Category: garage sales.

these are some awesome finds.

a genuine al teeter.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

You just never know what you’re going to find at a garage sale.

Last week my friend opK and I went up to the Chisago city-wide sales.  That’s Chisago with an ‘s’ in the middle, not Chicago with a ‘c’.  Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the U.S. with a population of 2.7 million people.  Chisago has a population of 5,788 people and is located just under 40 miles north of us.  Definitely not large, and I’m not even sure I would call it a city, it’s more of a town.

There were only a little over a dozen garage sales participating, but we also found a few random renegade sales to stop at.  I call them ‘renegades’ because they are held by proprietors that didn’t bother to officially sign up for the city-wide sales, but are still having a sale during the event.

I didn’t come home with much, but it was still a fun day.  The weather was gorgeous, the people were nice, and I brought home a handful of goodies starting with this swan planter.

As you may have noticed, I have a little bit of a non-collection of matte white pottery.

I’m no expert at identifying this stuff unless it is clearly marked with McCoy, Haeger or some other manufacturer’s name.  The swan has a USA marking, but no manufacturer’s name.

But I did a little googling and I believe that this is a piece of Hull pottery, and is barely worth anything more than the $8 that I paid for it.  Still, I’ll add the swan into my little non-collection for now.

Next up is this pair of wooden bobbins.

These were a mere $1.50 each, and I like to use them to hold ribbon.

I also picked up a handful of copper plant i.d. tags.

I’m not at all sure what the fate of these will be, but they were only $1 for all so I grabbed them.  I like adding these to a gifted floral arrangement with a message on them (like ‘thank you’ or some such), I also like using them simply as a photo prop.  But I also like using this style of plant tag for its intended purpose, as I did in my herb garden (although those weren’t copper).

Another fun find in Chisago was this vintage first aid kit.

It’s in rough shape, but I think I can freshen it up and add a protective clear coat.  I’m not sure what to do about the contents though.

I’m leaning towards tossing them because I think they are kind of gross.  Although I’d keep the little First Aid Guide booklet.  I’m sure there are some purists out there who believe in keeping these sorts of things intact, but I’m not one of them.

I plan to sell it, and I think it will have more of a market if it’s actually functional rather than just decorative.  A future owner could fill it with fresh first aid supplies and keep it on their boat, or in their camper van, or on a shelf in the bathroom where it could be both decorative and functional.

What do you think?

I’ve been saving my find of the day for last, although if you’ve been paying attention there have been little glimpses of it in the background of my photos.

Yep!  I bought a genuine fake Matisse at a garage sale.

The woman selling this told us that her mother was an art teacher, and one of her students painted this.  Art students often practice by copying a master’s work.

It is very clearly marked on the back, so it’s not as though this was any sort of attempt at forgery or anything.

So no, I didn’t actually find a real Matisse at a garage sale.  Instead, I now own a genuine Al Teeter.

The original Matisse is called The Green Stripe … or The Green Line … I’ve seen both names online.  It is a portrait of Matisse’s wife.  Here it is …

I definitely don’t know enough about art to judge whether or not Al did a good job of copying this painting.  Although it does seem as though Al’s made his ‘green stripe’ a bit more obvious than the original Matisse.

In addition, his brush strokes aren’t quite as bold, and some of his colors are a bit off.

Nonetheless, I kind of love the Al Teeter.

Once again, I’m debating.  Do I keep the Al Teeter?  Or do I sell it?  I haven’t made up my mind just yet.  What do you think?

Leave a comment and let me know.

will it hold up outside?

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Whenever I share items that are going to be outside in the garden, I’m frequently asked the same question, ‘will it hold up outside?’

And sometimes the legit answer is that I don’t really know.  Especially if I’ve only recently started using a particular product and haven’t had a chance to test it over time.  But I’ve got a few years of experience under my belt now, so I thought I’d give you some honest feedback on how some of my things have held up.

Let’s start with transfers.

I added a Classic Vintage Label from re.design with prima to a watering can back in early 2020.  I did not use any sort of topcoat over it, although a topcoat is recommended for transfers.

I used it in my front window box that summer, and it held up great for year 1.

I don’t always leave my watering cans outside in the winter, but after leaving it outside for all of summer 2021, I also used it on an outdoor Christmas tree that year.

At that time it was holding up quite nicely.

For summer 2022, I had it hanging from a cupboard door sign on our deck.

The transfer was starting to deteriorate a bit then.

I stored it in the potting shed last winter, and then brought it out again in the spring.

Here’s how it was looking as of a few days ago.

Hmmmm, not so good, right?

So there you go, a transfer without a topcoat on galvanized metal will last about three years.

But here’s the good news.  It was super simple to remove that deteriorating transfer using steel wool and a little water.

It barely even took much elbow grease, it just scrubbed right off without damaging the watering can in any way.

So if you want to add a little something to a galvanized piece, but you want to have the option to remove it down the line, a transfer without a topcoat is a great choice.

And you know what, I really liked that transfer on that particular watering can.

So I did it again.

I added back the very same Classic Vintage Label.  And once again, I opted not to seal it.  I like the idea that it’s somewhat temporary.  In a few years I may decide that I prefer my watering cans without labels.  Or maybe I’ll want to try some other sort of decoration on it. Who knows?

You’re probably now wondering if adding a topcoat over the transfer will improve it’s durability on an outdoor item, and unfortunately I have to say that I don’t know.  I haven’t actually tried that.

Now, how about adhesive vinyl cut with a Cricut machine?

I added our house number to an ironstone platter way back in 2014 after getting the idea from this pin on pinterest.

source: onsuttonplace.com

I simply used my Cricut machine to cut adhesive vinyl to make mine.

I have it hanging outside next to our back door.  It’s up all year round, including winter.

And 9 years later it is still going strong.  Honestly, I’m rather amazed that it has held up over all this time.  I totally expected it to start peeling after one season.

But nope, still looks good.

I still have a few of my pieces of garden china scattered around the garden too.

These were also cut from vinyl on the Cricut.  I put them away in winter, but they stay out the rest of the year … and they get wet every time I water my pots.  But again, they still look great.

The painted ‘signs’ that I create with stencils and chalk style paint hold up just fine outside too.

Even when they are simply top-coated with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta, as that one is.

I tend to change these out seasonally, so none of them are out all year long.  But I do bring them out year after year and they continue to look great.

Next up is the general category of furniture that was meant to be inside, but I’m using it outside … starting with my repurposed guest bed.

I have to report mixed results with this one.  The headboard with its I.O.D. paint inlay has held up fantastically well.  And I left it up all winter.

Unfortunately, the footboard planter is not doing as well, even though I put it away for the winter.  The headboard gets a bit of protection from rain by the overhang of the carriage house roof, but the footboard really doesn’t.  It also gets a lot of splash up from the driveway.  Then add in the fact that I have placed heavy planters on a shelf that is attached to the back of the footboard, which was probably not meant to hold that much weight, and the end result is this.

The bottom trim is pulling away, and that has created a bit crack in the paint, which is now allowing more water to get in there.

I plan to pull this apart to see if we can shore it up a bit, and then repaint it, sometime before the snow flies.  Or maybe that project will wait until next spring.  Either way, I’m not giving up on it just yet.

You may remember that I have used dining room chairs as ‘peony cages’.

and over time all but one of them have fallen apart including the one shown above.

I do have its matching chair still wrangling a peony out next to the potting shed, but I’m sure it’s on its last legs.

And if you’re noticing, yes, this is the one peony I have that has ended up with a fair amount of powdery mildew this year.

Bottom line, indoor wood furniture is not meant to used outside and chances are good that any glued joints will fail after a few years.

Iron furniture will hold up a bit better, and if you like a little rust (as I do), it can work out great outside.

I have an old iron headboard that supports the Annabelle hydrangea next to our deck.

I also have an old iron bed that I keep trying to grow clematis on, and somehow it never works out.

I once had an absolutely spectacular Nelly Moser clematis in this spot, and one spring it just didn’t come back.  I’ve planted at least three replacements of different varieties since then, and not a single one has taken off.  I can only guess that the amount of shade on that garden has increased over the years.  The Nelly Moser is a variety of clematis that is more shade tolerant as well, so maybe I need to try that particular variety again.

I do have one other indoor iron item in the garden, well, two really, a pair of andirons that I grabbed free at the curb.

I’ve placed them on either side of my metal arbor.

One last product that I’ve used on pieces for the garden that I want to include in this post is the Patina paint line from Dixie Belle.

I used the Bronze paint with the green spray on a concrete Japanese lantern …

and on a terracotta buddha.

And I’ve used the Iron paint with the green spray to make numerous garden ornaments rusty.

Some of these items have held up better than others, and that depends on the material underneath the paint rather than the Patina Paint itself.  Terracotta tends to allow moisture to wick through from the backside, which then causes pieces to deteriorate.  But plastic or metal items are holding up perfectly well, even over several years, and after being outside all winter.

It’s also super easy to spot repair your outdoor pieces with the Patina Paint when necessary, as I did with my buddha.

I hope some of you found this info helpful.  If you have any questions about how well particular items have held up outdoors that I didn’t answer above, be sure to leave a comment and ask!

the lavender cabinet.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Today I’m sharing the makeover of that wooden medicine cabinet that my friend opK found for me at a garage sale.

After giving it a thorough cleaning out in the yard using some Dawn dish soap and the garden hose, I scuff sanded it.  Then I painted over just the hinges with some of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S.  The hinges were a bit rusty, and the B.O.S.S. will help keep that rust from coming back through new paint.

Next I painted it inside and out with Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.  Once that was dry, I added part of the Maison de Paris maxi transfer from re.design with prima.  This transfer includes two 12″ x 12″ sheets with coordinating designs on them.  I used one full 12″ x 12″ design on the front of the cabinet …

Isn’t that pretty?  The entire transfer is a charcoal grey except for the pop of purple in the lavender sprigs coming out of the urns.

It’s a super subtle detail, but oh so pretty.

I used half of the other 12″ x 12″ transfer sheet on the inside of the cabinet.

The color is a bit more obvious in that one.

I did debate painting the inside of the cabinet in a lavender color, but ultimately decided that purple can be a bit polarizing.  People either love it, or they hate it.  So I felt like the cabinet would be more marketable with a more neutral color choice with only the merest hints of purple.

I also only gave the inside back of the cabinet one coat of Sawmill Gravy, and then sanded over the rough wood to distress it.  I wanted to retain a little bit of that rustic barnwood-like feel.

I felt like the front of the cabinet needed just a little something more at the bottom of the door to balance out the transfer up above, so I added a little bit of wording from the old Memoir transfer from re.design with prima.

One of my readers, Monica, sent me two boxes full of transfers a while ago.  She’s packing up for a move to Florida (hmmm, lucky her!) and thus cleaning out her stash.  It was so nice of her to share her cast offs with me.  This Memoir transfer was one of the many that she sent (thanks again Monica!).

It worked well here because it’s in the old dark grey color that all of those original prima transfers came in, which paired nicely with the newer Maxi transfer.

The final step in this makeover was to add a coat of clear wax over everything, inside and out.

I’m pretty sure that it goes without saying that the new look is a bit of improvement over the old.

What do you think?

This cabinet is for sale locally, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the B.O.S.S. and paint used for this project.

the turquoise haul.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

My friend opK and I headed out to some random garage sales last week and although I didn’t find much, I did bring home a couple of goodies that I thought I’d share with you.

First up, a fabulous toolbox!

I couldn’t pass that one up, it came with a tray …

and a few random magnets.

I don’t think I’ll be hanging onto the magnets though.

I also picked up this little aluminum (?) bucket with a lid.

Both of those items are going to get a makeover.

I somehow ended up with a bit of a color scheme going with my next purchase, a stack of vintage books.

The colors on those books almost perfectly match the toolbox.

I did pick out a couple of red and blue books too though.

Looking at all of these books sent me on a little trip down memory lane.  As a teenager, I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on by Phyllis A. Whitney, Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr … although I just discovered that Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr were the same person writing under different pseudonyms, who knew?

I wonder if I would still enjoy reading them today?  I may have to crack one open to find out.

As for Booth Tarkington, I could have sworn that he was a famous football player.  LOL.  I have him mixed up with Fran Tarkenton who played for the Vikings in the 60’s and 70’s.  Apparently Booth Tarkington is actually one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.

That’s about it for my very small turquoise haul from last week, although I’ll also share this fabulous old medicine cabinet that opK picked up for me at an earlier sale.

It’s just a simple primitive wood box with some narrow shelves inside, but it’s going to be a fun one to make over.  In fact, I’ve already gotten started on it.  I’ll be sure to share it soon, so stay tuned.

far from faultless.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I suspect that not too many of us actually enjoy doing laundry, am I right?

Sorting, shoving things into the machines, realizing after washing that you left a kleenex in a pocket, drying, folding and then putting away.  Not exactly fun times.

But I have to admit that I actually do enjoy the process of laundering vintage linens.

They are so lovely to handle, and there’s something so satisfying about a crisp stack of freshly laundered and pressed white linens.

You may remember that I purchased a few vintage pillowcases at the Fridley garage sales earlier this summer.

After I took them out of the ziploc bags that they came in and inspected them a bit more closely, I found that they needed to be whitened up, and a couple of them also needed a bit of mending.  So I thought I’d share that process with you.

The first step for me is to soak them in some OxiClean, or in this case, a generic oxi-based cleaner from Target.

I usually soak them for at least a few hours, or even overnight.

Then, after removing them from their oxi bath, I wash them on the gentle setting in my washing machine.  Except for the more fragile ones, those just get rinsed by hand in the sink.

Next, I hang them on the line in the sun for a full day to get a little natural, non-chemical bleaching.

I have an ancient clothesline that is attached to the carriage house on one end with some serious looking hooks.

  It has probably been there forever, it was there when we moved in 34 years ago.  I wonder how many generations of laundry have been hung out to dry on that line?

Once they’ve had their day in the sun, I like to press old linens using starch.

I have a sneaking suspicion that very few people iron with starch anymore.  The last time I ran out I had a difficult time even finding it in the shops.  Comically enough, I came across two full cans of Faultless premium starch at an estate sale a while back for $1 each, so I snatched them up.  I’m fairly certain they’d never even been used.

You get a fabulously crisp result using starch.  In fact, I suspect that these vintage linens were originally meant to be starched.

I wish I could say that I press my linens outside in the garden on a pretty wooden ironing board while bluebirds sing in the trees nearby …

But that’s just for photo shoots.

I actually iron in my creepy, spidery, damp, very much non-blog worthy basement.  Maybe I need to rethink that?  Now I’m regretting all of the fabulous vintage wooden ironing boards that I’ve sold over the years.

The next time I see one I should snag it and then keep it handy in the carriage house, or maybe even the potting shed, for outdoor ironing.

Anyway, back to the starching.  This is usually the step where I find out that my vintage linens are far from faultless.  As I’m laying them out on the ironing board and pressing out each wrinkle, I find all of the flaws that I didn’t notice before.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m not much of a seamstress, despite my mom’s best efforts at teaching me to sew.  But I can manage a little simple mending with a needle and thread.

Does the fact that the needle packaging says “West Germany” give you an idea of how old those needles are?  I’m sure I purchased those at a garage/estate sale too.

This repair didn’t take much effort, and was easily accomplished while watching my favorite gardeners on YouTube.

My repair job isn’t quite faultless either, but it will do the job.

The amount of work that went into some of these pillowcases is quite amazing.

Sadly, some of them are just too far gone for my simple mending skills though.

Such is the case with the pillow case that I was using on the wicker chaise that used to be my front porch.

The work on this one is so beautiful, just check out the detailed embroidery on that monogram …

and that floral border.  And the cutwork is painstakingly detailed.

Living on the three-season porch for over a decade had really done a number on it though.  The fabric itself was deteriorating and basically shredding in some spots.

And unfortunately, even just a gentle soak weakened the fabric so much that when I hung it on the line it totally fell apart.

So sad.  I did get years of enjoyment out of it before this happened though, so I’ll console myself by remembering that.

If any of you locals are looking for some lovely vintage pillowcases, I took a few of these in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater last week.

I priced them low, ranging from $12/pair to $18/pair for the prettiest ones, so be sure to head down there soon!

 

simpler than simplicity.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

A while back I picked up another simple wooden tote at a garage sale.

I love that the end pieces are curved at the top rather than cut straight like so many of them.

I planned to just do my usual, add paint and maybe some transfers.

Like I did on this one …

And this one …

And this one …

And even this one …

Although technically that is an I.O.D. paint inlay, not a transfer.

So after cleaning and then painting it with some of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, I went through my transfer stash to find just the right thing.

It wasn’t until I started holding bits of transfers up against the tote that I realized the sides were really rather short.  In fact, too short for most of the florals that I had thought about using.

Then I saw my old re.design with prima Simplicity transfer, which is a black toile.  I’m not even sure if you can get this one anymore.  I know there are several other options for a toile transfer out there though, if you’re looking for one.

I had used Simplicity on the upper drawers of a dresser once.

I thought it was pretty, but ultimately it didn’t sell and I ended up sanding it off and re-doing the dresser.

Maybe that was a little bit of foreshadowing as to how this project was going to go.

Or maybe I am just doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.

Either way, I pulled out Simplicity and decided to try it on this tote.

It was a little tricky to get the transfer situated as one full piece, so I ended up cutting out separate elements of the toile design and adding them one by one.

It was working out fairly well, as I wrapped the toile all the way around.

But then I got to the last side, and decided that I really wanted to use the roosters …

Ummm … yeah … maybe not my finest moment.  There is just too much white space all around them.  And they are almost centered, which gives them too much importance in the overall design.

Honestly, I just didn’t like it.  At all.

You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.  So I sanded it off and started over with a fresh coat of Drop Cloth!

Then I decided to go much simpler than … well … Simplicity.

I just added the word ‘SEEDS’ from the I.O.D. Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay.

It was the perfect fit.

Also, FYI, this is the 2nd use of this inlay.  I used the full inlay once already on this piece …

So I was OK with just taking out that one word and using it on this tote.  I can still use the rest of the inlay a 2nd time (and in fact, I do have plans for it).

I will note, as I have before, that I was unable to get the inlay off this tote in one piece, so that 2nd use will be it for this one.

After sealing the inlay with some clear matte spray sealer, I used Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over the rest of the piece.  Then, while I had it out, I also used it to apply some re.design with prima decoupage tissue to the bottom inside.

So, in the end, it’s a much simpler look.

And I really like it.

How about you?

some mid-summer garage saling.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Last Thursday I headed out with opK (that’s oar painting Karen) to check out some garage sales in neighboring Stillwater.  But before we got to the garage sales, we stopped off at a vintage sale that I’ve been to off and on over the years.

In fact, I even shared a couple of blog posts about it back in 2016 and 2017.

They always have awesome vintage stuff, although I don’t usually buy much.

This time around I picked up some pretty bark cloth fabric from the ‘bargain tent’.

I thought this would be perfect for upholstering the seat on the vintage child-sized green wicker chair that I picked up a while back.  The chair is the perfect shade of vintage green and I loved the authentically distressed arms, so I didn’t paint it.

After soaking the barkcloth in some oxy-clean and letting it dry in the sun, I ironed it and then stapled it over some batting and a thin plywood seat that Ken cut to fit the chair.

This thing is so stinkin’ cute you guys.

I really struggled to come up with a way to show the size in my photos, it’s only 22″ tall, 18″ wide and 16″ deep.  The best I could come up with was adding a typically sized step ladder into the photo.

I also purchased a set of metal plant i.d. stakes.

I used to have a handful of these and earlier this spring I decided that they’d be perfect for labeling my herbs, but I couldn’t find them anywhere.  I then shopped around my local nurseries and hobby stores looking for more, but didn’t have any success.  So I was happy to find some at the barn sale.

The tricky part about these is finding a good way to add a plant name temporarily, but not so temporarily that it washes off in the rain.  I’ve discovered that painting them with some of Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky, and then writing on them with a chalk pencil tends to work out great.

You’d think that the chalk pencil would wash off, but it really doesn’t.  Of course, we’d also have to actually be getting some rain in order for that to be a problem.

After checking out the barn sale, we headed to a few garage sales in Stillwater.  I didn’t find a whole lot, but I seemed to find just one thing to purchase at each sale starting with this enamelware coffee pot.

It’s missing the glass percolator thingie from the lid, but that makes it perfect to use as a vase.  It also has some sort of really heavy crust built up inside it.  I’m not sure what that’s all about, but for that reason I chose to add a glass vase to hold the water and flowers.

After adding one of the French Labels from re.design with prima to the pot, I filled the glass with water and placed it inside the coffee pot.  All that was left was to fill it up with some flowers from the garden.

At another sale I picked up a small, vintage rake for $2.

It’s quite petite, but I’m not sure it’s small enough to have been a child’s toy.  I could have left it yellow, I’m not totally opposed to the rusty patina.  But I’m not a big fan of yellow, so I decided to paint it green.

I painted it with a coat of chalk style paint first, to help my milk paint stick.  Then I painted it with Sweet Pickens In a Pickle.  Once the paint was dry, I sanded lightly to distress the edges, which brought back some of that yellow.  Then I gave the entire rake a coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

This rake could be purely decorative, it would look great just hanging on the wall like the pair of kid sized tools I have in my potting shed.

But it also would be totally functional.  I have a small rake like this that I use to pull leaves out from between perennials in the garden.  It’s super handy.  And yes, this rake is for sale if any of you are interested (check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details).

At the next sale I purchased this little metal conversion chart.

When I turned it over, it still had the original Hearth & Hand logo on the back, and the Target price tag of $7.99.  But I really thought it was cute, and I found a spot for it hanging in front of my cutting board in the kitchen.

Last, but not least, I picked up this … thingie.

Do you know what it is?  The newspaper is a clue.

When I first glanced at it, I thought it was part of a ringer washer (it has a crank on the other side).  But that definitely wasn’t right.  Whatever it was, I thought it would make an awesome planter.

It didn’t have a price tag on it, so I asked the proprietor ‘how much?’ and he said $3.  Sold!  He also told me that it was a newspaper log roller.  These were once used to roll newspapers into logs for the fireplace.  Sure enough, I googled it and there are plenty of them out there.  I even found a YouTube video on how to use it.

After hitting up the garage sales, we stopped off at Abrahamson’s Nurseries and I picked up a few plants to put in it.

After giving the roller a good cleaning and then protecting the wooden handles with some clear wax, I even went so far as to plant them up.

But I quickly realized that even though it looked great initially, most of those plants would grow much bigger and totally envelope the newspaper roller.  In addition, I don’t think the roller holds enough dirt to keep them happy.

So I pulled them all out and filled it with succulents instead.

I hesitated before doing so because succulents have to be brought inside for the winter here, and this ‘planter’ will be difficult to water without making a mess.  I may just pull the succulents out in the fall and put them in regular pots to save them over the winter, we’ll see.

But for now, I love the way they look and thus I’m calling this my find of the day!

Not bad for 3 bucks, right?

I’m curious, what would you have picked as the find of the day?  Leave a comment and let me know.

big projects and little projects.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

You may have noticed that I didn’t have a blog post on Monday, or on Wednesday (maybe someone noticed?).  As it turned out, for the last week or so I had a number of irons in the fire, but nothing that was both completed and felt blog-worthy.

The first big project was fixing/replacing a section of our very rickety privacy fence.

Last winter the 24′ section that was 3′ tall behind my fern bed toppled over.  It was pretty well disguised by the ferns that grow tall enough to hide it, but here’s a photo that will give you just a hint of what it looked like.

Those ferns tend to die back early, so it was time for some sort of solution.  We debated just pulling out that section and going fenceless there.  That option seemed pretty reasonable when looking at the area in summer when the ferns are taller than the fence was anyway.

But that’s only good for about 3 months out of the year, for the rest of the year we needed something to block the multiple vehicles in the neighbor’s driveway.  Luckily I have some really awesome neighbors who are good at DIY, and have lots of tools, and access to cheap labor (high school kids who need a little cash).  So all of that added up to replacing that 3′ tall section of fence with a 6′ tall section instead.

It was still a big job and took about two days to complete.

The other big job I’m working on is painting that hutch that I purchased a few weeks back at a garage sale.

I have it mostly painted, but I’m waiting on some supplies for finishing it up, so it’s kind of at a standstill for now.

Meanwhile, I did squeeze in a couple of smaller projects in between the bigger ones, such as this cutting board.

It was a fun little project, but there is really only so much you can say about painting a cutting board, so it didn’t seem worthy of its own blog post.

I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, then I added the artichokes from I.O.D.’s Melange paint inlay.  Then I felt like it needed just a little something more, so I added the ‘Albert Ruoff’ and the ‘1842.’ from one of the 8″ German Grain Sack stencils from ellen j goods.

Another small project I completed this week was this pair of shoe forms.

I purchased these at a garage sale quite some time ago … dare I say several years ago?

If these had a really cool original patina, I would have left them alone.  But I thought they could be improved with a paint job.  So sometime last year I painted one of them in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and one of them their Midnight Sky.  Then I attempted to add some transfers, but instead of the transfer sticking to the paint, the paint stuck to the transfers and pulled right off.  I suspect that these forms had been ‘spruced up’ with some kind of oil or wax before I purchased them, thus causing adherence problems.

So I ending up pushing them to the back of the shelf where they sat for the last year or so.

But I pulled them out recently and gave them both a good sanding.  I thought the one that was originally painted in Drop Cloth looked pretty good, so I simply added a crown and some small wording from a Tim Holtz transfer.

Wouldn’t it have been more fun if that transfer said ‘non-collector’??  LOL.

I decided to paint up the 2nd one in a similar way.  So I gave it two coats of Drop Cloth, and then sanded heavily to distress.  I followed that up with another crown and some wording.

I also added a little number to the heel.

And there you have it.  Two big projects, and two small projects.

Hopefully I’ll have a few more fun things to share with you guys next week, so be sure to stay tuned!

a virtual garage sale.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

I’m doing something a little bit different today!

I’m having a bit of a virtual garage sale.

We’ve been doing some re-arranging here at our house.  It’s one of those chain reaction sort of things.  We’re turning the guest room into a studio for Mr. Q, and he’s gotten a bigger table for that space, thus freeing up his old desk to become my desk.  But a bigger desk for me means getting rid of my small farm table desk, and also moving the rooster cupboard out to the porch and thus getting rid of the black cupboard on the porch.  You get the idea, things are being shuffled around and as a result I have several pieces of furniture to sell at garage sale prices.

After listing a few of them on Facebook Marketplace, and then getting multiple spam messages about them (argh!  so annoying!), I decided to try a blog post.

Now, be advised, I’m not willing to ship any of my items, so you have to be within driving distance of St. Paul, MN to purchase any of them.  But maybe some of my local readers will be interested.

First up, the former guest room twin Jenny Lind headboard and bed frame.

The ancient mattress and box spring have already been picked up by my trash hauler, I’m just selling the headboard and the metal bed frame with wheels that I used with it.

All for $45, the headboard is 41.5″ wide by 40″ tall.

Next up, the wicker chaise lounge from my front porch.  It is 41.5″ tall, 64″ long and 40″ wide.

I’ve decided to replace that with another of Ken’s Adirondack chairs, so it has to go.  The cushion is slip covered in a basic beige linen, and the cover can be removed and washed, which is nice.  This is for sale at the same $45 price tag (throw pillows not included).

I’m considering spray painting it black and then asking a little more for it, but if you’re interested in it ‘as is’ be sure to leave a comment (or email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com) a.s.a.p. before I get out the spray paint!

I’m also selling the black cupboard from the front porch.

It’s an antique piece that I painted black a long time ago.  I added the Beautiful Botanist transfer to the inside back in 2019.

You can read all about that here.

I’m letting this one go for $195.  It is 79″ tall x 16.5″ deep x 38″ wide.

I also still have this square farmhouse style table for sale at $40.

The base is painted in Dixie Belle’s Kudzu.  These photos make it look just a bit brighter than it really is.  The top is finished with white wax.

It is 31″ tall and 34″ x 39″ wide, so not quite exactly square.

I added some casters to the feet after taking these photos, so this would be a great piece to use in a craft room, sewing room or studio since it can easily be moved around.

If any of you locals are interested in these pieces, leave a comment or email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com!

buyer’s remorse.

Published on by Quandie39 Comments

Last Friday I headed out to a neighborhood sale that was fairly new to me, with a companion who was totally new to me, Karen, the painter of the oars.  I think I’m going to call her opK, or ‘oar painting Karen’, to distinguish her from nnK (new neighbor Karen).

We headed out to the city wide sales in Fridley, MN.  I’d been to the Fridley sales before, but it was a long time ago … probably before I started blogging, so at least a decade or more.  Certainly long enough ago that I felt like it was new.  Fridley is one of the older Minneapolis burbs with many of the neighborhoods having a distinctly mid-century, or post-WWII feel.  There is also a smattering of really nice houses along the Mississippi River, which flows through Fridley, and pockets of newer homes here and there.

We did a pretty good job filling up opK’s SUV.

There are a few smaller items not in the photo above, which I’ll share in a minute.

But let’s start with those chairs.  To be honest, I’m having a bit of buyer’s remorse over those chairs.  They certainly aren’t my style at all, and I have no idea if there will be a market for selling a pair of modern looking chairs.

But they were only $2 each.  So in the end, I’ll only be out $4 total if I have to donate them to the Goodwill when they don’t sell.  Well, technically it will be $5.75 because I also purchased some new batting for 75¢ and some fabric to cover the seats with for $1.

I’ll need to do a bit of gluing on the chairs, but I’m not going to paint them, so that should be a fairly quick makeover.

And speaking of the fabric, I also purchased two other pieces of fabric for $1 each.

I’m going to try the one on the top of the pile with all of the bugs on that green wicker chair that I brought home last week.

The yardage on the bottom of the pile is pretty funky, opK and I both thought it might be fun on that pair of chairs.

But as we looked closer we realized it was sort of a Halloween fabric.

As we were studying it, the seller asked if we were fans of ‘the ghastlies’.  Um, the what now?  Apparently this is from a line of fabric by Alexander Henry called The Ghastlies.

It really is kind of fun.  I don’t know, would there be a market for a pair of chairs with this fabric on them?  Maybe in the fall?  What are your thoughts on that?

I grabbed the painting because I absolutely love the colors in it, and I liked its sort of mid-mod vibe too.  It’s a genuine oil painting, but I was totally unable to read the signature so I have no idea if it’s at all valuable.  I’m guessing not, since it is very cheaply framed.

And I really don’t love that frame.  I could paint it.  Or I could just take it off.

Hmmmm, not really sure about that either.

How about a few finds that I am sure about?

This ironstone pitcher and vintage cookbook were both a steal.

And this vintage lunchbox will be a fun makeover.

I purchased a pair of these iron crosses too.

And speaking of pairs, I purchased three pairs of vintage pillowcases.

You can always tell when these have been tucked away in someone’s linen closet for 50 years and never even used.  They are often yellowed, but not at all worn looking.  A little soaking in some OxyClean, followed by a day in the sun on the clothesline, will totally take care of that yellowing.

I tend to hang onto the all white versions because I love sleeping on these, and they work with our bedroom décor.

There is something about the quality and weight of the fabric that is so much better than modern linens.

And for that reason, I’m awarding them with ‘find of the day’ status.

Plus, believe it or not, these were only $2 per pair.  Where else can you get beautifully hand-worked pillowcases for $1 each?!

In the end, I may have a bit of buyer’s remorse over those chairs, but it is outweighed by my other fabulous finds.  But tell me, have you ever had buyers remorse over a garage sale purchase?  Leave a comment and let me know.