Author: Quandie

getting lucky at the restore.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

My sister and I headed over to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore the other day.  I wanted to pick up a few more cupboard doors to use to make signs.  I found 4 good sized doors for $4 each, but before heading out we took a quick look around and I also found this fabulous little primitive cupboard.

I knew this would be a fun project to work on, and that a little paint and a transfer would really make it shine.

I started by sanding it lightly, then giving it a good cleaning.  Then I painted the inside in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road and the outside in their Sawmill Gravy.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded heavily because I wanted a lot of distressing on this one.

Next I pulled out an old IOD transfer called Specimens and applied it to the front of the cupboard.

I only used the bottom half of the transfer, and that was perfect.

Next I added clear wax to the entire thing.  I also added some heavy duty D-rings to the back so that it could be hung on the wall.

This cupboard has a clever little latching mechanism for keeping the door shut (it totally reminded me of the one on the washstand I shared a while back).

I’m always a sucker for these sort of primitive details, how about you?

I was channeling my inner Nina Hartmann when staging this one.

Are any of you familiar with her work?  I’ve mentioned her a few times here before.  I have several of her books, and they can be hard to come by here in the U.S.  I ordered the latest one, Living with Swedish Antiques, directly from her website (to order click on webshop, then books).  Don’t be totally freaked out by the price, it is shown in Swedish krona.  That being said, her books aren’t cheap.  After converting krona to dollars, I ended up paying around $80 for this one, including shipping.

The book on the bottom of the stack, among vintage & friends, is also totally fabulous.  Here’s a page from that one …

I think you can probably see why it appeals to me.

But I think my favorite book of hers is My home with vintage & antiques.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any tips on how to acquire either of these older two books.  They are out of print and priced exorbitantly if you can even find them online.  So I apologize for telling you all about how amazing they are, and then following it up with ‘and by the way, you can’t get them anywhere.’  But you can get her newest book, so you may want to jump on that.

The primitive look of this cupboard, the color of the Sawmill Gravy (white with a hint of grey), the crackled ironstone and the mostly bare evergreen are all inspired by Nina’s style.

I love how this little cupboard turned out.  Once again, I’m tempted to keep this one.  Or maybe swap it out for some other piece I already have.

But then again, maybe I’ll just be happy to see it go to a good home.  So if any of my local readers are interested, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

So, how about you guys, are any of you already fans of Nina Hartmann?  or just simply fans of pale, painted wood pieces with lots of character?

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the paint used on this cupboard.

goldilocks and the 3 grays.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

I purchased this sofa table at the Goodwill nearly a year ago.

I struggled to get a good ‘before’ photo of it.  You can’t really tell, but the top is that sort of yellow-ish, shiny wood finish that was popular in the 90’s and the base is a dark forest green.

I’m not really sure why I grabbed this piece, except that the price was right and I figured it would be a quick makeover.

I knew I wanted to strip the top, and that’s a summer job for me.  I prefer to avoid stripping pieces in the house during the winter.  So I set this table aside for a few months.  Then last summer I stripped the top.  After I had it down to bare wood, I decided I liked the pale color but it was still a bit too golden.  So I white washed it using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth (check out this post if you want to learn more about white washing).

After white washing, I added a top coat of clear wax.

I loved how the top turned out, so next I moved on to painting the base.

I thought it would work well to stick with the pale color scheme, so I painted the base in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.  Normally I like French Linen, but for some reason it didn’t work on this piece.  It just looked strangely washed out.  I thought maybe the piece needed more contrast between the top and the base , so I pulled out the Gravel Road next and re-painted the base.

But you know what?  I didn’t like that either.  It was too dark.

So I did what I tend to do in this situation.  I threw a drop cloth over it and used it to stack stuff on out in the carriage house for a few more months.

Flash forward to a week or so ago.  I had ordered some more Gravel Road from Dixie Belle, but somehow they sent me their Hurricane Gray by mistake.  At first I was slightly bummed by this mistake, but then I realized that the Hurricane Gray might actually be just perfect for the base of this table.

Here’s a comparison of the these three shades of gray.

That’s French Linen on the left, Hurricane Gray in the middle and Gravel Road on the right.  If the French Linen was too pale, and the Gravel Road was too dark, maybe the Hurricane Gray would be just right.

So I pulled the table out of ‘storage’ and repainted the base once again.

Perfect.

I staged it up with a few of my favorite things.

I think it works to balance the cool tones of the black & white photo and the Hurricane Gray  with the warm golden tones of the lamp, clock, books and old wooden crate .

A little bit of paint gave a fresh new look to a rather tired, dated looking piece, don’t you agree?

Hopefully the neutrality of this piece will help it sell quickly.

Speaking of which, if any of my local readers are in need of a sofa table, be sure to check out the details on my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the products used for this project.

such a slacker.

Published on by Quandie17 Comments

First up, I want to say congratulations to Ruth H for winning my blogiversary giveaway.

I drew her name at random to win a few of my favorite Dixie Belle paint colors and a couple of other things.  Mr. Q has shipped off her prize and I hope she gets it in time to whip up a few things for the holidays.

What I didn’t mention in my original post about the giveaway was that I also had another complete package of all the same stuff to give to someone.  But rather than drawing a name at random for the 2nd set, I decided to give it to the person who left the most comments on my blog to date in 2020.  So I pulled up my blog stats and quite honestly I wasn’t at all surprised to find that that person was M. Constance Colvin.

Connie is a regular commenter, and she always sends the most lovely little messages, like this one …

“Well now……this post captures the essence of quandification (-: A pretty makeover of something that already looked great! “

and this one …

“A Quandie a day keeps the blog blahs away!!!”

Her comments always make me chuckle …

“Miss Quandie! Only TWO BUCKETS to share today? What a slacker!!!”

I’m super grateful to Connie for taking the time to leave comments.  They always make my day!

But speaking of being a slacker, I feel a bit like one this week.

Now that we are approaching the shortest day of the year, it’s dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I get home in the evening.  That means that if I want to photograph a project to share here on the blog I have to do it on the weekend.  If it’s not done by Sunday afternoon, then I am s.o.l.

Last weekend I spent some time finishing up my Christmas shopping, did my Christmas wrapping, and just enjoyed some down time.

I didn’t get a single thing painted.

Let’s hope I do better this weekend!

making do.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

Over the past several years I’ve sort of accidentally started a new Christmas tradition for myself.  Each year I create a new theme for my holiday gift wrapping.

Last year I kept the colors really neutral and I used some Deer transfers from re.design with prima.

I also made gift tags using photocopies of old black and white family photos.

In 2018, I was inspired by a recent trip to a velvet making factory in Venice and I stenciled my own wrapping paper to simulate the look of their beautiful fabrics.

In 2017 it was a pretty in pink Christmas.  I painted boxes pink and used Fusion’s transfer gel to apply some 12 Days of Christmas graphics to them.

Back in 2016 I used Fusion’s Copper paint and old rolls of player piano music to create some unique Christmas gift packages.

I started this 2020 holiday season feeling a little bit stumped about what I was going to do.

Then I remembered this set of IOD Crockery stamps that I purchased a while back.

I absolutely love the designs on these, but here’s the thing … I really think it’s difficult to use rubber stamps effectively on anything other than paper.  I’ve used them on fabric in the past, and also on painted furniture, but I didn’t like the results well enough either time to repeat the experience.  I’ve also seen people use them on curved surfaces, but to me the results always just look sloppy.  In my opinion, it’s extremely difficult to get a crisp look with a stamp on anything other than a flat surface.  It’s also entirely possible that I am just a tad too picky about these things 😉

What I wouldn’t give to have some transfers in these designs, they’d be gorgeous on jars, plates, clay pots, the possibilities would be endless (come on IOD, make these as transfers!).  Unfortunately you can’t get anywhere near this level of detail with a stencil, or that would be awesome too.

Anyway, despite the fact that they aren’t Christmas-y at all, my idea was to somehow use these stamps to create some holiday gift wrapping.  I made up a shopping list for the craft store and planned to get some supplies and see what I could come up with.

I was literally in the process of putting makeup on so I could go out in public (to Hobby Lobby) on Black Friday when I decided that I really didn’t want to go to a crowded store.  I’d just avoided going to my in-laws for Thanksgiving, and that would have been just six of us.  How could I possibly justify going to a crowded store on Black Friday of all days?

Instead I decided to just make do with things I already had around the house.

I had a roll of brown craft paper, and some brown paper shopping bags.  I also pulled out some book pages and some simple shipping string.

I started with the bags.  I needed to cover up the store logos, so that’s where the book pages came in.  I wasn’t sure if I’d like the look of the stamps over a book page, but I gave it a shot.

Always make sure you have a firm, flat surface underneath your paper when stamping.  I used a large clip board on top of my drop cloth covered piano.

Turns out that I did like the look of the stamps over book pages, so I made up a couple and glued them to the bags to cover up those store logos.

And then I wrapped some boxed gifts in craft paper and added book pages to them as well.

If you aren’t a fan of the book page look, or if you simply can’t bear ripping apart an old book, you could also just use plain paper.  Or in this case some paper that was tea stained to make it look old.

But the look that ended up being my absolute favorite was to just stamp right on the brown craft paper.  This was a little tricky because I stamped on the paper first, then had to keep that design semi-centered while wrapping the gift.  You could try stamping after wrapping, but again, you need that firm hard surface to get a good result.  If your gift box has some give, you’ll not get a crisp image.

But seriously, how adorable are those?!  Totally worth the effort.

The best things come in small packages!

I needed some tags to go with my packages, so I used my Creative Memories tag punch and cut some out of cardstock.

Even though the stamps are a bit larger than the tags, I still think they worked.

I have to admit, I feel quite a bit of satisfaction that I was able to make do with things that I already had to create my gift wrap this year.

Who says you have to spend money?  Just dig through your craft stash to see what you can come up with this year.  Then again, you might just have to splurge on the Crockery stamps 😉

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve decided not to put up a full sized tree this year, but I do have a little tabletop sized tree and these packages work perfectly with it.

So that’s another idea you can take away from this post.  If you don’t have time to fancily wrap all of your Christmas gifts, just wrap up some small boxes to use as decorations!

I hope you are all staying safe and healthy this holiday season.  If you’re stuck at home (or just choosing to stay home like me), challenge yourself to see if you can make do with stuff you already have on hand.

cupboard door signs.

Published on by Quandie39 Comments

Way back in early summer I purchased some old cupboard doors to turn into signs.

They are long and narrow, so I wasn’t sure I’d use any of them for Christmas signs since none of my Christmas stencils were sized quite right for them.

But I had some time on my hands over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I decided to play around a bit and see what I could some up with.

I started by painting one cupboard door in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and the other in their Midnight Sky.  I thought it would be fun to do one in the more traditional red and green, and the other in black and white (which will work better with my own décor).

So, I pulled out all of my Christmas stencils and just added bits and pieces of several to create a design that worked on the long, narrow cupboard door.

There are three different stencils creating the wording in the middle section.

And some of you might remember the truck stencil.  I used it on quite a few things last year, but hadn’t yet used it this year.  I’ll admit, it’s a bit putzy to tape off all of the different segments to use different colors of paint (because it’s just a single stencil rather than a separate stencil for each layer of color).  But ultimately, it’s worth the effort.

Here’s the entire stencil on a pillow cover that I did last year …

By the way, all of the stencils I’ve used on both signs are from Maison de Stencils.

The cabinet doors came with some fabulous vintage black glass knobs.  I took them off and put them in my stash of knobs, and then I painted up some wooden knobs to use instead.  I added four of them along the bottom of the sign.

It would be adorable to hang a stocking from each of those knobs, but I didn’t have any that were the appropriate color and size so I just hung a cute little string of tiny knit stockings that I purchased a couple of years back.

But you could also put this up in the kitchen and then hang Christmas dish towels from it, or maybe a small basket full of evergreens, or some ironstone pitchers.  Or hang it in the foyer and hang scarves and hats from it.  Adding those knobs was easy to do and I feel like it adds so much potential functionality.

I kept the black sign a little bit more simple and monochromatic.

I did use a technique on the middle section that I haven’t done in a while, and that’s giving my stencil a ‘shadow’.  Doing this adds a lot of depth to your stencil and it’s really fairly easy.  You just stencil first in the color you want for your shadow, in my case I used Dixie Belle’s French Linen.  Then, once that paint is dry, place your stencil slightly off to the side and down a bit, like this …

And then stencil with your final color, in this case Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

I love the way this turned out and it looks amazing in person, but it seems to be totally throwing off my camera’s ability to focus.  As a result, I had a really hard time getting a photo of the sign where it didn’t look blurry.  But trust me, it does not look blurry in person.

This time I did have some stockings to hang that were the appropriate color and style …

You’ll remember that I stenciled these a couple of weeks ago.

Originally I made this sign for myself, but in the end I decided to take it into the shop to see if it will sell.  I do have two more of these cupboard doors, so I can always make another for myself between now and Christmas if I decide I simply must have one.

I’ve pretty much run out of time on selling Christmas décor though.  I usually find that if I don’t have my Christmas stuff out before Thanksgiving there is a good chance it won’t sell.  So I took one last load of Christmas stuff to the shop this week and that will be it for this holiday season.  I’ll still be posting a few more holiday things here though.  For example, next week I’ll share some Christmas wrapping that I crafted for this year, so be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you haven’t yet left a comment on my blogiversary giveaway post, you still have until midnight tonight to be in the running to win the prize.  So be sure to click over to that post and leave a comment!

it even lights up!

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

A few weeks back I shared the birthday gift basket I put together for my friend Sue.

As I mentioned in that post, Sue has mastered the art of presentation and she always makes up the most amazing gift baskets for me on my birthday, so I knew she would appreciate my gift to her.

So today I thought I’d come full circle and share what she presented to me recently for my birthday.

She always leaves her gift in my office at the day job, and this time when I walked in I exclaimed, “it even lights up!”

I didn’t capture it well in these photos, but there is a string of battery operated lights woven throughout.  If any of you are putting together holiday gift baskets and you want a wow factor, consider adding some lights!

There were all kinds of other goodies tucked inside, like these vintage clothes pins in an old enamelware refrigerator container.

It probably seems silly, but I was really happy to see the soap too.

Funny story, last year my sister and my neighbor nnK both coincidentally got me a four pack of this exact brand of hand soap.  And that was before COVID and frequent handwashing were even a thing.  I had just cracked open the final bottle of that soap a couple of weeks ago, so it was perfect timing to get another!

Sue also threw in a candle from the White Cottage Co.

She and I have both been watching Mary Yoder’s YouTube channel for a while now.  If you haven’t seen her, you should take a look.  She shares lots of DIY and trash to treasure projects, and she’s very down to earth.  She makes a lot of things using a Silhouette machine, so if you’re looking for inspiration on that front, be sure to check her out.

Aren’t the vintage glasses Sue included fantastic?

I feel like one should drink things like a Manhattan, a Rusty Nail or a Sidecar out of these.  I may have to give that a try.

There were also a couple of magazines tucked inside the basket.

Sue has recently started sharing these American Farmhouse magazines with me, and I really like them.  The style is right up my alley, and they are chock full of great decorating inspiration.  The amount of content in each issue is almost overwhelming.  If you haven’t seen this one, I definitely recommend it.

And of course, no gift would be complete without some wine and chocolate!

This sweet little ‘believe’ pillow cover was wrapped around the wine bottle.  I just added some filler and voila …

That’s a lotta stuff all tucked into one package!  You can see why I so look forward to getting a birthday gift from Sue.  There were so many fab things that I can’t even begin to pick a favorite.  How about you?  What would have been your favorite item to receive?

always believe.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

Last summer my sister-in-law texted from a garage sale to ask if I wanted this doll cradle.

I thought it was crying out for a paint job, so naturally I said yes.  Look at all of those flat surfaces, they would be perfect for some stenciling.

Not only did my s-i-l purchase it for me, she also delivered it which was pretty darn awesome of her considering they live way over on the other side (and then some) of the Twin Cities.  Thanks again for doing that Tracy!

I’m still not quite sure about the direction I chose to go with this one because I decided to paint it black, Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky to be precise.

Maybe I should have gone with a color that was more traditionally baby-dollish like pink or yellow.  Or even just kept it light with my favorite Drop Cloth.

But no, I went black.  Maybe it’s a metaphor for this holiday season.

No, no, of course it isn’t.  I just thought it would pack a graphic punch painted black and then stenciled.  And I added an uplifting message to ‘lighten’ it up a bit.

I painted the entire cradle in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.  Once dry I sanded to distress the edges, and then I added a mish mash of my favorite holiday stencils from Maison de Stencils using Dixie Belle’s French Linen paint.

I finished all of that off with some clear wax.

I also upgraded the bedding itself.  The stuff it came with was looking a little tired.

So I added a ‘sheet’ made from an old curtain with some tatted trim and my friend Sue sewed up a sweet little chenille blanket to add a little coziness.

The pillow case is actually a vintage hankie holder.  Back in the day one would have kept all of their pretty handkerchiefs inside this little cloth envelope (here’s one on Etsy to give you an idea of what I’m talking about).  I just stuffed it with fill to make it a pillow.

I have to tell you guys, I’ve had this thing lying around for years.  It was one of those things that I picked up at a garage sale because it was so sweet, but then had absolutely no idea what to do with it.  I’m sure I tried to sell it at my occasional sales and never had a taker.

Isn’t it funny how it ended up being just the perfect thing for this cradle?

You just never know when you might find a new use for something.

Speaking of alternate uses, the obvious use for this cradle is as a doll bed, but there are a few other ways you could use it.  Take the bedding out and replace it with evergreens for a unique table display.  Or fill it with wrapped presents under the tree.

I’ll be heading in to Reclaiming Beautiful with this on Wednesday, but if any of my local readers want to snatch it up before then be sure to send me an email.  The details can be found on my ‘available for local sale’ page.

So I’m curious, what do you think of the black?  Or would you have gone with a more traditionally girly color?

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the paint used on today’s project.

what was I thinking?

Published on by Quandie32 Comments

First, I’d like to thank everyone who left a comment on my blogiversary post on Wednesday.  You all left such thoughtful, gracious comments.  You really are too kind.  Sometimes it takes a post like that to remind me that people do get some value out of my blog whether it be in the form of inspiration, or the introduction to new products or ideas.

It also really made me happy to learn that many of you enjoy all of the various subjects I post about and you’re not all just here for the furniture makeovers.  That takes a little bit of the pressure off to always be working on furniture! I enjoy that, but I also like posting about gardening, garage sales, thrifting and especially traveling (fingers crossed we get to do some more of that in 2021).  I’m going to try to throw in another home tour or two in 2021 as well!

We enjoyed a very quiet Thanksgiving at our house yesterday.  Usually we go to the in-law’s house, but due to the COVID situation we decided it would be best to not share any germs with them.  Better safe than sorry, right?  I hope you are all staying safe too!

Today’s project is a piece I picked up earlier in the fall.  It’s the terribly rickety, worn out, piece of junk, step ladder shown below.

It had layers of paint, the most recent being a boring chocolate brown.

It was all kittywampus too.  It seemed as though someone must have cut the bottoms off the back legs because the ladder didn’t even sit level anymore.

At this point you must be wondering why in the world I picked it up, I know I am.  It should have been thrown on the trash heap, or at least the ‘free’ pile, but no, I actually paid for it.  I think something in the neighborhood of $2 or maybe it was $5.  Obviously not a lot of money, but still, what in the world was I thinking?

I called handyman Ken over for a consultation and the best solution we could come up with to level things out was to add a piece of wood along the bottom of the back legs.

That added enough extra length to the back legs to allow the step ladder to sit level and feel sturdy.

Back during our weekend-long second summer, I pulled this ladder out into the driveway and sanded the heck out of it with my orbital sander.  I went through several layers of paint, first the brown, then a bright hot pink, then a 50’s kitchen green.

I sanded both the wooden steps and seat, as well as the metal legs.  Then I spray painted the metal legs with a coat of Rustoleum Chalked spray paint in a color called Chiffon Cream.  I was a bit surprised at the color of the Chiffon Cream, it was actually more white looking than the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth that I typically use as my favorite warm white.  It certainly wasn’t a bright white, but I also wouldn’t have called it cream.

But really, my purpose with the spray paint was just to get in all the nooks and crannies and it’s easier to do that on a piece like this with spray paint.  Once that was dry, I painted over it with the Drop Cloth, and I just needed a quick coat over those metal legs, but I painted two coats over the wooden steps.

When the Drop Cloth dried, I sanded just enough to reveal some of those layers of color.

Next I added a piece from the Paris Valley transfer from re.design with prima to the top step.

It was the perfect fit.

This is the perfect little ladder to use when adding Christmas decorations to the tops of cupboards.

But actually, this ladder is also the perfect size to use as a small table next to your favorite reading chair.  It has just enough space for a few books and your favorite beverage.  It would also work pretty nicely as a plant stand.

By the way, is it weird that I use a perpetual calendar as a Christmas decoration or do some of you do that too?

I’ve been doing that for a few years now.  I just know that I’d never keep up with changing the day and date every single day.  This is much more do-able for me.

I’m wondering how many people will be out and about shopping today.  Or will most people be mainly checking out the online bargains today?  I almost never shop on Black Friday, so staying home today won’t be unusual for me.  I like to spend the day after Thanksgiving putting up my Christmas decorations, watching old Christmas movies, eating leftovers (and we have lots of those this year) and just chilling out.  How about you?

So now I’m off to climb up on that ladder and add a little more Christmas cheer around here!

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the Drop Cloth paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfer used on today’s project.

lucky number 7.

Published on by Quandie168 Comments

Back in 2013 I had this crazy idea to start a blog.  A friend of mine had a blog at the time, and I thought it would be a great way to sell some of my painted furniture.

I remember thinking back then that it probably wouldn’t last for more than a few years, five years tops.  After all, let’s face it, most blogs come and go.

On my three year blogiversary, I took some time to reflect on whether or not I felt that my blog was a success.  By year three I hadn’t really met my goal of selling my furniture via my blog.  Sure, I occasionally sold a piece to a reader, but that was more the exception than the rule.  I was still mainly relying on Craigslist for furniture sales.

But I still kept going.  As it turned out, I really just loved blogging for the sake of blogging.  I loved the writing and the photography that goes into creating a blog post, and I also loved revamping vintage things to give them a new life and then sharing those projects with all of you.  And I still do.

And here I am, seven years in and I only just recently realized that these days I actually am selling quite a few pieces via the blog.  It happened so gradually over time that I didn’t even notice it. So, yes, it took nearly 7 years to meet my original goal for my blog.  However, along the way, I realized that my original goal didn’t really even matter.

But what I’ve also realized over time is that I don’t necessarily love all aspects of social media.  For example, I really don’t like the inevitable tendency to compare myself to others.  There are so many bloggers out there who are more talented, more prolific, more popular, more creative and overall way more successful than I am.  I often feel like I’m always running to try and catch up with the competition.

I also don’t like the constant pressure to do more.  Add Instagram, add Facebook Live posts, add TikTok, add YouTube videos, increase your number of followers.  All of which matters not one bit to me.

Recently Dixie Belle Paint Co contacted me and wanted to know what my social media goals were for 2021.  Uh.  Well.  Honestly?  I don’t have any.  I suspect that means I’m not going to be invited back as a Dixie Belle Content Creator in 2021.

So here I am after seven years wondering where to go from here.

As you all know, I have a full-time day job.  I also want to resume having a social life after this COVID thing is over.  So I have to pick and choose the things I spend my time on wisely.  I’ve realized that I need to re-focus on what I enjoy and ignore all of the other stuff.

In other words, don’t expect to see me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or any of the other various social media platforms out there.  And don’t expect to see my number of followers growing in leaps and bounds, because that’s unlikely to happen if I’m not playing the social media game.

But you can expect to see me continuing to provide what I hope is good content right here on my blog.  Going forward I am planning to focus a little more on that and let all of the other social media stuff go.  I’m going to take a little bit of a furniture break over the next month so that I can relax a bit and enjoy the holidays, but I plan to bring you some awesome furniture makeovers in 2021.

In the meantime, that brings me to my blogiversary giveaway!

Before Dixie Belle gives me the boot, I’ve ordered up some of my favorite products to give away.  This prize includes 16 oz. of each of my two favorite neutrals.

Midnight Sky …

and Drop Cloth …

I’ve also included 16 oz. each of my two favorite holiday colors, Honky Tonk Red and Evergreen.

To top things off I’ve included a 10 oz. clear wax and an 8 oz. Easy Peasy Spray Wax.

Thank you to Dixie Belle for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the products, and thank you to all of you for continuing to support my blog by leaving comments, following me, or just plain checking out what I have to say every now and then!

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize I’m going to ask you to do me a favor.  Please leave a comment on this blog post telling me what kind of content you enjoy seeing most on my blog.  Are you just here for the furniture makeovers?  Or do you enjoy seeing the smaller projects as well?  Maybe you like the travel posts?  Or the gardening posts?  How about the garage sale finds posts?  Or the thrift store hauls?

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, December 4, 2020 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 $150, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, December 11, 2020 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

a day of rest.

Published on by Quandie59 Comments

I don’t know how things are going where you are, but here in Minnesota our governor recently announced a ‘four-week dial back’ in response to sky-rocketing COVID cases.  As part of that plan, ‘in-person social gatherings with individuals outside your household’ are prohibited.

That meant it was time to re-evaluate the plans for my birthday yesterday.  We were initially planning to have a wild party with 50 of my closest friends.  OK, not really.  But we were thinking about having a few people over for Chinese takeout.  Instead, we canceled those plans and I decided to treat myself to a day of rest.

Do I know how to have a good time or what?

Actually, not only do I not know how to have a good time, I also don’t know how to have a day of rest.  The previous Sunday I had also planned to have a day of rest but instead I painted the inside of my Welsh cupboard.

Quite honestly, this is something that I have been putting off since I first painted this cupboard back in 2015.

I originally painted the outside in Miss Mustard Seed’s Linen, and the inside in Fusion’s Linen.  And I never really liked the Fusion Linen (and this color has been discontinued, so maybe I’m not alone in that).  I always felt like it had a sickly greenish cast to it.

So finally, five years later, I’ve gotten around to painting over it.  This time I went with Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, a gorgeous, deep, charcoal grey.

I’ve used this color on the insides of a couple of cabinets lately and I loved the way it made my ironstone pieces pop when I used them to stage the photos of those cabinets.

So I emptied all of the ironstone out of my cupboard and gave just the inside two quick coats of Gravel Road (I left the outside as is), followed by a coat of flat clear sealer.  While waiting between coats for the paint to dry, I washed up my non-collection of ironstone.

At least I chose the appropriate dish towel for my day of rest 😉

I’m fairly sure that it took me longer to wash all of the ironstone than it did to do the painting.

I broke all kinds of rules by putting my ironstone back in the cupboard without giving the paint enough time to cure.  In this case, do as I say, not as I do.  You really should give your paint a week or so to cure before loading it down with lots of heavy china.  But hey, it’s just my own cupboard, I don’t care if it’s not perfect.  I probably won’t move any of these ironstone pieces for another five years (or more).

I re-styled the contents a bit as I put them back in.  I chose not to put everything back, this time I wanted to keep the look just a tad cleaner.

I recently pulled out my Cricut machine and added some holiday-ish words to plates to bring in to the shop.  I hadn’t planned on keeping any, but ‘joy’ and ‘peace’ looked so good in my newly painted cupboard that I had to keep them.

Since I was on a roll with the holiday decorating, I added some greenery to the top of the cupboard to snazz it up for Christmas.

I love the fresh new look of the cupboard, and I love the way that ironstone really pops now.

How about you, do you like the new look or did you prefer the old one?