Author: Quandie

the primitive.

Published on by Quandie55 Comments

I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m rather drawn to primitive pieces.  It’s hard to find a definitive description of ‘primitive’ when it comes to furniture, but I’m referring to pieces of furniture that look like someone made it by hand, most likely out in their barn.  I’m also referring to pieces that have a very worn paint finish, and really just look like they have been around for 100 years.  That brings me to the inspiration photo for today’s piece.

I found this photo on pinterest when searching for ‘black painted dressers’.  I’m not sure where it originates from, so I don’t have any info on this piece.  But it was definitely the jumping off point for the dresser I painted last weekend.  I knew I could approximate this look with some black milk paint, and in case you are wondering I am going to forgo adding the dripping paint spill on that third drawer down.

I’m starting with this dresser that I purchased at my local ReStore a few weeks ago.

You’re probably not quite seeing any comparison to that inspiration photo just yet, but trust me on this one.

To start with, I really didn’t care for the knobs that were on this dresser when I bought it.

I don’t think that these knobs were original to the piece.  Usually this style of furniture has a pull that looks somewhat like this …

Or this …

Or this …

But this dresser only has one hole for a knob, so obviously it didn’t originally have drawer pulls that required two holes.  So I guess I’m really not sure if those knobs were replacements or not.  Either way, they had to go.

I wanted to get pulls similar to those on my inspiration piece, but have you guys tried to order things like this lately?  It felt like every affordable version I found online was out of stock, or only available in a shiny brass or chrome.  I ended up using some cup pulls that I found at my local Menards.

The other change I made to this dresser was to remove the wooden brackets on either side of that back piece.

I just didn’t like the look of them.  They were screwed in place from the back, so it was easy to remove them.  I took them off and then gave that back piece a wiggle to make sure it didn’t absolutely require them for support (which it didn’t).  I filled the holes where the screws went through the remaining back piece with Dixie Belle’s Mud.

Next up I cleaned the dresser using TSP Substitute.  This piece was pretty gross, so it required a good clean.  However, I did not sand it before painting.  I knew I was going to use milk paint, and I was willing to risk some (or even a lot) of chipping.

Today’s q tip:  Milk paint is intended to soak into the surface of bare wood.  When using it on a surface that isn’t bare wood, it will chip when it meets resistance to absorbing into the wood in the form of oils (such as grease, oily finger prints, furniture polish, etc) or previous finishes such as varnish, poly, paint, etc.  If you want to mitigate that chipping, you can be sure to clean off any oily residues using TSP or TSP substitute, and/or you can scuff sand your piece to break down previous finishes.

I chose to just clean my piece and not scuff sand because I’d be OK with some chipping.  If you’re worried about excess chipping with milk paint, do both.  Or use a bonding agent.

While cleaning the inside of the dresser, I found that it had been signed …

I think that’s definitely a clue that this piece was made by hand rather than by machines in a factory.

When I went to pull out my Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter, I found that I only had about 1/4 cup of the powder left in the bag.  Yikes!  I was really nervous that this wouldn’t be enough paint for this project, but it turned out to be plenty.  Mainly because I ended up needing only one coat of paint.  I was going for a worn look anyway, so it was perfectly fine if I didn’t end up with fully opaque coverage.

Milk paint dries really fast, especially when you’re painting inside a heated house with pretty much zero humidity.  So once the paint was dry, I sanded my piece with vigor to get the worn look that I wanted.  I focused on areas that would have received more wear over time, like around the key holes and the edges of the drawers.

Next, I pulled out some of my European grain sack style stencils (from Maison de Stencils).  I knew I’d have some that could give me a look similar to the inspiration piece.

I used Dixie Belle paint in Putty to do the stenciling.

Finally, after vacuuming away all of the dust, I used Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta to seal the dresser.  I usually describe this product as halfway between hemp oil and wax.  It provides a little more protection than plain hemp oil, but not quite as much as wax.  I love using it over dark colors in particular though.  I think it really brings out the richness of the color.

I chose to line the drawers of this dresser with some map themed wrapping paper.  They had some ink stains that were a little unsightly, so I opted to add this last detail.

This was a fun one to work on and the perfect project for milk paint.

I think I did a pretty good job of creating the same ‘look’ as my inspiration piece, what do you think?

This dresser is the perfect size to use as a nightstand, it’s not terribly large.  It is for sale locally, so please check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for the dimensions and other info if interested.

 

how to dress for cold weather.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I was googling up some good cold weather quotes to use for this post and I saw this one:

Funny.

I never follow that advice though.  If I did, I’d probably have to stay in bed for about six months out of the year here in Minnesota.

I was exchanging emails with one of my readers over the past weekend and I mentioned to her that it was 11 below zero here.  She’s from Los Angeles, and she was wondering if anyone goes outside when it’s that cold (yes, I’m talking about you Connie!).

So the next day, when my sister, niece and I decided to go to Como Park for the afternoon I was thinking about Connie’s question.  As it turns out, yes Connie, we do go out when it’s that cold.  Sometimes we even go to the zoo.  We just have to dress accordingly.

That’s my niece Kris, my sister Debbie, and then me on the right.  I have to mention, that hat I’m wearing is the warmest hat I’ve ever owned.  It’s fleece on the inside and faux fur and knitted on the outside, and you can wrap those furry tails around under your chin to keep your neck warm.  Super toasty.

I found it rather comical that masks were required even in outdoor areas at the Como Zoo.  Do you think Covid can live in sub-zero temperatures?  Does anyone know?

Well, no matter.  The masks were great for keeping our faces warm.

One of the big benefits to going to the zoo on super cold days is that you have the place practically to yourselves.  Pretty much none of the benches are taken.

Another benefit is that the polar bear is really active.  He (she?  I don’t know which polar bear this was and the zoo has three of them) was in and out of the water (just look at that steam coming off of him), rolling around in the snow and trying to get that frozen hunk of meat detached from the ice.

And also apparently posing for photos.  My sister took that photo.

Other animals that seemed oblivious to the cold were the reindeer, the arctic foxes, the wolves, and the bison.  They were all out and about.

But for those humans that don’t happen to be cold weather lovers, you can always head inside the conservatory.

Once inside you’ll find lots of tropical plants …

not to mention lots of people trying to pretend like they live in a tropical climate in January.  I saw one girl meditating in the lotus position on a bench in the fern room.  I’m fairly sure she was chanting in her head “I’m in the Bahamas, I’m in the Bahamas, I’m in the Bahamas” or something like that.

But really the main reason I like to go this time of year is to see the poinsettia display.  I almost missed it, but it runs through January 9 so we made it in time.  They had an interesting display for 2021 with red, orange and yellow ones.

The red one in that photo is a new variety called ‘Christmas Mouse’ because of its more rounded bracts that resemble the shape of mouse ears.

I love that they change it up every year, but I have to admit that this particular color combination was not one of my favorites.  It was very cheerful and colorful, but I’m just not a a yellow and orange girl.  And definitely not for Christmas.

As we were heading out after our visit to Como Park, all three of us agreed that our favorite part of the day was having the outside mainly to ourselves.  I guess all three of us are truly Minnesotan’s at heart.  Not only do we prefer cool temperatures outdoors, but we also prefer cool colors in our poinsettias.

a little june in january.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Well, the hubbub of the holidays is over.  I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who take down and put away my holiday decorations starting December 26.  Except this year I didn’t start until December 27, because I had family over on December 26 to celebrate my nephew’s 40th birthday.  He was visiting from Philly, so it was fun to have him here for his big birthday.

But now I have all of my indoor decorations down and stored away for next year.

As for the outside stuff, well, that’s a different story here in Minnesota.  We had some sub-zero temps over this past weekend and there’s no way I’m braving that to take down decorations.

Plus, the bulk of them are frozen in place under a layer of snow now anyway.  They won’t be coming out for a while.

So I focused on a few indoor painting projects this past weekend instead, including this rather giant toolbox.

I don’t think that photo above does a good job of showing the size of this one, but here is the toolbox along with a few of the other things I purchased last summer.  Seeing it in relation to the chairs puts it in a little more perspective.

It’s really quite the beast.  And in its original state, it was also quite heavy even while empty.  I honestly don’t think I could have even lugged it around when filled with tools (or anything at all for that matter).  When you opened it, two layers of trays opened up accordion style on either side.

As much as that was pretty cool, I asked Ken to remove them for me.  For one thing, they added considerable weight and for another they would have been nearly impossible to paint without resorting to spray paint.  They also would have limited the possibilities for future use.  Sure, you could have used it for your fishing lures, or your socket set, but as you’ll see in a minute, I don’t think the new look screams tackle box or toolbox.

After it was gutted, I cleaned the toolbox with Dawn dish soap.  Once dry I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy, and the inside in their Silk paint in a color called Hampton Olive.

I chose this color for a few reasons.  First of all, it’s very similar to the original color of the interior, so I was paying homage to that.  Second, I thought it worked well with both the transfer I planned to use as well as the Sawmill Gravy.  I wanted to use a Silk paint because the sealer and topcoat are built in.  I thought I’d save myself a couple of steps this time around.  And this was the best option out of the colors of Silk paint that I had on hand.  Finally, I liked the idea of toning down the girly-ness with a more masculine color on the inside because as you’re about to see, this one is plenty girly on the outside.

Yep, I went full on floral for this one, with a few cherubs to boot.  That is the bottom half of the June, Ode to Henry Fletcher transfer from IOD.

I’ve had this transfer for a while and I really wasn’t sure I’d ever find the perfect piece for it, but it worked beautifully on this toolbox.  I love the way it has a bunch of flower names listed at the bottom.

I’m guessing that these are all flowers that bloom in June.  Does Jasmine bloom in June?

I added the wording on the top of the toolbox from a couple of other IOD transfers.

The “Les Roses” section is from their Petit Rosier transfer, and the “Les Fleurs” wording is from their Label Ephemera transfer (and in case you were wondering, yes, you can layer transfers in this way).

Once the transfers were applied, I sanded lightly along any edges and corners to give it a more distressed appearance.

Finally, I added a coat of clear wax.

I don’t know about you, but June feels far away to me just now.  So I thought I’d bring a little bit of June to January.

You could store all kinds of fun things inside this baby.  Art supplies, gardening tools, hats and mittens … lots of possibilities.  I am listing this one for sale (see my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details), but I have to price it a bit higher than usual.  Those IOD transfers are not cheap (but they sure are gorgeous).  In the end, if it doesn’t sell, I bet I’ll get over it and find a spot for it at my house.  If any of you locals need to bring a little bit of June into your January, be sure to email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com.

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

one year later.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

In preparation for my year end post, I went back and reviewed 2020’s wrap up post.  In that post I promised that you would see more of certain things in 2021.  Let’s see how I did.

Here are the things that I was sure you’d see more of in 2021:

Black and white.  Because let’s face it, they are classic and never go out of style. – Done!

This dresser that I painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter back in July was one of my favorites in 2021.

But I also shared quite a few pieces painted in my favorite Dixie Belle Drop Cloth too.

Signs made out of old cupboard doors.  Now that I know how easy these are to find at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep making lots of them. – Done!

I painted quite a few cupboard door signs, but I think these General Store signs were some of my favorites in 2021.  And hey, they were black and white too!

Stenciling on unpainted wood.  This was an experiment for me recently, but I really love how it turned out.  I think you’ll see more of this look from me in 2021. – Hmmm, yeah, I dropped the ball on that one.  I don’t think I stenciled a single piece of unpainted furniture in 2021.  I did add a transfer to unpainted wood though, does that count?

Thrifted items given new life with paint, stencils and/or transfers.  I just love taking a worn out item and giving it a fresh new life.  It’s so satisfying! – Done!

I think toolboxes count, right?  Because I gave a lot them new life in 2021.

I painted a couple of tiny dressers in 2021 as well.

I refreshed a few other thrifted and garage sale finds in 2021, but I’m hoping to do more of that in 2022.

In addition to those items that I felt sure would remain in 2021,  I was also hoping that the new year would bring more of the things that fell by the wayside in 2020 due to Covid:

Great hauls from neighborhood garage sales.  Because surely the awesome neighborhood sales will be back in business for 2021, right? – Well, not so much.

A few of them came back, but definitely not as many as I’d like.  We did check out one that was new to us as a result, Columbia Heights.  But as you can see, I didn’t have super impressive hauls from either one of these.  There were a handful of goodies though, so I shouldn’t complain.

Travel posts.  Please, please, please let there be travel in 2021. – Done?  Sort of?  Not exactly what I had in mind though.

At the end of 2020 I was still hoping that our European cruise would take place in the coming fall.  That didn’t happen.  It has been re-booked once again to fall 2022.  We’ll see how that goes.  But we did get in a little more travel in 2021 than we did in 2020, mostly in the form of visits to my mom’s house and trips to Disney parks.

Garden posts.  Even if the world opens back up again, I still hope to keep up on my gardening. – Done!

I definitely focused more on gardening in 2021 much like I had in 2020.

And I’m looking forward to having even more time for that in 2022!

Home tours.  Because everybody enjoys an awesome home tour. – Done!

OK, well to be fair, I didn’t really get to this one until the very end of the year.  Still, I think I can count it since I did end up sharing two home tours; mine and Amy’s.

Now that I’m retired, I plan to do more home tours throughout the year in 2022.  Those posts are fairly time consuming, but I’ll have time for them now.

And speaking of retirement, that is surely something that I did not see coming back at the end of 2020.  In fact, if you had told me I’d be retiring in the coming year back on December 31, 2020 I wouldn’t have believed it.  But here I am, and I plan to make the most of it in 2022, so I hope you’ll continue to join me here on the blog.

Let’s all drink a toast to continuing improvement in 2022, Happy New Year!

a simple lockbox.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

I love doing simple little projects like this one that prove how much personality you can add with a little paint, some transfers and some decoupage paper.

My friend/picker, Sue, found this little lockbox for me last summer.

It’s just your basic metal box meant for storing important documents.  It’s obviously not particularly old, maybe from the 70’s or 80’s.  It’s not really anything special, but Sue knew I could give it a fun new look.

I started by scuff sanding the surface to give the paint a better chance to stick.  Then I cleaned the box with soap and water.  Once dry, I started painting.  I painted a strip down the center in Dixie Belle’s French Linen, and once that was fully dry, I taped a line on either side of the handle and painted the outer edges of the box in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

I love this combination of colors, these two play really well together.

Once all of the paint was dry, I sanded the edges to distress the box, wiped away any dust and then added some IOD transfers.

These were just bits and pieces that I had in my transfer scrap pile, all of them coming originally from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer.

I cut out each line separately and arranged them to fit the top of the box.

I’d also painted the interior of the box in the French Linen.  Once that was dry, I lined it with some re.design with prima decoupage tissue paper called Washed Damask.

I used Dixie Belle clear coat in flat as a decoupage medium for the tissue, and I also gave the rest of the interior a couple of coats of the flat clear coat to provide extra protection to the paint.

I used clear wax as a topcoat on the outside of the box because I prefer the look it gives over the flat clear coat.

It leaves just a bit more sheen.  But it doesn’t provide quite as much protection, so that’s why I opt for the clear coat on the inside.  I also buffed up the lock using clear wax so that it’s nice and shiny now.

I wish I had the key to go with the box, but unfortunately I don’t.  I even went through my jar of random keys to see if I could find one that fit, but no luck.

So whatever is stored inside won’t be under lock and key.

But it will be stored in style.

This particular box is already spoken for.  One of my regular customers gave me a really fabulous, and really huge, cabinet in exchange for it.  I won’t be able to work on the cabinet until spring/summer when I can be outside in my carriage house workshop because there is no way I have room to do it in the house.  So you’ll have to stay tuned for that one!

In the meantime, let me know what you think of the lock box makeover.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint and clear coat used on this project.

copy cat table runner.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

I think I’ve already established here that I’m absorbing ideas all the time, and I’m sure the rest of you are as well.  Whether by looking at design books or magazines, surfing Instagram or Pinterest, or following my favorite bloggers, I am regularly seeing pictures of things that inspire me.

Sometimes I pretty much copy them outright.  I see something and think “oh, I can do that!”, and that’s the case with today’s project.

I saw a table runner in Liz Galvan’s new book that I just loved.  Here’s a photo of the photo in her book …

How simple, right?  Just paint a Swiss cross in white on a drop cloth table runner.  Easy, peasy.

First I needed drop cloth that wasn’t splattered with paint, all of the ones I had on hand are well used.  So I picked up a new one at my local Menards.

  I went with the medium weight canvas in 4′ x 15′.  I ended up cutting it in half lengthwise to make a 2′ wide runner (and I’ll likely make the other half into a runner as well), and I also cut it down to the length that fit my dining room table.

Speaking of, Mr. Q made our dining room table and it’s a bit oversized.  Which means that the few times I have tried to purchase a ready-made table runner, they have always been too short.

First things first though, I washed and dried the drop cloth before I cut it, just in case it did any shrinking.  Then, after cutting it down to the width and length I wanted, I measured and taped off my cross.

Next I pulled out my favorite Dixie Belle off white shade, Drop Cloth, and a large stencil brush and started stippling on the paint.  I was surprised to realize that the Drop Cloth totally blended in with the color of the … well … duh! … drop cloth.

I don’t know why that surprised me!  In my mind, I thought the Drop Cloth paint was a little bit lighter than that.  So I switched gears and brought out Dixie Belle’s Cotton instead, which is their purest shade of white.

Ahhhh, much better.

It took about three coats of paint to get this level of coverage.  Mainly because I was stippling it on with a stencil brush, not painting it on directly with a regular brush.  I did three light coats rather than one or two heavy coats.

I was a little worried that I wouldn’t get crisp lines because the tape I used didn’t stick to the fabric that well.  In hindsight, this project would probably work better with regular painters tape rather than this yellow Frog tape that is meant for delicate surfaces.

But when I pulled away the tape, my lines were just fine, so it worked out alright in the end.

I ended up making my swiss cross a little bit larger than the one in the inspiration photo.  I’m not sure whether I like it my way, or if I’d prefer the inspiration version.

I opted to photograph it out on my front porch because it was fairly gloomy outside and I couldn’t get good light in my dining room.  But size-wise, obviously the table runner is more suited to a much larger table than this one.

Although I have to say, I am rather liking it on this table as well, so maybe it’s more versatile than I thought.

Measuring and taping off the cross was a bit putzy, but otherwise this little project couldn’t have been any simpler.  Or cheaper, for that matter.  For less than $20, I’ll get two runners and still have some additional drop cloth fabric left over.

You may have noticed that I didn’t bother to hem the raw edges of my runner.  Mostly because I don’t sew.  And because I’m keeping it for myself and I’m never as picky about such details when I’m keeping something.  I will note, however, that this runner probably would not wash up well as it is.  It would fray quite a bit at that raw edge, and the paint would wash out a bit as well.  One way to set the paint would be to tumble the runner in your clothes dryer on high heat, and another would be to iron it from the back with high heat and no steam.  And of course, you could hem the drop cloth to help prevent fraying.  I think using a serger to do the hem would give the best look (hmmm, pretty sure I have a friend or two with sergers, I may have to seek them out).

So, what do you think?  Kind of fun for a quick and easy project, right?  Will you whip one up for yourself?

a christmas eve tour.

Published on by Quandie63 Comments

I really wasn’t sure I was going to get around to a tour of our own home decorated for the holidays.  Mainly because I really don’t go all out with holiday décor, so I didn’t feel like my decorations were blog worthy.  I’m nowhere near in Amy’s league!

But then I thought, ‘why be so hard on myself?’  If I went to someone else’s home I would treat them much more kindly than that.  And as I would tell them, dust doesn’t show in photos, and I can always work around the less photogenic areas.  So I decided to apply all of that to myself and just go for it.

So, Merry Christmas and welcome to our home.

Although our house does have a ‘front door’, we don’t use that door for anything other than heading out to the front three season porch in the summer.  We don’t have a sidewalk leading to the front, so in the winter the snow makes it inaccessible anyway.

Instead we use our side door …

This is just off the driveway that leads to our carriage house …

You enter into the space we currently use as a dining room, and I’m afraid I can’t really share the entire room because this is also where I store my finished furniture.  So I currently have a bench and a desk in the room in addition to the usual pieces.  But I can share bits and pieces, like the Belgian bed bench that is next to the door.

I painted this bench way back in 2016 using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.

I added some faux greenery, a garland of little striped stockings and some colored lights to the top of the bench.

I display my non-collection of vintage tree toppers in the window to the right of the bench.

I shared how I created this display back in this post.

This little vignette of silver items is right next to the toppers.

This year I put my Dickens village above my Welsh cupboard.

I love how it looks up there, especially when it’s lit up.

As a bonus, it’s out of the way and not taking up valuable space on a table top or shelf.  When your house is on the small side, I recommend taking advantage of space like this.  I plug it all in to a remote controlled power strip, so with one click of a button I can turn the lights off and on.

Normally the wooden trug (can I call that a trug? or is it more of a tote?  or a basket?  I’m not sure) contains ironstone, but I filled it up with some faux greens and some old silver.  I’m pretty sure my friend Jackie gave me that silver (does it look familiar Jackie?).

Next up is the kitchen.

There isn’t a whole lot of Christmas décor going on in the kitchen, but I do have this cute little spot next to the pantry door.

I just popped a little faux tree into one of my clay pots, and hung that little wreath on the cupboard.

I’ve always wanted to take the time to decorate the pantry itself for Christmas, but I’ve never quite managed it.  Maybe next year!

I also have this little folding chair that I turned into a chalkboard.  I used to change up the design every season, but I have to confess that the winter design has been in place for over a year now.

On the other side of the kitchen is the piano room.

If you look closely, you can see my garden tree outside the window.  You’ve also already seen most of the décor in this room including my craft paper scroll sign.

My friend Sue gave me this little ‘believe’ pillow and it fits perfectly on the piano chair.

I added just a little touch of Christmas with this little felt wreath on my tiny cupboard.

Over in the other corner I have my favorite chippy chair that has been dressed up with a holiday pillow that I found at Turn Style last year.

I’ve had the reindeer feed sack for years, but I still love it.

The piano room also has my Specimens cupboard in it, and I’ve already shared the decorations surrounding it, but here they are again in case you missed them the first time around.

Just off the piano room is the q branch (a.k.a. my study).

This is where I have my tree with my non-collection of vintage ornaments.

The tall skinny tree fits perfectly into that spot next to my English cupboard.

I tucked this little chair in next to it, although I’m thinking that maybe I need to paint up a Christmas themed chair for myself for next year.

I made the ornament wreath hanging over my desk years ago.  All it took was a lot of vintage ornaments, a styrofoam wreath form, a little hot glue and some patience.

The metal Christmas ornaments sign seems like the perfect addition to this room, since this is where all of my vintage ornaments are.  I’ve got it hanging on my rooster cupboard.

My friend Sue painted the vintage truck for me …

and she even added the little Christmas Tree Farm sign on the door of the truck.  Isn’t it adorable?

This finally brings us to the living room.

I had intended to put a tree in the living room this year, but the free faux tree I had was just a bit too big.  But I still have a few small Christmas details in this room including the beautiful wreath that Amy made for me.

I just love it, and I hung it from my mirror frame chalkboard.

Remember the unfinished wooden nutcracker that I found at Hobby Lobby?  I ended finding more of them at Michaels as well.  Two of them found a home on the living room shelves.

The shelf below them has a tree made out of old newspaper.

A few Santa’s are hanging out on the yardstick shelves with my clocks …

including my Christmas Time clock.

I added the words to the clock using some red vinyl and my Cricut after seeing the idea on some clocks at a vintage market.  So, to be clear, totally not my own original idea.  In fact, if you go up a couple of photos you’ll see the “Spend Time Wisely” clock that I purchased at that market.

I may not have a full size tree in the living room, but just over in the hallway I have a little tree in a bucket on an old chippy chair.

The window at the foot of the stairs has a row of unfinished nutcrackers that also came from Michaels this year.

Last up is the cupboard hanging on the wall at the foot of the stairs.  Do any of you remember this one?  It was really gross when I bought it (see the transformation here).  I ended up keeping it and hanging it here.

It doesn’t look very Christmas-y when closed, but when you open it up you’ll find a little wooden Christmas village.

Don’t tell anyone, but I leave that village in there all year.  I just pop open the door this time of year, and ta da!  Instant Christmas décor!

All of those little houses used to light up, but the batteries have died and I haven’t taken the time to figure out if they are replaceable or not.  But it’s still a pretty display, even when not lit.

Fortunately I didn’t do any decorating upstairs this year, because this post is already kind of long!  So I’ll conclude our tour here.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Merry Christmas!

stenciled Christmas wrap.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

It’s probably not at all useful for me to share holiday wrapping ideas this late in the game, or at least not my sort of holiday wrapping ideas.  None of them are super quick or easy, making them not particularly helpful the day before Christmas Eve.

Although … wait a minute … this post could be helpful if you need to wrap just a few presents, you don’t have any Christmas wrap on hand and you don’t feel like braving the shops.  Especially if, like me, you tend to always have a roll of brown craft paper, paint and stencils lying around.

So, on that note, here’s what I came up with for this year.

I had all of those fabulous stencils on hand already, so why not make use of them for Christmas packages?  All of the stencils used came from Wallcutz, FYI.

The smaller version of the Rudolph and Co stencil was the perfect size for a shirt box.

And masking off portions of the Milk & Cookie stencil allowed it to fit on a slightly smaller box.

The even smaller boxes were stenciled using masked off portions of larger stencils too.

Here are a couple of q tips on stenciling Christmas packages.

First of all, stenciling on brown craft paper is fairly forgiving.  The texture of the paper makes it easier to get a crisp finish because the paint doesn’t slide around like it does on a smoother surface.  That being said, when possible I tape my stencil in place using yellow Frog tape (much like I did on the paper scroll sign I shared earlier).  The yellow tape for delicate surfaces won’t leave a mark on your paper when it’s removed.

Secondly, I stenciled my boxes after they were wrapped.  That can be a little bit trickier since the surface isn’t as firm.  These were heavy duty stiff boxes.  I would not attempt this with a flimsy box.  This also meant that in some cases I couldn’t tape the stencil in place, so I was just super careful to hold it firmly in place as I worked.  You could stencil the paper first, and then wrap the gift, but then you have to be careful to keep your design centered as you wrap the package which can also be tricky.  It’s a trade off.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get a clean result stenciling on a gift bag, since they are a little lumpy when laid flat, but I think it worked just fine.

Looking back, this year’s custom Christmas wrap is not my all-time favorite.  I think that award goes to the wrap I created that was inspired by a tour of a velvet factory in Venice …

But I also really loved the simplicity of last year’s wrap that I created using some IOD rubber stamps.

And the year I painted everything pink and used transfer gel to add some really cool 12 days of Christmas graphics was pretty good too.

What do you think?  Can you pick a favorite?

Do you have everything all wrapped and ready to go already, or do you wait until the very last minute?

Amy’s eclectic Christmas home, part 2.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Welcome back to part 2 of our tour of Amy’s house!  Today we are checking out her family room, party room and that fabulous greenhouse.

Let’s start out by heading downstairs to check out her family room.

Isn’t that collage of old shutters on the wall over her stairway awesome?

It’s the perfect spot for that festive banner!

While Amy used a lot of green and gold in her Christmas décor upstairs, the downstairs is devoted to red and white.

I love the way she mixes the mercury glass and bottle brush Christmas trees and masses them all together on the mantle.

I’m also a fan of these knit stockings with a Scandinavian feel.

Amy’s love of Christmas villages is apparent here in the family room too.  She has a few more Putz pieces sharing the bookcase with some fabulous vintage cameras and old books.

She also has this very old, and rather tiny, paper village showcased in a small cabinet.

I did a little quick google research and I think this little village might date to the late 1920’s (cardboardchristmas.com).  If any of you know differently, please let me know in a comment.

It always amazes me when something this delicate has held up for nearly 100 years.

Back upstairs let’s head into what Amy calls the party room.  This room is accessed through a pair of french doors off the foyer.

I think it’s an absolute testament to Amy’s decorating talent to note that this room is really a converted garage.  It has a cement floor and really no especially redeeming architectural features, yet I think it’s my favorite room in Amy’s house.

Maybe because it’s filled with treasures everywhere you look.

Really, how many people could pull off putting a simple metal bunk bed in the family room?  And it feels perfectly suited to the space.  I especially love the lanterns hanging from hooks next to each bunk.

The dough bowl on the coffee table is from my favorite shop (a.k.a. Reclaiming Beautiful, where both Amy and I are vendors).  One of the bonuses of being a vendor is that you often get first crack at items that are for sale.  Amy snatched up that giant dough bowl before it ever made it to the shop floor.

Amy has added another of her faux fireplaces to this room.

She created the whitewashed finish on the fireplace herself.

The fireplace is topped with a charming nativity set.

I asked Amy what her secret was for finding all of these fireplaces (because she often sells them at the shop too), and she said Facebook Marketplace.  So, FYI, if you’re looking for one, maybe check out Marketplace.

There is a fantastically rustic dining table on the other side of the room.

The fact that it has five (count ’em, 5!) chairs down one side should tell you how long this table is.  Isn’t it fantastic?

There is another lovely tablescape on this table, this time focusing on natural wood, white pottery and flocked greenery.

This room has a bit of industrial chic about it with the metal shelving at one end of the table …

and a set of lockers in the opposing corner.

And you know I love those suitcases!

A few of my favorite touches from the last time I toured Amy’s house at Christmas time have found their way into this house as well including this cool vintage postal desk …

the village displayed on top of the gigantic book …

this … um, what do you call these things?  Cubby holders?

and a gorgeous tree filled with lanterns.

I have to remember that idea for my garden tree!  I definitely need to find some lanterns to add to that tree.

I see these garden ornament type lanterns at garage sales and never think to snap them up.  Remind me to do that next year, would you?

Apparently Amy has a bit of an obsession with these Magnolia Hearth and Hand dollhouses.

I didn’t even know these were a thing.  Apparently they come out with a new one each year.  I’m loving the greenhouse one!  I might have to splurge on that myself.  They come as a kit and you have to put them together.  They are charming.  I’m curious, did you guys know that these were a thing?

And speaking of greenhouses, that brings us to the rest of our tour, the outdoor space.

I really admire Amy’s fearless style of decorating.

She’s fine with putting faux fur throw pillows and wool blankets outside and doesn’t worry about them getting ruined.  I believe she mentioned that a friend gave her a bunch of these, so while she wouldn’t spend a lot on something like this to leave outside, in this case she doesn’t have any cold, hard cash invested in them so why not?

But same goes for that old church pew, an old scale, and even an old chandelier (not wired to live electricity).

I definitely need to step up my own game in this area.  I tend to clear off my deck for the winter and leave it bare except for a pot of greens or something.

Amy’s area is much homier looking.

Amy and her husband only recently finished their greenhouse … well, or as she kept telling me, it’s not quite finished yet.  She needs to clean up some details still, but I don’t think they mattered.

They put it together using a bunch of inexpensive windows, and Amy painted the framework black.

She doesn’t actually plan to use this space as a functioning greenhouse, it’s just going to be a fabulous space for entertaining.

  And I imagine Amy is going to have a blast styling it for each season.

I think we might have to arrange to revisit the greenhouse in the summer just to see what she has done with the place.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m green with envy over Amy’s greenhouse!  Who’s with me on that?

I hope you all enjoyed this house tour as much as I enjoyed doing it.  Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I’m hoping to do more house tours here on the blog again.  Let me know if this is something you would like to see.

Many thanks to Amy for inviting us all in to see her lovely home.  If you have a minute, please leave a comment letting Amy know what your favorite part of her home is.  For me, I have to go with the greenhouse, but really I loved it all!

favorite Christmas projects revisited.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

For the past month or so I’ve been meaning to put together a blog post revisiting some of my favorite Christmas projects from year’s past.  Somehow we’ve gotten down to the wire with Christmas coming up at the end of the week and I haven’t done it yet.  So, bonus!  I’m posting on a Tuesday just so that I can take a quick trip down memory lane with you guys.

I’ve made a few Christmas themed signs over the years, and some of my favorites were the cupboard door signs I made last year.

and hanging from that last sign are the linen stockings that I stenciled …

I’ve also stenciled a few sleds in my day.

So far my favorite is this one I painted last year.

In fact, I liked that one so much that I kept it for myself.

Back in 2019 I did some stenciling on pillow covers.

I gave that one to my sister for Christmas, so I get to see how it’s holding up each year.  So far, so good.

The other pillow I stenciled turned out pretty darn cute as well.

I had purchased a bunch of old handsaws at a garage sale back in 2017, so I dressed them up for Christmas with stencils.

Not all of my Christmas projects are stenciled.  I’ve also been known to use a few transfers on them.  One of my favorites was this tackle box that I made over.

I thought these painted books with transfers were really lovely too.

The paint job on this toolbox wasn’t especially holiday themed …

But it made the perfect container for a holiday themed gift basket.

I’ve painted my share of holiday chairs over the years, and this trio had a mix of stencils and transfers.

This pair of painted ice skates looked great with a transfer added to them.

And just in case you missed them, here are a few of my favorites from this year.

The North Pole suitcase.

The Rudolph and Co truck.

The Rudolph and Co grain shovel.

The craft paper scroll sign.

The foot board sign.

The Milk & Cookies chairs.

It’s always fun to take a trip down memory lane and revisit a few of the projects I’ve completed in the past.  Now that I’m unemployed, next year I hope to crank out even more unique Christmas decorations!  Fingers crossed that I can stock up on raw materials over the summer garage sale season.

In the meantime, I’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of the tour of Amy’s house, so be sure to stay tuned!