Category: just stuff.

It’s true.  I have a thing for plates.

I just love old china patterns, and new ones for that matter.  I’m sure that I’m not the only one.

Last Saturday morning my sister and I went to my absolutely favorite Zumba class (Cindy’s Saturday morning class at the Xperience Fitness in Vadnais Heights, in case any of you locals need an amazing Zumba class).  She did a Halloween themed class complete with Thriller, Monster Mash and The Time Warp.  So fun, and it left us totally sweaty and gross.  But that didn’t keep us from stopping off at the Goodwill on our way home!

By the way, Goodwill on Halloween morning?  Not the greatest of plans.  We barely got out of the parking lot alive.  Lots of last minute costume items were being purchased.

But … I did find plenty of plates!  Which was what I was looking for.

I was pretty excited to find another set of these numbered plates from Target.  I already have two sets of these, which means I can serve appetizers or dessert to 8 people.  So I sort of had to buy these.  At $1.99 each this was a no-brainer.  Now I can have 12 people over.  The more the merrier, right?

I also purchased a small stack of plain ironstone plates.

Isn’t that little bee hive sweet?

I’ve been picking up stacks of ironstone plates when I see them to add to my Welsh cupboard.  That thing is huge, and I want to really fill it up.

I also found some china with gold patterns.  I plan to use them for Christmas decorating this year.  You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out what I do with them.

Finally, I will add some holiday words to some pretty vintage plates that I picked up.

I’m thinking words like merry, peace, jolly … hmmm … got any other ideas for me?

I’ll be making up a few of these for both Reclaiming Beautiful and Eye Candy ReFind.

All told, my stack of 26 plates cost just under $40.  Not bad, right?

Remember the vintage drop leaf table I purchased last week?

 I sent it over to Ken’s workshop to be shored up, but Ken also kindly removed the drop leaf sides for me.  I think these tables are so much more versatile without them.

 So what do I do with the leaves?  Well, remember my secret decorating trick from earlier in the week?  When all else fails, hang it on the wall!

I decided this was a good time to use up some of my mostly used bags of milk paint.  So I began by painting the first leaf in a combo of Luckett’s Green with a little Kitchen Scale thrown in.

 I added a Farmer’s Market stencil that came from Donna at Funky Junk, and I just used a white craft paint for that.

The second leaf got a base coat of Kitchen Scale, followed by a second coat of Shutter Grey.  And for those of you not familiar with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, yes, the Shutter Grey really does look more like a cross between pale blue and grey.

You can just use the hinges that originally held the leaves in place to hang them on the wall.

So there you have it, some drop leaf signage.  These are both for sale for $28 each at Eye Candy ReFind if anyone local is interested.

Meanwhile, the table itself is almost done.  Stay tuned to see how it turned out!

As you all probably know by now I love vintage stuff.  But oftentimes I’ll pick something up just because I’m drawn to it, but I’ll have no idea what I’m going to do with it.  So, I have a little trick up my sleeve and it’s this …

when all else fails, hang it on the wall

I really am not all that good at figuring out how to decorate my walls.  At least not in a traditional sense.  I don’t have any fabulous art hanging anywhere.  Instead, I hang quirky vintage items.

For example, I purchased this fabulous toy hand truck (dolly) at Junk Bonanza.  I loved the patina of the red metal, and the very worn black wheels.  It was a splurge for me, but you know how I love my toy sized stuff!  This little dolly is about 2 1/2 feet tall.  After wandering around my house with it for several weeks wondering where to put it, I finally remembered … when all else fails, hang it on the wall!  It makes a clever little shelf for my dad’s old Tarzan books.

This old swing set seat that I purchased a while back makes a great magnet board when it’s hung on the wall.

I purchased this vintage India game board many years ago on eBay.  Hanging old games boards on the wall is a great way to admire their charm on a daily basis.  I used the 3M Command large picture hanging strips to hang the game board, the box lid and even the little number spinner.

Another favorite of mine is to turn child sized vintage folding chairs into chalkboards to hang on the wall.  This one hangs in my kitchen.

As a furniture painter, I sometimes have parts left over from furniture that I upcycle like old mirror frames.  This frame was one of the very first things I ever painted in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.  It was left over from a dresser and I decided to use it as practice.  I painted it in Artissimo first, but many months later I added a coat of Kitchen Scale.  Now it hangs over my sofa with a map of Paris tacked to the wall inside it.

Small kid sized chairs are also perfect for hanging on the wall.

And painted shoe trees can be hung on the wall as well.

Even old metal boxes can be hung on the wall.

So tell me, do you have something unique hanging on your walls?  If not, I challenge you to give it a try!

The ‘grow’ plates that I did for my June sale ended up being quite popular.

So when I found a little stack of vintage plates with pine boughs on them, I thought perhaps I could come up with an autumn version.

And rather than using them in an outdoor planter, I thought they would be fun to incorporate into table centerpieces.  I gave you a little sneak peek at one when I posted my dining table makeover last week.

I made some that say “give thanks” and some that just say “eat.”

Not that anyone really needs a reminder to ‘eat’ at holiday gatherings.

But a reminder to give thanks isn’t a bad idea.

It’s easy to whip up a lovely table arrangement just using things from around your garden (or maybe your neighbor’s garden, with permission of course).

I used some crab apples from nnK’s tree, some hydrangeas and some spent bee balm blossoms.

If you’d rather, you can also just place the wordy plates in your hutch.

Just remember, don’t eat your words!  They are for display purposes only.

I have a few plates left and need some more suggestions for appropriate fall words to use on them.  Any ideas?

I’m almost embarrassed to show these to you guys, but here we go.

These are some clay pots that I bought at a craft show of some kind many years ago.  In case you are wondering, yes, they are just drawn on with a Sharpie.  I know, right?  What was I thinking?

I apologize now if the person who made these recognizes them and feels bad that I am mocking them.  Hey, I bought them, so I guess at one time I didn’t think they were that bad.  Not only that, but I have displayed them in my office at the day job every fall since I purchased them.  And even worse, I put one in the window sill with dried hydrangeas in it last fall and it had sat there ever since.  All through last Christmas, and then spring and summer … right up until I brought it home the other day.  Seriously, for that alone I should have my official decorating blogger ID card taken away permanently (if there was such a thing).

Well, I have finally come to my senses and decided to spruce these up and make them into something I won’t be embarrassed to display.  The impetus for this change came when I stopped in at Farmhouse Inspired a few weeks ago to get some more Fusion paint.  I noticed that Jody was also carrying a new chalk paint line created by the Junk Gypsies.  And she had a small table painted in their mustard yellow color, which is called Granny’s Cornbread.  I just loved the richness of the mustard.  I wanted to buy some to play around with, but she only had the large size cans of this color in stock at the moment.  I couldn’t bring myself to spend $40 to just play around with a color, and I’m not sure how well large pieces of furniture would sell painted in this color.  But Jody graciously offered to share a small free sample with me (thanks again Jody!)  Perfect for painting some pots!

I put two coats of paint on, but noticed I could still faintly see the original sharpie drawn details, so I added a third coat of paint.  Then I used the acrylic medium transfer method to add some autumnal looking graphics (if you want more detail on this method, check out this post about the french hat box.)

Ahhh.  So much better.  Almost.  Until you look closely and see that the stars are still peeking through the paint around the rim on the shorter pot.  Drat!  I then put another coat of paint around just the rim of that pot.  Then I got involved in something else for a few days.  And when I came back to the pots … well … sigh … this happened ….

First of all, the Sharpie ink had continued to bleed through my paint.  Then, to add a little extra frustration to the moment, I dropped one of the pots!

So, two lessons learned here.  First, Sharpie ink bleeds through chalk paint.  Second, don’t drop clay pots.

In the end, I went to Menards and purchased some brand new clay pots to paint.

Unfortunately, at that point I was almost out of Granny’s Cornbread and had just enough left for two more pots.  So I also used Annie Sloan’s Old White and Coco.

I also went with an additional graphic that isn’t quite as fall-ish, but I thought it was just gorgeous.

A word to the wise, these pots would not be suitable for house plants.  I haven’t actually tested it, but I’m sure that over time too much moisture would leach through the pot and lift the paint off.  However, you can use plants that are in plastic liner pots and just remove them to water them.  Let them drain well, and then return them to the pot.  These pots happen to look great with some fall mums in them.  I know this because sent a few over to Eye Candy ReFind that way!  I also brought some pots over to Reclaiming Beautiful this week.  So if you are local and want one of these pretty pots to use for a fall mum, head to either shop!  And if you have something that you want to paint in a gorgeous rich mustard yellow, consider trying the Granny’s Cornbread.

So, I have a confession to make.  I subscribe to notes from the universe via email.  I can’t remember how I came across this, it was quite a while ago.  I subscribed on a whim and now every day I get an email from the universe (it is free, by the way, and this not a sponsored post).   Sometimes they are a little goofy, but many times they are spot on.  It can be rather freaky when I get the exact message I need on a particular day.

The other day I got this message from the universe:

Start it; you don’t have to be fancy.

Keep moving; you don’t have to go crazy.

Visualize; you don’t have to admit it.

See the end result; it doesn’t have to be material.

Expect miracles; they don’t have to be huge.

Pretend you’ve arrived; you don’t have to dance on tables.

And above all else, Linda, have fun.

This is why you started it, right?

Life, what a trip –
The Universe

And it occurred to me that this explains exactly how I feel about blogging.

There is so much about this that fits.  I started this blog and it wasn’t fancy.  It still isn’t particularly fancy.  But I started it, and it is all me.

The end result doesn’t have to be material!  I would like to repeat that one ten times.  I’m really writing this blog for my own enjoyment.  I love the process.  The furniture makeovers, the room makeovers, the photography, writing the posts, I enjoy all of it!  I’m not doing it to make money, I have the accountant day job for that.  I don’t get any ad revenue, no one pays me to review their products, and I’m not looking for those things.  I am selling furniture of course, but I can do that just as easily without the blog.

I still have to work on pretending I’ve arrived.  I’m not even sure how I would define that.  But I think I might go ahead and dance on tables anyway.

But most importantly, I am having fun!  That is why I started it!

So, if you’ve been thinking about starting your own blog or beginning any sort of adventure, let me refer you back to today’s message from the universe.  Start it; you don’t have to be fancy!

Just one short year ago my sister was visiting on her summer vacation.  She lived in New Jersey then.  We had talked about the idea of her moving to Minnesota, but I didn’t really think that would ever happen.  We enjoyed a fabulous breakfast on the deck …

And we spent some time planning our then upcoming river cruise on the Danube.

If you had told me then that in less than a year both my sister and my niece would be living in Minnesota, I don’t think I would have believed it.  I still have to pinch myself whenever we make casual plans to get together.  You see, it’s the casual plans that are the most surreal.  We’d always been good about getting together for big plans (like a cruise down the Danube), but what you don’t have when your sister lives halfway across the country are the casual get together’s.

The other day I was in the Q Branch writing a blog post and a car pulled up in the drive.  Mr. Q said “oh look, it’s the relatives!”  And I honestly was puzzled about who it could possibly be.  It couldn’t be my sister-in-law, I had just seen her about an hour earlier on the other side of the cities.  She certainly wouldn’t have turned around and driven out our way.  Could it be one of Mr. Q’s cousins?  They’ve never been known to just drop by, so that would have been odd.  It wasn’t until I popped my head out the door and saw my sister and niece that it hit me.  Now I have relatives who can just drop by!

In one short year my Limelight hydrangeas have gone from this size …

to this size …

(this thing is giant this year!)

And my life has gone from seeing my sister two or three times a year to going to a Zumba class together every Wednesday evening.  I pick her up because the gym is right around the corner from her apartment.  And then after class, I drop her off.  It seems so wrong.  I shouldn’t be just dropping her off.  I should be staying a while and visiting, making the most of every minute I can spend with her because I may not see her again for a while … but wait … I don’t have to think that way anymore.  I can see her every day now if I want to.

Then again, maybe I should still think about it that way.  I’m going to continue to make the most of it, because you never know how much things can change in just one short year.

If you are local (Twin Cities, MN), I hope you are planning to get yourself some eye candy today!

I’ve been busy setting up my corner and I have lots of goodies there.

Take a scenic drive down highway 61, just across the river into historic Hastings!  Oh darling, be an adventurer!

I finished setting my area up on Friday evening, but Eye Candy has had it taped off until the grand unveiling today!

Did you catch the giant Q on top of the hutch?  Isn’t it awesome!