2014 – Page 14 – q is for quandie

I admit I’m a little chintzy.

Published on May 17, 2014May 14, 2014 by Quandie14 Comments

I like to think of myself as being careful about not ‘collecting’ too many things. This is clearly a delusion on my part, but please play along.

But I have learned that if you start to collect something, before you know it you’ll have tons of it, and then it will go out of fashion. Now what? You feel bad because you once loved these things, but you don’t want to display them anymore. So you tuck them away somewhere or you ‘get rid of them’. Sounds sinister. Like a transaction taking place in a dark alley somewhere.

Pssst! Hey you … want to buy some chintzware? Good quality stuff man.

So like I said, I try to be careful.

If people ask, I don’t collect stuff. But in reality, I can’t help myself sometimes. Maybe the true story is that I try to never pay more than a few dollars for the stuff I collect. Like my vintage clocks. Almost all purchased for less than $5 each. Or my aqua and white pottery. Almost all purchased at garage sales for less than $10 each (or dug up out of the neighbor’s yard). Thus when I get tired of these, I don’t feel bad about getting rid of them.

Which brings me to my chintzware. If you don’t know what chintzware is, to simplify things, I’ll tell you that it’s basically china with an allover pattern that is transferred on (not hand painted). It was popular in the 20’s and 30’s, but fell out of vogue in the 40’s and 50’s. There was a resurgence in the 90’s prompted in no small part by Victoria magazine (as my reader Victoria commented earlier) and people started collecting vintage pieces and new chintzware began being produced as well. And in a similar fashion, I think it has gone back out of style today for much the same reasons it did in the 40’s and 50’s. People are looking for more clean lines and Scandinavian design once again, and less of the shabby chic floral look.

But … I have my little collection. And I still think it’s lovely. I keep some of it in a glass fronted cabinet on my front porch, and some of it in my summer house. And although I’m not trying to add to my collection, when I see a gorgeous vintage tea pot in the Lord Nelson pattern called Rose Time for $10 at a garage sale, I buy it. And it was extra fun to realize that I already had the matching creamer and sugar bowl.

Another of my favorite pieces is one that my friend Sue also found for me at a garage sale.

I especially love the birds that are included in this pattern.

This pattern was produced by Crown Ducal and apparently they didn’t name their patterns. I do particularly like the designs that include birds as well as flowers.

This pair of plates are in another pattern with birds that is made by Royal Tudor Ware.

Shelley names their patterns, and this tea cup is in a pattern called Rock Garden.

This tiny little creamer is one of my favorites, and the pattern is naturally called Hydrangea and it was produced by James Kent. My friend Jeanne brought this one home from California for me knowing how much I love both chintz and hydrangeas!

I think the English pieces are the prettiest. I try to stick with mainly English pieces, but chintzware was also made in Japan. This sugar and creamer are Japanese pieces.

As you can see, these are not as detailed or colorful as the English patterns.

I do have a couple of reproduction pieces that are not vintage. The differences between vintage pieces and reproductions are easily discernible, I think. The new pieces are thicker and not as delicate as the vintage. The colors seem to be a bit brighter and to me they just simply look ‘new’.

This is a reproduction of Sophie by James Sadler.

While researching for this post, I saw this exact teapot being sold on eBay for $269.99 and the description says “Very Rare Exquisite English Sadler Sophie Yellow Chintz Teapot Mint in Box”.

The ad includes a picture of the mark on the bottom, which matches the mark on the bottom of my reproduction teapot. In other words, this is a reproduction being sold as ‘very rare’ on eBay for a crazy price. I hope no one was taken in.

So, there you have it. My chintzware non-collection. One of these days I might sell it in a dark alley somewhere, but for now I think I’ll hang on to it.

vintage dresser.

Published on May 16, 2014May 16, 2014 by Quandie16 Comments

I was planning to paint the dresser from Bryn Mawr in MMSMP in Luckett’s Green. Truly. I was.

But somehow when my hand went into the box to grab the paint, it came out with Eulalie’s Sky instead. And as soon as I saw the label, I realized that this was the perfect choice for it.

Granted, it would have been lovely in Luckett’s as well I think.

I tried to think of a clever name for this one, and all I could come up with was ‘vintage’. After all, to me this is the quintessential vintage color. It just screams vintage. So I went with it.

I find the MMS milk paint tends to be slightly transparent, especially the lighter colors. As a result, I think the final color depends on what is underneath it sometimes. In this case, you’ll remember that this dresser was rather orange.

So I think the Eulalie’s Sky went more towards the green side of aqua this time. Sometimes the Eulalie’s Sky looks more blue to me.

I also have to tell you that it took 4 coats to cover this one sufficiently. That orangey stain was hard to cover up. I probably should have mixed my paint a little thicker to compensate. In addition, I got almost no chipping. I’m OK with that, but in the end, I think I could have gotten this same effect with chalk paint in less coats. I finished this dresser with clear paste wax.

This one came with all of its hardware intact, and I am sure glad it did because look how pretty the drawer pulls are. I just cleaned them up a little by rubbing them with paste wax.

I haven’t decided on the ultimate fate for this dresser. I may hang on to it for the Carriage House sale, or I may just go ahead and list it on craigslist. It kind of depends on how much space I have to store it.

~~As always, if anyone is interested in purchasing it, please leave me a comment.~~ Woops, you missed it, this one is SOLD!

curb appeal.

Published on May 14, 2014May 11, 2014 by Quandie13 Comments

One of my very first blog posts was about my window box and how I fill it up for winter. Yikes, that seems so long ago! But I’ve survived the long winter, and it’s time to fill the window box for summer.

It runs the full length of my front porch, which faces the street. So I give it full priority each season because it is the mainstay of my curb appeal.

For the past several years I’ve been filling it with coleus in a mix bright lime greens and dark wine colors.

photo compliments of Bees Knees Bungalow

As you can see, they fill in nicely and do really well out there. My house faces north, so I have somewhat limited options. Big bloomers that love full sun aren’t at home there.

I tend to pick plants more for their foliage rather than their blooms anyway. That’s just the way I roll.

I wanted to change it up this year though, so I searched for some pinspiration and found this.

More subdued. All shade loving plants. I went a little more monochromatic and left the hot pink impatiens out of my mix.

I added some white and green Caladium and some Euphorbia.

Euphorbia likes at least part sun, so I’m taking a chance that it will do well here, but I love its ethereal quality.

I also used a fern that I discovered last year at Bachmans called Nephrolepis Jester’s Crown. It’s a little more compact and upright than the fern in my inspiration photo.

I have a little tip for you if you garden in the burbs like I do, head outside at 7 a.m. No one else is out and about so the neighborhood is quiet, the birds are singing, there is amazing light for photos and it’s just all around sublime.

Here are my tools of the trade. Coffee in my favorite Disney mug, plants, gloves. In that order.

Have I mentioned that my window box is clad in some old metal crown molding that I purchased at Oronoco Gold Rush? It started out painted white (as you can see in the first photo above), but it has chipped to reveal a layer of blue and then rusted in a most magnificent fashion.

Isn’t that delicious?

So, here it is all planted. I confess, I have artfully arranged these photos so that you can’t see how really sparse it looks right now. Also, I faked it with the Caladium. They are still in their pots because they tend to be very sensitive to the cold, and just in case we get one more cold snap here in Minnesota, I need to be able to pull them out and put them in the house overnight.

In another month or so it will fill in and the plants will spill over a bit. By the end of summer it will be bursting with white impatiens. I’ll try to remember to share some more photos with you then.

curbside desk.

Published on May 12, 2014May 9, 2014 by Quandie15 Comments

Mr. Q picked this desk up off the curb last autumn. There it sat with its FREE sign. Poor thing.

I showed it to you in my post about the items lined up in my shop waiting to be painted. The top was stripped, but otherwise it was in pretty rough shape. Several of the drawer runners had come off. Several knobs were missing, which was no real loss because they are quite ugly anyway. I suspect someone started this project, but then realized how much work it would be, stored it for a couple of years in the garage, then kicked it to the curb.

But after a little elbow grease on both my part and Ken’s, the curbside desk has a new lease on life.

I had been hanging onto a packet of MMSMP in Dried Lavender ever since I saw how lovely it looked on the interior of my friend Lori’s shelves at the Round Barn. It’s a gorgeous color, lavender, yet slightly blue, yet kind of grey. If you look out there in blogland for examples of this color in action they vary wildly. I tried hard to get the color to come across in photos. I came close, but the color looks a tad more blue in the pictures than it does in reality. I used MMS hemp oil on top of the paint.

Anyway, I had been waiting for the perfect piece to paint Dried Lavender and I decided this desk was it.

Isn’t it lovely?

I gave the drawers new glass knobs, and I think they help up the ‘pretty’ factor.

Since the top was already stripped, and since I have set a goal of learning how to stain, this desk was the perfect candidate for a stained top with its Dried Lavender body. After doing a little research, I picked up some Java gel stain by General Finishes. Most of what I’d read online made it sound pretty foolproof, which is exactly what I needed. Sure enough, easy peasy. Brush on with a foam brush, wipe off excess, let dry. That was it.

Bam! Gorgeous top. I am already planning my next stripping and staining adventure.

The back of this desk is finished off as well. I’ve sold a few desks, and often people are specifically looking for a desk with a finished back so that they can float it in the room, or allow the user to face out while sitting at the desk. I like a desk with a nice back.

I’ve staged my photos with some of the annuals I just picked up at my favorite nursery, Country Sun. The tall purple flowers are Salvia farinacea in Velocity Blue. I love the way these add vertical interest in a planter. These are destined for the copper boiler window boxes on the Carriage House and Summer House. Stay tuned for more on that later.

I believe I shall hang on to this desk until my occasional sale. Unless someone out there is interested in it now. If so, feel free to leave me a comment.

blaine.

Published on May 11, 2014May 10, 2014 by Quandie3 Comments

After a cold and rainy Friday, Saturday dawned bright and sunny. Perfect garage sale weather.

This week’s neighborhood garage sale was in Blaine. We had high hopes because they had 150+ sales, and even had official porta-potty locations and concessions stands. Hey, it doesn’t take much to make die hard garage salers happy.

We got there and found tons of people. Parking spots were few and far between. We had to park and then walk …. and walk … and walk. Luckily we had a cart to haul our goodies in, and I wore my serious walking shoes.

My first fab find was this old coffee jar. I love these old jars.

My next great find was this old newel post. The sellers told us all about how they took it out of their 1901 house. We didn’t have the heart to ask what they put in its place. I’m guessing something ‘new’. Quelle horreur! Why would you remove this?

I plan to try a MMS layered paint job on it to make it super chippy and shabby.

I grabbed this little camp stool just because I loved the shades of green on its seat. Can’t you picture it next to a comfy chair with a stack of magazines on top?

My absolute best find of the day was this dress form. Isn’t she lovely?

These have become so popular, you don’t see many of them at garage sales anymore.

There were a few more treasures in our truck, Bee’s Knees brought home a lovely waterfall style dresser that she is going to refurbish. I found a few more small things for my occasional sale. We must have walked miles, which certainly means we burnt off the corn dogs we ate, right?

Next weekend we are back in Minneapolis, most likely Linden Hills. Hopefully there will be more fab finds waiting for us there.

the summer house.

Published on May 10, 2014May 7, 2014 by Quandie13 Comments

Another rite of spring at the Carriage House is the opening of the summer house. I call it the summer house because it sounds fancy. I base it on this definition:

A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather.^[1] This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places of relaxation or retreat from the summer heat.

We’re pretty sure that this little shed was used as a play house by the previous owner’s daughter, although it was nothing more than bare wood inside when we bought our house.

We added the window at the back and a potting bench and originally used this as a potting shed. But, it turned out to be impractical because it was hard to get the dirt out all the time. I am a messy gardener. It’s easier to just pot things up in place in the garden.

So, I decided to turn it into a cute little summer house. It’s very pink and girly. I keep my favorite bird china out there.

But, it needs some freshening up this year. I’m kind of done with pink. And the thing is, I rarely actually take the time to just sit out there. I’m far too busy for that. So I’ve thought about going in a whole new direction.

I feel like the sky is the limit with what I decide to do out there. It’s just a shed. I can go a little crazy if I want to. To be honest, that is almost a problem because I can’t decide what direction to take.

How about a writing shack?

This would look really cool, but I don’t have a laptop so I wouldn’t likely do much writing out there. I’m pretty sure Mr. Q wouldn’t drag his stuff out there either.

Perhaps a comfy spot for napping?

I have taken a nap or two out there though, and in the end it kind of creeps me out. Anyone could just sneak up and scare the crap out of me.

I’ve also thought of a little al fresco dining pavilion.

But it’s a little small. We could probably only fit two diners comfortably. I have a very nice patio dining set already, just steps away. We dine al fresco all summer long. It could make a nice alternative in case of rain, but if it’s raining do we want to dash from house to shed with food?

I could really use another bathroom! Secretly I kind of love the idea of an outdoor bathroom.

In this climate, it would never work. I could only use it 4 months out of the year. The pipes would freeze every winter. And I don’t even have electric out there, let alone water. Obviously this is never going to happen.

After considering all of my options, I think I have come up with a plan. I could paint the walls and floor white, and haul pieces of furniture in there for photo shoots. It will become my tiny little photo studio. One problem is the window in the back, I would need to cover that up to avoid back-lit photos. I could build a backdrop wall with vintage wallpaper like this fabulous example from pinterest.

I’m sure I can come up with some sort of plan for that. I’m not quite sure how difficult it might be to get the furniture in and out of there, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Q and I can handle that.

I wish I could say that I’d spend a lot of time leisurely dining out there, or taking naps, or writing a fabulous novel, but I know myself and it ain’t gonna happen. So, why not turn it into a space that I could really use? I think I’m going to go for it.

What do you think?

sunny side table.

Published on May 9, 2014May 8, 2014 by Quandie8 Comments

I picked up this sweet little table at the Bryn Mawr garage sales and decided it would be lovely in a sunny yellow. This is MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow mixed with a little Linen. I didn’t exactly measure, which is kind of how I usually cook too.

It got nicely chippy. Not too much, but enough to look properly vintage.

I debated adding the stencil. I have to confess, I hesitated because I overheard someone at Junk Bonanza say “I wish everything didn’t say Paris on it!” Has this ever happened to you? It made me question my use … or overuse? … of stencils. But in the end I decided that my furniture doesn’t have to please everyone. I love the stencils, so I will keep on using them. So there.

It’s just a sweet little sunny side table.

The perfect shade of yellow for my chintzware teapot.

This one will be part of the inventory for my summer Carriage House Sale.

chillin’ on the porch.

Published on May 7, 2014May 4, 2014 by Quandie19 Comments

One of the rituals that tells me spring is here is the opening of my front porch. As soon as we start getting warmer days, I clean it out, open the windows for some fresh air and Mr Q and I start spending evenings out there.

The Adirondack is his, the wicker chaise is mine. I catch up on magazines, or both of us just read. I may consume a fair amount of wine out here too.

There used to be a matching wicker chair for Mr. Q, but you know I have given up matching furniture. Plus, he wanted the Adirondack because it’s really quite comfortable. I have a pair of them, the other one is outside. Ken, a.k.a. handyman extraordinaire, made them. Just to explain how skilled he is, he just took an old Adirondack chair and used it to make a template for building more chairs. He then made quite a few of these, I did sell several at my occasional sales.

Nearly everything else on the front porch is a garage sale find. One of my favorite finds is the glass globe on the ceiling light.

When we moved into our house there weren’t very many original light fixtures left (my house was built in 1904). The one on the front porch was fab though. It had that vintage schoolhouse look. But it got broken in an unfortunate mishap with an extension cord, don’t ask me how, I wasn’t there. Anyway, a while back I found this globe at a garage sale. I think I paid $12 for it. I knew it was a gamble because it might have ended up not fitting the fixture, but it worked like a charm.

The light is just outside the door into the house.

The cabinet on the end came from a garage sale. This was one of my earliest furniture rehab projects, from back in the day when I painted pretty much everything white. I recently repainted the inside aqua. It used to be pink. This summer I plan to change it up with something different in the ovals panels on the sides. I decoupaged them with map paper, but it has faded badly. Not sure what I will do instead.

I have some of my aqua pottery and chintzware inside, plus some lovely vintage aqua glasses. To be honest, I ultimately wouldn’t mind switching this entire cabinet up for something else. When I come across just the right thing, I think I’ll know it.

Just next to the door is this oak washstand which was a craigslist find. I’d like to repaint this with Miss Mustard Seed sometime this summer. We’ll see if I get around to it.

The New Orleans watercolor hanging above it has always been a favorite of mine.

This set of small TV trays was another garage sale find. I can’t even remember what color they were originally, but I painted them black and numbered them. I originally planned to put them in my Carriage House Sale, but they are so darn useful for holding glasses or wine, or cups of coffee.

You may have noticed my black and white floor. I painted this myself, and in fact this is my second version of a checkerboard floor on the porch. The first time I painted it in shades of green.

My process was to just paint the entire floor white, then draw the lines for the squares using a yard stick, a square and a pencil. You can see I ran a chalk line down the center to help keep them straight. Then I just painted in the black squares by hand. I have a pretty steady hand. It would have driven me nuts to tape all of those squares. I know I broke some rules by not centering the squares from one side wall to the other, but oh well, sometimes I’m a rule breaker.

I am really fond of this floor, although sometimes I wish I had gone for a more subtle combination of grey and white. I might try that on another floor somewhere … who knows.

And I almost missed sharing one of my favorite things on the porch! The quote above the front windows.

A good reminder for those lazy summer evenings spent drinking wine and reading a good book.

duck egg.

Published on May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 by Quandie19 Comments

Remember this dresser that was in the line up to be painted?

Well, I chose to paint him with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Duck Egg. It is a gorgeous color. Although Miss Mustard Seed has some very lovely blues in her milk paint, she doesn’t quite have one with this same muted blue/green feel to it. Her Eulalie’s Sky is close, but I think it leans a little more towards blue and it’s also a little brighter. The robin’s egg blue that I custom mixed came closer, but was still a little more blue. So since I’d purchased some Duck Egg at Junk Bonanza, I decided to break it out and paint this guy.

I even went whole hog and painted the inside shelves behind the two little doors.

The original hardware for this piece was brass, and I didn’t think the gold tone would play well with this cool color, so I was going to change it out. Then I thought about it and realized that since there were no missing pieces, I should try painting it instead. I think the chalk paint works better for this than the milk paint. It worked like a charm.

I added just a little white to highlight these details.

I do believe I am quite in love with this guy. Don’t tell Mr. Q!

This would be an excellent piece for storing my vintage tablecloths.

Unfortunately I simply have no where to put him. Therefore he will be up for sale.

~~I’ll be posting him on craigslist soon, but in the meantime, if you are local to the Twin Cities and interested in purchasing this dresser, please leave me a comment.~~ Woops! You missed it, this one is SOLD!

bryn mawr.

Published on May 4, 2014May 3, 2014 by Quandie13 Comments

We look forward to the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sale every year. Probably because it’s the first big Minneapolis neighborhood sale of the season. And also because we always come home with a truck load of goodies.

This year we had the truck filled by 10 a.m.

Now most people might have called it quits when the truck was full, but not us. We are gluttons for punishment. And sad thing is, we found almost nothing else after 10 a.m. We may as well have gone home and taken naps after that.

But still, it was a fantastic day. We are more than happy with our finds.

It was a vintage luggage-palooza! All of the suitcases came from one sale. These days prices have gone up on vintage suitcases. Sadly, I think the days of finding them for $3 each are long gone. But this seller gave me a package deal on 4. Now I have to decide, do I leave them as is, or do I paint them? Any thoughts?

I know this dresser and desk combo will be painted! No question there. It’s just a matter of what colors. I won’t keep them as a matched set. If you’ve read my blog for long, you’ll know that I am opposed to matched sets of furniture. Likely these two will go to separate homes, and they will be painted different colors.

So, now I seriously need to get crackin’ and paint some furniture! It’s going to be sunny and warmer here today, so maybe I can actually get a few pieces painted in the Carriage House!