Month: December 2018

let the decorating begin.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

Normally I get most of my holiday decorations up on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  I’ve never been a Black Friday shopper, instead I like to spend that day putting up the tree and adding other holiday touches around the house.

But this year I was traveling home from Italy on Black Friday.  Speaking of which, one thing that really surprised me on our trip was how many Black Friday sale signs we saw!  Especially in Ravenna where we spent a little time on their pedestrian shopping street.  I had to take a quick photo of this window display because it was so fab.  I love the clock and the peg board on the wall.  You can’t see them in the photo, but there was a stack of vintage books on the floor too.

In hindsight, now I wish I’d taken a photo of one of the Black Friday sale advertisements.  Many of them were painted right onto the windows of the shops.  But I wasn’t thinking ahead on that one.

Anyway, celebrating Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday in November may be an American thing, but apparently celebrating Black Friday on the day after is universal.

So, after a bit of a travel related delay, I finally found the time to do some holiday decorating last Sunday and this year I decided to change it up a little and decorate our master bedroom.

I’ve never done much decorating in here in the past, but I’ve always thought it would be nice to have some twinkling lights and a small tree in the room.

The red and white knit stockings garland is from Michael’s.  It was on sale for only $6.  I just purchased one for our headboard, but my sister bought three of them and will use them on her tree.

The cable knit throw pillow is from Target.  The furry white throw probably was too, but I’ve had that for several years now.

I tied together small bunches of dried boxwood from my local Bachman’s, added some pretty silver ornaments that I purchased in Germany a few years ago and then hung them above my old photos on either side of the bed.

Over on the other side of the bed (ie. my side) I placed a stack of my favorite holiday decor magazines, a cup of coffee and a lavender topiary in the shape of a Christmas tree that I also purchased at Bachman’s.  I haven’t quite found the time to enjoy coffee and those magazines in bed yet, but I am determined to do that before the holidays are over.

My co-worker Jodie gave me the cute galvanized pot that the topiary is in, I just doctored it up a little with a Prima Marketing transfer from their French Pots IV set.

I added lots more holiday touches on the other side of the room too.

The little tree in the bucket is faux and I just purchased it a Target.  It was the perfect size for the old bucket.  I wrapped it with one small strand of battery operated lights which was just enough to give it some sparkle.

I also added a small strand of the same lights to the cotton bole swag that I draped over my old window.

I also purchased these cute little wooden houses at Bachman’s, one of them this year and two of them from last year.  They have little lights inside, but I’m finding that the light in the newest is one so much brighter than the other two.  Too bright in fact, so I don’t even turn it on.

My friend/co-worker/picker Sue gave me the calendar for my birthday last year.  It’s not really meant to be a Christmas decoration, but I like using it that way.

I purchased the paper tree from my friend Lori Miller at the Holly Jolly Market just before I left on my trip.  Isn’t it unique and fabulous?  Lori always manages to find the coolest things.

I’ve had this adorable little linen ‘woolens’ bag for years and I think I very well may have purchased it at Lori’s old shop, The Round Barn (it’s no longer in business).

I’d never really figured out a great spot for displaying it in the past though.  Turns out that it’s perfect hanging here on my cupboard in the bedroom.  Who knew?

The girls are not especially dressed up for the holidays, they pretty much wear their fancy jewelry all year long.

I did add a dried boxwood wreath hanging from a vintage hanger behind them.

It was fun snazzing up the bedroom with some holiday decor.  I think this just might become a regular thing from now on.

Speaking of things that become a tradition, tomorrow I’m heading over to my sister’s house for our annual Christmas baking.  I’ve pretty much perfected my ball rolling skills now, so this year’s baking should be a breeze 😉

I hope you have some fun holiday season plans for this weekend too!

the only thing that makes you richer.

Published on by Quandie38 Comments

I recently read a quote somewhere that said travel is the one thing you can spend money on that only makes you richer.

Hmmmm.  Well, that and possibly gambling in Monte Carlo.  But that’s definitely not guaranteed.  I wouldn’t know though because we never actually made it to the Casino de Monte-Carlo while docked in Monaco, the 2nd port of call on our recent cruise.  Instead we took a side trip to Eze (which I’ll share in another post) and then spent the afternoon wandering around Monaco-Ville on our own.

In contrast to our first port of call in rainy Genoa, we woke up to a lovely sunrise and blue skies on day two.  This was the view from our stateroom balcony.

For those of you not familiar, Monaco is 2nd smallest country in the world.  The only one smaller is the Vatican, which apparently technically qualifies as its own ‘country’.  Monaco encompasses a mere .78 square miles although it has been growing recently as they continue to reclaim land from the sea.  It is bordered on three sides by France and by the Mediterranean on the 4th side.  I suppose France would frown on them trying to expand on those other three sides, so the sea it is.

Monaco also has the world’s lowest poverty rate, highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita, and most expensive real estate.  Accordingly Monaco also has one of the largest police forces per capita in the world, and thus an incredibly low crime rate.  And trust me, it shows.  By the way, I say ‘accordingly’ not because Monaco has expensive things to protect, but because a large police force is expensive to maintain and Monaco can afford to do that.

There was such a difference between Genoa and Monaco.  Genoa was dark, moody, gritty, and I’ll admit just a little intimidating, not to mention overcast and rainy.  In contrast, Monaco was bright, clean, very welcoming and sunny.  Yes, it’s possible that the weather had something to do with it, but I think it was more than that too.

Our ship was docked in Port Hercules, which is an incredibly convenient location.

I took that photo from Le Rocher (the rock) or Monaco-Ville.  Monaco-Ville is the historic district of Monaco that contains the Prince’s Palace, the Oceanographic Museum, St Martin Gardens and the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate where Grace Kelly is buried.

As you can see, we were the only ship docked that day.  When I was originally posting about this trip I mentioned that we were going in the off-season because it’s cheaper and less crowded.  The trade off is less predictable weather.  Our plan definitely paid off here.  It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60’s, and there were no crowds anywhere.  Mr. Q and I practically felt as though we had the entire place to ourselves most of the time.

From the dock there is a series of elevators, walking paths and escalators that take you to the top of Le Rocher.  How cool is that?  They made it incredibly simple to just hop off the ship and start exploring Monaco.

Here is part of the path that takes you there.

And here’s the view looking over that little wall.

The people staying in this place must have an amazing view of the sea …

And aren’t those aqua shutters to die for?

Although we didn’t take the time to go inside, the Oceanographic Museum looks amazing from the outside.

It’s a gorgeous building that is built right into the side of the cliff.

This is one of those moments where I wish I had a drone.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  But since I don’t have a drone, I borrowed this next photo from the web so I could just show you how amazing this place is.

Incredible, right?

Once we made it to the top we wandered around in Jardin de Saint-Martin a bit.

Next we took a look at the Prince’s Palace.

We missed seeing the changing of the guard, which takes place every day at noon.

We walked around the cathedral, but didn’t go inside there either.  It was such a lovely afternoon and we didn’t want to waste any of it indoors.

And I have one last lovely building in Monaco-Ville to share with you today, the Palais de Justice.

Tourists aren’t allowed inside this one though, so I don’t have to feel bad about only having seen the outside.

After a very pleasant afternoon wandering around on Le Rocher, we made our way back to our ship where once again we enjoyed the view from our balcony as we sailed away.

We’d been sailing back out to sea for about 30 minutes when the strangest thing happened.  Our ship turned around and went back!

I’m fairly sure this has never happened on any cruise I’ve ever been on.  Had our captain forgotten something back on the dock?

The captain made an announcement at that point, there was a medical emergency of some kind on board and we were turning around to meet an ambulance boat that would off-load the person and take them to a hospital.

So we said goodbye to Monaco once again, but this time feeling a little bit sad for whomever it was that had a medical emergency only two days into our itinerary.  That being said, it is nice to know that if you ever have a serious medical issue on board a cruise ship, they are willing to turn that ship around for you!

Be sure to check back next Wednesday for the third installment in my Adriatic Explorer series!

 

blogiversary giveaway no. 2

Published on by Quandie142 Comments

First things first, congrats to Jamie, the winner of last Monday’s giveaway.

As you may recall from last week, a little snafu resulted in my turning what was supposed to be one big blogiversary giveaway into four smaller giveaways that I’m stretching out to one per week until Christmas.

Today I’m giving away some amazing products from Fusion Mineral Paint.

First off, you’ll receive a jar of their gorgeous shade of green called Park Bench.

I absolutely love this color, especially on mid-century pieces.

Revisiting these pieces makes me realize I need to do some more Park Bench pieces this winter!

You’ll also receive a jar of my favorite shade of Fusion white which is Limestone.  It seems to me that most people go for one of the brighter whites like the Raw Silk or Casement, but I love using the Limestone.

It’s a warm creamy white that you can bring into a room without suddenly making the other whites look dingy.

You’ll also receive a 7 oz. jar of Fusion’s Clear Furniture Wax along with the Staalmeester Series 3600 #20 brush.

I initially thought this brush was for painting, but as it turns out I love it much more for applying Fusion wax.  Because the Fusion wax is a little bit softer than some of the other waxes on the market, you don’t need to apply as much pressure with your brush.  I feel like the longer bristles make it easier to avoid over-applying the wax.

Fusion has also included a tube of their Brush Cleaner for the giveaway.  This is my favorite product for cleaning brushes.  I use it all the time and have gone through countless tubes of it.  This is what my tube looks like most of the time …

It works for cleaning paint brushes and wax brushes.  If you haven’t tried it, you really need to ask Santa to put some in your Christmas stocking this year (here’s a handy link to give Santa so he can find either a local retailer or an online retailer).  That’s assuming you’ve been good of course and aren’t going to be just getting coal.

And of course, today’s prize includes new and unused versions of these things not my well-used versions that I’ve pictured above.

Finally, I’m also including some goodies I picked up on my recent trip including another gorgeous Italian decorating magazine, some Croatian chocolate and fantastic smelling soap.

So to recap, today’s prize includes:  the Italian magazine, the Croatian soap and chocolate bar, a 500 ml jar of Park Bench, a 500 ml jar of Limestone, a 7 oz. jar of Fusion’s Clear Wax, a tube of brush cleaner and the Staalmeester brush.

Thank you so much to Fusion Mineral Paint for supplying all of their products that I am giving away today!

The basic rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment of any kind on this blog post.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

Normally I make a point of answering every comment left on my blog.  If someone takes the time to leave a comment, I like to acknowledge that.  I usually only get 10 to 20 comments so it’s easy to fulfill that promise.  But I suspect I’ll get a few more comments on this post so I’m going to warn you up front that I may not be able to answer each one, so I hope you guys will cut me some slack on that this week.

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, December 7, 2018 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $110, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 9, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!