Month: November 2013

the carriage house.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

My house was built in 1904.  Or possibly 1898.  Depends which documents you look at.  The official record says 1904 though.  It was originally the farmhouse for a dairy farm.  But now it is smack in the burbs.  The surrounding land was sold off and developed and now my house sits on a normal sized suburban lot.  The beauty of it is that my house is like a little pocket of country conveniently located near the city.

IMG_0574

One of my favorite features is the carriage house.

Yep, it’s a genuine carriage house.  It was never a barn or anything like that.  I assume they kept the carriages in it.  I still keep the carriages in it … well, the cars.  But only in the winter.

In the summer it becomes my workshop extraordinaire.  It is filled with furniture and other goodies waiting to be transformed.  Then twice a year, once in June and once in early October, it hosts the Carriage House Sale.   The occasional sale that my like minded friends and I put on.

IMG_5165

the toolbox.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

If something isn’t painted, I tend to paint it.  I just can’t help myself.  I love the transformative power of paint.  Recently my friend Cathy gave me a wooden tool caddy in a dark stained wood.  I was in the middle of painting a dresser with Miss Mustard Seed’s “Luckett’s Green” and I had a little left over.  I figured it was just enough for the toolbox.

I wish I had thought to take a ‘before’ picture.  I’m sure I’ll get better at that as I go.  Right?  Right.

IMG_6630

So, a couple of coats of Luckett’s Green, then some sanding, followed by a quick rub-down with Hemp Oil and voila!  I also added a fab metal number plate that just happened to match perfectly.  I’ll display this for the holiday season with one of my fav holiday decorating books and some of my vintage ornaments, but it will likely eventually end up at my next occasional sale.

why Quandie?

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

Once upon a time, I got married to my fab husband, but didn’t want to give up my maiden name entirely.  So, I decided to keep it as my middle name.  I thought it would be pretty cool to have Q as a middle initial.  Probably not a lot of Q’s out there, right?  People often ask, ‘what does the Q stand for?’

Fast forward many years.  I’m reading an article in the paper about a woman who has been arrested for being drunk and disorderly … and her name?  Quandary!  Who names their child Quandary?  Do they not know the definition of this word?   A state of perplexity.  I can see it now, a woman sees her beautiful new baby girl and thinks “What shall I name her?  Such a quandary.  A, ha!  That’s it!”  Perhaps this explains why Quandary has a habit of being arrested as an adult.

I quickly emailed my pal Jeanne to say “Eureka!  I have found a name.  From now on when people ask ‘what does the Q stand for?’ I’ve got the perfect answer!

It stuck.  I should have known it would.  And leave it to Jeanne to shorten it to Quandie.  Over the years, Quandie has become my alter ego.  She tends to take action, when I am not sure.  She loves garage sales, paint brushes, vintage furniture, drinking wine on the deck, gardening, traveling and anything with hollandaise sauce.  And she is me!

So, channel your own inner Quandie and hop on board.  I hope to post about all of the above on this blog, and I hope you’ll join me.