Author: Quandie

the late spring garden.

Published on by QuandieLeave a comment

Good morning from the garden!

Late May and early June is when my now-sunny border really puts on a show.

If you’ve followed me for long, you’ll remember that my next door neighbor took down a huge tree back in 2024.  As a result, I now have a lot more sun in the backyard.

At the time I was quite bummed out about it, and I do still feel like our backyard is much more exposed.

But looking on the bright side (pardon the pun), the irises are really thriving now.

The purple irises above were originally a garage sale purchase.  Last year (or maybe the year before?),  I also purchased another purple and white iris at a garage sale that is just starting to bloom.

I’ve had the yellow irises forever.  In fact, at this point I’m not even sure if I originally planted them or if they were already here when we bought our house back in 1988.  I don’t really remember.

I’ve moved them around a few times over the years and now have them in a couple of different spots.

They work great in the garden next to the carriage house.

I always have to remind myself not to use pink in that particular garden bed, it really clashes with the red siding, but the yellow seems to work.

I planted some Mount Everest allium here two years ago, and they just opened up this week.

If you have a garden and you haven’t discovered alliums yet, you should definitely get some.  I shared a blog post all about them back in 2022, so check that out for more detail.

My Purple Sensation allium are on their way out right now, but you saw them in my garden post last week …

I’ve got some Globemaster allium that aren’t quite open yet too.

If you add a few different varieties of allium you can really stretch out their bloom times.

Some of my peonies are starting to open, mainly just this single version so far …

The peonies behind the carriage house in my cutting garden are still just loaded with buds.  So we still have those to look forward to.

Before I let you go this morning, I want to share another amazing plant that I think is underrated. Geranium macrorrhizum, or Bigroot Geranium.

This is a a rhizomatous semi-evergreen perennial, so in plain English, it’s a plant that spreads by rhizomes that sit just on the surface of the soil, it can stay fairly green all winter under the snow (well, maybe not quite green, but let’s just say alive), and it comes back every year.

It is almost indestructible.

I encouraged it to grow on the west side of our house on a small slope that has black plastic with rock over it (installed by the previous home owner).

Let me elaborate a little on what I meant by “I encouraged it to grow”.  Basically I pulled some chunks of it out of another area, cut a small slit in the black plastic and tucked it in there.

And it has taken off and filled in the entire space.  It looks so much nicer than the rocks ever did.

This is its first, and always best, flush of blooms for the year.  However, it will continue to bloom all summer long, just not as robustly.

If you happen to be battling creeping bellflower, a.k.a. the worst weed ever, Bigroot Geranium will create a dense, weed-suppressing mat that can help keep it in check.  Another plus, it is deer and rabbit resistant.  It will also grow in anything from full sun to dry shade.  Best of all, it is nearly maintenance free.  You do not have to dead head (although you can if you want to encourage another flush of blooms), cut it back, remove dead foliage or really anything.  I literally do nothing for that patch alongside the house, I don’t even water it.

As for cons, I will say that it wilts quite a bit under a hot afternoon sun which looks a little unsightly, however it does bounce back by evening.  It also can really take over an area, even one that is mainly rocks on top of plastic, as you can see above.  That being said, very little effort is required to keep it in check by yanking it out.

If you are local, you have the chance to see my gardens in person by coming to my upcoming occasional sale.

Feel free to wander around and check them out while you are here.

I’ll post my address later this week, so be sure to stay tuned.

In the meantime, have you tried Bigroot Geranium in your garden?  How about alliums?  Or maybe you have irises that are in full bloom right now.  Leave a comment and let me know!

the arts décoratif toolbox.

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

Welcome back for the final installment of toolbox week!

I have a confession to make, this isn’t my favorite style of toolbox.

I’m not sure what it is, but somehow I just don’t love this shape where it’s deeper at the top than at the bottom.

I have done at least one like this in the past, and it turned out fine …

But I really struggled with this next one.

I started out painting it red on the outside and navy blue on the inside because I thought I’d do another Norwegian flag toolbox like this one.

But I just wasn’t loving it in the red.

So I painted over both the inside and outside with black.  I was thinking I’d do another one like this one …

But then I didn’t love that either.

So I painted over the inside yet again, this time in Dixie Belle’s Oxford Fog.

That’s such a pretty color.

Then I painted over the exterior in DB’s Drop Cloth.

I must admit, it felt a little boring at first.  But then I gave it a major distressing job using my mouse sander and some 150 grit paper.  That started bring it to life.

I followed that up with some really lovely florals from the I.O.D. Madeleine transfer.

And the bird is pretty gorgeous too.

The typography comes from an old re.design with prima transfer called Catalogue.  This one goes way, way back.  And actually, I didn’t buy this one, I’m pretty sure this is one that my reader Monica sent to me (correct me if I’m wrong on that Monica).

I rearranged the words a little, and I only had bits and pieces from the original full transfer, but it worked out perfectly.

In the end, I think this one turned out quite nice.

It might even be my favorite.

But then again …

Now it’s your chance to share your opinion.  Which of the five boxes I shared this week was your favorite?

The Les Fleurs lunchbox …

the Italian tacklebox …

the simple black toolbox …

the English wildflower toolbox …

or today’s architecture et arts décoratif toolbox?

Leave a comment and let me know.

the english wildflower toolbox.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

Welcome back for day 4 of toolbox week.

Here is where today’s toolbox started out.

Not too terrible.  I rather liked the subdued shade of green, so I tried to copy it for the interior as you’ll see in a minute.

But first, yes, this one got the same prep as the others.  A good wash, slight scuff sanding and a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out.

Then I gave the inside a coat of Dixie Belle’s Highlands.

It’s not an exact match to that original color, but in the same neighborhood.

Next up I gave the outside a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I applied quite a few wildflower transfers from I.O.D.’s Primrose Isle set.

The detail on these is just lovely.

The flowers are so delicate looking.

The typography I used on top is from that same collection.

I’m afraid I don’t really know anything about the wild flowers of the British Isles, so I’m not sure if all of the flowers qualify.  But does anyone really notice that level of detail?

So far I think this might be my favorite toolbox of the week.  What do you think?

As with all of this week’s toolboxes, this one will be available at my upcoming occasional sale unless someone snatches it up ahead of time by checking out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

keeping it simple.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

Welcome to day 3 of toolbox week!

Today I’m keeping it simple.

This toolbox started out black …

and I’m keeping it black.

Full disclosure, I did prep this one along with all of the others before I’d really even thought about what color I would paint it.  So in the ‘before’ pic above it has a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear Bonding Boss on it (thus the filmy look).

Had I planned ahead I could have skipped that step on this one.  It didn’t have much rust and painting black over the original black would really only have required one coat of Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.  And actually, I think I could have even skipped painting it on the outside completely and just worked with that original distressed black finish.  However, either way, I would have wanted to paint the inside to clean it up.

But that’s water under the bridge.  Since I had already given it a coat of Bonding Boss, I went over that on the outside with just one coat of Midnight Sky.

Then, after giving it some thought, I decided to use Dixie Belle’s Silk Paint in Anchor on the inside.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I would specifically choose the chalk mineral paint for the outside and the Silk All-In-One mineral paint (an acrylic paint) on the inside.  So, let me explain.

In my experience, the chalk mineral paint distresses better than the acrylic (a.k.a. Silk) paint, and I definitely wanted to distress the outside.  I also find that the chalk style paint adheres to metal better than the acrylic version.  Although since I started with Bonding Boss, which improves adhesion hence the “bonding” part, that was probably a moot point.

On the other hand, the Silk paint doesn’t require a topcoat and can still be wiped clean with a damp rag once cured.  So it’s great for the inside of toolboxes to create a durable finish with the least amount of effort.

Here’s the inside with one coat of Anchor.

The outside has one coat of Midnight Sky.

Once dry, I added those gorgeous florals from the I.O.D. Saint Germain transfer.

They are just so gloriously shabby, don’t you agree?

And they are perfect over black.

As a final touch, I added a gold ‘label’ from the I.O.D Étiquettes gilded transfer to the top.

I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to protect the chalk mineral paint and the transfers.

Easy peasy.

As with all of this week’s toolboxes, this one will be available at my upcoming occasional sale unless someone snatches it up ahead of time by checking out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

an italian tacklebox.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Welcome to day 2 of toolbox week.

Today I’m sharing the makeover of this … well … technically it’s a tackle box.  So far we’ve had a lunchbox and now a tackle box, but I group them all in my ‘toolbox’ category.

It did originally have two pop up trays that came up when you opened it, but I had my handyman Ken remove them so that now it’s just an empty shell.

As I mentioned yesterday, I prepped all of this week’s ‘toolboxes’ the same way.  Scrubbing them with Dawn dish soap out in the garden, rinsing them with the hose, letting them dry in the sun, then giving them a good scuff sanding and another rinse.  I followed that up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss to prevent any rusty or oily spots from bleeding through my paint.

Next this tackle box got a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Cottage Door on the inside.

Once dry I protected it with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

Then I painted the outside in DB’s Drop Cloth.

I added some roses from I.O.D.’s Rose Botanical transfer.

But I also knew that I wanted to have some sort of typography on it.  I would have loved to use more of I.O.D.’s Label Ephemera for that, but my supply of that retired transfer is running out.  So I started looking at my other options.  I ended up pulling out the re.design with prima transfer called Sunlit Serenade and using just the wording from it.

I’m fairly sure that is Italian, which is a nice change of pace.

After adding a random bee and butterfly from other transfers, I finished the outside with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

Isn’t it pretty!

This tackle box will be available at my sale next week.

Unless one of you locals wants to snatch it up first.  If so, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

another toolbox week.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

If you’ll remember back to 2024, I decided that the collective noun for a grouping of toolboxes would be ‘windfall’.

Well, I’ve found another windfall of toolboxes lately.  In fact, I even passed on a few the last time I was out garage saling because I felt like I had so many at home already … but I have to admit, I sort of regret that now.

But … oh well.  I’m sure I’ll continue to find more (hopefully those aren’t famous last words!).

In the meantime, I thought I’d better get going on some of these so it’s time for another toolbox week!

On a recent warm and sunny day I set up an assembly line prep station for the toolboxes.

I started by washing them all with the garden hose and some Dawn dish soap.  Then I sat them in the sun to dry.  Once dry, I sanded them to remove any flaking paint or rust, followed by another rinse with the hose and more time in the sun to dry.

Next I gave them all a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out to prevent any rust from bleeding through my paint job.

Then it was time to get painting.  Today I’ll start with the metal lunchbox.

I painted the inside using Dixie Belle’s Blueberry.

I have to admit, since I put frozen blueberries in my smoothies almost every morning, this color doesn’t really feel ‘blueberry’ to me.  I think of it as more of a cornflower blue.

And it worked beautifully with the pretty blue cornflowers in the I.O.D. Madeleine transfer.

I painted the outside of the toolbox in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and once dry, I sanded it all over to add back some ‘age’.

After applying those swags of pretty blue cornflowers, I added some typography from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer (long since retired, more’s the pity).

I sealed the inside of the toolbox with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat, but I don’t like to use that product over transfers.  I find that it can look a little filmy over them.  So the outside was finished using Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

This sweet little lunchbox will make its way into my upcoming Carriage House Sale, along with all the rest of them that you’ll see here this week.

If you are local, be sure to save the date!

a cottage garden.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

I was watching a YouTube video the other day by Alexandra Campbell from The Middle-Sized Garden about cottage gardens.  I’ve always said that my gardens are cottage style.  They certainly aren’t formal, or modern, or tropical.  I don’t have a Japanese garden or a Mediterranean garden.  Surely I must have a cottage garden, right?

However, Alexandra listed a handful of characteristics that define a cottage garden, and now I’m starting to wonder if my garden qualifies.

One characteristic of a cottage garden that is mentioned in the video is a mix of flowers and vegetables.

Nope.  Not a veggie in sight.  And actually, there aren’t even a lot of flowers in sight in the shadier areas.  I’m more about the colorful foliage.

I am starting to add a lot more flowering plants in the back where I have more sun now though.

Next up, having lots of self-seeders.  Um, not really.  I have very few.  My beloved Verbena Bonariensis is a self-seeder.

And so is the Serendipity Allium.

But I tend to be a ruthless weeder in the spring and early summer, so I mostly destroy any seedlings that dare to come up.

She also mentioned that if you have more garden than lawn, you have a cottage garden.

Hmmm.  I’m not quite there (my front yard is almost all lawn, or should I say mostly creeping charlie).  I’m working on it though 😉

She listed some of the must-have plants in a cottage garden and the first one was roses.  Clearly she hasn’t had to deal with Japanese beetles.  I used to have a few more roses, but I’ve pulled all of them out now except for one.  I just can’t deal with those pesky beetles!

But she also mentioned peonies, and I have those in spades.

Lastly, another characteristic of a cottage garden is that plants are absolutely crammed in.

OK, I definitely have that one covered!  And P.S. both my alliums and my irises are looking amazing this year.

Another characteristic mentioned was having garden ornaments that don’t look brand new.  My latest acquisition, a lovely concrete cherub that I purchased at my friend Lisa’s shed sale is perfect for a cottage garden.

And you know me, I have plenty of things in my garden that don’t look new, almost all of them coming from garage sales or hand-me-downs, like my rusty bench.

Ultimately, Alexandra says you don’t have to have all of the characteristics to qualify as having a cottage garden.  So I definitely think I can continue to call my gardens cottage style.

How about you?  Do you have a cottage garden?  Or perhaps you have another style.  Leave a comment and let me know!

drawer boxes.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

A while back one of my readers contacted me to ask if I wanted some old dresser drawers.  If so, she would send them up from Iowa with her son who happens to live in St. Paul.

So I thought, heck, why not?

In the past I’ve turned drawers into … well … what would you call them?  Boxes, I guess.

I simply asked my handyman Ken cut their depth in half or so, and like magic the drawers re-appeared in my workshop at half of their original size (I wish that worked for weight loss too).

Those drawers were a bit more plain on the front (and they had really cool drawer pulls), which made it easy to add interest using transfers.

The drawers in today’s post have a bit more detail to them including a raised panel on the front.

Oh, and full disclosure, that’s not a true ‘before’ photo.  I’d already sent them over to Ken’s workshop to be cut down, having forgotten to take a photo first.

Ken made quick work of cutting the drawers down to only 8″ deep.

To prep the drawers for paint, I removed the knobs and then first cleaned them and gave them a light scuff sanding.  Then I gave them all a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss to prevent any stains from bleeding through my paint.

I did end up having to add a 2nd coat of Bonding Boss over some of those stains inside the drawers.  I think that might have been ink.

My q tip for the day, if you still have stains bleeding through your paint after just one coat of Bonding Boss, add a 2nd coat (yes, over your first coat of paint) and be sure to let it dry for at least 24 hours.  That will usually do the trick for tough stains.

I painted up the two smaller drawers first.  I painted the first one in Dixie Belle’s English Ivy, and the 2nd one has English Ivy on the inside and Drop Cloth on the outside.

Then I applied I.O.D.’s Rose Chintz paint inlay to the raised part of the drawer fronts.

I used a spray sealer to seal the paint inlay sections, and then followed that up with Dixie Belle’s clear wax inside and out.

I have to admit, I kind of missed the boat on marketing for these two little boxes because they would have made perfect Mother’s Day gift boxes either filled with flowers …

or with some pretty vintage china.

They are the perfect unique alternative to a gift basket.

For the first of the larger drawers, I simply gave it one coat of Dixie Belle’s Caviar inside and out.  I planned to have a very distressed finish on this one, so one coat was sufficient coverage.

I sanded the heck out of it with some 220 grit sandpaper to rough it up.

After wiping away the dust, I added part of a stencil to the raised section on the front using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

It’s a super simple look, but I like it.

I finished it off with some of the Sweet Pickins Dark Oil Wax.

You may remember that I used this product on the flooring in a couple of my dollhouses.

By the way, sidebar, you may have noticed that I’ve put the Christmas Cottage dollhouse on the back burner for now.  I plan to bring it back out in the fall and finish it up for the Christmas season.

Anyway, I’d recently watched  YouTube video by Jonathan Marc Mendes where he used this topcoat on a piece of furniture that was going outside in his garden.  He suggested that the Oil Wax would provide reasonable protection for something going outside since it will repel water.  So I thought I’d give it a shot.

If you don’t have a window box, this would be a fun way to add one (if adding live plants, be sure to drill some drainage holes into the bottom of the box/drawer).

Of course, the box would hold up better in a protected location like on an enclosed porch.  But who cares if it only lasts for a season or two if you put it outside?

You may have already noticed that I used some of my lilacs to stage the photos of this drawer.

If you’ve been following me for long, you know I’ve struggled with my lilac hedge.  But I’ve decided to give it yet another chance.  I do love the flowers, although it’s unfortunate that they only stick around for a couple of weeks.  I found a few more Common Lilacs at my local Fleet Farm earlier this spring and I popped those in hoping that they’ll fill in where the fancy hybrids have gotten straggly.  We’ll see how it goes.

Now, as for the 4th and final drawer, I think I’m going to hang onto that one for the Christmas holiday season.  You’ll just have to stay tuned … for quite some time … to see how that one turns out.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my drawer/boxes!  What would you do with one of them?

a handful of finds.

Published on by Quandie11 Comments

I feel a bit guilty that I have been slacking a bit with the blog posts.

But I have been busy, busy, busy.

Between getting the garden up and running, hitting the garage sales, and trying to keep up with my exercise routine (you have to make it a priority or it just doesn’t happen), I haven’t had much time for painting stuff.

But not to worry, I have a fun painting project to share later this week.

In the meantime I thought I’d share some of my garage sale finds from the last couple of weeks.  I admit that I haven’t brought home huge hauls, but I definitely have found some really great vintage items starting with this set of travel books.

Wouldn’t they make a great gift for someone who loves travel?  Even if they aren’t going to read them … because let’s face it, most of us wouldn’t actually read them … they would look fantastic on a mantel or bookshelf.  Plus Google says the books by H.V. Morton “are celebrated for their charming, observational style”, so they might just be worth a read too.

The camera is a garage sale find as well, in fact I purchased three of them at one sale (only two made it into my photo).

I already have an example of each of them in my own non-collection (because I’m in denial about collecting anything!), so all three will make their way into my upcoming occasional sale.

I also brought home this fun darkroom beaker.

As you can see, it has measurements printed on it.  It also has a big Kodak logo on it.

Apparently these were used in darkrooms to measure the developing chemicals.  You know, from the olden days when people actually got photos developed.

I also brought home a pair of McCoy vases, and a pair of green floral frogs.

Well, only one of the vases has the McCoy mark on the bottom so the 2nd one may not be an authentic McCoy.  That doesn’t really matter to me, and these two are destined for my own non-collection of matte white mid-century pottery.  Yep, another thing I’m in denial about collecting.

Another fun find were these wrought iron garden edgers.

I just love the old fashioned appeal of these.  I have a couple of them myself that I use in my herb planter.

I also purchased a couple of buckets, and have since added some stencils to them.

A couple of them got a simple French Market stencil.

And another one got a laundry themed stencil.

Once the stencil paint was dry, I added a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to protect them.

I’m sure no one wants to use these old heavy buckets for actual cleaning anymore, but I find they make great trash cans.  I use bucket trash cans at my desk, in my bathroom, in Mr. Q’s study and the bedroom.

But a couple of the buckets have already had drainage holes drilled in the bottom, so that also makes them perfect as planters … and I have a couple of those at my house too.

All of these buckets are going into the inventory for my upcoming occasional sale, as are many of this items in this post.

When I picked up this enamelware coffee pot at one of the garage sales, it was unadorned of course.  I thought it would be fun to add one of the I.O.D. transfers from their Home Sweet Home set.

It was the perfect fit.

While I had that set of transfers out, I also added one to this crock.

The crock itself and the vintage cookbooks were also garage sale finds from last week.

I always grab ironstone when I see it at a good price, and that was certainly true of this next pitcher.

Now and then I find them in this style, and I did hang onto one of them for myself in the past, but I’ve always sold off any others that I find.  But now I’m starting to wish I’d kept them all!  I find that this style appeals to me more now.

Hmmmm.  Do I keep this one, or sell it?  Decisions, decisions.

That brings me to my find of the day!

Eureka!  A whole box of vintage ornaments!

It has been a while since I’ve found a good stash of ornaments.  And some of these are really quite unique like this red one with children and their toys on it …

You just gotta love that little boy on his pogo stick.

A few of them are missing their caps, but I happen to have a stash of extras so hopefully I can match them up with ones that fit.

I did bring home a few other things, like some old metal buckets and another small wheeling stool.  I’ll be sure to share those as I get them painted up, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, let me know which of my finds is your favorite.

planting plugs.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

It has been awhile since I’ve sent out a Sunday morning in the garden post.  In fact, the last one was on December 14 of last year!

Things are definitely looking a bit different now.

Once again, I am out in the garden.  I’ve been super busy getting things cleaned up, mulched and weeded.  I’ve also been shopping for plants!

I know I’ve said it here before, but just as a reminder to my local readers, Country Sun Farm in Lake Elmo has far and away the best annuals around.

I’ve been to nearly every garden center in my area over the last week or so, and they outshine all of them.

And no, this is not a sponsored post in any way.

As for prices, at $6.99 for a 4.5″ pot they are no more expensive than the same size from Fleet Farm or Bachman’s.

They do only sell annuals, no perennials, and they get picked over fast.  I purchased a couple of gorgeous caladium on my first visit, and then the rest were already gone when I went back a few days later.

I also visited Dragonfly Gardens in Amery, Wisconsin last week.  It’s a garden center that focuses on native plants.  I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of native plants.  I know they are good for wildlife, low maintenance once established and are less prone to pests.  But honestly, not too many of them appeal to me.

However, what I discovered last week is that Dragonfly also sells plugs.

If you aren’t familiar, plugs are young plants cultivated in individual cells, typically in seed trays, that are ready for transplanting into larger containers or directly into the soil.  They are much more cost effective than perennials that are already potted up.  For example, a one gallon perennial at Dragonfly is $14.99 and a plug is only $7.99.  So that’s almost a 50% savings.

If you are planning to plant some perennials en masse … or even just in a grouping of 3 or 5, this is a much more affordable way to do that.

You might be thinking that planting something this tiny must mean that it takes forever for them to turn into a full sized plant, but from everything I’ve read online, theoretically they catch up in just one growing season.

I’ve never planted plugs before, mainly because I’ve never seen them sold in a garden center.  I know you can order them online, but it just never has occurred to me to do that.  So I’ve decided to give it a go.  I purchased three Candytuft plugs and three Brunnera plugs.

At Dragonfly, you simply pop the plug into a small paper sack to take it away.  Just keep in mind that you have to plant them fairly quickly … or otherwise keep them from drying out until you can.  I planted mine right away the next day.

Another big benefit to planting plugs is that it’s easier to get them in the ground.  You just need a small hole.  That works especially well if you’re planting around tree roots, or, as in my case, you don’t want to disturb too many of your scilla bulbs.

Another reason to purchase plugs is if you don’t have the space or the inclination to start things from seed yourself.  You can purchase all kinds of annuals as plugs too, including many vegetable plants.

I plan to update you all near the end of the growing season to let you know how the plugs worked out for me.  So be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, have you ever planted plugs?  Leave a comment and let me know.