Category: garden.

Today’s post is going to seem totally out of context for January.  I started this small makeover last summer and I never shared it with you guys because quite honestly, I just wasn’t all that happy with the results back then.

But let’s start at the beginning.

I purchased one of these hand shaped signs quite a few years ago online.

I’m willing to bet that many of you have seen one of these yourself.  I think they might have been offered by Decor Steals at one time, and I also see them now and again at local boutiques.  They were a mass produced, reproduction sort of a thing.  One of those things that look really cool in photos, but under closer inspection they look a bit fake-y.

Anyway, I attached mine to the photo cottage and it looked pretty good there … at first.

However, the problem with buying something like this online is that pictures can be deceiving.  This looks like something that can be used outside, right?  And it looks like it’s paint on metal.

Well, that was not the case.  It is metal, but the design is printed on paper that was glued to the metal.  The photo above was taken in 2017 and the hand was starting to look a bit shabby then, despite my spraying it with a clear sealer every spring.

Flash forward to spring 2020, and the hand now looked like this …

Yep, not good at all.

So I decided it was more than time for a refresh.

I took it down, sanded all of the paper off and gave it a paint job using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Then I decided to decorate one side with some transfers, and the other with a stencil to see which I liked best.  I started with the stencil …

Nope, don’t like that look at all.

So I tried some transfers on the other side …

Nope.  That look isn’t really working for me either.

So recently I took it down again and started over.  I sanded off the transfer, and decided to go back to black.  So I painted it again, this time with Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

Then I searched through all of my stencils (and I do have quite a few) and I simply couldn’t find anything that I thought would be perfect for the hand.  So I went online and looked around to see what I could purchase.  I ended up ordering the Fresh Honey stencil from Wallcutz that I shared a couple of weeks ago on the small chair.

It was a perfect fit for the hand.  Well, at least the way I placed it.

I placed the bottom portion of wording vertically, and the rest of it fit perfectly on the palm of the hand.

I’ll admit, I still don’t love this as much as the original look.  But I do like it much more than the first two refurbishments I tried.

I took the photo above the Sunday before Christmas and as you can see we had no snow.

According to MPR, we have around a 70% chance of having a white Christmas each year in the Twin Cities.  I really thought we were going to be in that other 30% this year, but at the last minute (December 23) we got around 5″ of snow during the Holiday Lights Howler (LOL, they just love coming up with clever names for storms, don’t they?) so we had a white Christmas after all.

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about the snow.  I do think it’s really beautiful, and I love nothing more than cozying up on the sofa with a warm blanket while watching it fall.  A layer of white snow on the ground also really brightens up the dark nights, especially if there is a clear sky and a full moon.  I also like how much more quiet my neighborhood gets when there is a little snow on the ground, I don’t know if that’s because the snow dampens sound or if people just don’t go out in it, or maybe it’s a little bit of both.

However, spending most of November and December without snow sure made me realize how much easier it was to get around without it.  I could still get to things I had stored in the photo cottage without having to drag out my boots.

So how about you?  Are you a fan of snow, or do you consider it a four letter word?

Hi guys!  I’m headed up north to my friend’s cabin for the weekend so I’ll be taking a social media break for a couple of days.  Rather than leaving you hanging though, I thought I’d spread some sunshine.

But first, I want to thank those of you who responded to my ‘for sale.’ post on Wednesday.  I’ve got sales pending pickup for almost everything.  The lamp with the green base is still available, and the blue ironing board.  I have some fun ideas for re-working that ironing board, so I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t sell ‘as is’.  Also, if you didn’t leave a comment to be in the running for one of my ‘hello fall’ book page banners, you can still do that.  Just leave a comment on that post by Sunday at midnight.

OK, moving on.  Back on Labor Day weekend, my sister, my niece and I drove up to Andover, MN to check out some sunflower fields.

My sister-in-law had mentioned these to us the last time we got together, so we just had to check it out.

The team at Fish Sunflowers has been planting random sunflower fields for five years now.  As they say on their website, their ‘goal is to spread joy and provide a free and beautiful place for families, photographers and sunflower fans to gather and soak in the beauty! No politics. No donations or admission fees. Just joy, joy, joy!’

So, all you have to do is show up and enjoy.

This year it looks like they planted 11 different fields around the Twin Cities.  You can find a list of their locations and the dates they are open here.  Although I’ll tell you now, they are all done this year except for the Albert Lea field.  But if you’re local, keep this in mind for next year.  Or maybe you need to take a road trip to Albert Lea this weekend!

We happened to visit on an overcast day, but I always think that’s a good thing for photos.  No glaring sunshine, no harsh shadows, no washed out colors.

I was surprised to find that there were props provided at each of the sites, and in some cases quite significant props.

Both of the fields we visited had a piano.

And one of them had a mirrored vanity.

How cool is that?  Although I have to admit that part of me really wanted to rescue that vanity!

I’m curious, does anyone plant sunflower fields like this where you live?  Or maybe you are a local and have been to one of the Fish Sunflower fields.  If so, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!

Hope I was able to spread a little sunshine with this post.  I’ll be back next week with some more painted projects, so be sure to stay tuned.

Welcome back to the rest of the garden tour from last week.  Today I’m sharing my garden with you.  You might want to grab a cup of coffee, this is going to be a long post.

I always think the garden looks best right about now in mid-June.  We haven’t had any hail storms yet, so the hostas are looking fabulous.  Well … except for the ones that have been munched on by deer.  The other evening I looked out the window to see a momma deer strolling up to my garden with her little fawn trailing behind her.  That fawn was adorable, but I shooed them away nonetheless.  Now I’ve started calling this part of the garden the ‘salad bar’.

They seem to especially love the Sun Power hosta, which is the bright chartreuse one on the left.  If you look closely you can see that the ends have been munched off quite a few of the leaves.

My fairy garden is in the cracked birdbath that is poking out of the hostas in the photo above.  I found the bird bath at a garage sale, and since it no longer held water due to the crack, it was super cheap.  That made it perfect for my fairy garden because it provides for drainage.

I lost a few of the plants in there over last winter (we bury it for the winter next to the house in a pile of leaves to protect it), but some came back.  The big clump of bright chartreuse on the left is a miniature hosta called Feather Boa.  I divided it last year and it has come back stronger than ever.  The much smaller blue-ish colored clump on the opposite side of the path is another miniature hosta called Blue Mouse Ears.  Just behind the buddha is Berberis thunbergii ‘Concorde’, I gave it a little pruning and it’s looking good.  The rest of the plants are new and they are annuals, so they won’t come back next year.

I had some trouble finding fairy garden plants this year.  Usually Bachman’s has a great selection, and so does Rose Floral in Stillwater but this year it was slim pickins.  I have to assume that somehow the whole COVID thing made them hard to come by.

Much like my friend Sue, a good chunk of my garden is in the shade.  But I’ve learned to love shade gardening.  For one thing, working in the garden is much more pleasant when you aren’t roasting under the hot sun.  Also, a shady garden doesn’t need to be watered nearly as much as a sunny one.

Of course hostas are perfect for a shade garden …

But other shade loving perennials that do well for me include ferns of all kinds, bleeding heart, lily of the valley, wild ginger and foam flower.

If you’ll remember, last summer we lost two trees in front of the house so now there is a bit more sun in that garden.  Luckily all of the plants I have in that bed seem to be enjoying the extra sunshine.

In addition to the hostas, I have some Purple Palace heuchera, some white and some purple astilbe, and a variegated sedum that is really happy to finally get some sun.

I try to change up the front window box every year.  This year I went with a chartreuse and white theme using coleus, sedum, white New Guinea impatiens, white trailing verbena and Diamond Frost euphorbia.

Since it’s getting a little more sun this year, I think this bright lime green sedum will do really well here.

I added one of the Classic Vintage Label transfers to my watering can, doesn’t it look fab?  And it’s holding up perfectly well outside.

I’m a big fan of adding pops of lime green foliage to the garden, especially either in the shade or planted next to darker green plants.  This ‘Lemon Frost’ lamium is a perfect example of that.

Most of the ‘decor’ in my garden has come from garage sales including this sweet concrete bunny.

The gal who was selling it had several concrete garden items and said that her son had been experimenting with making them using molds.  I only paid $8 for it, and it has held up quite well.

This fountain was from a garage sale …

It sits just below the galvanized boiler window box which is also from a garage sale.

Well, or at least the boiler was from a garage sale.  It had a rusted out bottom, so I only paid a couple of dollars for it.  Handyman Ken added some wood slats to the bottom so that it would hold soil, but still allow for drainage and then he devised a way to hang it on the wall.

And all of the pretty china I use to decorate my garden is from garage sales too.

While the ladies were touring my garden, they asked if I don’t have problems with breakage having china in the garden.  But really, I don’t.  I think I’ve had one or two plates break over the years, but since I get them dirt cheap at garage sales it’s not really a big deal.

Both of these planters were garage sale finds …

Although I have doctored them up with Dixie Belle’s patina paint to make them look like rusty iron planters (see how to do that here).  In reality one is black plastic and the other is made out of that foam faux concrete looking stuff.

Even Cossetta, my large statue, is from a garage sale.

She manages to make her way into the background of quite a few of my furniture photos …

Many of my plants are also from garage sales including that variegated sedum that I shared earlier.  Another of my favorite garage sale plant finds is Sweet Woodruff, it’s the ground cover that is under this concrete planter …

It’s nearly done blooming now, but a couple of weeks ago it was a carpet of delicate white flowers.

A quick q tip about garage sale plants, there is a good chance that plants you buy at a garage sale are considered invasive.  There is a reason the seller has enough extra to sell some.  For me, invasive isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  It just means that you need to control it by planting it in spots with natural borders.  In this case there is a tree at the back, large hostas on either side and a stone border in the front.  When the plant starts expanding beyond those borders, I just yank it out.  You have to be a little brutal about it.

I have many ‘invasive’ plants in my gardens including a rather large bed of ferns that has taken over the space to one side of our driveway.

This area is in deep shade though, and prior to adding the ferns I really had trouble getting anything to grow well in that spot.

Another favorite plant of mine is the clematis.  I added three new ones this year, bringing my total to 7.  They don’t all bloom simultaneously.  I wish I could say that I planned it that way, but it really just happened.

This one goes first …

Then a week later, the blooms on this one start to open …

The rest haven’t yet started to bloom.  One of the new ones I planted is Sweet Autumn, which blooms in late summer to early fall.  So now I should have clematis blooming for most of the season.

I have one last thing to share with you guys, my cutting garden.  It’s tucked away behind the carriage house.  The sole purpose of these plants is to cut the flowers and bring them in the house, so the plants don’t have to look pretty in place.

In case you haven’t noticed, I really love peonies so most of the space back here is taken up by them.

You might remember that about a month ago I shared the idea of using an old chair to support your peonies …

.  As you can see, the peony has grown quite a bit since then …

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my gardens even though it got a bit long.

And I also hope you’re a fan of these sort of ‘tour’ posts, because on Friday I’ll be sharing another tour of a really lovely home in Stillwater.  Here’s a little sneak peek …

So be sure to stay tuned!

Two years ago I shared Jackie’s garden here on the blog (part 1 and part 2).  At the time I promised to return the favor and let Jackie and her friend Netti tour mine.

It took me two years to get around to it, but I finally reached out to Jackie a week or so ago and asked if she was still interested.  She jumped at the chance, I believe her exact words were ‘finally … something to look forward to’ and ‘we’ll mask up and be over.’

My sister stopped by to join in the fun as well, and we all donned masks so that we could get within 6′ of each other.

To make up for my two year delay in reciprocating a garden tour, I threw in a tour of my friend Sue’s garden too.  Sue is my picker/garage sale mentor/co-worker/Carriage House sale partner and friend, and she only lives a few blocks away from me.

That huge lush thing growing on her arbor is a Hardy Kiwi vine (Actinidia).  The leaves have white tips on them.

Sue focuses on white and green in her garden, so this vine is perfect for her.

I love the feeling of serenity that is created in her garden with its white color scheme and her use of vintage pieces scattered here and there.

Everywhere you look you can find some unique touch that has been tucked into the garden.

Sue’s garden is mostly shaded.  Although the sun peeks through to certain spots as it moves across the sky, it is fleeting.  So she uses a lot of shade loving plants like ferns, hostas and bleeding hearts.

No garden is quite complete without a water feature, and I remember when Sue found her fountain at a garage sale.

Sue’s garden isn’t completely green and white, she does have some lovely peonies scattered about as well.

Over the years Sue has divided and shared quite a few of her plants with me, including some anemone that look fantastic interplanted with my hostas.

And although that glimpse of my garden makes it look like I also stick with green and white (and I do in some spots), I also have a bit more color in my garden.

But you’ll have to come back on Monday to see that.  I hope you’ll stay tuned!

A few weeks back my neighbor, nnK, spotted some old milk cans that were being given away, so she grabbed them for me.

I feel like milk cans often come dangerously close to looking like bad 80’s decorating.  Like if they are painted in a black and white cow hide pattern, or maybe with a goose or something on them.

But I think I was able to give these a bit of an update, and now they’d be perfect in the garden.

To start out, I scrubbed them up with some dishwashing soap and then left them to dry.  Once dry, I sprayed all three of them with some clear, matte finish spray sealer to seal any remaining flaking paint and rust.

Next, I started with the black can and simply stenciled it with a stencil from Maison de Stencils and some Dixie Belle paint in Sawmill Gravy.

I moved on to the smaller, really rusty can.  This time I used a white transfer from re.design with prima.  This is just a section from their Beautiful Home transfer.

I recently discovered that quite a few of their transfers are being ‘retired’ and this is one of them.  You may still be able to get it from a retailer who has it in stock, but once they are gone there will be no more.

The white really popped on that rusty can.

The final can had some great chippy remnants of green and blue paint.  To dress it up a just a little, I added a section from one of my all time favorite transfers, Everyday Farmhouse.

Sadly, this transfer is being retired as well.  Boo hoo.  I’m definitely going to miss it.  It added just the right touch to the final milk can.

For all three of the milk cans, I added another coat or two of the matte spray sealer after stenciling/adding a transfer.  I wanted to give them just a little extra durability for use outside.

So, what do you think of my upgrades?

As always, thank you to re.design with prima, Dixie Belle Paint Co and Maison de Stencils for providing some of the products used on today’s projects.

Last summer I snagged this trio of galvanized buckets at a garage sale.

Admittedly, they aren’t really anything special.  They aren’t vintage, but they are heavy, good quality galvanized metal rather than the flimsy, cheap stuff.

Plus, I thought I could dress them up simply and quickly using some re.design with prima transfers.

And bam!

Just by adding that simple detail they have a lot more personality.

I used two different sets of transfers.  The Sky Valley Farm transfer is from the Everyday Farmhouse set.

While the other two buckets have sections from the Paris Valley transfer.

You can just pop a hanging basket into these and have an instant fabulous flower box.

Or you could punch holes in the bottom for drainage and then plant directly in them.  Wouldn’t they be fab with just some simple geraniums?

I’m often asked if I add a sealer over transfers, or whether or not they will hold up outside without being sealed.  In my opinion, you only need a sealer if the surface you put your transfer onto needs a sealer.  For example, if it’s painted wood or metal.  I’ve never sealed a transfer that has been applied to glass, mirror or unpainted metal.

Last year I experimented with a transfer on an old metal picnic basket.

I left it out all summer and the transfer never budged.  That being said, the metal container itself rusted quite a bit, but the transfer held up great without any kind of sealer.

I took these buckets, along with a huge pile of other stuff, in to Reclaiming Beautiful this week.  They are open today and tomorrow, so if you’re local and you feel the need for some retail therapy be sure to stop in.  They will be implementing the following safety measures:

* No more than 10 people in the store at a time
* Hand Sanitizer will be available
* Card transactions will be done by customers with no
signature required (we will clean between each use)
* Curbside pick up is still an option

There’s just something about worn, old garden tools that really appeals to me.

I have quite a few of them around my yard.  I’ve even used one as the handle for the door on my photo cottage …

I often use them as props in my photos too.

So when I see old gardening tools at garage sales, I generally snap them up.  Last summer I accumulated a few old shovels …

They don’t look like much there, do they?  I’m sure I didn’t pay more than a dollar or two for each one, but I thought they had potential.  After giving them all a good scrub with some soapy water, I experimented a bit to see what I could do with them.

Let’s start with the one in the back that looks more like a snow shovel, rather than a garden shovel.  It’s my least favorite, so it goes first.  The wooden shaft and handle were quite dried out and any finish they once had was completely worn off.  I decided to paint them black using Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.  Once dry, I distressed them heavily with sand paper and then added a nourishing coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta, which is sort of like a mix between hemp oil and wax.  Finally, I added a re.design with prima transfer to the blade.

In hindsight, the blade was a bit dark for using a black transfer.

So let’s just quickly move on to the next one.  This one had a bit of red paint left on the blade, but again a very dried out wooden shaft and handle.  I darkened up the shaft with some Dixie Belle No Pain Gel Stain in Walnut, then I painted the handle with their Honky Tonk Red.

Once again I distressed it heavily and coated it with Big Mama’s Butta.

Then I added one of the sections of re.design with prima’s Vintage Seed transfers to the blade.

Wouldn’t that be fun hanging on the side of your potting shed?

This last one is my favorite, mainly because the wood had such a beautiful patina already.  I just brightened it up a bit with some of Dixie Belle’s Howdy Do hemp oil.

Then I added a transfer from the Classic Vintage Labels set to the blade.

It doesn’t show up quite as much as I would like, but it adds a little subtle detail.

Does anyone else use old seat-less chairs as peony cages?  They work great to keep your peonies from flopping over when the flower heads get heavy.  I have a couple of them that I found at garage sales for a few dollars.  They only hold up for a few years in the harsh Minnesota weather, but I pay so little that I don’t mind if they get ruined.

I’ll be adding these shovels to the pile of goodies that I’m bringing in to the shop where I sell on consignment, Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN.  Now that our governor has switched us from a ‘Stay at Home’ order to a ‘Stay Safe’ order, retail shops can re-open next week.  So those of you who are local, if you’re ready for some much needed shopping therapy, be sure to stop by and shop safely by wearing masks, physical distancing and not congregating in groups.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and to re.design with prima for providing the products used for today’s projects.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

OK, maybe I’m the oddball here, but how many of you have contemplated whether or not COVID-19 is going to have an impact on gardens this year?  I keep thinking that people have so much time on their hands that their gardens are going to be spectacular this season.  Gardening is one activity that is mostly COVID safe.  There aren’t that many activities that feel safe these days, so we may as well work in the garden, right?

It will be interesting to see whether or not we notice a difference as the season progresses.

But in the meantime, I’ve been breaking out the re.design with prima moulds and the Dixie Belle patina paint and creating a few treasures for my own garden.

I started by digging out some clay pots and other garden ornaments.

All of them had been used, so before I got started I washed them in soapy water and made sure they were completely dry.

Next I pulled out one of the newest moulds from re.design with prima called Ancient Findings.

Aren’t they fun?  Sort of like coins and medallions.

I used prima’s Modeling Material to make up a few to glue to my pots (you can read more detailed instructions on how to make the mould here).

When applying a mould to a curved surface, be sure to glue it in place before it dries.  The molds are pliable at first and can be manipulated, but once dry they are quite hard.  I used regular Elmer’s wood glue to attach these.

I let the moulds dry for a couple of days to make sure they were fully dry before moving on to the next step.

Then I pulled out all of my Dixie Belle patina paints and sprays.

I just realized my photo above doesn’t include the Copper paint, and I used that one as well.  I thought it would be fun to try a few different combinations of the paint and spray.

I hadn’t used the blue spray yet, and I was wondering how much of a difference it made to use green spray v. blue spray.  To test that I pulled out a resin acorn finial that I had on hand.  I painted it using the Bronze paint, then sprayed one side with green …

and one side with blue …

Yep, you definitely can see the difference between the spray colors.  In this case, I prefer the green … but that’s going to totally be a matter of personal preference.

Next I moved on to my pots.  I first painted them all using the Prime Start.  Technically, the Prime Start is only required if you are painting over metal.  With other materials like wood, or clay in this instance, you can just prime your piece with any Dixie Belle paint.  I often just use a coat of Midnight Sky because it creates a nice blank canvas for the patina.  But this time I used the Prime Start.

Next I painted a couple of pots with the Iron paint, one with the Bronze paint and one with the Copper paint.

The combination of Iron paint and green spray creates a rusty finish.

These pots aren’t looking terribly rusty yet though.  I find that the rusty finish in particular takes more time to develop.

The candlesticks I shared back in March are a good example of that.  Here’s a comparison showing how much rustier they are after six weeks.

So keep this in mind if you are disappointed with the initial results of your rusty finish.  You have to give it some time to develop.

The combination of the Bronze paint and the green spray gives you a gorgeous verdigris patina, and this develops much more quickly than the rust.

I think this is my favorite look overall for the pots.

The Copper paint with the green spray lends itself to a tad more dramatic look.

If you’re going for that classic verdigrised copper look, this will give it to you.

You’ve probably already noticed this, but I just can’t get enough of the Patina Paints.  It’s so much fun taking an old, tacky thing and making it look like a genuine ‘ancient finding’.

How about you?  Have you tried any of the Patina Paints?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Patina Paint products, and to re.design with prima for providing the Ancient Findings mould and Modeling Material used for today’s project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.