Quandie

the floral anthology tackle box.

Published on September 20, 2021September 14, 2021 by Quandie17 Comments

Today I have another toolbox to share with you guys. Only, wait, it’s not technically a toolbox. It’s a tackle box.

Here’s the before …

A fairly beat up, and rather dreary putty color.

Sometimes I choose to gut these tackle boxes so that they have more open space for storing something inside, but this time I decided to leave the tray in place and just spray paint the interior. I used Rustoleum’s Chalked spray paint in Charcoal, and I gave it a couple of coats of their Matte Clear Coat spray for protection.

Now you could use this tackle box for jewelry, or for your makeup. Or really anything you want.

Once I had the inside painted, I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy. Once dry, naturally I followed that up with some fabulous transfers.

The little bee under the handle is one of re.design with prima’s knob transfers. The rest of the wording is from IOD’s Label Ephemera transfer, including the Paris 1858 on the front …

The floral transfer is more of the IOD Floral Anthology transfer that I’ve been using lately.

This time I used two halves, one to the right of the clasp and one to the left.

I wrapped them around the sides …

And in front they meet in the middle.

Once the transfer was in place, I sanded lightly around all of the edges and then sealed this piece with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

If you’re keeping track, this is the 3rd project that I have used sections of this one transfer on, starting with the belles fleurs suitcase …

Followed by the the herbier toolbox …

And now the floral anthology tackle box. Plus I have enough left to do one more small project.

So if you’ve been looking at these transfers and thinking they are a bit pricey at around $30, keep in mind that you can get a number of small projects out of them. Or of course, you could just do one large piece of furniture with them as well.

Isn’t she pretty? The colors in the transfer look much more vibrant with the Sawmill Gravy behind them as opposed to the Putty and the original color of that suitcase. Personally I love all three looks though, how about you?

FYI, this item has already gone to a good home and isn’t available for sale.

a little bit spooky.

Published on September 17, 2021September 13, 2021 by Quandie18 Comments

Last year I shared a cute little chair that I gave a little bit of a spooky makeover to using a stencil.

I thought it was super cute, and it sold right away. So I thought I’d give it another shot on a larger chair.

I purchased this pair of chairs thinking I’d save them for a similar treatment for Christmas (paint and a stencil) …

But recently I decided to try the Notice of Decommission stencil on one of them first. If it doesn’t sell, I can always sand it down and paint it again for Christmas.

I started by cleaning the chair, scuff sanding it lightly and then painting it in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky. I added the stencil using their Putty.

Next I sanded to distress and added a coat of clear wax.

And that was it.

Wouldn’t this chair be cute in your foyer, or on your covered front porch, for Halloween?

Since I loved the results on the chair, I decided to go out on a limb and use the same stencil on this little chest of drawers that I picked up at the White Bear Lake Trash to Treasure day.

I say I’m going ‘out on a limb’ because I really don’t know if a piece of furniture like this will sell with a slightly spooky theme. But again, if it doesn’t sell I can always start over with fresh paint. After all, that’s the beauty of paint.

It appeared as though this piece had been painted with spray paint, and it was starting to peel in some spots. So I sanded more heavily than I normally would, I had to remove that spray paint almost entirely. Your paint job is only as good as the surface under it, so painting over peeling paint doesn’t do anything to stop the peeling.

I then gave this piece a fresh coat of the Midnight Sky as well. Then I decided to add a little depth to the piece by stenciling some designs using a slightly darker black with a tiny bit more sheen. For that I used Dixie Belle’s Silk paint in Anchor.

I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work out, but I love the result I got. It’s kind of subtle, and maybe even a little bit ghostly. I used the Dixie Belle Harlequin stencil for the diamonds and the damask pattern is a stencil from re.design with prima.

Next I added my Notice of Decommission stencil, again in the Putty.

I sanded to distress, and topcoated with clear wax.

I had removed the original drawer pulls when I prepped this piece, and I decided not to put them back on because they would have covered up too much of the stencil. So I went through my stash and found 4 black glass knobs.

The silver bolts that hold the knobs in place were a bit too jarring in the middle of the black knobs, so I painted them with the Midnight Sky first and then added a quick coat of Prima Marketing’s Bronze Age Metallique wax. That warmed them up perfectly.

I staged my photos of this piece with Sean Scherer’s Kabinett & Kammer.

If any of you are familiar with that book, you’ll understand why. The overall aesthetic leans slightly towards the dark and mysterious.

Even my use of the black metal strong box was inspired by this book.

I’m hoping that someone out there appreciates this style and will want to add a unique little chest of drawers to their home.

What do you think?

Both the chair and the chest of drawers are for sale. Be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details if interested.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the paint used for these makeovers.

who needs tuscany when you have farmington?

Published on September 13, 2021September 12, 2021 by Quandie25 Comments

A while back my … gosh … I don’t really know what to call her … my virtual work colleague? I was initially thinking my ‘online friend’ but that seems to have the wrong connotation 😉 Basically, Deb is the contractual ambulance biller assigned to our account at my day job. We have one of those work relationships that are conducted almost entirely over the phone and via email. I’m pretty sure I’d literally only met her in person twice (or was it even only once?), but I speak with her on the phone several times a week and email her almost daily. Recently she purchased the Farm Fresh Shelf from me and when she and her husband came to pick it up we got to chatting, and they invited us to help with their grape picking this year.

Deb and her husband own Crazy Legs Vineyard in Farmington, MN (check out their Facebook page). They sell their grapes wholesale to local wineries. As soon as she mentioned it, I knew that such an event would be great fun for me and my sister.

So bright and early this past Saturday, Debbie (my sister, the other Debbie in this story) and I loaded up the Bug with some lawn chairs and garden gloves, put the top down, and headed to Farmington.

As soon as we got there I knew we were in for a treat. Just check out that barn!

And the gardens …

I wanted to just take a tour of the place rather than getting straight to the grape picking!

I absolutely loved this little side building …

Wouldn’t that be a charming spot for a little vintage shop?

I don’t actually know what’s inside. It’s probably used for something far more practical. But it sure is cute, and I love the arrangements in the window boxes.

Without a doubt, they just made the grapevine wreaths (I’m guessing they have plenty of vines to hand), and it looks like they might be painted in a faded barn red (I may have to borrow that idea for my own fall décor this year).

And isn’t this little courtyard area next to the pole barn charming?

They had a really fun and unique combination of flowers in the window boxes here.

I tried Angelonia (tall purple one in the center) in my front window boxes once and they were a complete failure, but they look amazing here. I’ve never had great luck with Torenia (low purple ones on the side) either. And I love how they combined these with the variegated New Guinea Impatiens. Really unique and pretty fabulous.

Ultimately, I had to tear myself away from my own self-guided tour to do some actual grape picking though.

After some quick instructions on what to do, we set to work.

These vines were just loaded with grapes.

Apparently hot, sunny and dry is great grape growing weather.

We picked a lot of grapes!

OK, we didn’t pick all of those ourselves, but we did pick a lot!

I was surprised when I loaded that photo onto my computer and realized that you can barely even see the bees. There were A LOT of bees buzzing around that container.

They were making quite a racket!

Here’s a quick q tip for you, if you are afraid of bees, or allergic to their sting, then grape picking might not be for you.

But neither of us were bothered by the bees, for whatever reason they didn’t seem to mind that we were cutting away their grapes. They just moved on to the next bunch. There really were plenty of grapes for all.

By noon, we were pretty much grape picked out. Our gloves were totally saturated with grape juice and it was starting to get pretty hot out there under the noon-day sun. Luckily it was time for lunch, wine, and some live music.

I totally enjoyed the band, The Dang Ol’ Tri’ole. It was the perfect afternoon for sitting in the shade, enjoying a glass of wine and listening to some music.

To cap off the event, Deb’s son shot a cannon out of his … I don’t what you would call this thing … a giant pumpkin shooting cannon thingie …

Oh, and just to be clear, that little guy in the photo is not Deb’s son. He was a spectator.

I’m fairly sure that someone in the next county over is wondering where that smashed pumpkin in their corn field came from. Deb was just hoping it didn’t hit someone’s cow. I don’t even know how far away that pumpkin landed, I never did see it come down!

And speaking of pumpkins …

They also grow pumpkins and squash at Crazy Legs Vineyard, and they sell them at the end of their driveway.

In addition to your typical orange pumpkins, they had lots of white ones …

plus a bunch of really unique varieties that I managed to not get a photo of. I did manage to purchase a couple of them though, along with a few unusual gourds, and here they are …

I’m not exactly sure yet how I’m going to use these, but I’m sure something will come to me!

As we were heading down the driveway when we first arrived, we were chatting with another couple that was there for grape picking. They joked that they couldn’t go to Tuscany this year, but this was the next best thing. I have to say, I think this was even better! Beautiful scenery, grape picking with friends, delicious pasta and wine for lunch, followed by live music. We’d have paid a fortune to do that in Tuscany, and this was totally free (except for the pumpkins I purchased at the end) and no need for the 10 hour flight.

Who needs Tuscany when you have Farmington?

the naturalist’s toolbox.

Published on September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 by Quandie10 Comments

I’ve got another toolbox to share with you guys today.

This time I gave the green one on the top of the pile a makeover.

I initially gave it a paint job using Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road on the inside, and Drop Cloth on the outside. But it felt a bit too plain to me after that, so I painted the ends in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

After distressing the paint job a bit, I dressed it up with transfers from a variety of sources. The wording is from IOD’s Label Ephemera transfer, the butterfly on the top is from re.design with prima’s Parisian Butterflies.

The sprigs of flowers on the front are from another of re.design with prima’s older retired transfers, and I didn’t even retain the name of it so I apologize for that. However, if you’re looking for something similar, this one from Dixie Belle might work for you.

After painting the inside in the Gravel Road, I added a bit of re.design with prima’s Dark Damask decoupage décor tissue paper to the bottom.

I’ve yet to find another product that works as well for decoupaging. I did give another brand of tissue paper a try and it was a dismal failure (I’ll be sharing that in a future post). This décor tissue paper doesn’t tear and it doesn’t wrinkle, and it’s super easy to apply with some Dixie Belle clear flat coat. I just ordered a couple of their newest designs to have on hand for my next toolboxes!

In the meantime, I hate to tell you, but this one is already sold. One of my regulars purchased it along with the Farmers Market headboard sign that I shared a couple of weeks ago.

But I thought I’d still share it here with all of you.

What do you think?

the kroger stool.

Published on September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 by Quandie28 Comments

A couple of weeks back one of my blog readers offered me a free cupboard and when she was dropping it off she also offered me this little metal stool.

So, I thought, why not? I knew it would be a fun little project to give it a new look.

I started by sanding it well. It had peeling paint in some areas, especially underneath, so I wanted to get rid of that. As I was sanding I could see that this stool had been various colors in the past including red, and yellow.

I debated going with red myself, but I find that red is a bit of a tough sell for me. So instead I decided to go with my favorite Dixie Belle Drop Cloth.

Continuing to keep it fairly neutral I used Dixie Belle’s Putty to add a grain sack style stripe to the seat …

And to add a Jami Ray Vintage Grain Sack Mini stencil to the back …

I sanded the edges to distress, and then I gave it all a top coat of clear wax.

For the finishing touch, I purchased new rubber feet.

I found these at my local Menards for $1.49 for all 4, and the color matched the Drop Cloth perfectly.

Hopefully this more neutral version of the stool will fit perfectly in someone’s kitchen. Maybe even yours? If you’re local and can pick it up, that is.

Overall, it was quick and easy to go from outdated peach to farmhouse neutral with just a little paint.

What do you think?

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint used on this project.

the bloom where you are planted toolbox.

Published on September 3, 2021September 2, 2021 by Quandie14 Comments

I have another painted toolbox to share with you today.

Unfortunately I totally neglected to get a good ‘before’ photo of this one.

It’s actually the one at the back beneath the dark green one. You can just see a bit of it there, and you can sort of see that someone half spray painted it brown.

Well, I painted over the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and I painted the inside in their Mint Julep. Then I pulled out some scraps from the Cosmic Roses transfer from re.design with prima. I’ve been using bits and pieces of this transfer on various things. You last saw it on the Laundry Co sign …

I only had a few scraps left, but I was still able to trim them up and place them on both the outside of this toolbox …

plus on the inner tray …

This toolbox has a sort of bump out that holds the tray in place about half way down, and I was easily able to wrap the transfer around that.

I stenciled the top, and inside the tray using Dixie Belle’s Golden Gem Mousse.

I think the colors on this one are so pretty.

Normally this is the part where I mention that this toolbox is for sale locally, but this one has already gone home with its new owner.

I have a few more toolboxes coming up in the line up, plus a few other small projects I’ve been working on. So be sure to check back next week!

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint used for this project and to re.design with prima for supplying the Cosmic Roses transfer.

mac-grove 2021.

Published on August 30, 2021August 29, 2021 by Quandie11 Comments

First up, I drew the names of the winners of the two bags of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray that I’m giving away. I swear to you guys that I totally draw the names of my winners at random (I use an online random number generator to pick them), so it was a funny coincidence that both winners are named Wendy! Seriously, what were the chances? But anyway, congrats to both Wendy’s!

I feel as though I never really got back into my garage saling groove this year. Last year everything was up in the air because of Covid. This year, things have sort of picked back up. Some of the regular neighborhood sales came back, but not all.

My sister and I went to a couple of sales back in early June, but I didn’t bring home an impressive haul from any of them.

Then somehow two and a half months went by in the blink of an eye, and here we are at nearly September. Not at all sure how that happened. Did your summer fly by as well?

This past weekend one of my favorite St. Paul neighborhoods was having their annual sale day, Macalester-Groveland a.k.a. Mac-Grove. Look at this fab haul from Mac-Grove in 2018 …

How in the world we fit all of that into the back of my sister’s SUV I’ll never know, but we did.

Here’s another really fun one from 2019 …

My niece happened to have a rare Saturday off work this past weekend, so the three of us headed out early feeling optimistic.

Unfortunately, I didn’t come home with another pile of fabulous stuff from Mac-Grove. However, I brought home something a lot more important. A renewed sense of faith in my fellow man. That might sound a little dramatic, but honestly, every person we interacted with on Saturday was so friendly and just plain nice. And it all felt just so very normal.

I think we’ve all been so overwhelmed lately with bad news coming at us from all directions whether it’s suicide bombers in Kabul, forest fires all over the place, a hurricane headed for Louisiana, or the latest Covid numbers. In addition, on a personal level, things at my day job continue to be super stressful these days. I don’t think anyone is having fun there right now.

So it was really, really good for me to get out and interact with other human beings in a such a positive way. I really needed that this past weekend!

I did bring home a few fun things including this pair of chairs.

We currently have just 4 chairs around our patio table, and sometimes we have more than 2 other people over and I have to resort to pulling our dining room chairs outside.

Sure, I have this other pair of folding chairs that I painted a year or two ago …

But they are a bit rickety. I certainly wouldn’t want a guest to go crashing to the floor during dinner.

The pair I purchased at Mac-Grove also fold up and I can store them out of the way unless needed. But they are also really sturdy, and I think if I add a little seat cushion to them they will be plenty comfortable for dinner on the deck. Of course, I plan to give them a makeover and you’ll have to stay tuned for that.

The woman I purchased these from told us the sweetest story about a little girl who had just purchased a Barbie dreamhouse from her for $2.50. She said the girl counted out her money very carefully and was just thrilled to be getting that dreamhouse and the seller was just tickled to see it going to someone who would love it.

I purchased this set of birch bark pieces to use as part of a thank you gift for an upcoming stay at a friend’s cabin …

and when I mentioned that to the gals selling it, they were so happy. It had come from their aunt’s cabin and she had passed away.

They loved hearing that it would go to another cabin up north!

Then there was the couple who had tons of tomato plants in their garden including one that was a yellow, pear shaped tomato. My sister thought they were peppers, and so she asked about them. The husband said they were Yellow Pear Tomatoes (named simply enough), but that they didn’t taste good so don’t bother growing them. His wife then piped in and said that wasn’t true, they were perfectly good. She then popped one in her mouth to prove it, and offered us the chance to try them as well. I suppose if we were tomato lovers we would have taken her up on it, but none of us really like tomatoes so we passed on that. As we were walking away he was still insisting they were terrible, and she was insisting they were good, and we laughed all the way to the car.

Somehow I just can’t pass up a good vintage scale, so I grabbed this one when I saw it.

Are people still buying these? Does anyone know? I hope so.

How about vintage glassware? I thought these poinsettia glasses were really fun.

I’ll put them away until the holiday season when they’ll go to the shop as well.

I also purchased another old galvanized bucket that I’ll add a little something to, but that was about it for my garage sale finds at Mac-Grove this year.

My niece was in charge of driving this time around and she pointed out that she really only goes to these neighborhood sales to see the houses, so when we’d had enough garage saling we had a quick brunch at the Red Rabbit on Grand Ave (they have delicious mimosas, FYI) and then we strolled up Summit Ave to look at houses.

Who can resist admiring a few of these beautiful mansions from the past?

No one else loved that all white one above, but I really did, no surprise there.

We decided that this next house must be haunted …

It was clearly unloved and had a bit of a foreboding spirit about it.

Speaking of haunts, with Halloween just around the corner (well, OK, for retail at least, and judging by how fast time is flying by these days, for me as well), I’m just putting the finishing touches on a few spooky items that I’ll be sharing with you guys soon so be sure to stay tuned!

the herbier toolbox.

Published on August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 by Quandie21 Comments

First up, I just want to thank everyone who left a comment on Monday’s post. I didn’t have time to respond to all of them this week, but I did read every one. Also, for anyone who didn’t leave a comment, you can still get one in by midnight tonight for a chance to win a bag of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray so be sure to check that out.

I did find time to do a little toolbox painting over the last week or two, so I thought I’d share one of those with you guys today.

Since my workshop out in the carriage house is not climate controlled, I have to strike while the iron is hot … or, well … not too hot, but not too cold either, and also not too humid. In other words, when the conditions outside are perfect for painting, it’s a good chance for me to get a lot of stuff painted assembly line style.

With the toolboxes I start by piling them up on the lawn and giving them all a good wash with the hose and some spray Dawn dish soap. Once dry, I sand them lightly (more if they are rusty, less if they aren’t) and then wipe them down again. Then I add a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear BOSS to the rusty ones to slow down the rust coming through the paint. I say ‘slow down’ because I don’t know that BOSS inhibits further rusting. I suspect that over time they will continue to rust, just not as quickly.

I leave the BOSS to dry for a day, then start with painting the insides of all the toolboxes. I painted one inside with DB’s Drop Cloth, one in their Mint Julep, one in Gravel Road, and one in Blueberry. It’s lucky that I have a lot of paint brushes so that I can have lots of colors going at one time.

Once the insides are done, I move on to the outsides. I used DB’s Putty, Drop Cloth, and French Linen on the outsides. I generally paint all of the sides and tops one day, then the bottoms another day. Sometimes that process takes twice as long because I decide to do a two-tone look on the outside (you’ll see that one later). Once all of that is dry they are finally ready for the fun part, dressing them up.

Here is how this first toolbox started out …

Super red, and super crusty. I love the shape of it though, and the way it opens up with two sides that are on hinges.

After its coat of BOSS, this one got two coats of Drop Cloth on the inside followed by a couple of coats of DB’s flat clear coat to protect it. Then I added some of re.design with prima’s decoupage paper to line the bottom.

For the outside of this one I decided to step outside of my Dropcloth box and paint it in Dixie Belle’s Putty. I thought that the Putty would create the perfect backdrop for the IOD Floral Anthology transfer that I wanted to put on the front.

I think this color provided a little more depth to the overall look of the toolbox.

Once I had the floral section in place, I added some wording from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer.

The little crown on the top is from a re.design with prima Classic Vintage Labels transfer.

I added a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over everything to protect it.

I absolutely love how this one turned out. It may be my favorite toolbox so far.

It would be perfect for storing craft supplies. But I think I’d consider keeping my makeup in there too. You could also store your scarves in there. So many possibilities!

I am selling this one, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anyone left on my painted toolbox waiting list, so this one will be up for grabs. Be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if you are local and in need of a fabulous painted toolbox.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the BOSS, the paint and the clear coat used on this project.

if at first you don’t succeed.

Published on August 23, 2021August 22, 2021 by Quandie42 Comments

Sometimes you just have to try again.

I painted this twin bed back in January …

I have to admit, I didn’t absolutely love it when it was finished. But that’s not totally unusual, there are plenty of pieces I’ve painted that didn’t exactly tug at my heart strings but they still found a home with someone who did love them.

But that wasn’t the case with this bed. It didn’t get even a spark of interest from a potential buyer in the last six months. And quite honestly, I probably didn’t promote it as much as usual because I didn’t really love it myself.

So, I decided to re-purpose it entirely by turning each piece into a sign, starting with the headboard.

To begin with I gave it a coat of Sweet Pickins milk paint in a color called Window Pane which is a white with a grey undertone. I was trying to go for a chippy look. But once it was painted I really didn’t love the color. I’ve found this particular shade of white kind of finicky. It either really works on something, or it really just doesn’t. I’ve painted over it as many times as I’ve kept it.

So I went back to the drawing board again. I mixed up some of Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep with their Sea Spray additive to add texture. I stippled that onto the headboard in random spots, mostly around the frame. I’m learning as I go with this product, I’ve found that I don’t really like lots of texture, I want my results to be a little more subtle. So once the textured Mint Julep was fully dry, I sanded it down a bit to knock off the peaks. Then I painted over the entire thing in my final color, DB’s Midnight Sky.

Next up I pulled out the Farmers Market stencil that I purchased from Wallcutz.

My favorite thing about Wallcutz is that you can order their stencils in different sizes. This one is available anywhere from 10″ x 17″ up to a whopping 22″ x 38″. Mine is the 16″ x 28″ version, which currently is priced at $21.95. I think you get a lot of bang for your buck with these larger sized stencils.

I used my shadowing method to create a shadow behind just the word “Farmers”, and behind the little do-dads on either side of the word “Market”, and although it looks OK in person, it’s a bit too subtle to show up well in photos.

In hindsight, I wish I’d gone a bit darker with the shadow color. The full stencil was painted using Dixie Belle’s Putty, and the shadow was Putty mixed with some Gravel Road to darken it up.

The first time around with the stencil, I kept the full design intact. But then I realized that it looked off balance to have nothing at the bottom of my “sign”, so I sanded off the “DAIRY PRODUCE DRY GOODS” section from just beneath “MARKET”, painted back over that area with Midnight Sky, and then moved the stencil down to the bottom section of the headboard and added those words there.

Once everything was dry, I sanded with 120 grit paper to distress. That revealed some of that Mint Julep texture that was under the Midnight Sky. You can also see a bit of that Window Pane in some spots, as well as the original DB Gravel Road that was on the bed in the first place.

Really, nothing adds age as well as several layers of different paint colors. I added clear wax as a final top coat.

But wait, we’re still not done. My ‘sign’ still needed a little something more. So I went through my stash of old hooks and found a set of three that just happened to have some old chippy paint on them that was very similar in color to the Mint Julep.

So I added those between the two sections of stenciling.

They are perfect for hanging some ironstone pitchers.

Oh, and I almost forgot one more step. I asked my neighbor nnK to bring over her circular saw and cut down the legs for me. They were a bit too long hanging off the bottom.

So, what once was a bed frame now is a Farmers Market sign.

I’ll be doing something similar with the foot board, although I think I’m going to make it into a Christmas themed sign. I may end up turning the side rails into signs as well. I’ve done that before, and in fact even have a ‘side rail sign’ hanging in my own living room …

So, what do you think? Do you suppose I’ll have better luck selling a Farmers Market sign rather than a twin bed? If any of you locals are interested in it, be sure to visit my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Before I let you go today, I thought that since I’m having so much fun playing around with the Dixie Belle Sea Spray maybe I should share the wealth. So I’m going to give give away two bags of Sea Spray.

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 names of two winners for today’s prizes from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, August 27, 2021 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 $25, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, September 3, 2021 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the paint and Sea Spray I used on this project as well as the Sea Spray for my giveaway.

the vintage seed bin door.

Published on August 20, 2021August 15, 2021 by Quandie21 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog for long, you know I am a big fan of Disney. Not necessarily Disney movies, but the Disney parks. My sister and I have been to three of them, Disneyland, Disney World and Disneyland Paris. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that we passed up a visit to the Louvre to go to Disneyland Paris instead. That was probably a bad call, especially since the park was pretty disappointing. The crowds were insane (considering that at the time everyone said putting a Disneyland in France was a mistake and no one would go). We literally stood in line for 30 minutes just to use the bathroom. Next time I’ll definitely choose the Louvre. But I’d love to get the chance to visit Tokyo Disney one of these days!

But I digress. Currently my sister and I are planning a trip to Disneyland at the end of September. For us, Disneyland is the OG park. It opened in 1955, and our first visit there was way back in 1969. Here’s photographic evidence.

That’s me on the right and my sister on the left with my brother in the middle.

Anyway, we typically go to Disney World these days, but on a complete whim we decided to combine a trip out to visit to our mom with a trip down memory lane to Disneyland this fall. We have been suffering from some serious travel withdrawal during this COVID business and we both have some travel dollars burning a hole in our pockets.

So what in the world does any of this have to do with today’s blog post?

Well, my sister and I have been watching the Behind the Attraction show on Disney+ in anticipation of our trip and one recurring theme for all of the rides (and really everything) in the Disney parks is that they all have a back story. It may not smack you in the face, but even the décor in the queue is weaving a tale around you while you patiently wait to get on a ride.

And that had me thinking.

Maybe I need to come up with some back stories for my pieces, like this one.

That’s an old seed bin door from the Perry Seed Store in Syracuse, NY. You know, one of those bins where the door is hinged at the bottom and you pull it down to access the seed.

Perry Seed Store has been around since 1898, selling seeds, bulbs, hardware, implements and bird supplies.

The proprietor, F.H. Ebeling, immigrated to New York from Austria in 1914. Upon his arrival in Syracuse, he quickly found a clerk position in the Perry Seed Store selling all of the farming accoutrements needed for new settlers coming to America. In 1918 the Spanish Flu broke out in Syracuse, but luckily Franz was a very diligent mask wearer and he was unaffected. The original founder of the shop, Matthew Perry (a distant ancestor of the actor of Friends fame), was not so lucky. He died tragically from the Spanish Flu in 1919 and his only heir, his son Joseph, had joined the circus as a sword swallower two years earlier. Thus Franz was able to acquire the store at a bargain price.

The store contained a giant wall of seed bins and when you pulled open each of the 100 doors you could find anything from seed corn to tulip bulbs. In order to make the shop feel more like his own, Franz hired his cousin Albin Egger-Lienz, a painter from Vienna, to add customized advertisements to all of the seed bin doors.

Handily enough, the shop was just opposite the post office so it was quite convenient for both Franz and Albin to send regular letters to the folks back home in Austria.

What do you think? Are you buying my back story? In case it’s not already obvious, I absolutely made all of it up.

Here’s the real story behind this piece. This is another of the new cupboard doors that one of my readers shared with me recently. Once again, I gave it some layers of age using Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray paint additive and three colors of paint, Mint Julep, Rebel Yellow and Drop Cloth.

Next I pulled out the Vintage Seeds transfers from re.design with prima and picked this section to use on the cupboard door.

As you can see, the transfer was just a tad bit bigger than the raised panel in the center of the door. But, no problem. I cut apart the ‘seeds and bulbs.’ and the ‘wholesale and retail.’ sections and placed them below, and I didn’t worry about the fact that the “P” and the “E” from Perry Seed Store fall off the edge a little bit.

Once the transfers were applied, I distressed the entire piece by sanding it well. That was followed by a top coat of clear wax. Finally, I pulled this old beat up cup pull out of my stash and added it to the top of the door.