Author: Quandie

and I’m back.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Why is it that vacations go by so quickly.  It feels like you’re anticipating it for so long, and then bam!  You’re already back home again.

My sister and I had a great time visiting our mom again.  After our last visit, I shared the makeover we did on her patio …

It was fun to be back to see how things were holding up.  Unfortunately, I totally dropped the ball on getting an updated photo for you guys.  But I can tell you that most of the plants I put in died (due to temps in the 100’s, and my mom in the hospital and unable to water regularly), but the bougainvillea (pink flowering plant in the pot shown above) was doing great and in fact we had to go out and get a trellis for it because it had gotten so big.

My mom was also doing great.  After my last visit in March I was really worried about her health, but she seems to be doing much better now (knock on wood).  I could tell that she was feeling better by the amount of cooking she did for us!  She made our favorite pork chops, corn casserole, egg bake, two kinds of strawberry desserts, homemade caramel rolls and lasagna.  It was awesome.

My sister and I also took full advantage of the fact that her new townhouse (my mom downsized from her 4 bedroom house to a two bedroom townhouse in January 2021) has a pool.  This was our view every afternoon …

It was in the 90’s with a perfectly blue sky every day we were there, and we pretty much had the pool all to ourselves (except one afternoon when two other people were there).  We just relaxed by the pool and did some reading each day.  It really was heavenly.

We also visited the Henderson Bird Sanctuary while at my mom’s house.

It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed the visit.  But I have to say we didn’t see very many birds … with the exception of the mechanical kind.  The sanctuary seems to be located right under a flight path to the Vegas airport and those airplanes kept coming in one after another, after another, like clockwork.

My sister and I also checked out Ethel M Chocolates in Henderson.  It’s a great place to buy some really expensive (and delicious) chocolates, but they also have a lovely botanical cactus garden, one of the nicest I’ve seen (compared to a couple I’ve been to in the south of France, like this one).

They had started putting up lights for Christmas already, and I’m just betting that they put on an amazing holiday display.

It was quite hot the afternoon we visited, and you might wonder how you can get your chocolate home safely in those kind of temperatures, but they put ice packs in your shopping bag along with the chocolate.  Isn’t that a thoughtful detail?

Probably the most fun part of our trip was heading off to Disneyland though.  My sister and I took a quick flight from Las Vegas to the John Wayne airport in Orange County, and then we spent 4 nights at the Grand Californian in Disneyland.

It had been a while since we’d visited the original Disney park.  I’d almost forgotten how much smaller it is, especially that castle.  See it down there, at the end of Main Street?

It’s almost comically small compared to the one at Disney World.  But hey, back in Walt’s day I bet it was totally magical, definitely something never seen before in an amusement park.

By the way, that gal driving the horse drawn carriage is Ashley, and she was super friendly and told us all about how they care for the horses that work at Disneyland, and how they used to have some stables on the land that is now part of Galaxy’s Edge, but now they have relocated them to a ranch that is about 30 miles away.

My biggest q tip for you today, if you ever visit a Disney park, is to always make a point of chatting with the cast members (that’s what they call the employees there).  They are always super friendly and informative, and on this trip in particular they were all really enthusiastic and welcoming.  I think maybe they are all just really happy to be back at work after the park was closed for more than a year due to covid.

One of the highlights of our visit was seeing the Haunted Mansion all decked out for Halloween.

My photo doesn’t really do it justice, but it was covered in candelabras that flickered as though loaded with 100’s of real candles, and there were jack o’lanterns everywhere.  It was perfectly spooky!

We also enjoyed having some drinks in Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge.

We had some super geeked out Star Wars fans at the table next to us and they were wearing full on Star Wars costumes and brandishing their new light sabers.  So fun!

I’m back in the real world now though, and planning to spend the weekend out in my workshop starting work on some of my Christmas items (I know, I know, way too early, but it will be here before we know it).  How about you?  Are you starting to think about Christmas decorations already?  And tell me, have any of you been to both Disneyland and Disney World?  Which is your favorite?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

colors for fall.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

Recently Dixie Belle was kind enough to send me all of the colors in their new Suzanne’s Fall Colors line.

They are all perfectly cozy colors for this time of year!

So I decided to use as many of them as possible on one project.  Well, lol, not really.  I didn’t make a concrete decision to do that, it just sort of turned out that I was able to use three out of the five colors on today’s project.

A while back one of my readers gave me a bunch of drop down table leaves that had been removed from tables.  A pair of them were the perfect size for my Farmers Market stencil from Wallcutz.

I decided to give them a little texture first using the Dixie Belle Sea Spray texture additive.  I mixed it with some of their Colonel Mustard paint and stippled it onto the surface of my table leaf.  Once that was fully dry, I sanded it back just a bit to take down the high peaks.  I’ve found that I prefer a slightly more subtle textured look, and this is a great way to achieve it.

Next up I painted the first leaf in one of Suzanne’s Fall Colors called Juniper.  Then I added a shadow of my stencil first using the Latte color.

I only ‘shadowed’ the word FARMERS and the little doo-dads on either side of MARKET.  Then I followed that up by painting the full stencil in Cashmere.

Full disclosure, I staged and photographed this sign before I left on my trip out to my mom’s.  So I didn’t really have any great fall color in my garden yet, although my Sweet Autumn clematis was blooming like mad.

So I had to fake the autumn vibes a bit with some pumpkins.

One of my regulars has already snagged this sign, so it’s not available for sale.

For the 2nd of the leaves, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky (over the mustard sea spray texture).  And to be completely honest, I can’t exactly remember which colors I used for the stenciling on this second one!

I may have used the same ones, but then again, I may not have.  I think I used Dixie Belle’s Putty on this one instead though.  I really should write these things down when I’m not going to get to blogging about them right away!

And this one is still available, so if any of you locals have a spot for it, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for all of the details.

Anyway, what do you think of my table leaf signs?  And how about those new fall colors from Dixie Belle?  Which one is your favorite?

inspired by.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

One of my readers offered me this little cabinet a while back.  She’d planned to give it a makeover herself, but never got around to it and finally decided to give it up.  Hey, it happens to all of us, right?

If you look at the top, right side of the cabinet, you can see that this piece was formerly a built-in.  There isn’t any trim on that side because it was up against a wall.  So the first step with this piece was to have my handyman Ken work some of his magic on it.

He wasn’t aiming for perfection, I just wanted him to add a little bit of balance to that side of the cabinet.

So he added a 1″ x 2″ board to the side to ‘match’ the other side, and then he moved that tiny bit of trim (with the arrow pointing to it in the photo above) from the back of the cupboard to the side instead.  He also added a little piece of filler wood behind it so that there wasn’t a gap.

Then he added that little triangular piece of wood under the 1 by 2 to sort of fake your eye into not noticing the lack of trim there.

I used some of Dixie Belle’s Mud to hide some gaps too.  Then I painted all of the new wood in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  I did that because I knew I wanted to paint this piece in milk paint, and milk paint over raw wood looks a bit different than milk paint over finished (or painted wood) and I didn’t want that area to stand out.

I mentioned that last week’s spooky furniture was inspired by the Kabinet & Kammer book.  I’m often inspired by things I see in decorating books, and today’s piece is another example of that.  This time my inspiration comes from Patina Farm by Gianetti & Gianetti.

Specifically, this cupboard in Patina Farm …

I love that smoky blue grey color, along with the really worn and distressed look of that cabinet.

I thought that I could probably recreate that look using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Aviary.  So I mixed up the rest of the Aviary paint I had on hand and started painting.

I really cut it close with the paint.  I’d already used some of the package of paint on both my sister’s trunk and a small chair, so I had less than half left.  Luckily I was aiming for a massively worn look because that helped disguise the fact that I didn’t really get perfect coverage with just two coats on paint on this piece, but that was all the paint I had left.

It was enough to give me the look I wanted though.

After painting the outside, I distressed heavily (by sanding with 220 grit paper) and then added a top coat of clear wax.  I ultimately decided not to paint the inside.  I think the smoky blue color works well with the tone of the warm wood interior, and with the door shut you really don’t see much of it.

I did clean it up a bit inside using Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta though.  This time I used their new scent for fall called Flannel.  It smells pretty much just like men’s cologne, so if you’re looking for a more masculine scent, this is it.  It would be perfect for freshening up the drawers of a gentlemen’s chest of drawers.

This cupboard would be a fun piece to tuck into a narrow spot in your home, and as you can see it looks great with some ironstone inside.

Although this is usually where I tell locals that they can check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details, but this sweet little cupboard is already spoken for!

Just a heads up to those of you who look for my blog posts on the regular, my sister and I are flying out later today to visit our mom.  We’ll be gone all of next week, so I’ll be taking a little bit of a blog break.  But I’ll be back with another post on October 4, so be sure to stay tuned!

the floral anthology tackle box.

Published on 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 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 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 by Quandie11 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 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 by Quandie18 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 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!