Category: just stuff.

Just a quick post because I wanted to share today’s project.

I worked on some more of the painted and stenciled books and I’m tickled pink with how they turned out.

These are just random hard cover books painted black (with Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Typewriter), then stenciled in a very pale grey.  I sanded them slightly, and this time I added some hemp oil to seal the finish.

If this were summer, I could find piles and piles of hardcover books for $1 each.  But in the dead of winter, I am finding it difficult to get my hands on lots of books at a reasonable price.  I tried craigslist and found a set of 1956 encyclopedias for $35, but the seller hasn’t responded to my inquiry.  I’ve checked a local thrift store, and they are charging $5 each!

If anyone has any good ideas for me, keeping in mind I don’t want to spend more than around $1 each, I’m all ears.

A couple of years ago I decided to try my hand at making jewelry using vintage hardware.  It seemed to dovetail nicely with my other hobbies, and I had a pile of bits and pieces of vintage hardware from various furniture projects, so why not give it a try?

I’ve made quite a few pieces and most of them have gone to the Round Barn to sell.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue to make jewelry.   One problem is that I’m finding it more and more difficult to find the chain and clasps that I like.  They used to have a good selection of vintage looking parts at Michaels, but it seems to be dwindling.

But last weekend I got together with my pal Jeanne and her daughter MK (secret code name:  the sherpa) and we drank wine, ate pizza, behaved like goofballs and whipped up some jewelry.

See Jeanne’s version of the story on Bees Knees Bungalow.

Now I need to decide … do I want to continue making jewelry?  In which case, I need to find a place to buy chain and clasps that aren’t too pricey.  Or will I give up this hobby to spend more time painting furniture?  Decisions, decisions.

What better way to spend a seriously cold (currently precisely zero degrees outside) January day than organizing, editing and printing photos from my recent trip to Orlando and remembering how fabulously sunny and warm it was there in October.  Sigh.  It seems so long ago now.

My sister, niece, mom and I were there to celebrate my mom’s Halloween birthday.  The fact that the Food & Wine festival was happening at EPCOT at the same time was a complete coincidence.

Or not.

While there, we went on the new Expedition Everest ride three times.  Amazing.  We even waited an extra 5 minutes the 2nd time around so we could be in the very front seat.  Well worth it.  Good fun.

Scrapbooking (not a real word, I know) is my winter sport of choice.  It pretty much requires just as much, if not more, gear than some of the other winter sports, like skiing or ice fishing.  But you don’t have to bundle up and brave the cold.  You do have to bring the appropriate attitude though.

February will be here before we know it, and my sister (above on left) is once again coming all the way from New Jersey for a scrapbook weekend.  If you aren’t a scrapbook aficionado, let me explain what that entails.  We head up to Mary’s beautiful lake home bringing only soft, fleecy casual wear, no makeup, and our piles of scrapbook gear.  Mary has her entire lower level set up for us.  She has every possible tool we could need; computers, printers, Cricut machines, tables, lighting, ergonomically correct chairs and a fantastic wood burning stove.  All with picture window views of the now frozen lake.  Mary provides all the meals (home cooked and delicious) and snacks.  We spend the entire weekend laughing, eating and creating scrapbook masterpieces in cozy comfort.  It is truly heaven on earth for a scrapbooker.

So for now, in preparation, I need to get all of my photos tweaked, cropped and printed, which is no small task.  We won’t have warmer weather for a while here in Minnesota, so I may as well get comfy at my computer and work on perfecting my winter sport of choice.

The other morning after my hubby left for his yoga class (at 5:30 a.m., yes I believe he is crazy), I fell back asleep.  When my alarm went off, I got up and went downstairs and there was my sweet little dog Sasha waiting by the door to be let outside.  Just like usual.

I went to let her out, and then thought “hey … wait a minute … this isn’t right …”   but I decided that since she was there, I shouldn’t question it.  Instead I should take advantage and give her lots of hugs and kisses.  So, I called her to me and buried my face in her soft fluffy fur and gave her lots of love.  I kept thinking she’d disappear, but she just stayed right there and I kept on petting her.

Then, Mike pulled into the driveway and I let Sasha out the door so she could run up to his truck and greet him like she always did.

I followed her out to say “Look!  It’s Sasha!  Isn’t this great!” … and that’s when I really woke up.

It was bitterly cold a year ago today when we lost Sasha.  She was 16 years old, and she’d had a good, long life.  I still miss our little fluffer-nutter and expect to see her waiting for me by the door, so it was especially sweet of her to visit me in my dreams.

I usually am more than ready to put away the Christmas decorations by January 1.  Somehow this year, it seems like I just barely got them up, and now they are coming down.  Maybe because there was such a short time span between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Or maybe because I made the crazy decision to repaint two rooms in the intervening weeks.

I took a few pics to share with you, before I put everything away for another year.

I have a few vintage Christmas postcards.  I love the graphics on them.  This one would greet you just inside my front door.

This is the garland that was draped across my black ‘owl pull’ dresser near the back door.

As you can see, a lot of what I use is not strictly for Christmas.  Like the glittery Eiffel tower, the golden “S” and the little crusty birdcage.  The same is true of the tarnished silver platters in the display above my microwave in the kitchen.

Here are some photos from my scrap book room.

and some of my aqua decorations from the living room.

Of course, there is my lovely little tree with my collection of vintage glass ornaments.

And let’s not forget outside … we had plenty of snow here for a white Christmas this year.

These outside decorations are meant to stay up throughout the winter … not just Christmas decorations, but winter decorations.  I’ll get to enjoy them for quite a bit longer here in Minnesota.  When these come down, I promise you I will be good and sick of them and thrilled that they are being put away for another year!

I still have fond memories of staying on the farm with my Aunt Lula and Uncle Homer.  Lu was my maternal grandmother’s sister, and she did not have any children of her own.  She loved kids though, and was always happy to have us visit (at least I’m pretty sure she was).  I’ll always remember her homemade donuts and how she laughed when I didn’t know that potatoes grew in the ground (hey, I was a city girl).

Here she is with her first husband, who passed away before I was born.

Don’t they look happy?  I love this photo.

In honor of Lu, I named my manikin after her.  Meet Lula.

I cobbled her together on a whim.  It started with an old yellow Styrofoam manikin that a co-worker salvaged from a torn down mall.  She was rather hideous, but I could see her potential.  When I came across a small table with a fabulous base at a garage sale, I knew the base would be perfect for my manikin.  Once again, I called upon my favorite handy man Ken, and asked him to come up with a way to attach the Styrofoam torso to the table base.  Like magic, he made it so.  I then painted her with black chalkboard paint.  I topped her off with an old black porcelain door knob, and metal no. 1 tag.  The writing was added using a chalkboard pen.

She’s wearing numerous strands of pearls, as well as an apron from my husband’s grandfather’s lumber supply store.

Isn’t she pretty?

 

Shhhh, don’t tell, but I have a confession to make.  Sometimes I fake it.

Do you love the look of vintage European grain sacks as much as I do?

Have you ever priced them?  I still remember the first time I saw them for sale at Oronoco Gold Rush.  The woman had a booth with stacks and stacks of them.  I casually strolled over to take a look.  Not a price tag in sight.  Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes not.  In this case, not.  I asked how much and tried not to show how excited I was.  “Well, they start at $100 and go UP from there.”

That was when I just as casually said “oh, well they sure are lovely” and slowly backed away from the grain sacks.

I have since priced them on Etsy, and at other sales, and this seems to be the going rate.  Oftentimes even much higher.

This is the point where I tell you that I am usually a cheapskate.  Not always.  If I see something that I absolutely cannot live without, I will spend more for it if I have to, but for the most part, I’m looking for bargains.

And when I can’t find what I want at a reasonable price, then I just fake it.

Last summer I picked up a plain grain sack at a garage sale being held by a lovely elderly woman.  She kindly noted on the tag that it had been ‘repaired’.  I’m quite certain that she considered this a negative quality, but I only loved it more for its flaws.  Price:  $3.

I got out the tools of the trade, some Martha craft paint, a stencil brush, and my favorite stencil.

And I made my own ‘faux’ European grain sack for far, far less than $100.

What do you think?

Stay tuned to find out what I’m going to do with my faux grain sack!

 

Once upon a time, I got married to my fab husband, but didn’t want to give up my maiden name entirely.  So, I decided to keep it as my middle name.  I thought it would be pretty cool to have Q as a middle initial.  Probably not a lot of Q’s out there, right?  People often ask, ‘what does the Q stand for?’

Fast forward many years.  I’m reading an article in the paper about a woman who has been arrested for being drunk and disorderly … and her name?  Quandary!  Who names their child Quandary?  Do they not know the definition of this word?   A state of perplexity.  I can see it now, a woman sees her beautiful new baby girl and thinks “What shall I name her?  Such a quandary.  A, ha!  That’s it!”  Perhaps this explains why Quandary has a habit of being arrested as an adult.

I quickly emailed my pal Jeanne to say “Eureka!  I have found a name.  From now on when people ask ‘what does the Q stand for?’ I’ve got the perfect answer!

It stuck.  I should have known it would.  And leave it to Jeanne to shorten it to Quandie.  Over the years, Quandie has become my alter ego.  She tends to take action, when I am not sure.  She loves garage sales, paint brushes, vintage furniture, drinking wine on the deck, gardening, traveling and anything with hollandaise sauce.  And she is me!

So, channel your own inner Quandie and hop on board.  I hope to post about all of the above on this blog, and I hope you’ll join me.