Category: the carriage house.

vintage garden style.

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

I recently picked up a copy of Better Homes & Garden’s Vintage Garden Style magazine at the supermarket.

This is one of those special publication re-print sort of magazines, ‘back by popular demand’.  Which tells me that people still love vintage garden stuff as much as I do.

As I’ve been getting ready for the Carriage House Sale (which starts tonight!), I realized that ‘Vintage Garden Market’ is definitely the theme of our sale.

We have quite a few items from the various categories featured in the magazine starting with watering cans.

This first one is a no-brainer.  Of course we have vintage watering cans …

and some that are maybe not so vintage.

Next up, vintage enamelware.

Yep,  we’ve got this too.

The article in the magazine on collecting (or non-collecting in my case) vintage garden books really struck a chord with me.

There were so many lovely books featured.  Now I’m tempted to be on the lookout for vintage garden books myself.

And Sue brought a few for the sale.

We’ve got a few newer garden books too!

There was also a feature in the magazine on filling unique vintage items with succulents.

We have quite a few wooden totes like the one shown above that you could fill, plus any number of other vintage pieces that would be perfect as succulent planters.

For example, I’ve decided to sell on my antique newspaper roller that I used to plant with succulents myself.

I loved the look of the succulents in rusty iron urns shown in the magazine …

And I just happen to have a very similar faux rusty urn for sale …

along with a bunch of other rusty pieces of salvage for the garden like these old iron headboards.

I also am selling this rusty lady …

Remember when I purchased her in bright white?

Doesn’t she look so much better rusty?

FYI, I use the Dixie Belle Iron Patina Paint with the Green Spray to achieve that rusty look.

There’s another fun article in the magazine about giving an old structure a new life as a potting shed.

While I don’t actually have an old shed for sale, I do have one in my back garden and if you come to the sale you are welcome to pop your head in and check it out.

I recently recovered the seat of my wicker chair with some gorgeous vintage bark cloth that I purchased at my friend Lisa’s sale (one of these days I really have to share her sale with you).

Not that I didn’t love the bark cloth that was previously on the chair, but I needed to scavenge that for a chair that I am including in my sale.

The florals on it were perfect with the Miss Mustard Seed Apron Strings milk paint color on the chair.

By the way, there are three different shades of pink in that photo from three different brands.  The chair is in the Apron Strings (read about that original makeover here), the French flower bucket is in Dixie Belle’s Apricot (read about that project here), and the oval lidded tin on top of the box is painted in Fusion’s Little Piggy (read about that paint job here).

We’ve got a slightly bigger selection of pink/floral items this year.  I feel like the floral trend is coming back around, what do you think?

Although this next article doesn’t specifically pertain to items at our sale, I still thought it was worth a mention.

It features 7 tips about shopping at a vintage market and the photos are all from the Oronoco Gold Rush held at the end of August about an hour south of the Twin Cities.  I’m sure that most of my local readers have been, right?

I suppose some of the tips might apply to my sale, especially tip no. 6.  Love it?  Buy It Now!  Because if you don’t grab it quick, someone else will.

As I mentioned, the sale starts tonight from 5 pm to 8 pm.  We’ll also be open tomorrow morning from 9 am until the noon whistle sounds in North St. Paul.

We are accepting Venmo and Cash only.

Hope to see you local readers there!

the carriage house sale.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

Those of you who have followed me for a long time already know about my occasional sale, but for those who are new around here I thought I’d share a little bit about it today.

My friend Sue and I started holding occasional sales out of my carriage house sometime before 2002 (I didn’t start keeping a record of it until then).  We started out as just a slightly above average garage sale, but over the years we began to curate a nice selection of vintage and upcycled home decor items.

Originally we held just one sale a year, but then we started having one in the spring and one in the fall because we had a lot of inventory.  It was so much easier to find good vintage items at garage sales back then!

I once found an entire box of old cameras at a garage sale.

I can’t even imagine coming across that today.

How about this haul from 2015 …

Not just one, but two vintage typewriters … and two sleds.  Plus a couple of tackle boxes too!

I think most of you will agree that it’s getting harder and harder to find good vintage items at garage sales these days.

Anyway, eventually we slowed back down to just one sale per year, and then it all got to be too much for me and we quit having sales altogether after 2016.

At that point I had added blogging to my to-do list.  That plus a full-time job, plus some pretty steady furniture painting kept me pretty busy.

Flash forward to November 2021 when I retired from the day job.  I definitely had the time to host a sale then, but did I have the inclination?  It took me until last year, 2024, to decide it was time to try it again.

My friend Sue signed on again, and my friend opK joined us as well.

And now, they are both back this year as we once again host a Carriage House Sale this Thursday and Friday.

I’ve been so busy getting ready for the sale that I haven’t actually had time to take any photos of the merch.  But once again we will have lots of vintage and upcycled home decor including quite a few of the items that I’ve shared here on the blog, like the flower market tote.

And the vintage camp chairs.

I’ve also got this pretty floral box for sale …

And these pretty french flower buckets.

I’ve got some faux apothecary style amber bottles,

as well as this garden herbs tote.

And so much more!

This year it looks like the weather is going to cooperate, the forecast is 76° and sunny!

So if you’re local, I’ll hope you’ll swing by either Thursday evening or Friday morning … or both!

planning ahead.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

I’m starting to plan ahead to my 2025 Carriage House Sale.  We’ve tentatively chosen Thursday, May 29 and Friday, May 30 as the dates for the sale.

While on the one hand it’s 7 weeks away, and that should be plenty of time to prepare, on the other hand I have a couple of trips coming up between now and then so it will be here before I know it.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but I’m actually away right now visiting my mom again (she lives in a suburb of Las Vegas).  This time my sister has joined me, and we have planned some fun stuff like a night staying at the Bellagio.

We haven’t been down to the strip in years, so it will be fun to explore it for one evening.

But once I get home again I’m going to have to get my act together and start getting ready for the sale.  Step one will be to muck out the carriage house.  If I can find the time, I may do some painting out there too.

I will be joined by my old garage sale mentor and Carriage House cohort, Sue, as well as my friend opK for the sale.  I’ve been a little worried that I won’t have enough inventory to justify as sale, but I think between the three of us we’ll have plenty of awesome items.

So, pencil it in if you’re local.  But do just use pencil.  I’m going to try not to change the date this year, but if a tornado is forecast than all bets are off.  Stay tuned for further updates!

wait a minute, what?

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

0My friend opK and I headed to a town north of the cities to do a little garage saling recently.  Unfortunately, the sales we found were mostly a bust.  My meagre haul includes a tacklebox and a folding ruler from a sale where everything was a dollar.

I also picked up a pretty cool sled that I’ll paint up for Christmas at an estate sale we stumbled upon.

As we were heading home we also happened across the once monthly Picket Fence Gals vintage occasional sale.  I hadn’t realized it was their weekend to be open, so it was a fun little bonus.

This sale features lots of different vendors, each with their own little distinct area or ‘booth’.  As I walked into one particular booth I was thinking to myself ‘this seller has great style’ …

I love that there are pops of green scattered throughout giving the entire booth a cohesive look.

Then, wait a minute, what?

To my surprise, as I was glancing over the space, I saw this …

Are you seeing what I see?

It’s my slide projector case!

And once I realized that, I looked just behind it and recognized my rusty finials.

I don’t believe that I ever shared the ‘after’ of these, but they were from the same garage sale haul as the hardware bin earlier this summer.

I ‘re-finished’ them with some of Dixie Belle’s Patina Paint to give them a rusty look.

As I was chuckling to myself at finding a couple of my things in a shop, I glanced down and saw this …

I painted that way back in May 2023.

But it ended up at my own occasional sale this past June.

As did this clock plate and cloche, which is another project I didn’t share here on the blog.

That clock transfer is from the Brocante set from I.O.D.

Finally, I noticed this green … um … cage thingie?  I’m not sure what you would call it.

I didn’t actually paint that, but I did sell it at the Carriage House Sale.

Some creators get annoyed about shop owners or vendors buying their stuff to resell it, but not me.  I consider it a compliment.  I also purposely price my stuff low knowing that someone could potentially buy it and mark it higher to resell.  There have always been a fair number of shop owners that shop my sale and I’m happy to have them.

I’m not sure who this booth belongs to, but kudos to whoever you are.  You did a beautiful job styling your space.  I was immediately drawn to it and I especially loved all of those touches of green.  If I have another sale next year (so far the jury is out on that one), I hope you’ll come again!

the carriage house sale recap.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Well, the carriage house sale is over.  I thought some of you may be interested in hearing how it went.

But before we get to that, one quick thing.  One of our very first customers at the sale on Thursday evening purchased this metal exit sign …

Unfortunately, my sister wrapped it in newspaper and then set it down on the table.  It never made it into the customer’s bag (or maybe it was a box).  In other words, someone purchased this sign, but it didn’t go home with them.  If it was you, please reach out to me by either leaving a comment here on the blog or emailing me at qisforquandie@gmail.com so that we can get this to you.

Now, on with the sale recap.

First up, the weather.  It was not great.  Thursday evening was cloudy, humid and a bit drizzly at times.  Luckily we had tents to help keep things dry, and there wasn’t any severe weather.  Friday was cloudy, humid, wet from overnight rain and rather chilly.  Once again, tents were a necessity.  We finally saw some sun on Saturday, but it was quite breezy and still chilly.  I ended up having to find a jacket to put on!

Next up, the attendance.  We had a great turn out on Thursday evening.  It was fun to see so many familiar faces, and to meet some new ones.  Friday was quite a bit slower, but sales were still decent.  We blamed the lack of attendance on the gloomy weather.  However, Saturday (the nicest day weather-wise) was nearly a complete bust.  We literally had $26 in sales on Saturday and probably under a dozen shoppers stopped by, although I did meet a couple of my blog readers which was lovely.

I had a bit of a mix of merchandise for the sale.  Naturally I had all kinds of projects that I’d shared here on the blog the past year or two, like my cupboard door signs and painted buckets.

As you can imagine, these items were priced on the higher end for a ‘garage sale’, but certainly not high in general.  For example, that bucket was priced at $28.

Unfortunately, not very many of these sorts of items sold.  I’m telling myself that it was the higher prices that held them back, not a lack of talent on my part.  I hope.

I did sell the North Pole Bed & Breakfast sign …

But not many other signs.

Surprisingly, my furniture sold well.  In the past that wasn’t usually the case.

I sold the bookcase …

and the washstand.

And a huge thank you to Shelly who drove 2 hours to come to the sale, and then did it again the next day to come back for the green legged table.

That pair of white folding chairs also sold.

I do still have my rooster cupboard though, and I have to admit I’m not sad about that.

Not much sold from the ‘science-y’ area.  I was surprised that the really cool beaker didn’t sell.

It would make a fun vase.

However, the Naturalist’s Box did sell.

As did my daisy lockbox.

Not much of our Christmas stuff sold.  That’s not terribly surprising though is it?  No one is thinking about Christmas decorations in June.

But what did sell really well was anything garden related.

It wasn’t surprising that the adorable cement dog was one of the first things to go.

As was rusty St. Francis.

All in all, despite bad weather and a really low turnout on Saturday, I’m going to call the 2024 Carriage House Sale a success.  In all I sold 243 items (what?!  how did I possibly sell that much, and yet still have so much left?).

So the question is, will we do it again?  I can’t make any promises, but I’m definitely thinking about it.  I’m considering focusing on a garden themed sale next year, maybe even including some plants.  I also think it would be better to have it earlier in the season, perhaps the first weekend in June?  Lots to think about between now and then.

In the meantime, I’m going to take a bit of a blog holiday over the next week.  I need to take some time to pull my workshop back together, and I’ll also be enjoying the 4th of July up at Lake Pop-a-gasket (a.k.a. Lake Wapogasset).

Thanks again to all of the locals (and even not so locals) who stopped by!

day two.

Published on by Quandie1 Comment

A huge thank you to everyone who came out last night for the Carriage House Sale.

We had a great turn out, and it was such fun to see so many familiar faces!

Today is day 2 and we are open from 9 a.m. until noon, rain or shine.  And it looks to be mostly rain.  I was awake at 4 a.m. listening to it just come down!

Most of the merchandise is staying dry inside, but I probably won’t be able to say the same for the Carriage House staff!

But we won’t melt, and neither will you!

And we still have lots of great stuff left like the fabulous black watering can …

And the Garden Herbs tote.

I still have both of my larger metal boxes, this one …

and this one.

Nobody has snatched up this painted bucket yet …

or either of these buckets.

The Flora Parisiensis suitcase is still available.

I still have the simple white framed mirror.

and the cut flowers chair.

There is still plenty of fabulous merch left for sale, so if you’re local, come on by.

the carriage house sale.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

As promised, here are the details for the Carriage House Sale.

This time around we will be open rain or shine!

We will be accepting cash and/or Venmo only.  No credit cards or checks.

We will have a holding area for items that you know you want to purchase, but don’t want to carry around as you shop.  Please do not place items in the holding area unless you are sure you want to purchase them.

The sale will open promptly at 5 pm on Thursday, no early shoppers allowed 🙂

Hope to see you there!

christmas in june?

Published on by Quandie5 Comments

We’re exactly halfway to Christmas!

OK, I don’t normally post about Christmas in June, but we do have a holiday section at our upcoming Carriage House Sale.

It will be a bit of an experiment to see if Christmas stuff sells in June, so I’ll try to keep you posted on that.

I have a few items left over from last year’s holiday season that will be included such as the Bed & Breakfast sign.

And this North Pole sign.

I have a pair of ice skates.

And a tacklebox.

And some bottle brush trees in vintage silver.

But I also have some projects that I just completed including this adorable little lantern.

And this much larger lantern.

I haven’t permanently attached the trees or the silver deer just in case the future owner wants to switch the lantern up for the various seasons.

Instead I used some Stick-Um candle adhesive to hold them in place.

I also painted up a bucket in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and added a design from the I.O.D. Noel paint inlay to it.

This was my 2nd use of this particular inlay, and as you can see it turned out fairly faint.

If you want to read more about the results when using a paint inlay for the 2nd time, check out this post.

I did also paint up a sled for the sale.

We’ll also have a couple of sleds that aren’t painted.

And finally, I want to share these lovely vintage Christmas tablecloths that Sue is selling.

Perfect for your vintage holiday table.

We will be holding our sale this week rain or shine.  As of writing this post they are forecasting the possibility of rain for both Thursday evening and Friday.  Good grief.  It seems that we can’t go a day or two without rain so far this summer.  On the bright side, the hostas are getting ginormous.  They are loving all of the rain.

So … we’ll have tents and we’ll do our best to keep everything dry for the sale.

We will be accepting cash and Venmo only (no credit cards or checks).

I’ll post my address tomorrow here on the blog and also on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

If you’re local, I hope to see you there!

vintage housekeeping.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

OK, I have to admit, I am not the greatest housekeeper.

Our house is tidy most of the time, but it’s not always especially clean.  I’m just not a big fan of cleaning.  I’m also not a huge fan of cooking, or doing laundry.

But I am a fan of vintage housekeeping items, and we have some fun ones for our upcoming Carriage House Sale.

Maybe cleaning would be more enjoyable if I had a cool box to keep my supplies handy.

LOL, well, probably not, but those cleaning supplies would look snazzy in my pantry.

Remember my large non-collection of whisk brooms?  After realizing that I’m probably never going to get around to making a whisk broom wreath, I priced them up for the sale.  Ironically, Sue also brought over a bunch of them.

So, yeah, we have a large supply of vintage whisk brooms available.  If they don’t sell I may have to revisit that wreath idea.  That bucket is for sale as well.  I added a segment from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer to it.

We also have a small sampling of enamelware for sale.

You may remember that pot in the middle that I added an I.O.D. transfer to.

I purchased the pot at an estate sale earlier this year, and I really intended to keep it for myself.  But as it turned out, I couldn’t find a good spot to display it in my house so I decided to part with it.

We have a fun selection of vintage linens at the sale as well.

Sue has quite a few pairs of embroidered pillowcases.

As well as this charming foldable laundry bin.

We also have a couple of quilts, and some lovely vintage tablecloths.

I also created an ironing board laundry sign.

My neighbor nnK found this ironing board free at the curb for me.

It was a bit worse for the wear with a couple of serious burn marks.  In addition, the metal legs that held it up were no longer stable.  So with my handyman Ken’s help, I removed the legs completely.  Then I added a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth paint.  Next up I added a floral section from the I.O.D. Lattice Rose paint inlay, and then the wording from the Laundry transfer from re.design with prima.

I followed it all up with a couple of coats of matte spray sealer.

I’ve added some D rings on the back so you could hang this sign on the wall, but you could also just lean it against the wall if you don’t have quite that much wall space in your laundry area.

So, how about you?  Are you a fan of housekeeping?  Or maybe just a fan of vintage housekeeping supplies?  Leave a comment and let me know.

And for those of you who are local, I hope you’ll be able to swing by this week!

I will be posting my address and other details about the sale on Wednesday morning, so be sure to stay tuned.

any ironstone fans out there?

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Any ironstone fans out there?

‘Cuz we’ve got some at the Carriage House Sale.

We have more than a dozen pitchers ranging in size from small to medium (sorry, no really large ones).

And ranging in price from $3 to $12.

We’ve got some gravy boats for a mere $4 each.

We’ve also got some chamber pots for $15 each.

We also have a whole bunch of these little guys …

Were they originally used for syrup?  I’m not sure, but they seem the right size for that.

But personally, I like the idea of displaying them en masse in a bowl.

And at only $3 to $4 each, you could easily buy them all … and the blue bowl to go with them!

This pretty pitcher is marked at $12, but I keep debating whether or not to keep it.  It makes such a pretty vase.

But for now it has a tag on it.

As a reminder, the Carriage House Sale has been rescheduled to next week due to the potential for severe weather that is predicted for both today and tomorrow.

If you’re local, I hope to see you there!