Category: happy holidays.

the tree spot.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

I was recently watching a Christmas decorating vlog on YouTube.  The vlogger had recently moved into a new house and was deciding where to put the Christmas tree.  She mentioned that in her former home, once she found the perfect spot for her tree, she just kept putting it in the same spot year after year.

That got me thinking.  I realized that I’ve put my current tree in five different spots in my house since I purchased it in 2016.

So, nine Christmases, five spots.  Clearly I don’t like to repeat myself.

And actually, if we go back even further, I had an even smaller silver tree that was in yet another spot.

That was back before I added the giant English cupboard to the q branch.

It helps that my current tree is a ‘slim’ model, so it’s easier to tuck into various corners.  The rooms in my 1904 farmhouse are fairly small, I don’t think I could fit a ‘normal’ sized tree anywhere except possibly in the dining room.

Also, I realize that my silver tree isn’t quite traditional.  But it works beautifully with my non-collection of vintage glass ornaments.

In 2016, I put the new, taller silver tree in the piano room near the bay window.

That’s back when I thought Christmas trees were supposed to be near a window so they could be seen by people passing by outside.

I think many of us imagine the perfectly lit tree centered in a big picture window as being the epitome of Christmas.

But by 2017 I decided that I should put the tree where I wanted to see it.  I had acquired that English cupboard in the q branch by then, and I had just enough room in the corner beside it to tuck in the tree.

Fast forward to 2019.  I decided to change things up a bit again and I moved the tree to the living room.

I also changed the color scheme a bit.  Instead of using all of my vintage glass ornaments, I just used those in silver and/or gold.

And I added some brass horns that I’d found at a garage sale.

It was a very pretty tree, but I felt it looked a bit too small for that corner of the living room.

In 2022 I decided to try something totally different.  I moved the tree out to my three season porch.

Or as I call it in winter, my walk-in fridge.

I did really love it in that spot, although it was a bit of a chilly job to set it up.  And it was even colder when I took it down.  Plus, there isn’t any electrical out there so I had to run a cord through a cracked window which probably wasn’t terribly energy efficient.

After giving the q branch a little bit of a makeover last January, I realized that I had a bit of space in another corner of the room for the tree this year.

I will admit that when my sister saw it in this location, she pointed out that it wasn’t very visible from the rest of the house.

But you know what, that’s OK.  This tree is mainly for my own enjoyment anyway.  And every morning as I sit here at my desk working on my blog I can admire the tree.

Will I put it back here next year?  Maybe.  Or maybe not.  But so far I think this has been my favorite location for the Christmas tree.

Now how about you?  Do you pick a new spot for your tree from year to year, or does it always go in the same spot?  Leave a comment and let me know.

good is good enough.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

You may remember the brass bird cage that my neighbor nnK gave me a while back.

I’ve used it to stage a few photos here and there.

But otherwise it just sits on a shelf in our living room.

Last year I dressed up a similar birdcage for Christmas and I really loved how it turned out.

I ended up selling that one, so now I want to do something similar with the round birdcage to keep for myself.

I started out by lining the bottom of the cage with a sheet of moss.  This way I’m hot gluing my decor onto the moss rather than onto the cage itself.  I plan to just remove the whole shebang after the holidays.

I knew I wanted to use bottle brush trees in the cage, and I wanted gold ones.  So I ordered a set of 24 bottle brush trees in gold, cream and green from Amazon.

And once again I fell victim to not reading the fine print.  I really need to get better about that!

When 24 trees arrived in a box that was smaller than a shoe box, I knew I was in trouble.

Let’s be honest, the price should have been my first clue.  At a little less than $15 for 24 trees … well, duh.  The trees range in size from 2.5″ to 4.5″ tall.  That aqua tree in the background is the size that I thought I was getting.  Silly me.

Well, not to worry.  I’ll find a use for the smaller trees.  Some of them have already found a home in my little wooden village.

But I still needed some gold trees for my birdcage, so I went looking for them in the shops.  I went to Hobby Lobby and Michaels, with no luck.

Then I thought, why not just spray paint some of the bottle brush trees that are already in my stash?  So I pulled my gold spray paint back out and got to painting.

Luckily I was able to get that spray painting done outdoors while it was in still in the 40’s outside.  I’m not sure what would happen if I tried to spray paint outside today when it’s in the single digits.

I achieved a much more subtle look with the gold spray, my trees are definitely less glittery than the small trees from Amazon.  But I rather like that.

After using hot glue to tack in my trees and a little golden reindeer (purchased at Target last year, but they still have them this year), I added fairy lights and a sprinkling of snow.

I also added a few bits of lichen covered bark to the ground.

I did forget to take one minor detail into consideration when working with this bird cage …

and that’s the metal mesh that surrounds the bottom half of the cage.

It’s a little hard to see the reindeer through that mesh, and I didn’t really think about that until I put the top of the cage back on the base.

But that’s OK.  I’m placing the cage on an end table in the living room, so it will mostly be viewed from slightly above.

So I think it still works.  I’m trying to embrace the Dutch idea that striving for perfection isn’t necessary, and fussing over unimportant details isn’t worth the effort.  As they say, goed is goed genoeg, or ‘good is good enough’.

What do you think?  Is it good enough for you?  Leave a comment and let me know.

a tropical holiday.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

First up before I get into today’s post, congratulations to the winner of my blogiversary giveaway, Linda Moore.  I drew Linda’s name using a random number generator (if you’re reading Linda, be sure to check your inbox for an email from me).

I have to admit, taking a tropical vacation just before Christmas can feel a bit discombobulating.  As you know, I did the bulk of my Christmas decorating before I left for Mexico, and lucky thing because now I’ve been lulled into thinking it’s still summer.

This was my third year at Velas Vallarta, a resort quite near the airport in Puerto Vallarta.

I’m extremely lucky in that my neighbor nnK’s family invites me along on their annual family holiday, and this year they invited my sister too!

As much as Velas goes all out to decorate for the holiday, it just doesn’t feel Christmas-like to me.

They fill their grounds with the most lovely poinsettias.

And they also have a very impressive Christmas tree in the lobby.

This year we were there for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony too.  They serve hot chocolate and cookies and have a performer singing Christmas carols.  I will admit that for that one evening I was reminded that Christmas was coming.

But honestly, when the bulk of your day is spent like this …

you very quickly forget all about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  You also quickly forget about the winter weather!

If you are looking for a nice resort in Puerto Vallarta, I can 100% recommend this one.

The grounds are absolutely immaculate.

The beach is lovely.

I like that it’s located deep in Banderas Bay, so rather than an endless horizon out to sea, you look across the bay at a lovely view of mountains.

The pools are incredible, and gigantic.

I’ll also note that they allow you to use flotation devices.  Maybe resorts ban them from their pools, but not Velas.  We bring our own floaties, you know, the kind with a drink holder …

and we float with a cocktail and/or a good book.

The rooms are very clean and spacious, and there is a large balcony.  The staff is excellent, very friendly and accommodating.

The breakfast buffet is fantastic.  They have a large selection of fruit, juices, eggs, bacon, sausages, etc.  They also have a custom omelette bar where they will make one with whatever you want inside.  They also have waffle/pancake/french toast chef and I visited her almost every morning.

Eating a delicious waffle and washing it down with a mimosa while sitting in a lovely open air restaurant right on the beach was heavenly.  Unfortunately it wasn’t until the last day that I figured out I could get a passion fruit mimosa, but the ones made with plain old orange juice were quite good too.

We ordered lunch by the pool nearly every day, and our poolside waiter Eric was happy to deliver whatever we wanted; hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches, nachos, salads, and more.

There are two restaurants at Velas, the more casual beachfront option where we had breakfast and a little fancier option that doesn’t have the view.  We had dinner in both, and we also ordered dinner from room service a couple of times and dined on our own balcony.

I mentioned that Velas Vallarta isn’t far from the airport, and you can see and hear planes taking off from poolside.  It really is hardly noticeable after a day or so.  It’s also in walking distance from the marina.

My sister and I walked down there a few mornings before breakfast.  I’ll share more about that in another post, so be sure to stay tuned!

And on that note, I have to go get re-acclimated to winter … the projected high of only 4° on Thursday should help, and maybe do just a little bit more Christmas decorating.  As much as I loved soaking up the sun for a week, it’s also good to be back!

holiday toolbox roundup.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

While I’m off enjoying the sunshine in Puerto Vallarta, I thought I’d just share a quick recap of all of the Christmas themed toolboxes/tackleboxes/lock boxes that I’ve created over the past several years.

I started making Christmas themed-ish boxes back in 2019 with this Oh Deer tackle box.

It wasn’t overtly Christmas themed, but featured reindeer from re.design with prima’s Oh Deer transfer.

I really wasn’t sure if this sort of thing would sell.  And in fact, I didn’t even try to sell this one.  I included it in a giveaway here on the blog.

I ended up making a 2nd similar toolbox that I did try to sell, but it didn’t go.

I ended up giving that one away a year later.

I made up this next toolbox as a secret Santa gift in 2019.

It also doesn’t have an overtly Christmas look to it, but it’s hinted at with its red and white color scheme and the re.design with prima Classic Vintage Labels cranberry transfer.

The contents had a peppermint theme which made it more Christmas-y as well.

It wasn’t until October 2022 that I decided to go all out with a truly Christmas themed box.

When I posted about it here, I mentioned that I purposely chose a simple unassuming lock box, rather than a larger toolbox, because I really wasn’t sure if I would like it.  I also really wasn’t sure if there would be a market for a Christmas themed box.

I used two Dixie Belle transfers on this one, Evergreen and Holly and Vintage Post.

And of course I loved it.  Plus it sold rather quickly so I thought perhaps Christmas themed boxes would be good sellers after all.

So the following month I made up another one with different segments from the same two Dixie Belle transfers, the Christmas Curiosities box.

I still have yet to find another transfer with Christmas florals that I like as much as those in the Evergreen and Holly transfer.

This one sold fairly quickly as well.

Fast forward to the 2023 holiday season.  One of my favorite readers asked if I would do a custom lock box for her.

At the time I was all out of the Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer, but she had one herself.  So in exchange for creating her custom box, she let me keep any of the transfer I didn’t use which was a definite bonus.

And technically I guess you can count that one as sold before I even made it.

I used some of that leftover Evergreen and Holly on this Christmas Tackle Box.

I painted the inside of this one in Dixie Belle’s English Ivy.

As of the last time I checked, this one has still not sold.  I did bring it into Reclaiming Beautiful (the shop where I sell on consignment in Stillwater, MN) a few weeks ago.

I also created the Candy Cane Toolbox in 2023.

I used elements from the I.O.D. Candy Cane Cottage transfer on this one.

This one sold rather quickly.

This year I ordered two of the new Dixie Belle Christmas transfers, Yuletide Hearth and Caroling Cardinals …

and I used them on a Lane cedar box and a tackle box.  Don’t get me wrong, they are both nice.  But in my opinion, not as pretty and also not as versatile as the Evergreen and Holly transfer was.

I also added a stencil to a toolbox this year.

I love how this one turned out, but last I checked it hasn’t sold yet either.  There is still time this year, so we’ll see what happens.

I’ve saved my all time favorite Christmas toolbox for last, and that’s the tree Topper toolbox from November 2022.

The red and black wording is from the I.O.D. Cosette transfer, and it has nothing to do with Christmas.  But the red wording was perfect, and “ornemanistes” is French for one who ornaments, in other words a decorator.  So that seemed somewhat apropos.

By the way, complete sidebar here, as I was researching this post I found that this entire segment of the Cosette transfer is from a book from 1880 (you can see it here).

Who knew?

Anyway, the holly and poinsettia florals on this toolbox are also from my favorite Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer.

As much as I love this particular look, I have never recreated it on another toolbox.  Mainly because the cost of the Cosette transfer is about $40 .  The full Cosette transfer looks like this …

And it’s gorgeous.  So it feels like a bit of a waste to harvest the wording from the middle and not use the rest of it.  Unfortunately I still haven’t come up with a use for the rest of the one I used on that toolbox.

I usually like to stick with transfers that can be cut up and used on multiple small projects, or one piece of furniture that I can price high enough to cover that cost.

So it’s definitely one of a kind, and I’ve hung onto it because a; I love it and b; it’s perfect for displaying my non-collection of vintage glass tree toppers.

That brings me to the end of my holiday toolbox recap.  I hope you’ve been inspired to consider creating your own Christmas themed toolbox … or lock box … or tackle box.

Which one of these was your favorite?  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know.  It will give me something to read while lounging at the pool.

a tale of two rugs.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

Remember way back to last winter when I repainted the walls in the q branch (a.k.a. my study)?

I absolutely love the color I ended up choosing, Globe Artichoke from Pittsburgh Paints.

Once I had the walls painted, I then hung my gallery of garage sale art on the wall.

The room still looked rather unfinished.

It needed a rug, and I also needed to wait until summer to paint those radiator pipes in the corner.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not very patient when it comes to shopping for things like rugs.  I went to a few different brick and mortar shops with my friend opK, but nothing jumped out at me.  I also did a bunch of online browsing, but every time I picked a rug that I thought might work I either couldn’t get it in the size I wanted, or it was too expensive, or I just wasn’t absolutely sure I liked it.

And then there’s this little consideration …

That’s Lucy, a.k.a. the barfer.

Yep, she has a tendency to upchuck.  She’s also somewhere around 19 – 20 years old at this point (she was a rescue, so we’re not entirely sure, but we’ve had her for 18 years and she wasn’t a kitten when we found her), so we don’t hold it against her.

Usually we get a little warning when she’s about to blow, she makes a very unique and rather loud noise.  So we have time to move her to a washable surface.  But if we’re not home, then all bets are off.

So for that reason, we don’t want to invest in a high quality rug right now.

Which brings me to the rug I finally ordered from Wayfair.

This is the DeSoto Oriental in cream/grey.  It also comes in 4 other colors, including an option that has some green in it.  Unfortunately that one was not available in a square, and I really wanted a square rug.  As you can see above, a square fits really nicely in almost perfectly square room.

It also was less than $100, which was a good price for a rug that I don’t plan to keep forever.

So I thought I’d take a chance with this one, and that perhaps the grey would pull in the color of my dark grey walls in the neighboring piano room.

Now that the rug is in place in the room, I think it’s OK, but not spectacular.  It definitely helps give the room a more finished look.  It was also cheap enough that I plan to just keep it and use it until the perfect rug comes along, if it ever does.

As you can also see, I did manage to get those pipes in the corner painted over the summer.

I may have to bite the bullet and paint the radiator too, but that’s another job that has to wait for summer.  I’d kind of like to paint it gold, like this inspiration photo from pinterest.

I think the gold radiator would tie in with all of the gold frames in the room, and it would look gorgeous with the green walls.  What do you think?

In the meantime, next on the list is going to be window treatments of some kind, and hey, maybe I’ll even sew them myself on my new sewing machine!

One quick side note, as you may have noticed, I placed my skinny silver Christmas tree in the q branch this year.  It fits perfectly in this wonky little corner, and I can admire it while I sit at my computer working on this blog.

This tree holds my non-collection of vintage glass ornaments.

I also hung my ornament wreath over the mirror that hangs in the q branch.

Last year I displayed my Christmas village on top of the giant English pine cupboard that is in this room …

but this year I decided to forgo putting up the village.  Maybe I’ll get it back out again next year, if I have a little more time for decorating.

But wait, the title of this post is a tale of two rugs.  Are you wondering about the 2nd?

Well, here it is.

Ironically, I was shopping for both full size rugs and miniature rugs at the same time.  I looked at so many options online for both that at one point I was getting them mixed up.

I had similar requirements for both rugs; pale neutral colors, a muted pattern and a specific size.  A square no more than 7′ x 7′ for the q branch, and a rectangle at least 8″ x 10″ for the dollhouse.

I ended up finding the dollhouse rug at Life in a Dollhouse.

And I think it works perfectly with my French Country Cottage style dining set.

What do you think?

the winter dining room.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

I started my holiday decorating a bit early this year for two reasons.  First, I did all of my outdoor stuff a week or two ago when we had a couple of really nice sunny days in the 50’s.  It was so fun filling the window box and putting up lights without having to wear a parka and fight with frozen soil.

Speaking of the window box, one of you requested a ‘dusk photo’ with the twig lights on.  I didn’t manage to get a dusk photo, but how about a ‘dawn photo’?

As you can see, I got this stuff in just in time before winter weather officially (in my book) arrived with a dusting of snow, blustery winds and a ‘feels like’ temp of 8°.

I got a jump on my indoor decorating too. That’s due to my 2nd reason for starting early.  Once again this year I’m going to Mexico with my neighbor nnK and her parents.  And this time my sister is joining us as well.  We leave tomorrow, and then there are only two and a half weeks until Christmas once we get back.

Putting up holiday decorations is a fair amount of work, I wanted to enjoy them for more than a couple of weeks!

Today I thought I would share the decorations in our dining room.  This is where we enter our house from the back deck, and my Belgian bed bench is next to the door.

The bench is painted in Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in a mix of equal parts Ironstone, Linen and Grain Sack.  You can find all of the details for that project here.

As for the sled hanging over the bench, that is one I found this past summer at an estate sale.  The price was a little higher than I like to spend (as is usually the case at estate sales), but I had to snap it up because of the solid surface of the seat.  I knew that would be perfect for stenciling.

I painted the seat in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, then created a shadow of the words ‘Bed and Breakfast’ using Coffee Bean, and finally added the full stencil in Drop Cloth.

I finished it off with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax, including the unfinished wood and the metal slats.  The clear wax just freshens it all up a bit and would protect it from moisture if I hung it outside, although for this year I’m keeping it inside.

I added some faux evergreen garland and a string of battery operated lights to the back of the bench.

Then I added more garland and lights to the top of my Welsh cupboard.

Next I pulled out the vintage “Merry Christmas” sign that I purchased last year.

Although I appreciated the original red and green paint, I didn’t love the glitter that had been added to it.  So I repainted the letters in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and the bar across the back in Midnight Sky.

By the way, nearly every piece of ironstone in that cupboard is from a garage sale.  I think there might be one or two that were from antique shops, but that’s about it.

The last bit of holiday decorating in this room is my clock cloche (that’s what I’m calling it anyway) centerpiece on the table.  Some of you might remember when I popped a large glass cloche over a clock that fell off my wall and was damaged.

If not, the details can be found here.

I tend to change up the contents of the clock cloche for the seasons, and here is its Christmas look.

Well, maybe it would be more accurate to call it a ‘winter’ look.

It feels a bit plain for a holiday look.  I may have to dress it up a bit more.  Maybe it needs some faux snow, or lighting of some kind.  What do you think?

I let the paint colors that I used on the sled dictate a neutral color scheme in the dining room this year.  Sometimes it’s fun to change things up and see how you like them.  Plus, if I just remove the “Merry Christmas” signage from above the hutch, the rest of this stuff can be left in place as simply ‘winter’ decor.  Maybe next year I’ll go back to more traditional red and green.

How about you?  Are you all out red and green, with Santa’s everywhere?  Or do you sometimes stick to a more neutral ‘winter’ look?  Leave a comment and let me know.

And one last note, I did schedule a couple of posts for while I’m gone.  However, I probably won’t answer comments since I’ll be floating in a pool in Mexico.  So I hope you enjoy them, and I’ll be sure to respond when I get back!

hidden potential.

Published on by Quandie11 Comments

You may remember that my friend Kathy gave me a bunch of metal boxes last summer.

I just have a few left that haven’t been given makeovers yet, including two plain metal index card boxes that I didn’t really think had much potential.

But then the other day I was watching a YouTube video where the creator was adding Christmas scenes with bottle brush trees and little Santa’s or reindeer into vintage tins (Ginger Chick Rehab), and it looked like so much fun.  But I didn’t have any fabulous vintage tins on hand.

So I decided to try ‘making’ my own out of the two index card boxes.

I started with the smallest box.  I gave it a quick sanding with 150 grit sandpaper to rough up the surface a little to improve adhesion, then I also gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss for the same reason.

Next I gave the box a coat of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth to create a base.  Once thoroughly dry, I pulled out an old re.design with prima transfer called Gingham Red (I’m not sure why it’s called that since both included designs are plaid, not gingham, but don’t let that throw you off).

I had used most of the red plaid on this sled back in 2019 …

But I had just enough left to cover the entire box.

As you can see, it didn’t go on perfectly.  I have a couple of spots where the transfer cracked and you can see the white underneath.  But that’s OK, I wanted the box to appear vintage.

FYI, I did not apply any sort of sealer over the transfer.  I’m never happy with how a topcoat looks over these full coverage sort of transfers.  This little box shouldn’t get much wear and tear, so I think it will be OK without a sealer.

Now for the fun part.  After adding some floral foam inside the box, I hot glued in some bottle brush trees and a cute little reindeer.

Then, after adding some moss around them to hide the floral foam, I tucked in a couple of vintage glass ornaments.

Those of you who are fans of A Christmas Story might appreciate the book I used to stage the photos 😉

I went in a completely different direction with the larger of the two boxes.  I noted that when open, the lid falls all the way back, which didn’t lend itself well to the same treatment as the smaller box.

So instead I decided to just paint it up inside and out with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage after sanding and giving it a coat of Bonding Boss first.

Then I pulled out I.O.D.’s Fairy Merry Christmas transfer (a 2023 release, now retired).  It has a really beautiful woodland wreath in muted colors.

I had been ‘saving’ it for just the right project.  I’m sure many of you know that feeling.

It was time to just go ahead and use it!

I didn’t want to just slap a wreath on the top of this box, so instead I started cutting it up to make it work on the box.  Part of it went on the front, and another section went on the top.

I also added a stamp to the box.  As I’ve mentioned quite a few times, I’m still struggling to get a result that I like when using rubber stamps.  This was actually attempt no. 2.  The first attempt was too smudged, so I tried to wipe it away with a damp cloth before it dried.  That ended up turning into a eureka sort of moment for me because I really liked the faded image that was left behind (although still not the smudging).

So I painted back over that area, and once the paint was dry I applied the stamp again.  Then I waited about 60 seconds or so, and wiped it away with a damp rag.

I’m sure this technique does not work with just any kind of ink and/or paint.  But in this case I was using VersaFine Clair ink in Pinecone over Dixie Belle paint (a chalk style paint).  I had not sealed my paint before applying the stamp.  I highly recommend playing around with this effect before attempting it on something that might get ruined.

I also added a transfer from the Fairy Merry Christmas set to the inside of the lid.

I finished the box off with a coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

What could one use this box for?

I guess I’m not really sure.  But it definitely is pretty.  And also not overtly ‘Christmas’, so it could be popped onto a bookshelf and left there all year really.

What would you put in it?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for their products used in this makeover.

copper and gold.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

It’s been a while since I brought you a Sunday morning in the garden post hasn’t it?

So far we’ve had a rather mild fall.  There have been a handful of nights just below freezing, but nothing really cold.  As a result, I still have some plants that look pretty darn good in the garden, like this Alexander’s Great brunnera …

and my Hakonechloa, or Japanese forest grass.

Up until a few nights ago I could also have said that some of my hostas are still looking great as well.

Except they no longer look like that.  Every last hosta that was still green was chomped down to stalks by roaming deer a couple of nights ago.

I really only seem to have trouble with deer in the early spring when they come and eat all of my tulips, and now apparently in late fall when they turn my hostas into a salad bar.

I’ll count my blessings since they don’t bother my garden in summer.  Knock on wood.

But today’s post isn’t about the deer, or what still looks good in the garden.  It’s about my front window box.  I’ve shared it here many times, but for those who may not be familiar it’s quite large at about 12′ long.  One thing I didn’t really think about when we made it so big was how much it would cost to keep it filled with annuals in the summer, and evergreens in the winter.

Unfortunately I don’t really have anywhere that I can go to forage for free evergreen cuttings so I have to buy them, and they aren’t cheap.  So last year when I went to the Bachman’s after Christmas sale I picked up two lengths of faux evergreen garland for 75% off.  They were originally priced at $79.99 (egads!), so I got them for about $20 each.

I think it looks realistic enough from the street, and no one really gets any closer than that except me.  And now I have a nice, full base to start adding further embellishments to.  Plus I’ll be able to use this over and over for several years at least.

I still have all of the faux red berries that I used in the window box last year.

But I wanted to try something different this year.  That being said, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on all new embellishments.

Plus, I put in a little extra effort in early fall drying quite a few flowers from the garden, like this Astilbe.

And of course, lots of hydrangeas.  So I wanted to use those.

But I didn’t want a ‘brown’ color scheme, so I decided to add a little bling with some metallic spray paint.

I took advantage of some lovely fall weather this past Friday and set up a work area outside to spray paint the flowers.

They hydrangeas look amazing, but I’m not as impressed with the painted astilbe.

I also didn’t love the copper paint as much as the gold.  I chose the matte metallic copper and this is one time when I should have gone shinier.

I had also dried a bunch of allium, and they are awesome painted in gold.

As are the handful of dried poppy seedheads from nnK’s garden.

After tucking all of the painted flowers in with the faux evergreen garland, I decided that I needed to add a few items with a bit more impact.  So I pulled a few different elements out of the workshop and gave them a spray of gold too.

Now, I’m sure that a few of you are wondering how well the painted dried flowers will last.  The answer pretty much depends on our weather.  If we get a heavy snowfall, it will inevitably crush them and they won’t look so good after that.

But hopefully we’ll just get the light and fluffy stuff between now and Christmas.

Fingers crossed!

Are you a fan of the more subtle copper and gold theme this year?  Or did you prefer the pop of red from last year?  Leave a comment and let me know.

old world european.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

After completing quite a few Christmas projects in a more traditional red and green, I felt the need to get out one of my favorite neutrals, Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.

It’s such an interesting color.  Is it grey?  Is it green?  Is it beige?  I think it’s a little bit of all three.

Whatever you want to call it, I think works well for creating a primitive sort of look.  So when I was trying to decided what color to paint this rustic box that I found at a garage sale this summer, I decided Dried Sage would be perfect.

Although I love a good distressed paint finish, this box was just a tad too grungy for my taste.  The Dried Sage is not too far off the original color on the box, perhaps a bit less blue.

After giving it a good cleaning, I was able to get good coverage with just one coat of the Dried Sage.  Once that first coat dried, I added a fresh coat to the top of the box so that I could apply one of the I.O.D. Gloria paint inlays into the wet paint.

I just love the sort of old world European look of this inlay.

You can find my full step by step guide to using the paint inlays here.

Once I had the inlay applied, I immediately gave it a quick coat of Rust-Oleum’s matte spray sealer.  It is so easy to smear the paint inlays before they are sealed (trust me, I’ve done it many times), so I don’t start sanding or anything before giving it a quick spray.

Once that was dry, I sanded the edges of the box to distress them and then sealed the entire thing with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

Although ‘noel en famille’ means ‘Christmas with family’, I don’t think the box is in-your-face-Christmas.  Except possibly for French speakers.  So I rather like the idea of using it to store my old family photos.

So although I had originally planned to sell it, I’m going to keep it for that purpose.

While I had both the Dried Sage and the Gloria paint inlay out, I decided to dress up this rustic old bucket as well.

After giving the bucket a good cleaning, I painted it in the Dried Sage and then applied another section from the Gloria paint inlay to it.

By the way, that is Dutch and it says something like peace on earth and goodwill to all.

I’ve staged my bucket with some white linens, ironstone and tarnished silver.

But it would also be the perfect vessel for a small faux Christmas tree.

I also gave this one a coat of the spray sealer to avoid smearing the inlay.

Last up in my trio of Dried Sage Christmas items is this wood tote.

I actually shared this tote back in June when I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and didn’t embellish it in any way.

It was sort of an experiment to see if it would sell this way.  Spoiler alert; it did not.

So I pulled it back out and added a couple of coats of Dried Sage.  Once the paint was dry, I sanded fairly vigorously and as you can see I ended up with a very distressed look.  That’s likely because I had originally waxed over the Drop Cloth back in June, so that worked as a resist for the Dried Sage.

I know this look isn’t for everybody.  I love it, but if you don’t you may want to use caution when painting over a previously waxed item.

Next I added my Rudolph and Co stencil to the front of the tote using Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean first, and then layering over ‘Rudolph’ and ‘Co’ with Drop Cloth.

That one doesn’t require any translation.  Once dry, I sealed it with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

Once again I staged my piece with some white linens and ironstone.

But you could use this tote to create a table centerpiece with evergreens and candles.  Or use it for your Christmas buffet to hold silverware and napkins.

I took these last two items into Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN where I sell on consignment.  So if any of you locals are interested, be sure to head down there soon!  They are open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Check out their Facebook page for more details.

As for the rest of you, what do you think of neutrals for Christmas?  Are you a fan of the old world European look of the paint inlays I used, or do you prefer the more modern ‘Rudolph & Co’ stencil?  Leave a comment and let me know.

christmas schoolhouse chairs.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

A little while back I purchased a pair of schoolhouse chairs at my friend Amy’s garage sale.

Super cute ‘as is’ really.  But I decided to give them a holiday look.

I painted one of them in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and the other in their English Ivy.

Then I went through my stash of stencils.  I have a few that fit on these little chairs.

In the past I’ve used this cute Milk & Cookie Co stencil from Wallcutz …

… a few times actually …

and this cute Christmas Farm stencil.

This sort of Scandinavian look was a good one too.

Sorry, I’m not quite sure where those last two stencils came from.

I liked the simpler look of this next stencil on more of a mid-mod style chair (stencil also from Wallcutz).

I may do another one like this yet this year.

But I was in the mood for something new on these two chairs, so I started searching online.  I ended up finding a stencil I liked from Three Birds Stencils on Etsy, and I was able to order it in the right size to fit my chairs.

I added it to the green chair using DB’s Drop Cloth, and to the white chair using their Coffee Bean, just in case someone out there prefers a more neutral Christmas color scheme.

I’ll be bringing both of these chairs to the craft show that I’m participating in tomorrow.

Unless of course a local reader wants to call dibs on either (or both) of them today.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

As for the rest of you, leave a comment and let me know which of my many chairs was your favorite!