Month: April 2022

stillwater library book review.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

After finding so many great decorating books at my mom’s local library, and after listening to advice from many of you, I decided to get a myself a new library card.  I’d had one about 25 years ago, and in fact there used to be a good-sized library just down the street from us.  We could walk there, and often did.  That was back in the day when there was no such thing as a Kindle.  But eventually that library closed, I started reading ebooks rather than paper books, and then things like pinterest and decorating blogs became a thing, and really, who needed a library card?

Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I’ve decided to check out the various libraries in my area and see what they have in stock for decorating books.  So a few weeks back Mr. Q and I popped into the Stillwater Library and got signed up with library cards, and I brought home this stack of books …

One big difference that I noted at the Stillwater Library v. my mom’s library in Henderson, Nevada is that my mom’s library had some newer books.  The publication dates on those books ranged from 2007 to 2021.  The most recent of the books I found here was 2013.

Full disclosure, I didn’t do any sort of deep dive into what books could potentially be available to me, I just went through those that were currently on the shelves.

So let’s start at the top of the stack with Cath Kidston’s in print (2005).  I grabbed this one because I’ve always enjoyed Cath Kidston’s style.  It’s very floral and colorful, and I love her use of vintage fabrics.

This particular book has lots of ideas for ways to those fabrics in your home.  If you enjoy sewing, this might be a great book for you to check out.

If you’ve followed me for long, you know that I don’t sew.  However, I do iron.

I thought this idea was positively brilliant.  I’d never really seen an ‘ironing table’ before.  I have a couple of fabulous old farmhouse type tables hanging about, I could easily make an ironing table.

I don’t have a fabulous laundry room to put it in though.  But I can sure see the appeal of ironing vintage linens on a big table like this rather than a narrow ironing board.

What do you think of that idea?  Would you use an ironing table?

The next book in the stack is another Country Living book, Decorating with White, and it’s the most recent of the books I checked out.

I mentioned last time that I tend to really like Country Living books and this one is no exception.  Although it was published in 2013, decorating with white seems to be fairly timeless.

Isn’t this pair of twin beds fabulous?

And apparently decorating with green is a classic also.  I was paging through the March 2022 issue of Country Living and came across a photo that was recycled from this book.

It was just a coincidence that I had just seen it in the book.  Talk about a timeless look.

By the way, although the book is called Decorating with White, there is a big chapter on pairing blue with white, and another section on using other colors as well.  Such as green.

This was the only one of the books that I checked out that I would consider buying just to go back and admire the photos now and then.

The next book I looked at was Salvage Style for the Garden by Marcianne Miller with Dana Irwin (2003).

I thought this one would really appeal to me since it combines two of my favorite things, gardens and upcycling.  It features various projects using reclaimed items.

I like the bench made out of a door and spindles, but not sure about the feasibility of finding 18 spindles at a reasonable cost.

I did get one takeaway idea from this book, and that is using andirons to support a flower box …

I just happen to have a spare pair of andirons lying around.  I picked them up at last year’s Trash to Treasure day.  See them there in the center front?

So now I’ve got some ideas swirling around in my head on how to use these in the garden this year.

Tattered Treasures by Lauren Powell (2001) definitely contains some vintage eye candy.

Even though it was the oldest book in the stack, it was filled with timeless classics like vintage cameras …

and crackled ironstone and pottery …

Most of the projects in this book felt a bit dated to me though, but what can you expect from a book that is 21 years old?

I definitely went through a china shard mosaic period myself.

Lars Bolander’s Scandinavian Design by Heather Smith MacIsaac was published in 2010.

This book is a bit different than the others since it isn’t focused on vintage items, but rather on Scandinavian design in general.  Painted furniture is very much a part of this style, and although I imagine it wasn’t originally distressed, much of it has worn over time.

I would say that my own style is strongly influenced by Scandinavian design.

I love the sparseness, and of course I also love the look of the painted pieces.

Although most of the colors used are pale, you’ll also see a lot of this blue.

After a trip to Norway in 2017, I was inspired by this color and painted a little stool in Miss Mustard Seed’s Flow Blue to try and recreate the look.

I ran out of time to really study this book because it was due back at the library, but I may check it out again sometime.

Last up is For the Love of Old by Mary Randolph Carter, published in 2006.

As I just mentioned above that I love the sparseness of Scandinavian style, if you’re familiar at all with Mary Randolph Carter’s style, you may already realize that I don’t love it.

Although I like some of the individual pieces she uses, like that shabby painted office chair, the clutter in most of her photos makes my eye twitch a little.

All I can think when looking at these rooms is how much dust there must be, and as someone who is allergic to dust I feel a sneeze coming on just looking at the photos.

So, her style is not for me.  But hey, variety is the spice of life.  Even though I may not like it, some of you may love it.

Which of these books would be your favorite?  Be sure to share your own opinions with a comment.

garden china.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the fabulous comments on Friday’s post!  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I’m giving away some paint from Dixie Belle’s new Desert Collection.  You have until Friday, April 15 to leave a comment to be eligible to win.  So go back and do that if you haven’t already.

If you’ve followed me from years back, you’ve seen this before … so I apologize if this is a repeat for you.  But I like to make what I call ‘garden china’.

It’s a great way to use some of my stash of pretty dishes.  Especially the ones that are too crazed to be used as actual plates anymore.

Please note that it is not safe to eat off china that is crazed, ie. has tiny cracks all over the surface like the plate above.  Those cracks can harbor tiny unseen bacteria that no amount of cleaning can remove.  So, don’t ever use crazed china for food.

I simply add words that I cut out of adhesive vinyl on my Cricut to the pretty dishes and then use them in flower pots.

I’ve been known to do the same thing on other items too, like orphaned enamelware lids.

Or other enamelware pieces …

If you don’t happen to have a Cricut for cutting your own vinyl words, using the Classic Vintage Label transfers from re.design with prima work great for this too.

Back in the days of the occasional sale that my friend/picker Sue and I hosted, we had LOTS of pretty china.

We’re talking the hey day of shabby chic here.

I don’t have a stash quite as fabulous of that these days, but I did have a pile of floral china from garage sales last fall or recent thrifting.  So I pulled them all out and whipped up some garden china.

Most of them got Cricut words, but I did use a Classic Vintage Label on this pretty platter.

I’ve priced them ranging from $8 to $14, the $14 belonging to this fabulous ‘welcome’ platter.

That one would be perfect in a flower pot next to your front door.

I took these in to the shop last week, and I’m hoping to find some more pretty plates in the coming weeks to add to the basket.

One last note, if you’re wondering whether or not the vinyl words and/or transfers hold up outdoors, they absolutely do.  I have several plates that have been outside for several years and still look great.

In fact, my house number plate has been hanging outside all year round, including our frigid winters, for at least 7 years or more …

and it still looks just as good as the first day I hung it.  And yes, that is the same adhesive vinyl cut out on my Cricut machine.

Also, not to worry, if you ever want to remove the vinyl or a transfer you can scrape them off using a razor blade.  So, no china was harmed in the making of this blog post.

life is a journey.

Published on by Quandie108 Comments

I’ve got one last post today from my recent trip out west.  Be sure to read all the way to the end, because we’ve finally gotten to the giveaway!

When I was out at my mom’s place the first time this year, back in February, one of the things she wanted me to do was paint her front door.  Well, that is a project that is right up my alley!  And so much more fun than washing windows or doing her taxes, which are the typical sort of things she wants my help with.

So we popped out to her local Lowes to pick out paint for her door.  She wanted either a navy blue or a dark green.  We picked a lovely color from the sample chips and went up to the paint mixing counter to have it whipped up.  And you know what?  They couldn’t do it.  They did not have the appropriate dark base paint to mix up a dark color!  I have to admit, I was flabbergasted.  I mean, I’d been hearing that people were having some trouble getting paint these days but I guess I just didn’t expect Lowes to tell me that all they had available were pale shades.

Since I knew I was going back to visit again in a few weeks, I told my mom that I would bring some Dixie Belle paint with me for her door.  She ended up deciding that she wanted dark green rather than navy, so I chose Midnight Green from Dixie Belle’s new Desert Collection.  After all, a color from the Desert Collection seems appropriate for a door in the Mojave desert, right?

The beauty of the Silk All-in-One paint is that it has a built in primer and top coat.  So I only needed to pack the one 16 oz. jar in my suitcase.  I wrapped it in bubble wrap, and then enclosed it in a zip lock bag as an extra precaution.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous that the jar would explode in my suitcase and I’d be wearing paint splattered clothing for my entire visit (not as though wearing paint splattered clothing would be anything new).  But it survived the journey just fine.

To prep the door, I cleaned it with some spray cleaner that my mom had on hand and then I sanded it with a 180 grit sanding block that I did find at her Lowes.  Then I gave it two coats of Midnight Green.

Her door went from boring brown …

to a vibrant green.

One thing I hadn’t considered was how incredibly fast paint dries in a desert environment.  It was a gorgeous day, somewhere around 70 degrees, so not hot.  But the air out there is really dry.  I struggled to maintain a wet edge in order to avoid brush strokes on the large surface of a door.

But my mom loved how it turned out, so that’s the important thing, right?

Have you seen all of the colors in the Desert Collection?

There is the Midnight Green on the lower right.

I used the Mojave on the inside of a washstand I painted earlier this year.

I wasn’t sure what I thought of this color at first, but it really grew on me after using it on this piece.

It pairs beautifully with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Since I happened to be out in the desert, I decided to see if I could find some of the paint colors from the Desert Collection at the Ethel M Botanical Cactus Garden.

Cactus was easy.

It’s a cactus garden after all.

I was really hoping that Prickly Pear would be easy too, but this vibrant pink is the color of the flower.  Apparently Prickly Pear cactus blooms in May through July, so there were no blooms to be found.

I think you can get a hint of Mojave in the spines on these cacti.

They don’t really have an oasis at the cactus garden, but I thought maybe Oak Creek from Sedona would count.  The color is certainly right.

I also found a bit of the Morning Sunrise color during one of our sunrise hikes in Sedona.

There are 5 more colors in the Desert Collection, but I’ve chosen these five to include in today’s giveaway!

But before we get to that, I had to share this funny coincidence.  When we popped inside the Ethel M Factory after checking out the cactus garden, there were signs announcing their revamped packaging that pays homage to the color palette of the Mojave Desert.

There is Fiery Sky, Midnight Green and Morning Sunrise.

And here is some Mojave.

And here is Umber.

OK, of course these colors are not based on the Dixie Belle colors, or exactly the same, but I just had to share the fact that two entirely different products (paint and chocolates) on two opposite sides of the country (Florida and Nevada) were thinking the same thing at the same time.

That brings me to my giveaway!

It will include five colors from the Desert Collection; Morning Sunrise, Cactus, Oasis, Mojave and Prickly Pear.  Plus some Prickly Pear taffy that I picked up in Sedona, as well as this bracelet, also from Sedona …

I purchased one of these bracelets for myself, and then thought it would be fun to include one in the giveaway as well.  Life is a journey, not a destination.  Although, as destinations go, Sedona was a pretty good one 😉

The rules:  Simply leave a comment on this blog post to be eligible to win.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, April 15, 2022 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 $160, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, April 22, 2022 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint I’m giving away today.