garage sales. – Page 3 – q is for quandie

practicing jumping worm safety.

Published on May 12, 2024May 11, 2024 by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there (wait a minute, that sounded a little wrong)!

Earlier this week I mentioned having purchased some plants while out garage saling last weekend. I have always been a big fan of what I call garage sale gardening. So many of the plants in my garden came from garage sales, such as the Bigroot Geranium (or Geranium macrorrizum) that grows like mad in just about any conditions.

So when I saw some of the plants on my ‘wish list’ being sold for $5 each at a sale in Tangletown last week, I couldn’t resist.

For one thing, I found a Sweet Autumn clematis. You may remember seeing this growing on the side of our carriage house (the vine with the little white flowers on the left below).

It was spectacular in the fall, but last spring it didn’t come back. I find that this happens sometimes with clematis, possibly due to clematis wilt, I’m not really sure.

Anyway, I picked up a new one for $5 and we’ll try again.

But, that brings me to today’s q tip!Have you heard about jumping worms? They are a non-native earthworm that strips the nutrients from top soil. And according to Ramsey County they are an emerging problem in our area. They can be introduced to your garden in mulch, compost and potted plants.

For that reason, I am now hesitating to continue recommending buying plants at garage sales because it puts you at risk of bringing home jumping worms.

However, garage sale perennials can still be a good bargain, so if you have jumping worms in your area (check with your local University Extension program if you don’t know) you should practice some jumping worm safety if you purchase plants at a garage sale, or even at a garden club plant sale for that matter.

Here are some recommendations from the U of M Extension:

Accept only plants from gardeners that have looked for jumping worms and use these practices to prevent their spread:
- Plants and materials do not come from an area known to have jumping worms.
- There is no reason, like soil that looks like coffee grounds, to suspect there are jumping worms at the site that produced these plants or materials.
Remove soil from all plants before transporting them to limit the spread of weeds and worms. This helps to remove earthworm cocoons (egg cases) or weed seeds.
Completely submerge plant roots in water and wash away remaining soil. Actively look for worms. Protect clean roots for transportation and sale.
- Water is sufficient to remove soil and other materials from the roots.

I questioned the person I purchased plants from and she said they were not grown in soil from her garden, but in a potting medium (sorry, my eyes glazed over at the exact details). So they should be jumping worm free.

OK, let’s move on from the worms.

The garden has just exploded over the last week, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite spots with you this morning.

Remember the tulips that the deer like to eat?

I saved a couple of patches of them by enclosing them with chicken wire and they look amazing right now. Unfortunately, only a handful of the patch of 100 that I planted in fall of 2022 came back this year. I had chosen Darwin Hybrid Pink Impression tulips specifically because that variety is one that will naturalize. But apparently not for me. However, I’d also planted 100 new ones this past fall and those look fantastic.

In the end, I have come to realize that I need to treat tulips as an annual in my garden, and an annual that has to be protected from deer at that. I tell myself that they just aren’t worth it, but right now they look so good that I know I’ll be tempted to plant them again this fall!

The Double Sherborne Narcissus that I planted last fall are also looking good. They add a bright pop of yellow next to the red carriage house.

I’ve mixed in some muscari (grape hyacinth) and I love the combination.

In the background of that photo you can see the azalea that I added a few weeks ago.

I can’t take any credit for all of those flowers since this shrub was already covered in buds when I purchased it at Home Depot. This particular azalea is supposed to be hardy in zones 5 thru 9, and my area was bumped from 4b to 5a last year. Will it survive our winter? That remains to be seen. I plan to protect it over winter for a few years until it gets established.

The Sugar and Spice tiarella (foam flower) that I put in last year is just starting to bloom.

As is the Raspberry Splash lungwort.

Aren’t those color gorgeous?

The star of the garden this week has to be the Phlox divaricata, or wild blue phlox.

It has created a lovely patch of bright blue. I have it planted ‘under’ a Sun Power hosta. You can just barely see the Sun Power in the early stages of emerging behind the phlox.

I love this combination because although the phlox looks gorgeous right now, after it blooms it looks fairly weedy. But that’s when the hosta takes over and fills in the space and I just cut back the phlox.

Last, but certainly not least, the lilacs are just starting to pop. We’ve had some cool nights recently (in the 40’s Fahrenheit), and I think that is slowing them down a little.

Also, I’m finding that they last a lot longer in a vase if I cut them before the flowers are completely opened up.

So tell me, do you have jumping worms where you are? Have you gotten many plants at garage sales? And what’s blooming in your garden this week? Leave a comment and let me know.

no more government gray.

Published on May 9, 2024May 8, 2024 by Quandie14 Comments

Bryn Mawr calls their neighborhood sale the Festival of Garage Sales, and with good reason. There is definitely a festive atmosphere. They have food trucks and porta-potties, which both say ‘festival’ to me. They also have LOTS of people. Even in the rain.

Parking can be a challenge, so our strategy is to bring some foldable carts with us, find a spot for the car, and then walk the alleys. My sister employed her step counter and we logged just under 10,000 steps.

We managed to fill up our carts more than once, and here’s most of what I brought home with me.

My ‘find of the day’ is missing from that photo, but I’ll share that in a minute.

But otherwise, as you can probably see, I ended up with some more potential art for my gallery wall.

I really love this next watercolor, but I may have to hunt down a frame for it.

I also found a set of four mid-century prints by Jan Korthals.

Korthals was a Dutch artist, but these 4 prints feature London landmarks including St. Paul’s and Big Ben.

I also brought home a lovely set of poetry books.

The covers on these are just gorgeous, as are the colors.

I also nabbed a nice tacklebox.

I love the muted aqua colors on the little circular label on the front.

It’s even already a pretty blue color on the inside.

So now I’m torn. Do I paint this one? Or would someone buy it ‘as is’? That is a pretty dull gray on the outside. What do you think?

Speaking of ‘should I paint it?’, after the last sifter that I painted turned out so pretty, I decided to grab another sifter to paint.

After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep, followed by a topcoat of their Big Mama’s Butta.

How perfect is it as a succulent planter now?

While I was at it, I also painted the postal scale that I picked up. It was a very dull grey color originally, let’s call it ‘government gray’ since it’s a postal scale. After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of the Mint Julep as well.

No more government gray!

For those of you who don’t know, I retired from my government job 2 1/2 years ago, so there’s definitely no more government gray for me.

I’ve already added some apothecary labels to the pair of amber bottles that I picked up.

I liked the simple lines of the silver pitcher that I purchased. It will make a beautiful vase for peonies when they start blooming, but for now I filled it with some faux hydrangea that I also bought at Bryn Mawr.

I typically no longer pick up Ball jars unless they are either priced really low (I did get a pair of them with original zinc lids for 25 cents each in North St Paul), or they are unique in some way.

This one says “the Mason” on it, and it has some nice bubbles in the glass. I’ll be adding it to my own non-collection of mason jars.

I’ve saved my ‘find of the day’ for last, and coincidentally it’s also the last thing that I purchased. We were literally back in the car heading out of Bryn Mawr when I spotted a concrete dog garden ornament out of the corner of my eye.

Isn’t he handsome? And he is also solid, ie. heavy, concrete. I had to get my sister to help load him. I was surprised that no one had snatched him up earlier in the day, and I can only conclude that he was just too heavy for anyone to tote around.

It feels great to be back out garage saling again! I’ll be out again this Saturday at another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Linden Hills. So far the forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 71°, wish me luck!

tulips in tangletown.

Published on May 6, 2024May 6, 2024 by Quandie14 Comments

My friend opK and I held a garage sale marathon this past weekend. We hit the sales on Thursday and Friday, and then on Saturday my sister joined us as well for the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sales.

Thursday dawned cold and rainy. opK and I gathered up our rain gear and a list of addresses and headed to North St Paul. I’d say out of our list of 25 or so sales, only about 10 of them had braved the weather and opened up. We then headed to our hometown of Oakdale, and it was more of the same. In desperation, we headed to Cottage Grove next.

All three of these towns were allegedly having their city-wide sales, but we found few sales. Since the forecast for Friday was sunny and a high of 70, we figured most people had decided to hold off on opening up on Thursday. I can’t say that I blame them, it was fairly miserable outside.

Here is the meagre pile of goodies that I brought home on Thursday.

That is nearly my entire haul. I also purchased some peony cages for the garden, a set of old casters and a tall lantern that isn’t pictured, but that’s it.

The ‘find of the day’ from Thursday would have to be the little cast iron stove (it didn’t have much competition).

Isn’t that fun? I thought it was possibly vintage until I looked it up online and discovered you can buy it at Walmart. LOL, well, I only paid $1.50 for it, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

I woke up on Friday to glorious blue skies. The Tangletown neighborhood in Minneapolis is one of my favorites, and that’s where we were headed.

I had to stop and get a picture of this gorgeous terraced hillside garden full of tulips that we spotted while twisting around on the Tangletown streets. My photo doesn’t do it justice, it was gorgeous.

We also had much better luck with the finds in Tangletown.

The chair on the right was from a ‘free’ pile. The cane seat is ruined, but that’s OK because I’m planning to turn it into a planter chair. I’ve done a few of these in the past (check them out here). My only regret is that I didn’t take more of the free chairs that were in that pile, there were several to choose from. What was I thinking? I could have made multiple planter chairs!

I also brought home a vintage Joy of Cooking, a nice globe, and an ironstone chamber pot.

Obviously no one needs a chamber pot for its original use these days, but they are lovely filled with flowers.

I also picked up this pretty amethyst colored glass bottle on Friday.

I thought the color was pretty, and I was drawn to the ‘antique’ look of it. But don’t be fooled, much like the cast iron stove, this one isn’t authentic either. I found info online that says it’s a 1970’s reproduction and only worth between $3 and $5. Lucky I only paid $1.

I picked up this small enamelware tray and have already added a simple re.design with prima transfer to it.

I also found a couple of possible additions for the art wall in my q branch (a.k.a. my home office) starting with this pretty little mountain scene.

I’ve already found the perfect spot for it on my wall.

I’ve decided the 2nd oil painting I brought home is just a bit too bright for me.

This one came with a story. The woman selling it said she bought it at a charity auction when she lived in Washington D.C., and supposedly it originally belonged to one of the Kennedy’s. I can’t quite read the signature at the bottom, so I haven’t been able to find any pertinent information about it online. Was someone just spinning a yarn to earn more funds for the charity? I guess we’ll never know.

There were three good candidates for ‘find of the day’ from Tangletown. First up there was the St. Francis statue.

You gotta love a good garden statue, right? I plan to give him the rusty treatment using Dixie Belle’s patina paint.

There was also the Japanese maple tree.

I’ve been passing these by at the nurseries for years because of their high price tag. I rarely see one for less than $100. And they are an iffy proposition in my formerly zone 4b, now zone 5a garden. So I’ve never wanted to spend a lot of money on a plant that may or may not survive the winter here. But this one was $20, so I snatched it up.

Sure, it’s small. But I’m going to try growing it in a pot on the deck. That way I can move it to a more protected area for the winter. We’ll see what happens. If it dies, I’m only out $20.

I did also pick up a few other plants in Tangletown, but I’m going to share more about that in my ‘sunday mornings in the garden’ post this week, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

In the end, I have to give ‘find of the day’ status for Tangletown to this little cupboard.

That’s a beveled mirror in the oval, FYI. This is going to be a fun one to paint up!

As for day 3 of our garage sale marathon, we were back to cooler temps and rain as we headed out to another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Bryn Mawr. But I’m going to share more about that one in my next post, so be sure to stay tuned!

But first, let me know, what would you have picked as ‘find of the day’?

garage sale season is here!

Published on April 29, 2024April 28, 2024 by Quandie8 Comments

It’s finally here! Garage sale season!

I’m so excited to get out there and see what I can find this year.

For those of you who may be new here, I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities (that’s Minnesota, in case you didn’t know). Our garage sale season probably starts a bit later than most.

And definitely quite a bit later than at my mom’s house in the Vegas area. While my sister and I were out visiting her a couple of weeks back we stopped off at a handful of garage sales. I have to say, they were pretty bad. For one thing, apparently people don’t bother to price stuff at garage sales out there (one of my pet peeves, I hate having to ask for a price on every item I look at). For another, apparently they have a lot of outdated electronics and office supplies that they think people will buy at a garage sale.

I’ll admit, sometimes the garage sales around here are just as bad, but sometimes they can be pretty fab.

Here’s an example from last week …

Now, I have to admit, I didn’t actually purchase any of the items shown above because they were just a little out of my re-sale price range. If I personally collected vintage thermoses or buffalo check items I would have been all over them.

My friend opK and I spotted those fun vintage camp items when we went to a handful of sales last week just across the border in Wisconsin. Although I didn’t buy any of those, I did come home with a handful of goodies.

I was initially thinking I’d leave the galvanized scoops ‘as is’ …

but in the end I decided to dress them up just a little bit.

I simply added some wording from the old I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

I purchased the big bouquet of faux lavender because I’m always on the hunt for good florals for staging pieces like french floral buckets, or vases.

At $5 for the whole bunch, they seemed like a pretty good deal.

opK spotted the little toolbox for me.

Its petite size made it perfect for the daisy transfer that I used on a lockbox a month or two ago. I liked that one so much that I wanted to do something similar again.

I think it turned out rather sweet.

As for the shiny bucket, I gave it the same treatment as a bucket I painted a month or two ago. After giving it a good washing, I stippled on a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage paint mixed with their Sea Spray texture additive. Once dry, I sanded it back a little to take some of the peaks down then added two coats of Drop Cloth. Once that was dry, I sanded it a bit as well to allow some of the Dried Sage layer to show.

I painted the interior of the bucket in Dixie Belle’s Deep Sea just to clean it up a bit.

Plus, the deep dark blue worked beautifully with the dark blue of the re.design with prima transfer I then applied to the front of the bucket.

I did also pick up this small wooden box while out garage saling in North Hudson.

I’ll be honest, I only grabbed it because it was only $1 and I thought I could give it a quick makeover for my sale.

I gave it two coats of Bonding Boss to block any stains from that orange-y wood, then gave it two quick coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. Once dry, I decorated it with some scraps from I.O.D.’s Redoute II transfer.

I followed it all up with some clear wax to finish. It would be perfect for a small jewelry or trinket box.

This coming weekend we are spoilt for choice as the garage sale season kicks off with a bang in my area. The cities immediately surrounding me of Oakdale, Maplewood and North St. Paul are all having their city-wide sales this weekend. In addition, a couple of my favorite neighborhood sales are this weekend; Bryn Mawr and Tangletown. Finally, there is also the 100-mile garage sale that runs along the Great River Road from Hastings to Winona.

So many options! We can’t possibly get to them all, but here’s hoping I find lots of great stuff no matter where we end up.

a French printer’s tray.

Published on January 19, 2024January 17, 2024 by Quandie8 Comments

If you’ve been following me for long, you know that my ‘workshop’ is out in the carriage house …

And it’s not heated. Plus we have to fit our cars in there in the winter.

So I haul all of my supplies inside the house before we get a freeze, and then I do most of my painting in the piano room.

I put a drop cloth over the piano and it becomes a workbench, and I keep the supplies I use most often in the Specimens cupboard.

It’s definitely not glamorous. And whenever we’re having guests I have to put everything away.

It’s also not very much space to work in.

So as fall approaches each year I start to pile up a bunch of small projects to work on after the Christmas season is over and I’m steadily working my way through that pile.

Today’s small project is a simple wooden tray that I picked up at a garage sale last summer.

It definitely seems to be homemade. You can see that the wood piece that makes up the bottom originally had hinges on it, and the one shorter side is a bit thinner than the others. Someone clearly cobbled it together out of bits and pieces they had on hand, you gotta love that.

After first painting the tray in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage and deciding I didn’t like it (even though I’ve used Dried Sage on numerous projects that I loved), I ended up going with a very simple makeover. I added two coats of DB’s Drop Cloth. Once dry, I added some bits and pieces of French typography from my transfer scrap pile.

I used google translate to make sure I wasn’t putting nonsense on my tray. That first line, Tous droits réservé, is simple, it means ‘all rights reserved.’ Évreux is a place in France. And that bottom line is just a name, followed by the word ‘printer’. So, in other words, it could be considered an advertisement for a printer.

After the wording was in place, I added a small embellishment to the bottom of the tray too.

I’d considered going with something a bit more elaborate, but I figured most people would be putting stuff inside the tray and thus potentially covering that up anyway.

I sanded the edges of the tray to distress them, and then finished everything off with a coat of clear wax.

I added some old books, a pair of crusty old paint brushes in a ball jar, and an antique camera for styling.

How would you style this tray?

94 aldersgate street.

Published on December 15, 2023September 5, 2024 by Quandie36 Comments

You may remember that I purchased a dollhouse while out garage saling this summer.

It was a bargain at just $5. It needed a few repairs, but nothing major. I asked my handyman Ken to create a replacement shutter for the window next to the door, and he made quick work of that.

Ken also created a new window sash for the upper right window, and re-installed the glass in that lower window, which involved adding new stops to keep it in place.

I also needed to replace some of the ‘roof tiles’. Conveniently enough, I found a pack of popsicle sticks that were the exact size I needed for $1.50 at another garage sale.

I cut them to size and glued them in place.

Easy peasy.

As I was working on those repairs, I noticed that there was a signature on the bottom of the dollhouse.

Looks like Al made this dollhouse back in 1978. It’s held up pretty good for 45 years old, don’t you think?

Initially I decided to use the Dixie Belle Patina Paint to create an aged faux metal look to the roof. I first gave it a base coat of black with their Caviar paint, and then painted the shingles with their Bronze patina paint. Then while the 2nd coat of the Bronze was still wet, I spritzed on the green spray.

But that’s where things kind of fell apart. I started painting the body of the dollhouse with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, but that warm white just wasn’t working with the bronze roof.

So then I decided to paint the body of the house with DB’s Sea Glass. And I sort of hated it. Sea Glass is a very pretty color, and it worked nicely with that verdigris patina on the roof, but the whole combo just wasn’t what I was envisioning for this makeover.

Then I reminded myself that my original idea for this house was to paint it white. All white. So that’s what I did next. I painted over everything with DB’s Drop Cloth.

But I wanted the shutters and front door to stand out just a bit more, so I mixed up a custom paint color using 50% Drop Cloth and 50% French Linen to create a nice, pale grey.

It’s just enough to let those features pop, without taking away from the monochromatic look I was going for.

I felt like the trim over the door was the ideal spot for typography of some kind, so I cobbled together an ‘address’ from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

Perfect. I love it!

Once everything was painted, I distressed the edges a bit to make it look a little bit worn. I feel like distressing adds so much character to a piece, even a dollhouse.

I finished off the painted areas with some clear wax, then I used hot glue to affix some wreaths to the windows and door. I attached the lights around the roofline with some Stick-Um candle adhesive, which is basically a super sticky wax.

All of that Christmas frippery could be easily removed after the holidays. The Stick-Um residue can be removed with a hot soapy rag.

I didn’t do anything to the interior of the dollhouse except use a Magic Eraser to remove some pencil marks on one of the floors.

This way the future owner can dress it up with their own style.

To be honest, this ended up being one of those ‘what was I thinking?’ projects. I don’t need a dollhouse. I don’t have a spot for a dollhouse. In fact, I got rid of my own pretty spectacular dollhouse six years ago (more about that here).

But this dollhouse was a mere $5 investment, so really, what do I have to lose other than the time it took to paint … and then re-paint … it?

And it ended up being a rather fun project to work on.

I had actually planned on doing this well ahead of Christmas, because I thought it might be the perfect time to sell it. Wouldn’t it be adorable to find under the tree? While it would make a fantastic gift for a child, it would also just be fun to have as Christmas decor.

But once again, time got away from me and here we are with just one week to spare.

I went on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to see what kind of competition there will be for selling it and there were tons of dollhouses for sale there! I didn’t even take the time to count them all there were so many. So clearly trying to sell a dollhouse around Christmas is not a unique idea.

The prices for those similar to this one ranged from around $150 to $250. I’m going to price mine well below that though. I really just want it to go to a good home. If any of you locals are interested, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Meanwhile, I think I did right by this 1978 dollhouse.

What do you think?

in the bleak mid-winter.

Published on December 11, 2023December 10, 2023 by Quandie4 Comments

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty winds may blow. But you also might stumble upon a fabulous estate sale when you least expect it.

Such was the case last Friday when my friend opK and I got together for a little shopping. She had seen an ad for an estate sale up in Centerville, MN which is about 20 minutes north of us so we decided to check it out.

As soon as we walked up to the property I knew we were in for a treat. Just take a look at the garage.

Those yellow metal motel chairs were fabulous, but a little out of my price range.

As was this fantastic wooden cart …

I could just picture that out in the garden holding a big Christmas tree all lit up. Unfortunately it was priced at $220 which was a bit high for me.

The garage was full of fun vintage items, and it was very tidy (definitely not always the case at estate sales).

The person who lived here clearly liked to keep things organized.

The entire house was open as well as the garage, but by the time I got in the house I’d picked up a few things to purchase so I couldn’t be fumbling around and taking photos with my phone. Suffice to say the house was also really cool with some amazing french doors, a wrap around porch, and views of the nearby lake. The decor was definitely dated, but all I could think as I went through was how amazing this house could be if someone updated it just a bit.

When I was checking out with all of my goodies, someone asked if the house was sold, or still going to be listed. The person running the checkout said she wasn’t sure but it was rumored that the house was going to be torn down and replaced with an apartment building, at which point there was a collective gasp amongst everyone in the room.

If the rumor is true, it certainly will be a shame.

Although I didn’t splurge on that awesome cart, I did bring home a few other goodies.

I was drawn to the painting because I thought it would make a great companion piece to my genuine Al Teeter .

I’m planning to use both of the paintings in the q branch when I complete its makeover this winter (promises, promises).

I always nab vintage books like these when I find them at a good price.

It probably seems a bit strange that I also picked up a bunch of old, gunky paint brushes.

But I have added transfers to these in the past and went on to sell a few of them.

I plan to use some of these in the q branch makeover too.

I never seem to be able to pass up ironstone when I see it either.

This platter is huge at 19″ across, it will probably go in the ‘to sell’ pile because it’s too large to fit in my Welsh cupboard where I display most of my ironstone.

I do love the shape of it, I have another smaller platter in this same octagonal shape.

I took a bit of a gamble with this next item.

I was banking on being able to take it apart and clean the glass. The dome was held in place with some kind of woodgrain looking tape. It took about 20 painstaking minutes with an exacto knife but I eventually got the tape off and was able to wash the glass.

That tiny little label on the base says “PERU” on it.

Does that mean these butterfly specimens are from Peru?

This sort of entomology taxidermy art has been seeing a resurgence in popularity lately. It works really well with the dark academia aesthetic. I’ll likely bring this into the shop as soon as I can figure out a way to do that safely. The glass is quite delicate and I don’t want to break it.

Finally, you may have noticed the green shutters in the background of my haul photo. I didn’t find those at the estate sale, instead they were from a shop in Forest Lake called Vintage Junky. We stopped in there after the estate sale. I plan to use them as part of my Christmas decor, so hopefully I’ll be sharing that soon.

It was an unexpected bonus to find such a fun sale in the middle of winter … well, really it’s just the beginning of winter, but I’m trying not to think about all of the winter that is still left to come. Hopefully we’ll find a few more of these random estate sales to tide us over until next spring!

the bomb box.

Published on November 17, 2023November 16, 2023 by Quandie9 Comments

Earlier this year I picked up this wooden crate at my friend Jackie’s garage sale.

Apparently it once held bombs. I’m not sure what she was doing with a box of bombs … uh oh, maybe I shouldn’t be saying ‘bomb’ so much, my blog is going to end up on some kind of a watch list.

The rope handles on the sides were intact, and I think they add a nice touch.

I didn’t want to alter the original stenciling on the crate, just in case someone … you know … likes it?

But the opposite side was completely blank, so I knew I could do something there.

I also thought this box would be the perfect size to hold a small tabletop sized Christmas tree. It is 10″ tall x 13.5″ wide x 12″ deep.

I went through my numerous Christmas stencils and decided that the smaller version of the Rudolph & Co stencil I had would fit quite nicely on the blank side of the box.

I stenciled it using Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

Next I pulled out this faux tabletop tree that I purchased at Target a few years back and it fit perfectly in the box.

Obviously this was a super quick and simple project. But how perfect is that box for a little Christmas tree?

I’ve brought this box into the shop this week, so if you’re local be sure to head to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater if you want to check it out!

random garage sale finds.

Published on October 20, 2023October 19, 2023 by Quandie28 Comments

First up, I realized that I hadn’t mentioned that I drew Marguerite’s name as the winner of my Peachy Keen giveaway, so congrats to her!

Next, I also realized that it’s been a while since I posted about any of my garage sale or thrift store finds.

In fact, I checked back and I think the last post about a garage sale item makeover was back in August. Seriously, how in the world does time go by so quickly?

Well, despite the fact that almost two months have gone by since I last posted some finds, I have been getting out to garage sales nearly every week (not counting two weeks of traveling, and then a week of covid) with my friend opK. I don’t seem to be bringing home any major hauls, but I have found a couple of things here and there. It just never seems like quite enough stuff for a complete blog post.

For example, here’s my ‘haul’ from last week.

See? Not too exciting.

But let me share a bit of what I’ve done with some of these pieces.

Let’s just start with the stack of shaker boxes.

You know me, I have a problem resisting boxes of any kind.

The colors on these were a bit dated though, and I’m not sure anyone needs a complete stack of 7! So I decided to break them up into two sets, and give them an ombre paint job in shades from white to gray.

I started with the 4 smallest boxes.

They are all painted in Dixie Belle paints, starting from the top of the stack and working down I used Drop Cloth, Sawmill Gravy, French Linen and Hurricane Gray.

I added random bits of various transfers to the front of each. I had to search a bit to find sections that were small enough for these little boxes, but I used some of re.design with prima’s Classic Vintage Labels, and some of I.O.D.’s Traditional French Pots.

I also added a sweet little bee from re.design with prima’s French Labels to the top box lid.

I painted the larger 3 boxes in a similar fashion using the three lighter colors, and then found transfers to fit on them as well.

These scraps came from the same sets, along with the bits on the bottom two boxes that are from the small version of the Seeds transfer from prima.

I know it’s often difficult to really tell the size of items in photos, especially when there isn’t anything shown to provide scale. The biggest box is 7″ across, and the smallest is a mere 3″ across.

As I was looking around for items to stage them with, I realized that the smaller boxes would be pretty adorable on top of one of my mini dressers.

How cute is that? I may just have to keep those now.

Next up, you may have noticed the trio of amber bottles I found.

I knew I could give these a quick update with some faux apothecary labels.

Um, but wait a moment, didn’t I have three of them? Yeah, I broke one of them while washing them up. Drat.

After washing them, I used Mod Podge to add some faux labels. I shared this quick process and a source for a .pdf of the labels in a post back in February (here).

Next up, how about that clock?

It doesn’t have a lot going for it as a clock, but when I opened it up I realized that the clock face and mechanism would come right out leaving a cool little shadow box.

So I pulled that out, then painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. Then I freshened up the inside with a coat of their Caviar. Once dry, I added a small stencil to the inside back.

This stencil is from a pack of 6 x 6″ stencils that I ordered on Amazon last year for a few projects. Unfortunately, when I went to share the link for them I found that they are currently unavailable. I’m sure you could search out other small Christmas themed stencils though.

Anyway, after adding the stencil, I placed some bottle brush trees and a cute little carved reindeer inside the shadow box, and lit them all up with some fairy lights.

So cute! Having that stencil in the background really adds some dimension to the piece.

I did feel like the front needed just a little bit of quandification though, so I added some Tim Holtz transfers.

Last up is the lantern.

I liked the raw wood look on the sides, but the metal ‘roof’ looked a bit cheap up close.

So I decided to use some of Dixie Belle’s Patina Paint to give it more depth.

I started by painting the top with a base coat of DB’s Caviar (black chalk paint), then I painted on two coats of their Iron paint followed by the Green Spray to create a rusty finish (for a full tutorial on this product, check out this post).

Ahhh, so much better! To get that texture I stippled the paint on rather than brushing it. I advise doing that if you don’t want to see brush strokes in your finished look.

Next up I added some bottle brush trees with fairy lights inside the lantern.

Along with a little carved Santa.

The lights I had on hand ended up being a bit wonky, so I’m going to have to get some more fairy lights for this one. But you get the idea.

I’m in the midst of getting a lot of my Christmas merch ready for the shop, and most of what I’ve shared in this post will be heading over there soon! I’m trying not to rush the holiday season, but I have several really cool holiday projects completed already that I’m dying to share with you guys. So be sure to stay tuned!

a chintzy lunch pail.

Published on August 25, 2023August 24, 2023 by Quandie18 Comments

I picked up this little tin pail at a garage sale recently.

My friend opK thought it may have originally been a lunch pail, but I wasn’t sure. It would only hold a rather small lunch. But I did a little online research and found identical pails being called ‘lunch pails’ as well, so she was right!

I suppose you could fit a hunk of homemade bread with butter, some hard boiled eggs and an apple inside. Isn’t that what children brought for lunch back in the olden days?

You definitely couldn’t put a Lunchables in there.

I didn’t much care for the original patina on this one, it wasn’t very pretty, so I decided it would be a good candidate for a paint job.

I started by cleaning it well and then giving it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to prevent any rust spots from bleeding through my paint. Next I painted the inside in another of Dixie Belle’s new Cottage Core colors, English Ivy.

I love that DB added this green to their line up. It reminds me a lot of the English green that I’ve been talking about this summer. I suspect I’m going to get a lot of use out of English Ivy.

I must point out that the lid is a really tight fit on the pail, so painting the inside probably wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made. The paint would be worn off the edge of the interior in no time, so I decided to just go ahead and ‘pre-distress’ it.

I added some wax to both the edge of the lid and the edge of the pail to allow it to open and close more easily, but it’s still a tight fit.

I’ve already given you a little hint in that photo above as to what I did on the outside. After giving it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, I added the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay to the sides of the pail.

Once the paint inlay was dry, I spray sealed it with some RustOleum matte clear sealer. Always remember that you have to seal the paint inlays with a spray to avoid reactivating the paint.

Then I added a few bits from the re.design with prima French Labels transfer to the lid.