Category: mini’s

french country cottage style.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

I’ve decided on a design style for my dollhouse, French Country Cottage.  With it’s muted color palette of creamy white and warm earthy neutrals, it’s right up my alley.  I may also throw in a few pale French blues, and maybe even a hint of gold here and there.

Of course I’ll be using my favorite warm white, Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, throughout.  But I also plan to throw in some French Linen, Dried Sage, and Gravel Road.  Maybe a little Sawmill Gravy too.

I’d like to use Miss Mustard Seed’s Aviary for the blue, but I don’t have any of that on hand so I may just try to mix something custom.  We’ll see.

With my style choice in mind, I’ve completed my first mini furniture makeover.

I purchased this dining set from Hobby Lobby for a mere $9.99.

After doing just a little bit of gentle hand sanding around the edges of the chair backs to clean them up a bit, I gave the chairs and the base of the table a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.

This is one of my favorite neutral shades from Dixie Belle.  It’s a warm greenish gray, and it always dries a little darker than I think it will.

While the base coat of Dried Sage was drying, I created a wash using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth paint and some water.  I’m not sure of the precise ratios, maybe 75% water to 25% paint or so.  I then painted the upholstered seats that came with the set using that wash.

They were just a tad too white for my taste.

Once the fabric was dry, I taped off some grain sack lines and dried brushed them with the Dried Sage.  I didn’t get all fancy with measuring or anything, I just eye-balled them.  I painted the middle line first, then once dry, I taped off and painted the two outer lines.

Once that was dry I added the re-design with prima knob transfers from the French Maison set.  I followed that up with a light coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

Before gluing the cushions onto the chairs, I gave the chairs a quick dry brush with the Drop Cloth paint to lighten them up a bit and add some depth.

I also added a dry brushed coat of Drop Cloth over the Dried Sage on the table base.

As for the table top, I went back to that watered down Drop Cloth and applied it as a wash by brushing it on, and then wiping most of it away with a rag before it dried.

I finished that off with a coat of clear wax as well.

Although I do think the table turned out quite nice, I’m not sure I want an oval table in the dining room of my dollhouse.  I also don’t think this table has the right ‘country’ feel.  So for that reason, I also purchased a 2nd dining room set at Hobby Lobby.

This one was only $7.99.  It came with the perfect farmhouse table,

but I don’t love the chairs.

But for less than $20 I could buy both sets, so I did.

I will likely find somewhere else to use those chairs, maybe in the kitchen.

In the meantime I’m going to paint up the farmhouse table following the same recipe I used on the oval table.  You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out which one I eventually use in the dining room.

As I’ve mentioned previously, this weekend my sister, niece and I are heading off to visit my mom.  We’re also throwing in a side trip to Disneyland in California.  I really thought we’d be safe going to Mom’s in early October, but last I checked, the high on Saturday is supposed to be 104°, I am not looking forward to that.  Fortunately the pool in her townhome complex will be open.

I decided to take a bit of a blog break and not schedule any posts while I’m gone.  But while I’m away, here’s a question for you.  Do you think there is a market for these hand-painted/styled dollhouse pieces?  They would be easier to ship most other items I paint.  What do you think?

Leave a comment and let me know, and then come back in a couple of weeks to see what I’m up to next!

omg, I love it.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

I hope you all will enjoy seeing mini-furniture makeovers as much as the real thing, because I think there’s going to be a steady stream of them as I work on re-furnishing my dollhouse over the coming months.

Now that I’ve finished repainting the exterior, I’m ready to get cracking on the interior.

As I’m just getting started in the world of miniatures, I’m learning about it as I go.  I’m bound to make more than a few mistakes along the way.

There is one big change that has taken place since my dad and I furnished this dollhouse over 30 years ago.  There aren’t any brick and mortar shops dedicated to dollhouses anymore.  At least not any that I can find near me (if you locals know of any, please leave a comment).  Hobby Lobby has a small selection of dollhouse materials (more on that in a minute), but I didn’t find anything at Michaels.

So it looks like online shopping is going to be my main go-to.

I started out making a few purchases on Etsy, but what I like to do is find a shop on Etsy, and then go check out the shop’s independent website (if they have one).  I’d rather order directly from the shop, saving them the Etsy commission.

That’s how I found Miniature Crush, a vendor that ships out of Savage, MN.  I’ve ordered from her twice now and both times received my order really quickly.  I know I’m going to be ordering from her again.

One thing that I learned while scouring Etsy is that there are some very inspirational creators out there working in miniature.  That’s how I came across Cinderella Moments.

Although she doesn’t have a lot of stuff for sale on Etsy, she has some very interesting looking tutorials on her blog such as how to make that gorgeous day bed in the photo above.

But another thing I noticed while looking through her blog is that she often takes basic unfinished dollhouse furniture and embellishes it.  For example, I’m betting that this table and chairs …

started out looking like this …

I just purchased this set at Hobby Lobby for $9.99.

That was a bit of a eureka moment for me, realizing that I can find great raw materials fairly cheap, and then add my own flavor.  This set even came with some upholstered cushions for the seats.

While I’m probably never going to get quite as frou-frou as Cinderella Moments does, I did whip up a quick prototype for my dining chairs.

And omg!  I love it!

I haven’t yet glued down the cushion in that photo, so ignore how it looks a bit floppy.

But seriously, how fun is that?

Now I just need to finish the other three chairs and paint the table.  Stay tuned because later in the week I’ll share the completed set, and all of the details.

While I was at Hobby Lobby, I also picked up some unfinished patio furniture.

As well as a Welsh cupboard.

I also have a bed and an armoire on the way.

So I have lots of furniture painting lined up to keep me busy over the winter.

I hope you’ll enjoy seeing these makeovers as much as I enjoy doing them!

a winter project.

Published on by Quandie30 Comments

Do any of you remember back when I said that I was giving away my dollhouse?

That was way back in 2017.  Gosh time flies!  Seven years have flown by in the blink of an eye.

If you weren’t around back then, the story behind the dollhouse is this.  My dad retired early from I.B.M. on his 52nd birthday.  Not only did he have a pension, but I.B.M. also paid for health insurance for both my mom and dad until they were 65, and they gave him an early retirement bonus where they added the amount of social security he would be eligible for at 62 to his pension payment for the next 13 years.  Can you imagine any employer offering that kind of a deal now?  It was too good to pass up.

However, he had been fairly recently transferred to Lexington, KY, and he wasn’t finding much to keep him occupied there.

So when I suggested it might be fun to make a dollhouse, he jumped on the idea with gusto.  It was helpful that there was a really fantastic dollhouse supply store near him in Lexington with owners who quickly became his besties.

It took him about 9 months to finish it, and as you can see, he spared no expense and added every kind of detail imaginable.

He also took photos every step of the way.

I chose all of the colors (egads! what was I thinking?), wallpapers, furniture, etc.  But I was already living here in Minnesota then, so we did everything by phone and/or mail.  Remember when long-distance calls cost money?  And there was no such thing as email?  Or Amazon?  It was a different time for sure.

But anyway … back to giving the dollhouse away.  Flash forward to 2017 and it was just gathering dust out in the carriage house.  I felt like it should go to someone who would appreciate it and take care of it.  So I offered it to my in-laws. They love working with miniatures, so they were happy to have it and planned to refurbish it.

But that never happened.  Instead it ended up just gathering dust at their house too.

Meanwhile, after working on the toy barn makeover back in March …

And then my clock case project back in April …

I kinda got the bug to work in miniature.  So I decided to ask if I could have my dollhouse back.  The in-laws couldn’t have agreed more quickly.  They were clearly happy to see it go.

So last week Mr. Q and I drove out to their place in Wisconsin and brought the dollhouse back home.

I plan to give it a refresh.  It has a bit of a dated vibe, and not in a good way.  So why not give it an update?

I have to point out that the photo above was taken before the dollhouse went to the in-laws.  They subsequently stripped away all of the landscaping, and also repaired the upper level railing.

They had also boxed up all of the contents except for the bed in the master bedroom, and now aren’t sure exactly where that box is.  But that’s OK, I’m calling this a blank canvas.  I can start fresh from scratch with furnishing the interior.  Many of the furnishings were pretty dated, and no longer my style anyway.

But first, I had to get the exterior painted.  I thought it would be easiest to paint the outside while I could still work in my carriage house workshop.  It can get too cold to paint out there as early as October (it’s not heated).

So since I’m taking a two week trip out to visit my mom and go to Disneyland with my sister and niece in just a couple of short weeks, I needed to get cracking.

I’ll have to get all of my paints back into the house before I leave.

The pepto pink with seafoam green and teal trim just wasn’t cutting it for me anymore, even though they were my picks back in the day.

By the way, I had made all of the ‘plants’ using FIMO clay.  I’m not sure if I’ll attempt that again, or try something else in those window boxes this time around.  Stay tuned on that one.

But first, the exterior painting.  Naturally I pulled out my favorite warm white, Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, for the siding.

As I was painting I quickly realized that my dad had a bit of an advantage.  He was able to paint everything before installing it.  I was never going to be able to get the same level of detail while painting things in place.

So this …

Became this …

I also quickly realized that my dad had a lot more patience for detail work than I do, so I went with just two colors on the exterior rather than four.  Well, technically three if you include the doors which are painted in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.  The window trim is painted in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

But the really fine details like the corbels along the roof line, or the railings on the porch are all just painted in Drop Cloth now.

I also added a French Linen wash to the roof shingles.

  If you’ve never done a wash, it’s super easy.  Just water down your paint until it’s quite thin (like the consistency of 2% milk maybe), brush it on, then immediately wipe it back with a rag.  I really love the subtle change that made to the roof.

I have to admit, this paint job took much longer than I anticipated.  There were so many nooks and crannies!  And so many things to paint around like the ‘galvanized’ downspouts.

By the way, the slate that is around the foundation of the dollhouse came from a field somewhere around my parent’s house.  My dad just went and picked it up from the ground.  The foyer floor is also made out of this slate.

This more subdued color palette is much more my speed now.

I’ll be working on redecorating one room of the dollhouse at a time over the winter.  Eventually I’ll also re-do the exterior landscaping.  We’ll just have to wait and see how that goes.  Will I get tired of it before I finish?  Will it take much longer than I anticipate?  Will it completely blow my budget?  All of the above probably.

In anticipation of the many blog posts that will come out of this, I’ve added a new category to my blog called “mini’s”.  If you’ve never explored the categories, when you’re on a computer you’ll find them over on the right hand side of the screen under “sorted.” .  If you are reading this on your phone you have to tap on a specific blog post (any post), then scroll all the way down to the bottom past any comments and then tap on “sorted.” and select a category.

I’ve already started accumulating some fun decor for the next step in this process.

So be sure to stay tuned to see what I do next.

a sweet little hutch.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

Remember the mini hutch (sideboard?  buffet?  dresser?  what would you call it?) that was very generously gifted to me at my sale?

I’ve given it a bit of a makeover.

First, the prep.  I began by filling in those circle details on the door fronts using Dixie Belle’s white Mud.  I knew I wanted to use some transfers on those doors and the circles would just be in the way.  Once the Mud was dry, I sanded everything smooth and then, after taping off the mirror, I gave it a quick spray with Rust-Oleum matte sealer.  I could have brushed on the Dixie Belle Bonding Boss, but it was easier to just give it a quick spray.

Next I painted the piece with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  After distressing the paint job a bit by sanding the edges to give it some age, it was time for the fun part.

I started by adding some roses from the I.O.D. Rose Botanical transfer.

This set of transfers has roses in different sizes and the smallest ones were perfect for this little hutch.  I added them to that backsplash bit, and also on either side of the front.

Once the roses were in place, I pulled out the Vintage Post transfer from Dixie Belle.  I selected some of the typography from it and added it to the front of the hutch.

It fit perfectly.

Then I used some pretty scrapbook paper to line the drawer.

After finishing it all off with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax on the outside, I staged it up with a miniature camera and a tiny little ironstone pitcher.

I think it turned out pretty sweet.

What do you think?

This sweet little hutch is for sale.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

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

the fairy garden, 2024.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

 Good morning from the garden!

This morning I thought I would share my 2024 fairy garden.  But first, let’s take a look at its history.

My fairy garden started out in an old cracked concrete birdbath.  The crack allowed for drainage, so that made it perfect for planting in.

It was sweet, although a bit on the small side.

But back in late 2022 the crack became fatal, the bowl broke into 3 pieces.

I debated trying to somehow glue it back together, but ultimately decided that it probably wouldn’t hold up to the elements over time.

Later that year my sister gifted me with a fairy house for Christmas.

So I knew it was time to expand.

I happened to have an old rusted out wheelbarrow on hand, and that seemed like the perfect container for a fairy garden.

So after getting some help from my handyman Ken to shore it up a bit, I nestled it in a bed of variegated vinca and planted it up.

I have to admit, although it looked quite nice when first planted last year, quite a lot of the plants grew like gangbusters and everything became quite shaggy by the end of the season despite several pruning sessions.

Also, even though I protected it with a mound of leaves and a burlap covering for what was a relatively mild winter for us, the only plants that came back this spring were the Dwarf Alberta Spruce, one mini Feather Boa hosta, and the creeping thyme.

Sadly the mini barberry shrub, the mini betony and the Mighty Mouse hosta all died.  I was especially bummed about that dwarf betony, or stachys minima.  I was really hoping to see that bloom this year.

This year I decided to take a more minimalistic approach to the fairy garden.  I had traditionally planted a small wire vine on the arbor, but it always took over.  So this year I opted to not plant anything that would grow over it.  Instead I added a small evergreen to one side, and a mini caladium to the other.

Although the Golddust Mecardonia bloomed all summer last year, and the flowers were the perfect scale for a fairy garden, it was a bit too prolific for the space.  It totally took over.  So this year I opted to plant another variety of creeping thyme in those spots instead.

After pulling out the dead barberry shrub next to the fairy house, I replaced it with a miniature Japanese maple.

To be honest, I think there is little chance it will survive next winter in the wheelbarrow so I plan to pull it out in the fall, pot it up and then try to overwinter it on my unheated three-season porch.  We’ll see how that goes.

My neighbor, nnK, shared a couple of divisions from her miniature hostas with me.

I don’t know the name of that one, but it’s doing well under that pergola.  Hopefully it will survive the winter and return next year.

This year the fairies moved their meditation garden out back under the Japanese maple.

They also opted for a little gnome in the front of the garden instead of the angel statue they had last year.

My sister and I found these at a garage sale earlier this year and we each bought one.

The fairy garden is definitely requiring a little less maintenance this year, so I’m happy with the choices I’ve made.  I do wish I could find more miniature plants to include though.  I was really hoping to replace that dwarf betony, but I couldn’t find it this year.  If any of you have resources for mini plants be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

the clock case project.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

Oh my gosh you guys, this one has been around for a long time.

I purchased this clock more than 5 years ago.  I paid $5 for it at a garage sale.  It was going cheap because it didn’t work.

I mainly purchased it for the case.  I planned to gut it and turn it into a little hanging display case of some kind.

But for some reason it became one of those projects that I never quite got around to sharing here on the blog.  I did eventually remove the clock parts, and I sold some of them separately.

Then I asked Ken to add a little shelf inside the case.  Next up, I painted it in Fusion’s Little Black Dress milk paint.

I added some Eiffel Tower paper to the back and filled it up with some clocks and silver salt and pepper shakers.

But I didn’t love it.

I think I just wasn’t feeling the black, and I also really wanted this piece to be crackled and chippy.  But for some reason I didn’t get any chipping out of that black milk paint.  So I tucked the clock case away for another couple of years.  I finally decided to give it another go a few weeks ago.

But this time I also decided to try adding some heat.  If you aren’t familiar with this technique, you can use a heat gun to dry your milk paint quickly which can promote crackling and/or chipping.

I had two shades of white on hand, Homestead House Sturbridge White and Fusion London Fog.  The Sturbridge White is too white for me, but the London Fog is too creamy, so I mixed them to create the perfect off-white.

I mixed my paint up on the thicker side (because that tends to aid in crackling as well) and tested it out on the bottom part of the clock case.  Once the paint was on, I hit it with the heat gun for a minute.

It started to crackle beautifully, so I turned off the heat gun and gave it a couple of minutes to dry.

And … well … you can see the results.  It started chipping.  A lot.  Too much.  Eventually almost all of the paint came off.

I suspect that’s because I had added a hemp oil topcoat over my black paint back when I first painted it (more than a year ago).  Theoretically you can paint over hemp oil once it is cured, which takes about 4 weeks.  That would probably work if I was using a chalk style paint, but not so much with a milk paint.  Fusion recommends that you give hemp oil several months to cure before painting over it with their acrylic paint.

So back to the drawing board.

I had a couple of options at this point.  I could remove the hemp oil using mineral spirits or rubbing alcohol.  I could paint over the hemp oil with a chalk or acrylic paint first, and then follow that up with the milk paint.  I could add bonding agent to my milk paint, but then I probably wouldn’t get the crackling that I do want.  I could also try scuff sanding the clock to rough up the surface, I’ve had that work fairly well in the past.  So I went with that approach.

Once I had it the clock case sanded down, I decided to thin out my milk paint a little too.  Just to hedge my bets.

I repainted with two coats of the milk paint, and I still got quite a lot of chipping.

Too much chipping for you?  I get it.  This look isn’t for everyone, but I was creating this piece for myself and I still happen to love a chippy finish.  So I decided to just go with it.

Rather than sanding the final coat of paint (which definitely would have taken even more of the paint off), I brushed it lightly with a dry cloth and then vacuumed away any really loose paint.  Then I very gently brushed on three light coats of Dixie Belle’s Flat Clear Coat.  It will act as a sort of ‘glue’ to hold the rest of my chippy paint in place.  This will work on a piece that doesn’t get a lot of wear, but if it gets handled at all you’re still going to lose paint.  In addition, the surface is very rough to the touch, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Now for the fun part!  As I mentioned in my last post, this project was inspired by my visit to the Rijksmuseum and all of the fabulous miniatures that I saw there.  I purchased three miniature ‘painting’ magnets in their gift shop including one of my favorite Vermeer, The Little Street.

And I needed somewhere to hang them.

I ordered some miniature wallpaper from the same Etsy vendor where I purchased the barn lights for my miniature barn makeover.

There were so many pretty ones to pick from that I had a hard time deciding.  They were all less than $10 each, so I ordered three different ones to give myself options.  I have already cut up the two I ended up using in the photo above.  There is enough left of each that I could change my mind later and wallpaper both levels the same if I want to.

I used the Bradbury & Bradbury Wallflowers on the lower level

and the Bradbury & Bradbury Colonial Williamsburg on the top level.

Isn’t that fantastic?!

I also ordered an unpainted bench and chair from the same vendor.

The sliding door was from Hobby Lobby, and I ended up not being able to use it for this project.  Also, I’m fairly sure the bench was not intended to arrive unassembled,  it was broken.  But it was fairly easy to glue it back together.

I painted the bench and the chair in Sweet Pickens’ In a Pickle milk paint.

And you’ll remember the little cupboard that I painted a few weeks back, I told you I had a plan for it.

After ‘wallpapering’ the ‘rooms’ and ‘hanging’ my ‘paintings’ with some two-sided tape, I furnished the two levels of my clock case.

They are a little sparsely decorated at the moment, but I figure I can always add to them as I find more fabulous miniatures that I want to include.

I had to hang the clock case out on my front porch to get decent lighting for these photos.

But its real home is hanging in my q branch where it looks amazing on my Globe Artichoke colored walls.

But you’ll just have to take my word for that.

I think it was worth the over 5 year wait to see this project come to fruition, what do you think?

the rijksmuseum.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

I was doing a little computer maintenance the other day, backing up photos and whatnot, and I realized that I never shared my visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam here on the blog.

So, I decided better late than never, right?  I also have additional motivation to share it with you because this visit inspired the project that I’m going to share later this week.

If you’re new here you may not know that I visited the Netherlands and Norway last September.  On one of our days in Amsterdam we headed to the Rijksmuseum.

The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands and is visited by over 1 million people each year.  It was founded in 1798, but the current building that houses it opened in 1885.  A ten year renovation was completed in 2013 to the tune of € 375 million (holy cow!).

Much like the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum has a very famous painting behind glass called The Night Watch by Rembrandt.  However, at over 14′ wide, this one isn’t quite as small as the Mona Lisa.

It seems to be the main draw and the area around it can get very crowded, so we visited it right at opening time.

Personally I was more interested in seeing the Vermeer’s (which are pretty small) including The Milkmaid which was painted in 1658.

My favorite of the Vermeer paintings at the Rijksmuseum ended up being The Little Street.

My photo doesn’t really do it justice.  But it appealed to me because looking at it I felt like I could step right into 1650’s Delft (the town depicted).

As much as I enjoyed the various paintings and other artworks in the Rijksmuseum, my main goal was to see the poppenhuizen, or dollhouses.

Dollhouses in this period were typically cabinets that opened to reveal the miniature rooms.  The didn’t necessarily have the miniature exterior features of a house.  They also weren’t toys, but were a hobby of the very wealthy.

In the case of the dollhouse shown above, the cost of creating it was equivalent to the cost of buildng a full-sized canal house at the time.  The owner, Petronella Oortman,  custom ordered each piece to be made out of authentic materials and precisely to scale.  She hired basket weavers to make the baskets, and had linen woven to hang from the drying rack in the attic room shown below.

The china displayed in the kitchen was custom made for Petronella by the East Indies Company.

And isn’t the mural in this room gorgeous?

If you are as fascinated by miniatures as I am, you may also like to see this piece …

It’s an apothecary cabinet filled with miniature bottles and delft pots.

And they are all filled with samples of various medical ingredients, etc.

Isn’t that fantastic?  Check out this link to see a better photo and to listen to a fragment from the Rijksmuseum audio tour about this piece.

Also, if you are a miniatures enthusiast, you’ll definitely enjoy my post about our visit to Madurodam.

One could spend years trying to see everything in the Rijksmuseum and I’d love to go back someday to see more of it.  Before we headed out I did make a quick pit stop in the gift shop where I picked up some miniature souvenirs to take with me.  They partially inspired the project I’m going to share with you on Friday, so be sure to stay tuned!

the barn makeover.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

You’ll remember the mini barn that I purchased at my local Goodwill.

It was missing a bit of trim, and a section of wall between the two doors, so I sent it over to Ken’s workshop for some repairs.

He replaced that section of wall, the trim on six of the windows, and one of the little door latches …

and he also added a little trim to the loft opening.

Next up I gave the entire barn a scuff sanding, and after wiping it down I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. in grey.  I didn’t really need to block any stains, but I thought it would be easier to cover that red and green if I had a grey primer down first.

In hindsight, I wish I had painted the entire barn in a dark color such as DB’s Coffee Bean first so that I could have distressed my final paint back to the darker color.  In the end, I could see both the grey B.O.S.S. and the green when I later attempted to distress the roof.  Rookie mistake.

Next up I painted the roof and the interior of the barn in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, and the exterior walls in their Drop Cloth.  It still took two coats of paint to cover the grey primer, so again, I would have been just as well off with a darker paint.  Once my paint was dry, I experimented with some different colors on the window trim.  I tried a bright white (DB’s Fluff) first, which was distinguishable from the Drop Cloth, but I didn’t like it.  I tried Coffee Bean, but I didn’t like that either.  I even considered just painting them with the Drop Cloth, but ultimately I decided to go with the Dried Sage.

After a bit of sanding to distress them, I think they look good.

Next up I pulled out Dixie Belle’s Farmhouse silkscreen stencils

I especially thought the Fresh Eggs one would be perfect on the side of the barn.

I cut up the one with the chicken and just used the typography on both the other side …

and the front of the barn.

Once all of my paint was dry, I gave everything a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

And that brings me to the lights.

As I was working on this project I kept thinking how fun it would be to have some barn lights over the doors.  So I went on Etsy just to see what was available out there.  I ended up finding the perfect lights at Miniature Crush (although I ordered them through Etsy, you can also order items directly from Miniature Crush, and as a bonus for me, they are also located in Minnesota).

They came in a matte black color that was rather one dimensional though.

I wanted them to look galvanized so I pulled out some of Dixie Belle’s Gilding Wax.  I started with the Zinc, but it was too dark and barely showed up over the black.  So then I tried the Silver, which looked pretty good but was maybe just a bit too bright.  I went back and added a bit of the Zinc over the Silver, and I still didn’t love it.

It doesn’t quite look authentic to me.

So then I pulled out the Dixie Belle Patina Paint in Copper, along with the Green activating spray.  I first removed as much of the Gilding Wax as I could with a q tip dipped in mineral spirits.  Then I painted over the lights with the Copper paint, and followed that up by dabbing the activating spray over the wet paint using a small brush.

Eureka!  So much better.  The totally look legit now.

One quick note about these lights.  They are battery operated, and they have a little switch on the side to turn them on and off.

To get to the battery (which is replaceable) you have to screw off the back part of the base.  So you can’t really glue these lights in place permanently.  Instead they come with a tiny adhesive magnet on the back.  You apply the adhesive side of the magnet to your item, then the light fixture hangs onto the magnet.  Here’s the thing, that means they come away pretty easily.  And that makes this item unsafe for small children who could pull them off and choke on them.  So they would have to be removed if you wanted this to be a child’s toy.

In addition, the lights were $19.99 each!  So now I have an additional $40 invested in this makeover.  I’m not sure that was a wise decision, especially since I plan to try and sell this one.

But all of that being said, I sure do love how they look!  And maybe someone else will as well.

I initially thought I would stop here, but then I was at Hobby Lobby and I came across a miniature weathervane.

And at only $2.99, it was so much cheaper than the lights!  So how could I resist?

I gave it the same treatment as the lights using the Copper patina paint.

The verdigris patina develops pretty quickly with the Copper paint.  And doesn’t the weathervane also look so much more authentic now?

I had to drill a hole in the roof of the barn to attach it, but that was fairly simple.

And with that, my barn makeover is complete.

How cute is that?  I much prefer my toned down neutrals to the red and green.

What do you think?

If any of you locals just can’t resist adding this adorable barn to your decor, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

another mini makeover.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

Remember the dollhouse that I purchased for $5 at a garage sale last year?

I’m not sure I mentioned it at the time, but it came partially furnished.  LOL, well, it was mostly just tacky plastic stuff that I discarded, but I did hang on to these three pieces …

They were made out of wood, so I thought they might be fun to paint up.

But much like with full-size furniture, I had to send the larger cupboard over to Ken’s workshop for some repairs first.

It was missing what I presume was meant to be a pull-out cutting board, the opening for it has already been covered up by Ken in the photo below.

A couple of the drawers needed some glue, and like so many cast off pieces of furniture, it was missing just one knob.

After scuff sanding and cleaning it, I gave it a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then after sanding the edges to create a worn look, I added a couple of transfers.

You’ll note that I painted over the knobs.  That was partially to make them blend a bit more, and partially to disguise the fact that the original 4 knobs are metal while Ken carved a wooden replacement for the fifth one.

The transfers I used are knob transfers from re.design with prima.

They tend to be the perfect size for miniatures.

I lined the drawers with some pretty scrapbook paper.

Can we just take a moment to admire my miniature fly swatter?

I saved a handful of things from the dollhouse that my dad made, including that and the other props I used in these photos.

The remaining two pieces were pretty simple makeovers with more paint and transfers.

The transfer on top of the bookcase is from the Classic Vintage Labels from re.design with prima.

As is the ‘cafe’ transfer on the trunk.

These mini’s were so fun to work on, and so much easier than working on full-sized furniture, LOL.

I think they are much improved with a little quandification.

What do you think?

As far as what I’m going to do with them, I do have a bit of an idea percolating in the back of my mind.  We’ll just have to wait and see if it comes to fruition or not!

I bought the farm.

Published on by Quandie30 Comments

I’m not gonna lie people, my creative well has gone a bit dry lately.  I’m still struggling with tooth extraction pain, and it took a while to get over the cold I brought home from Florida.  OK, I haven’t exactly ‘bought the farm’, but I definitely haven’t felt very creative lately.

In addition, I’m heading out of town again tomorrow, this time on a solo trip to visit my mom.  So it seemed like a the wrong time to get started on any sort of more complicated project.

I did manage to get out for some thrifting with my friend opK earlier in the week though.  I didn’t find much, but I thought I’d share my very meager haul with you guys.

We started out at a Goodwill where I made just two purchases.  First up, this amber bottle.

I brought it home, gave it a good wash and then added that faux French apothecary label.

I did some similar amber apothecary bottles in February last year …

and I thought they turned out quite nicely, so I tried it again.  I shared the source for printing those labels back in that post, so you can find that there if you’re looking for it.

The labels are easy to apply with some Mod Podge.

Since I already had the Mod Podge out and some labels printed, I decided to add labels to a couple of other jars I already had on hand.

I’ve had that pair of jars for ages and they originally had a much more faux looking paper label on them.  I soaked those labels off to replace them, and these are so much better.

These jars have the cutest little galvanized lids.

I also found this dollhouse barn at the Goodwill.

It needs a little TLC, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the dollhouse that I fixed up back in December.

That was such a fun project to work on, so I’m thinking this one will be more of the same.

Here’s the other side …

I had to laugh when I brought it up to the register and the clerk said “oh, I see you’ve bought the farm!”  LOL.

Anyway, the barn has already gone over to Ken’s workshop for a few repairs.  I’m looking forward to giving it a fresh look.

We headed to a spot that was new to me next, the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in St. Paul.

By the way, can I just point out that it was a beautiful sunny day and the sidewalks were completely clear of snow and ice on the sunny side of the street.  This is not the norm for Minnesota in February, but I’m loving it!

Unfortunately, I think their sidewalk sign was a bit of false advertising.

I didn’t find any hot deals.  However, as we were waiting in line for opK to make some purchases I saw a shoebox full of old photos so I started flipping through them and this one caught my eye.

Just look at those stern faces!  These guys were very serious about their sport.

The basketball … wait … is that a basketball?  I guess I’m not 100% sure about that.  Is there some other sport played with a ball that looks like that?  Or is that what basketballs looked like in 1929?

Well, whatever it is, it says “E.F. HS 28 – 29” on the ball.  There are no markings on the back of the photo, so that’s my only clue.  So the age of the photo is obvious, but no idea where it was taken.

The photos were priced at a mere 15 cents each, so I thought I really should take it home with me.

I really have no plans for its ultimate fate, but for now I’ll just enjoy displaying it somewhere.

And that’s it.  I only purchased three things.  I’m really looking forward to garage sale season because I am not finding much at the thrift stores these days!

As I mentioned, I’m headed off to my mom’s tomorrow.  She has a to-do list all ready to go for me.  So far I’m doing her taxes, cleaning out her fridge and her closets, and replanting some of her pots on the patio.  I’m looking forward to just spending some time with her though, and maybe enjoying some sunshine and warm weather.  Once again I don’t have any blog posts planned during my absence, but hopefully I’ll be ready to get busy on some creative projects when I get back home again!