Category: just stuff.

Do most of you know who I’m talking about when I say nnK?  nnK stands for ‘new neighbor Karen’.  She moved in … gosh, I’ve lost track now, 8 years ago maybe?  At the time I already had a neighbor named Karen, so I had to distinguish which Karen I was talking about and thus she became ‘new neighbor Karen’, then shortened to nnK.

Even though the original neighbor Karen passed away quite a few years ago, nnK is still and always will be nnK.

You may not realize it, but you have seen plenty of nnK’s home here on q is for quandie.  It provides the backdrop to all of my driveway staged photos.

Yep, that’s her house with the blue door directly across the street from me.  You’ll see that distinctive blue door in quite a few of my photos.  Sometimes I have to yell at her to duck when she’s out working in the garden and I’m trying to stage some photos.  She does love a good photo bomb.

I featured her backyard water garden in August 2014.

Before nnK moved in, my gardens were the ones that turned people’s heads as they rode by on their bikes or walked their dogs down our street.  But one of her early projects was to add a curbside garden along nearly the entire frontage of her property.  It’s a rock garden filled with lower growing alpine plants.

Now passers by are drawn to her bright flowers that are right there next to the street.  They don’t even glance in my direction.  Seriously, it’s quite comical.  All I see are the backs of people’s heads now as they ride by.

Not only is nnK a great neighbor, but she has great family too.  I recently posted about the table her dad pulled out of a trash pile for me, and I’ve also posted about the time her mom let me drag a really dirty old farmhouse table home in her convertible!

But really, the best part of having nnK around is that she loves to cook, and she frequently invites Mr. Q and me over for dinner.  You’ll probably have noticed by now that I do not love to cook.  You aren’t going to find any blog posts about cooking on this blog.

nnK frequently gives me a hard time because I never publish any blog posts on the weekend.  She seems to think that it would be nice to relax in her p.j.’s with a cup of coffee and a blog post to read.

I have a pretty good reason for not doing blog posts on the weekend and it is simply that I know I’ll be too busy to read comments and follow up with a response.  I like to respond to comments the same day that they are left.  Plus, I also assume that others are out having fun on the weekends, not reading blogs (that’s probably not entirely true, or is it?).

Well, anyway, nnK recently celebrated a birthday and her birthday wish was to see a Saturday blog post on q is for quandie.  So here is your birthday wish come true nnK!  Hope you enjoyed it with a cup of coffee!

In addition to my usual furniture painting, garage saling and gardening, I have another hobby too.  Scrapbooking!  I don’t do nearly as much scrapbooking as I would like.  In fact, these days about the only time I work on it is when I can get away for a retreat weekend.

So last weekend my sister, my friend Terri and I headed off to Lindstrom for a weekend of cutting, glueing and goofing around.  Usually we go in February when the world outside our window is frozen solid and there is nothing better than holing up in a big room with a wood burning stove and all the scrapbook supplies you’d ever need in one place.  I’m not sure how we ended up going in November this year, but there was space available for three so we took it.

I was working on two projects.  The first was my photos from our recent trip to Duluth.

I tried to focus on letting my photos be the stars on the page instead of the embellishments.

Which isn’t to say I don’t love to add some fab embellishments!  I use quite a lot of October Afternoon products.  All of the paper on this page is October Afternoon.  I’ve added some Tim Holtz rub-ons, a travel quote rub-on that I found at Hobby Lobby and some October Afternoon washi tape.

This is one of my favorite pages from the weekend.

I print all of my own photos, by the way.  I talked a little bit about this when I posted some scrapbook pages from my Danube River cruise last year.  I’ve begun using a matte photo paper instead of the glossy stuff.  I love the results.  I did a little research on the matte paper and discovered that photos printed on it will last longer than those printed on glossy paper.  I’m not particularly interested in archival quality with my scrapbooks though.  I’m just prefer the matte paper for aesthetic reasons.  The other thing I like about printing my own photos is that I can vary the sizes.  This photo was perfect for a long, skinny print …

My second project was working with photos that my dad took back in the 60’s.  When my dad passed away a few years back, my sister and I went through his boxes and boxes of slides and tried to pick some out that we wanted to keep.  I had them all turned into jpeg files so that I could try and clean them up with photo editing software and also so I could print them.  I’ve been slowly printing some out, and then scrapping them when I have time.

Some of them are quite hysterical, like this one that I have titled “the original selfie” …

Get it?  My dad is taking a photo of our reflection.  He seems to have his camera on a little stand that I’m assuming was placed in front of the mirror (or whatever reflective surface it was) for precisely this purpose.  That’s me on the right.  I can’t believe my mom dressed me in yellow, I’ve never looked good in yellow.  My sister is tucked in the back at my dad’s elbow.  The tall girl in the striped shirt is actually our baby sitter (not my mom) Kris.  She traveled with us a couple of times, and my niece Kris is named after her.

The “selfie” is cut out of October Afternoon paper using the Cricut.  After I cut out the letters, I outline them with a fine point black pen to add definition.  This is really easy to do and it doesn’t have to be perfect to look good.

This next photo is not the greatest quality, but on close inspection I just had to share it because the clothes crack me up.  This is me and my brother.  Dig those nifty threads?

I have to say, I think those striped pants I have on would be cutting edge stylish today.  They’ve come full circle.  I’m not so sure about my brother’s pants 😉

I have to admit, what I loved most about this next photo is that fantastic pink sofa that my Aunt Barb is sitting on.

When designing this page I looked through my embellishments and pulled out anything in that dusty rose color.  I was so happy to find a use for my pink typewriter chipboard (also October Afternoon).

The illustration behind the pink slide frame is from an old children’s book.  I love to include vintage items even in my scrapbooks.

We had a great time on our weekend, and I finished up quite a few pages.  I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of them!

I might be giving the impression that I’m really on top of this Christmas thing.  As you saw last week, I’ve got my winter window boxes all ready to go.  And the other day I gathered up all of my vintage Christmas stuff to send to Eye Candy ReFind.

I didn’t have a ton of stuff, but I was able to pull together some red and green.

The old jars full of vintage red Christmas light bulbs would look fab added to a shelf.

I love the idea of decorating with red and green vintage books for Christmas, even if they aren’t holiday books.

And as you can see, I whipped up some Christmas messages to add to some plates.

I got the idea for this mailbox from pinterest.  The words are also Cricut vinyl rather than painted on.

How cute would it be to have this on a shelf or table so you could tuck all of those Christmas greetings you receive inside?

Despite having my winter window boxes done, and all of my Christmas merchandise sent off to the shops, I have only just started to think about shopping for Christmas gifts and decorating inside the house.

Thanksgiving will be here a week from tomorrow though, oh, how time does fly!  Have you started to decorate yet?

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!