Category: just stuff.

I don’t know about you, but I am always amazed by the level of detail that went into some of the vintage linens that I find out there.  Especially the baby dresses.

Last weekend I pulled out a small stack of linens that I needed to clean and iron before taking them in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.  Most of them came from my picker, Sue.  But a couple are pieces I found at garage sales last summer.

I’m no expert, so I hate to give advice knowing that there may be some of you out there who are really careful when it comes to laundering vintage pieces.  But if you’re curious, I just soak mine in OxyClean for an hour or two, rinse thoroughly by hand, line dry and then press.

I’m guessing that this one was an undergarment rather than a dress just based on the simplicity of the top.  But check out this beautiful detail …

I think that is tatting (although I’m not sure).  If any of you know for sure, please leave a comment.

But can you imagine the hours that went into making that?  It bums me out that someone put that much love into handcrafting this piece and yet it was going for peanuts at someone’s estate sale.

This next baby dress is nearly as light as tissue paper.

It’s a bit on the longish side, which makes me think maybe this one was a christening gown.  It’s so incredibly delicate though.  Maybe it was meant for a baby getting baptized in the middle of August in a tropical climate.

It certainly wouldn’t be warm enough for Minnesota except on the balmiest of days.

I can’t imagine actually putting this on a baby.  Wouldn’t it be ruined in about 2 seconds flat?

What beautiful stitch work!

Even the back of the dress is beautiful with its tiny little pin tucks.

This last one is a bit shorter and little bit more sturdy.

Still, it seems far from being practical for a baby.

I wish I could think of a really fabulous and unique re-purposing idea for these beautiful pieces.  I’ve seen a few great examples of people just hanging them on wall including this one from Miss Mustard Seed …

And this one from Cedar Hill Farmhouse …

But aside from that I can’t really think of another fabulous use for them, how about you?

Way back when my blog was new I shared a ‘dress form’ that I cobbled together using an old Styrofoam mannequin and the base of a small table.  I’ve used her as a prop in quite a few photo shoots …

She was painted with black chalkboard paint and the writing was added using a white chalk pen.

She’s named after my Great Aunt Lu who’s picture is pinned to her above.

Recently I decided to give Lula a bit of a refresh.  She gets a bit banged up when I’m manhandling her for photo shoots which allows the yellow Styrofoam to show through my black paint.  So I wiped her down with a damp cloth and then gave her a quick coat of Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

I polished up her black enamel door knob of a neck and put it back on.

Instead of writing on her with the chalk pen, this time I decided to break out one of the brand new re.design with prima transfers called Gilded Home & Nature.

I used two of the designs in the set (I circled them above), I added the flowery swag to Lula’s decolletage …

And I added the golden crown to her … well, I hate to say this but Mr. Q called it a’ crotch crown.’  Let’s not call it that though, let’s call that area her ‘skirt’.

The gold wording at the bottom is part of the Somewhere in France transfer set.

Now that Lula is refreshed a bit, she has rejoined her pal Collette in our principle bedroom.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing the supplies used for Lula’s makeover.

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.

 

Believe it or not, one of my favorite chores while growing up was ironing.  I started out with my dad’s hankies (yes, believe it or not, ironing hankies was a thing … in fact, hankies themselves were a thing … in the 60’s and 70’s).

I graduated to his shirts as my skills improved.  Back then employees of IBM were required to wear white button down shirts with their suits, which meant a lot of ironing.  They also weren’t allowed to have facial hair (which would be a problem for me these days, ha!).  I still remember when they finally relaxed that rule and my dad immediately grew a mustache.

Clearly my mom did a lot of ironing before I took over.  Here she is in 1961, pregnant with my sister, slaving away over the ironing board …

Looks like she ironed his weekend shirts too, huh?

Ladies, let’s all take a moment and breathe a collective sigh of relief that this sort of thing is no longer expected of wives shall we?

Funny, as I study that photo I’m realizing that is the same ironing board that I used later.  I bet my mom still has it!

Anyway, all of this leads me to today’s post.  A funny thing happens when you have a reputation for refurbishing vintage items.  In this case, a neighbor of mine showed up at our door one day.  She wondered if I wanted some old ironing boards.  She used to run a laundromat, but had sold the business.  The ironing boards had been used there as decor.  Mr. Q was the only one home, and he said yes to the ironing boards.

I’m not so sure that I would have.  I tend to shy away from taking on things if I don’t know what I’m getting into.  This tendency helps prevent me from becoming a hoarder 😉

I would venture to say that none of these ironing boards would meet today’s safety standards.  In fact, most of them seem like they would collapse in a stiff wind.  For that reason I would not recommend actually using them as ironing boards or using them set up at all (so that leaves out using them as a makeshift bar when entertaining too).

In the past I have turned a couple of old ironing boards into signs (you can see those here and here).  But I remember at the time thinking that they were fairly heavy and clunky for hanging on the wall.  I suspect that many of you out there have spouses who tend to be a bit persnickety about hanging heavy things on walls, am I right?

So I decided the best solution would be to remove the legs/bases entirely to lighten them up some.  Seems like a simple fix, doesn’t it?  But no.  As it turned out, the bases on 4 out of the 5 ironing boards in my stash were riveted on.  Only one of them was held in place with simple screws.  I had to recruit my handyman Ken to help at that point.  He had to drill through each rivet to remove it.

Once that was taken care of, the rest was simple.  I decided to go with a slightly different look for each one.

I used quite a few different paint colors, some stencils and some transfers from re.design with prima.

The first one got a coat of Dixie Belle paint in Midnight Sky.  Once dry, I stenciled it using Dixie Belle French Linen paint and my french laundry stencil (the Etsy vendor I purchased this from is no longer in business, but you can find similar stencils on Etsy).

I really don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of the look of a distressed black finish with a french stencil.

The next two were painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I taped off some grain sack style stripes on one and painted them in Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue.  Then I added re.design with prima’s Laundry transfer.  The 2nd Drop Cloth ironing board was stenciled using Dixie Belle’s French Linen paint and a stencil from Maison de Stencils.

Maison de Stencils gifted me with this stencil when they sent me the stencils I gave away during my 12 days of giveaways.  This was the first chance I’ve had to use it, and I absolutely love it.

The 4th ironing board received a coat of Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass, which seemed to be a top favorite among you guys when I shared my comparison of their shades of aqua.  Once that was dry and distressed, I added the Moment transfer from re.design with prima.

I painted the last ironing board in Dixie Belle’s Apricot.  Isn’t this a gorgeous color?  I think of it as halfway between a pink and a peach.  It’s not so pale as to be blush, but not too bright either.

I used one of the newer prima transfers on it called Hello Baby.

Aren’t those animals just adorable?

Rather than hanging this one in a laundry room, it would be perfect in a nursery.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co, re.design with prima, and Maison de Stencils for providing the supplies used for these ironing board makeovers.

And most importantly, thank you to Mr. Q for having the wisdom to say yes to these ironing boards for me!

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

If you’re looking for Maison de Stencils 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.

And finally, if you are local and in need of a fabulous ironing board sign, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Here in the U.S. tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  If any of you have been following me since the beginning you may remember that I started my blog on Thanksgiving weekend 2013.  So yep, that makes this my six year blogiversary!  Well, technically speaking, it was yesterday.  But close enough.

Quite honestly, I never thought I’d make it past five years.

I also never thought I’d make it past 25 followers.

While I haven’t ‘gone viral’ and I don’t seem to have made it into the inner circle of ‘cool kids’ (just like in high school), today I’m feeling incredibly grateful for all of the amazing things this blog has brought my way.  But I’m especially thankful for all of you.  Without you, there would be no q is for quandie.  So thank you for following, commenting, sharing and otherwise supporting my blog.

Now it’s time to celebrate with 12 days of giveaways!

Starting today and running every Monday, Wednesday & Friday until December 23, I’m going to post a giveaway here on the blog.  That’s four weeks of giveaways!!  Woo hoo!

So let’s get this ball rolling, shall we?

I know it’s a little like picking my favorite child, and we aren’t supposed to do that, but I have to confess that Re.design with Prima Marketing is one of my favorite sponsors.  I feel incredibly honored to be included on their Design Team.

I get so excited when they have a new release and they send me a box of stuff.  The latest box even literally arrived on my birthday, what a treat!  And I can’t share any of it with you today.  The official reveal date of this latest release is December 16, so I have to sit here, all alone, drooling over these new designs until then.

In the meantime, today I’m giving away their Fresh Flowers transfer.  Last summer I used half of the transfer on this drop leaf table.

Here is the full design.

I’m still hanging on to that upper portion waiting for just the right project to come along.  But the lower portion was perfect for the table.

And of course, I am giving away the entire transfer (not just my unused portion, that would be tacky, right?)

Just to add a little something more to this giveaway, I’m also including the Queen Bee clay pot that I used for staging that piece.

I painted the pot using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, and then used Fusion Transfer Gel to add the graphic (check out this post for all of the details).  Not all of my pots turned out that day, but this one is my favorite of the bunch.

Thank you to Re.design with Prima Marketing for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the transfer.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me what your favorite fresh flower is.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, November 29, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $40, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 1, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

Hey everybody!  For those of you who have Instagram accounts, I thought I’d give you a heads up.  I’m taking over the @redesignwithprima account today.

Each of us on their Design Team were given the opportunity to do a 24 hour takeover and today is my day!

I’ll be sharing some of my favorite projects using Prima Marketing products throughout the day, like this one …

And this one …

I had a hard time narrowing down which pieces I should share.  I figured nobody wanted me to be posting something every 30 minutes.

But they have so many gorgeous transfers, and I’ve done quite a few pieces with them over the past couple of years.

Plus, I’ll also be hosting an amazing giveaway of Prima products (you’ll have to go to Instagram to sign up to win).

Not only that, but many of the other Design Team members are also hosting giveaways on their takeover day.

So, if you haven’t yet drunk the kool-aid and joined Instagram, today might be a great day to do that.  And if you already have an Instagram account but you aren’t following @redesignwithprima (or, heaven forbid, me @qisforquandie) be sure to check them out.

For the past couple of Christmas seasons I have found that painted sleds sell fairly well for me at Reclaiming Beautiful.

I started out with a pair of black and white sleds back in 2017.

I sold one and I kept the one shown above for myself.

Last year I did another pair of painted sleds, one in black again and one in more traditional Christmas colors.

and they both sold.

You’d think, knowing that I wanted to do some more this year, that I would have grabbed all the sleds I saw at garage sales this past summer.  But no.  I only bought one of them even though I saw quite a few.  I have a tendency to do stuff like that, because who is thinking ‘sleds’ in the middle of summer?

I was kicking myself over that recently, so I went to Craigslist to see if there was anyone selling them online.  Sure enough, there were quite a few.  But almost all of them were way above my price range.  Some ridiculously so, like this one listed at $225.

I’m sure that is a ‘highly collectible’ sled because of the rocket ship motif.  And I hope it goes without saying that I would never paint over that sled.

But even the more beat up and less unique versions were mostly listed in the $45 and up range.  However, I did come across someone selling three sleds for $15 each.  They were appropriately roughed up to justify painting them, and as an added bonus they weren’t very far away.  So I sent Mr. Q to pick them up, thus giving me four sleds to work on this year.

I set up a bit of a sled painting assembly line in my dining room in order to get all of the sleds done in one weekend.  I started with the black one.  I painted the wood parts of the sled using Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.  Then I stenciled it with a warm white craft paint.  Finally I added some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

I know black and white aren’t traditional Christmas colors, but I love the look.  Two years ago I wrote a whole blog post about Christmas in black and white.

Be sure to check it out if you like that look too.

The smaller black sled above is the one I kept two years ago, but this year I gave it a fresh coat of Big Mamas Butta and took it in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.  You’ll see why in a minute.

The other taller sled got the same paint job that I used last year.

That is Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth on the sled, and red, green and black craft paint for the stencil.

I painted the handle and sides of the smallest sled using Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.  Well, wait, let me back up a minute.  I started out painting it with the same shade of red I used on the chairs I shared last Friday, Honky Tonk Red.  I painted the slats in Drop Cloth as a base for the Gingham Red transfer.

Once I had the transfer in place though, I felt like the Honky Tonk Red was just a bit too bright with the transfer so I pulled out the Barn Red and went over it with just one coat of that.

I really should have taken a picture of a chair and the sled side by side to show you the difference because I’m sure you’re thinking that this red looks the same.  But trust me, in person there is a difference.

This is the 2nd version of a red plaid that comes with the Prima Marketing re.design Gingham Red transfer set.  For this sled I only used one sheet of this plaid so I have another one left to use on something else.

When I got to the final sled from my Craigslist purchase I decided that the patina of the existing chippy red paint was too good to cover up with fresh paint.  I often work so hard to create this chippy look and here was a genuine version of it.

So for this one I simply sanded the surface lightly to remove any loose paint, added the stencil, and then gave it a wax job (again using the Dixie Belle Big Mamas Butta) to freshen it up and to protect it from the elements a bit.

As I was just finishing up my sleds, my sister stopped by for a visit.  I was telling her that I really loved how this last one turned out but I wasn’t sure I had a spot for it.  She suggested hanging it on the photo cottage door.

Sure enough, it looks freakin’ adorable there.  And once we get some snow on the ground and it starts looking more like a winter scene and less like a fall one, I think it will really look fab.  It has even motivated me to put some Christmas lights on the photo cottage this year.  I’ll be sure to share a photo of that if we get some measurable snow.

So the red one is staying with me, and that’s why I decided to sell the little black and white one.

And next year, remind me to grab those sleds when I see them at garage sales, OK?

My name is Quandie and I am addicted to v.l.f.g.

What?  You haven’t heard of this one?

It’s an addiction to vintage light fixture globes, naturally.

I see them at garage sales at ridiculously low prices and I just can’t stop myself from buying them.

The latest addition to my non-collection (because as we’ve previously established, I am not a collector!) is this beauty …

Isn’t that gorgeous?  I paid $5 for it at an estate sale earlier this summer.  I just couldn’t pass it up.  I purchased it hoping it would fit the fixture in my guest room but unfortunately it didn’t.  So if I want to use it, I’ll need to get a base that fits this size globe.  I’m still considering that move.

On Wednesday you saw this pretty pink globe in my pantry.

It was also a garage sale find.

Last year I bought this gorgeous wedding cake globe at the Linden Hills neighborhoods sales.

You can buy one of these at Rejuvenation for $180, but I paid $10 for mine.

I put it on my bathroom light fixture, but since I have the world’s smallest bathroom I’ve found it next to impossible to get a good photo of it in there.

Another of my favorites is the gorgeous black & white globe that I put on my front porch.

Using vintage globes is a quick and easy way to add some instant character to your house.  If you are safety conscious, as we all should be with electricity, you can put the vintage globe on a new fixture.  A basic flush mount fixture is usually less than $20.

So, I’m curious, am I the only one who is drawn to v.l.f.g.’s?

 

Happy Labor Day to those of you in the U.S. … or maybe other countries too, I don’t know.  Do you celebrate Labor Day (or some similar holiday) where you are?  This year it truly does feel like the long Labor Day weekend is signaling the end of summer.  We’ve had cool, somewhat cloudy weather all weekend.

But that ended up being perfect weather for the Traders’ Market in Elko, MN.

I had heard about this event over the years but had never actually gone to it.  My friend/picker Sue gave me a heads up that it was taking place this past weekend and it’s only about 30 minutes or so south of the Twin Cities, so my sister and I decided to check it out this past Saturday.

I would say that this event is a scaled down (more manageable?) version of Oronoco Gold Rush.   We were able to see the entire thing in about 3 hours.  There were your typical ‘antique’ dealers with piles of old stuff thrown on tables.  Plus a handful of artisans with things made out of metal or wood.

But there also was a smattering of booths that really appealed to me.

I’m afraid I didn’t get names to go with the vendors who had most of the booths.  I mentioned to my sister that it seemed odd that many booths seemed to be unmanned.  I’m sure the vendors were around somewhere, but they weren’t hovering.  I generally like to ask permission before taking photos, but I wasn’t able to for some of these.

There were a couple of stand out displays, like this one …

I love the way they used the colors of the book jackets to play off the colors on the toy trucks.

These next two photos are also from the same booth.

Gotta love the old books.

This next booth was my favorite of the day though …

Their display was gorgeous.  I loved the creamy white color scheme.

I debated purchasing these grain sack pumpkins, but I rarely decorate much for Fall.

Check out the stems on those pumpkins.  It’s hard to tell in my photo, but they are made out of old tools.  How fun is that?

They had a lot of vintage tarnished silver mixed in with the creamy white too.

This wreath made out of old silver trays reminded me of a similar one that was at the 2011 Bachman’s Holiday Idea house.  That was one of my favorite versions of the Idea House, if you’ve never heard of it or want to see more of it, check out Linda’s tour at Itsy Bits and Pieces here.

If you have a large dining room, this would be an incredible statement piece for the wall.

I did manage to pick up a card and chat with the vendors at this booth and it turned out they were from Urban Revival, a shop in Farmington, MN.  Their shop had been recommended to me by several people in the past but I’d never made a trip out there, so since it was just a little bit out of our way Debbie and I decided to stop off there on the way home.

Farmington was a bit of a ghost town when we got there.

Maybe because it was a holiday weekend and everyone was out of town.  And I suppose those that weren’t out of town were at the Traders’ Market at Elko!

The shop was adorable, I love the way they had everything displayed by color … much like their booth at Elko.

They had a few fun items made with some Funky Junk stencils.

By the way, they also carried both Dixie Belle paint and Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, so for any of you locals on the south side of the cities this is a great spot to pick up those products.

You might be wondering if I purchased anything on Saturday.  I have to confess, being an avid garage saler has pretty much ruined me for these events/shops.  I’m so used to finding things for a couple of dollars, so I cringe at real price tags.  I mainly go to these places to get ideas and to see what other people are doing.

However, I did pick up an adorable set of ‘days of the week’ dish towels at the market.

I had initially looked at a vintage set that was $45, but that was a bit steep for me.  Plus, I buy these towels to use them not to just display them somewhere.  Ultimately they get worn and stained and … well … used.  So I passed on the vintage set and later found this set for $35.  The lovely older woman (gosh, I hope she’s not a blog reader of mine, she was clearly in her 70’s at least, but nobody likes to be called ‘older’) who was selling these made them herself.  Kudos to her for her fine stitching skills!

Before we left the market, Debbie and I posed for a selfie with a new friend.

We had a great time exploring the Traders’ Market and Urban Revival.  The Traders’ Market is held three times a year on the summer holiday weekends; Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.  We’d definitely go back again next year!

Hey guys!  I don’t usually have a Thursday post, but today I’m going to shamelessly promote myself.

Last night I brought a huge load of goodies to Reclaiming Beautiful, the shop were I sell on consignment in Stillwater.  So this post is mainly for the benefit of my local readers.

I thought I’d share a few of the things that will be available this morning in the shop starting with all of these goodies from the estate sale …

If you’ve always wondered what kind of prices I put on things, the little measuring cup is $6, the set of 3 Bobbsey Twins books is $9 and the coffee pot is $22.

I also brought in the ironstone pitcher for $25.

The wood box I painted a while back went to the shop and is priced at $22.

I brought in a few stenciled pillows at $32 each.

This adorable milk painted chair is $28.

We’ll see if these upcycled cupboard doors sell at $38 each.

I priced the chippy blue scale at $22.  I have a few other scales in the shop priced higher and they aren’t moving so I thought I’d try something a little lower on this one.

I’m also bringing in a few things that I haven’t had the chance to share here on the blog yet including this black wooden tool box at $32 …

and this cupboard door turned into a tray for $28 …

I still plan to put together some blog posts about these in the coming weeks, but I just haven’t gotten around to that.

I brought the six legged table in as well.

In addition to my stuff, the shop is also opening up their backroom this weekend which is full of bargains!  So if you’re local be sure to stop in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater this weekend.

And for the rest of you, be sure to check back tomorrow when I’ll be posting my latest finished piece of furniture.