may remember that I planted several clematis under my lilac hedge.  One of them died after the first year, but the other two are doing well.  Both have gorgeous blue/purple flowers.

The first is called H.F. Young …

and the 2nd is called Diana’s Delight.

They are still rather small plants, but I’m hoping that they eventually really take off and fill in where the lilacs look a little sparse.

I still have a few clematis that haven’t bloomed yet this year.  One is an Issey clematis that I planted at the far end of the lilac hedge earlier this spring.

Another is my Jackmanii clematis.  I think of this as the most common clematis out there, you see them everywhere.  Here is mine in bloom last year.

This one took so long to break dormancy this spring that I was sure I lost it.  As a result, I pulled out the obelisk that it was growing on.  When it did finally come up, I quickly popped in another support for it, but now I realize it’s far too small.

Oh well, hopefully I can rectify that problem next year.

How about you, do you have any clematis growing in your garden?  And do you have a favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know.

decision fatigue.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

You’re familiar with decision fatigue, right?

It’s estimated that the average adult makes 35,000 decisions per day.

Phew, no wonder I can never decide what to make for dinner!  If I don’t plan dinner in advance, I almost never have the bandwidth to figure out what to have at the last minute.  And since I’m trying to reduce the amount of ultra processed foods in my diet, that can be a problem.

I definitely struggled with the decision of whether or not to hold my occasional sale today too.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that the weather forecast changed multiple times a day over the last week.  Originally it was 90°, sunny and humid.  Then it got changed to a possibility of thunderstorms, then rain showers, then just overcast but no showers, and briefly it was even 76° and sunny!  The latest is a 50% chance of off and on showers and a high of only 70° on Thursday, but sunny and 77° on Friday.

Good grief!

Ultimately, I decided to go ahead with the sale.  I’m not worried about a random shower or two as long as there isn’t any severe weather.  I’m having the sale tonight, but reserving the right to close in the event of high winds or hail (and so far they are not in the forecast).  We also plan to be open tomorrow morning from 9 a.m. until noon.

I’m even thinking that if we have enough merch left, I may open again tomorrow evening.  That’s because there is a vintage car show just a few blocks away from my house every Friday night, and it brings in a lot of traffic.

My sister said she’d be happy to come and sit on the deck with me to see if anyone moseys down from the car show to check out my sale.

Friday evening isn’t definite though, we’ll play that by ear.

But you know where else I suffered with decision fatigue?  Pricing my items.

I’m sure that shoppers come to my sale and wonder why the prices can seem so inconsistent.  That’s probably partly because opK, Sue and I all price our own stuff independently of each other.  But also, I just get tired of making a decision on what to charge.

In my case, I start out early in the day probably pricing things a bit high like my little Au Public dresser at $45.

but as I get tired of making decisions the prices get lower.

By the end of the day I’m just slapping low prices on everything!

By the way, that’s a set of 3 Bobbsey Twin books for $6, not just one book.

I guess this is my way of saying that you just never know what you might find at the Carriage House Sale.  There are plenty of bargains, lots of vintage, and quite a few upcycled items like the flower market sign (which, by the way, is only $30).

So if you’re local, I hope you can swing by this evening between 5 pm and 7 pm, or tomorrow morning between 9 am and noon.

See you there!

the sale is on!

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

The sale is on for tomorrow evening and Friday morning!

Although there is a chance for occasional showers tomorrow, we’ll still go ahead.  A little rain is fine.  However, we reserve the right to close up shop if the weather turns severe, ie. high winds and hail.

I hope some of my local readers can make it!