a pretty darn good year.

Published on by Quandie44 Comments

Happy New Year!

I’m back from my blog hiatus and I have to say, it was a little weird.  I’ve taken some breaks from blogging before, but usually I take them while I’m traveling so my time is pretty much occupied.  This time I was just at home, and although I was busy with holiday gatherings, taking down the decorations and even painting a couple of pieces of furniture, I really missed interacting with you guys!  Plus, it was frigidly cold here in Minnesota.  Yesterday we woke up to a windchill of -37.   Funny side story, Mr. Q told me that when he was a kid he thought it was the “windshield factor” and they were talking about how cold the windshield of the car would feel.  Well, either way, -37 feels cold and I was not motivated to go out much.

But that gave me a good opportunity for reflection, and thinking back I realized that 2017 was a pretty darn good year.

In March Mr. Q and I went looking for bald eagles along the Mississippi River with my sister and niece, and we found plenty of them.

I still thank my lucky stars almost daily that my sister and niece moved to Minnesota over two years ago.

Mr. Q and I took an amazing trip in May that started in Copenhagen.

Then there was Norway.

And Scotland.

And finally, England.

I inherited my travel bug from my mom who still works as a travel agent at the age of 77.  Mr. Q and I have been fortunate in being able to travel to some amazing places over the years.  Check out the ‘travel’ category under ‘stuff.’ over on the right side of the page to read some of my travel posts.

My sister bought her house and we helped her move in June.

I feel like this really made it official.  My sister will definitely not be deciding that she hates Minnesota (even though the windshield is -37) and wants to return to New Jersey.  Not that she ever was considering that, but it still feels good that she has put down permanent roots here.

In late summer we redecorated our master bedroom.

We had the floors refinished, added a faux ship lap wall, new light fixtures, a new to us headboard, and I painted all of the furniture in the room (except that bench).

We had help from Ken on the ship lap and the bed, help painting from my sister and help from nnK finding some college kids to do the floors.  I really couldn’t do these things without help from friends and family!

Although we missed a few of our favorite neighborhood sales while I was gone on my trip in May, my sister and I did score some hauls in the fall.

My sister has become the perfect garage saling companion.  She drives, she brings snacks, she’s an expert at packing stuff into the vehicle (all of that stuff fit into her SUV), and most importantly she doesn’t really compete with me for the good stuff.  We have very different styles, so that works out quite well.

I met my idol, Miss Mustard Seed, in October.

Much like many of you, I have been following the Miss Mustard Seed blog for several years.  Earlier this year when Marian announced that she was moving to Minnesota I thought that maybe, just maybe, I’d get a chance to meet her in person.  So it was super exciting to not only get the opportunity to meet her, but also to spend a day at a painting workshop she co-hosted with Carver Junk Co.

That was followed by a fun trip to Disney World with my sister and my niece over Halloween.

I was included in my first magazine just before Christmas which was pretty exciting.

I celebrated my 4th blogiversary in November.

And sprinkled in between all of that I did some painting.

A few of my faves from 2017 include the antique headboard that we used in our master bedroom makeover.

I discovered the Iron Orchid Designs transfers last year and immediately fell in love with them.  One of my favorite pieces with a transfer was this gorgeous Eastlake style dresser.

 A friend of mine suggested using Fusion’s Mustard on this union jack desk, and I loved how it turned out.

My next favorite also included an IOD transfer.  The sizing of the transfers is just about perfect for a typical piece of furniture like this linen press.

My final fave for 2017 isn’t exactly just one thing, and it isn’t exactly a piece of furniture.  It’s more of a … well … what should I call it?  It’s the idea of turning a mirror frame into a chalkboard frame with a shelf instead.  This was one of my greatest discoveries in 2017.  Well, technically I did the first one in November 2016.  I love re-purposing these beautiful frames into something that people want to have in their home.

So there you have it, 2017 was a pretty darn good year.  In fact, I’m beginning to suspect that there is no way I can top it for 2018.  Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.  I did paint some fab pieces during my blog hiatus so be sure to check back later this week to see them.

But in the meantime, did you have a favorite from among the pieces I painted in 2017.  Check out my ‘fab furniture’ page and let me know which one was your favorite!

happy solstice.

Published on by Quandie40 Comments

Today is the winter solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere.  This is the day of the year with the shortest period of daylight.  Did you know that the Twin Cities are located on the 45th parallel.  That’s exactly halfway between the equator and the North Pole.  This makes us further north than some parts of Canada, like Toronto for example.

I am betting that I am not alone when I say that I struggle with the dark and gloomy days of November and December here at the 45th parallel.  Typically November and December are the least sunny months of the year for us.  Even January has more sunshine.  This time of year I leave for work in the dark, and return back home in the dark, which makes blog photo taking very challenging.

I often tell people that I don’t mind the cold or the snow, but if only winter weren’t so dark.

So I greet the arrival of the winter solstice with some relief knowing that from here on in we are going to slowly start getting more daylight hours each day.  We’ll also start getting more sunshine during those daylight hours.

I am more than ready for that.

In the meantime, I’m going to take a bit of a blogging break over the holidays to regroup, spend time with friends and family, maybe even take a few naps.  But I also want to focus on painting some furniture.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been posting five days a week since September.  I didn’t really mean to start posting every week day, it just sort of happened because I had a lot of smaller projects going on that I wanted to share.

Plus, a I received a few comments on how much readers were enjoying getting a post every day.  I didn’t want to disappoint people by cutting back on the frequency of my posts.

But after taking a bit of time to reflect on that, I’ve realized that daily blogging has taken too much time away from my true love which is painting furniture.  Suddenly the furniture painting is taking a back seat to the blogging instead of the other way around.  In addition, I often find myself rushing thru my projects so that I can get them done in time for another blog post.  Quality is suffering in favor of quantity, and nobody wants that, right?

But don’t worry, I promise I won’t abandon you.  I’ll be back to help you celebrate the new year (and the longer days).

I’ll share a recap of my favorite pieces from 2017 and I’ll definitely have some new furniture makeovers for you.

So be sure to stay tuned and in the meantime happy holidays to you and yours!

 

jodie’s house, part 4.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Welcome back to the final segment on our tour of my friend Jodie’s house.  All that we have left to see is her master suite, so let’s get started!

I have to say, there are lots of great features in Jodie & Doug’s master, but it’s very hard for any of them to compete with the view from that amazing wall of windows.

 Can you just imagine how gorgeous that view is when there is a freshly fallen snow?  Or, like the first time I visited, in the fall with brilliantly colored leaves on all of the trees?

I had to tear myself away from that view to get photos of the rest of the room.  I also had to shut the drapes because the room was drenched in sunlight and I was having trouble getting good photos!

I’m really quite envious of all of the beautiful light in this room.

You’ve already seen that Jodie has a Christmas tree in the living room, each of her boys has a tree in his room, and yes, there is one in the master bedroom too.

You see, Jodie has been collecting (or should I say non-collecting?) Precious Moments since 1984.  She received her first one from her pen pal in New Jersey!  Living in a household full of men, she thinks maybe the Precious Moment ornaments are just a tad too … well … precious for the family tree in the living room so she keeps them all on a tree in here.

Not only does she have lots of ornaments, she also has the Sugar Town.

I can see why they call it the Sugar Town because some of the pieces are just adorably sweet, like the free Christmas puppies.

Obviously the driver of this car couldn’t resist one of the free puppies!

I love the way that Jodie has displayed the nativity scene on a stack of vintage suitcases.

But then, I just have a weakness for vintage suitcases period, and these are awesome.  This is a pair that I would definitely never paint.

Jodie and Doug’s master bath is fantastic.

So much space!  Have I mentioned that I have the world’s smallest bathroom?

I always wonder, do people get cold in the winter when their bathroom is this large?  I mean, the steam from the shower just isn’t going to heat up the entire space, right?  Maybe Jodie will answer that question for me.  I’m sure those heated concrete floors help.

Isn’t the tub area fab?

I saw the idea for ‘get naked’ on pinterest and shared it with Jodie.  I love that she used it, doesn’t it add a bit of whimsy to the space?

And hey, there is the rest of that ladder!  Remember we saw a section of it hanging from the ceiling in the laundry room, and then another section leaning on the wall in Blake’s room.

Doug turned it into a bathtub caddy by adding a plexi-glass bottom and shaping it to fit the sides of the tub.

I really love this jar next to the tub, isn’t it gorgeous?

There is plenty of built in storage …

And hey, what is that I spy on top of the built in?

It’s one of my very first painted hat boxes!  Jodie has amazing taste, doesn’t she?  Wink, wink.  By the way, the dried roses in the container next to the hat box are from Jodie’s dad’s funeral.  She has kept them for all of these years.

A big thank you to Doug & Jodie for letting us take this tour of their house.  Jodie has incorporated so many clever decorating ideas, I hope some of you have been inspired by some of those ideas yourselves!

But wait, before Debbie and I head back across the border to Minnesota, no trip to Ellsworth would be complete without stopping at the Creamery to buy cheese curds.  After all, Ellsworth is the cheese curd capital of Wisconsin!

(Debbie left, Jodie right).

 

adding the gleam of copper.

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

Recently the lovely people at Fusion offered to send me some of their Copper furniture wax to try.

  And I have a confession to make, I had it all wrong in my head.

I thought this was going to be a product similar to Rub ‘n Buff.  A heavy, thick wax that you could apply just to the edges of something to highlight them in copper.

But no.  This is a light, creamy furniture wax.  Much like the clear version that I used on the cutie patootie chair, but with the added gleam of metallic copper.

I originally pulled it out thinking I could use it just around the edges of this platter that I painted in Fusion’s Little Piggy.

I applied it to just the edges, and … well … nothing.  You could barely see it.

So next I applied it all over the tray, much like one would with any other furniture wax.  It added just a hint of a copper glimmer to the surface and it also darkened up the color overall much like a clear wax would, but I couldn’t capture the effect very well with my camera.

Obviously I was entirely mistaken about how this product should be used.  It really needs to be used on something that has a bit more detail to it so that it can build up in the crevices.  My tray is relatively flat and smooth.  This was definitely not the right piece to use to show off this wax.

But this little experiment made me realize that I’m probably not the only one who doesn’t always know the difference between the various metallic products out there and what applications they are best suited for.  So I thought I’d share some insight into that with all of you using copper as an example.

If you want a solid copper, my product of choice is Fusion’s Copper paint from their Matthew Mead Studio Metallics line.

That’s what I used on these jewelry trays.  I love the shimmer of the metallic paint.

If you want your copper to have an aged, oxidized patina, the patina metal effects kit from Modern Masters works great.

I used it on some dresser knobs and they turned out perfectly.  You start out by painting your item with the copper paint from the kit.

Then you apply the aging solution and let it do it’s magic.

I think this kit gives the most authentic look if you’re going for the verdigris color of oxidized copper (the rust kit is also fantastic, you can read about that here).  The small kit is a little pricey though.  I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon though, so that helped.  The kit doesn’t go very far either.  You will use it up entirely on a project that is 2′ square.  However, it’s definitely worth the splurge if you want an authentic looking patina.

Finally there are the heavier waxes like the Rub ‘n Buff and other similar products.  Although I’ve used the Rub ‘n Buff in gold, I’ve never tried their Copper (although they do make one).

I have tried the Little Billy Goat Goat Sticks, including their Old Penny.  You can read more details on how to use them here.

I like this product, but it can be harder to find than some of the others.  My local shop, Reclaiming Beautiful, used to carry them but I don’t think they do anymore.  It’s also a little bit more expensive, usually also priced around $20.

Here is the Prima Marketing art alchemy metallique wax in Rich Copper.

I ordered it from Amazon for under $10 with two-day shipping (you gotta love that Amazon Prime).  You can read more details on how to use this product here.

You can see that this copper is a bit brighter than the Old Penny.  Here’s a comparison to show how each one looks on some metal drawer pulls.

That’s the Rich Copper on the left and the Old Penny on the right.  The drawer pull in the background is untreated.

Aside from the difference in color, I think both of these products work equally well, as does Rub ‘n Buff, to add a little color or shimmer back to old hardware like these drawer pulls.

These are just a few of your options for adding the gleam of copper to your projects.  Do any of you have a favorite product that I haven’t mentioned?  If so, feel free to share that info in a comment.

learning things the hard way.

Published on by Quandie44 Comments

If there is one area in which I absolutely excel, it’s in learning things the hard way.  I also tend to give you guys lots of advice, and then not follow that good advice myself.  This past Saturday I worked on a project that was a prime example of both of these.

You see, I was so excited to start using my new IOD Decor Stamps on a piece furniture that I forgot one of my own best tips.  I didn’t test my technique on a practice board first.  Granted, I did test the stamps themselves first, but I used them over bare wood.  I should have also tested how the ink would interact with paint.  Instead I just jumped in at the deep end and then floundered a whole bunch!

But before we get there, let’s go back to the beginning.

Over a year ago my bff’s sister Laura called me and said that there was a vanity free at the curb in her neighborhood, did I want it?  She was willing to pull it into her garage until I could get there to pick it up.  Unfortunately I neglected to take a real ‘before’ picture of the vanity.  But here’s the picture that Laura texted to me.

It was in pretty rough shape and the middle section was barely holding the thing together, so I decided to dismantle it and, with Ken’s help, turn it into two nightstands instead.  I have a plan for the mirror as well, but that will be down the road.

By the way, if you are new to my blog and don’t already know this, Ken is my next door neighbor.  He can always come up with a clever way to fix stuff.  In many ways, I think he is one of a dying breed.  These days people tend to prefer to replace broken things rather than repair them.  Ken is from the generation that repaired everything.  And apparently he’s also a photo bomber!  See him back there?  And yes, that is his back yard, with my back yard in the foreground.  He was actually on his way over to take a look at the repairs needed on this pair of nightstands when I took the photo (and yes, this was last fall when the grass was still green and not covered in snow).

I had a precise vision in my head of how I wanted these nightstands to look when finished.  Imagine chippy, old, ethereal, delicate, feminine. Can’t see it?  Well, stick with me, let’s see if we can get there.

My first step was to remove the big round wooden knobs.  They weren’t terrible, but they didn’t work with my vision for the piece.  Next I sanded lightly, cleaned with TSP Substitute and then painted a base coat of Fusion’s Little Piggy which is a very pale pink.  I didn’t get a photo, but they did look really pretty in the pale pink.  If I’d had enough Little Piggy to do a second coat, I could have just gone with the pink.  Life would have been so much easier.  But I was out of Little Piggy after one coat, and hindsight is always 20/20.

Next I added a little Homestead House Salad Bowl Finish (a.k.a. Miss Mustard Seed Beeswax) along all of the edges of each nightstand to provide a resist to the two coats of milk paint that I applied next.  This is where mistake no. 2 comes into play.  I wanted a warm white and I had several mostly used bags of various whites so I mixed them all together to give me enough paint for both nightstands.  Again, this would have been OK, except for what happens later.

But for now the nightstands were painted and they looked amazing.  I sanded them to distress and that looked amazing too.  I got out my new IOD Decor Stamps (I used stamps from the Friffery set) and my Ranger Archival ink in a color called Watering Can.

I started small with a stamp on either side of the opening for the drawer.  They went on perfectly and looked gorgeous!  But 10 minutes later they looked decidedly less crisp.  My first thought was to check my glasses, didn’t I have my ‘cheaters’ on?  I did, and the stamp was definitely no longer as crisp.  So I waited another 10 minutes and looked again.

Oh boy, even worse.  That was not at all the look I was going for.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that the ink was bleeding into the milk paint.  I should have sealed my paint before applying the stamp, mistake no. 3.

Then I realized that I didn’t have enough paint left to cover up the bleeding stamps.  And since I had custom mixed the color, I knew I wouldn’t be able to recreate it perfectly.  Sigh, mistake no. 2 coming back to bite me.

That’s when I started drinking.

No, not really.  It was tempting, but it was still only about 10 a.m.

So instead I decided to back up a step and check my theory with a practice board.  If only I’d done that in the first place!

I found an old board and painted half in Fusion paint (left side) and the other half in milk paint (right side).  Once dry, I used The Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat to seal the lower half of the milk paint side.  Once dry, I applied the stamp to each section.

As you can see, sealing milk paint first will make all the difference if you want to use an IOD Decor Stamp with ink on your piece.  Good to know for next time.

However, at this point I was back to square one.  I needed to repaint my pieces in their entirety because I didn’t have enough paint to just paint over the stamps.  It was time to re-think my entire plan and switch to Fusion paint.

I was able to get away with just one coat of Fusion’s Putty, a pale grey, over the white milk paint.  Once that dried, I added the smaller stamp on either side of the drawer opening.  If you look back at the ‘before’ photo, you’ll see that I pointed out that these spots must have originally had some sort of carved detail.  All that was left were the shadows showing where they used to be.  I really liked the idea of replacing those with the stamp.

Next I wanted to use a larger stamp on the doors.

As it turns out, it takes a bit of finesse to use that big 10″ x 12″ acrylic block.  You must make sure that your surface is perfectly flat and there are no other obstructions to keeping the entire 10″ x 12″ block flat.  You know, things like hinges for example!

On my first attempt at stamping the door, the door itself pushed inward as I pressed down on the block.  Ugh, mistake no. 4.  I quickly realized that I should have taken the doors off so that they could lie flat while I stamped them.  So I removed the doors, added another coat of Putty to them, and when that was dry I tried again.

This time around, when I went to press down on the acrylic block I realized that the hinges I’d left on the doors impeded the block.  Mistake no. 5.

So after repainting the door fronts for a 3rd … or was it 4th … time, I adjusted where I placed my stamp on the acrylic block so that I could avoid those hinges.  And this time, eureka!  It worked!

Phew!

So let’s recap all of the Q-tips I learned while working on these nightstands.

  • Do not use Archival Ink over unsealed milk paint, it will bleed.
  • Do use Archival Ink over Fusion paint.
  • Be sure to allow the ink to dry before rubbing over it to avoid smearing.
  • Don’t use a limited amount of a custom mixed color of milk paint when experimenting with new products.
  • When using the large acrylic block, be sure you can keep it flat and not hit any obstructions, like hinges or raised trim.  Note:  you can use these stamps without the acrylic block to avoid this problem, but I haven’t tried that yet.  Maybe next time.
  • Be sure the the item you are stamping can’t move (even the smallest amount) while being stamped, like a door or drawer that can move inwards.  Instead remove them from the piece and place them on a firm surface while stamping.
  • Have extra paint on hand just in case.  It’s going to take some practice to get the hang of stamping on furniture, so be prepared to paint over the mistakes and try again.
  • Don’t expect perfection!

After much trial and error, in the end I think my nightstands turned out lovely.  Did I achieve my vision of chippy, old, ethereal, delicate, feminine?  Well, not entirely.  Certainly not the chippy part, but maybe the rest?

What do you think?

And before I close, I wanted to point out one of the best features of the stamps.  Buy them once, use them a million times.  They can be used over and over and over.   I’m planning to get lots of use out of them, especially now that I’ve learned how the hard way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

jodie’s house, part 3.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

Initially I thought I would be able to fit the rest of our tour of Jodie’s house into one more post.  However, after working on it I realized I have so many more great things to show you that I’m going to have to make it two more posts!  If you missed the beginning, be sure to go back and check out part 1 and part 2.

Today we’re going to take a look at the boy’s bedrooms.

Doug & Jodie’s younger son, Carter, has a sports themed room complete with a basketball backstop as his headboard.

And check out this fab nightstand, it’s a basketball hoop mounted to the wall and covered with a piece of round glass.  How clever is that?

With this design on the opposite wall, I’m guessing that someone likes basketball.

There is a trio of lockers just as you come in the door which adds to the sports theme and provides extra storage for boy stuff.

And I love the way Jodie mounted this Scrabble board to the wall in Carter’s room.

There is one thing that all of the people who’s names are on the board have in common.  I’m debating whether I should just tell you what it is, or see if anyone can guess.  I’ll tell you what, I did a google search to see how hard it was to discover and it was pretty easy.  So I’ll leave it up to you!  Be sure to leave a comment if you figure it out.

I have to admit to a bit of a flub up now.  You see, both of the boys have their own small Christmas tree.  Each year Jodie buys them an ornament for their tree that represents something particular from that year.  When the boys leave home they’ll have ornaments to take with them for their own homes (my sister did the same with her kids).  Jodie had to coerce her boys into putting up their trees this year just so that I could get photos of them for the tour, and guess what?  I totally missed getting a photo of Carter’s tree.  I feel kind of bad about that.

The boys rooms are connected by a shared bath.

Each of the boys has his own sink area, with more of those Granicrete counters we saw on the earlier parts of our tour.

Around one side of the wall in the next photo is a shower, and around the other side is the toilet.

I wish I’d gotten a better photo of that ‘art’ on the wall (you can see it a little bit better in the next photo).  It’s designed like Scrabble and says “flush, brush, wash, aim”.   Ha, once again, definitely a boy’s bathroom!

There is a sliding barn-style door between the shared bath and their older son Blake’s room.

And hey, look!  I managed to get a photo of his Christmas tree, as well as some of the ornaments.

Jodie gave this next ornament to Blake the year he had his first girlfriend.

Awwww, isn’t that sweet?

Blake’s room originally had more of a hunting theme, but since he has gone off to college Jodie has toned it down a bit.

The headboard is made out of pallet boards.

And remember the ladder that was hanging from the ceiling in the laundry room?  I said you’d see more of it, and here is another section of the ladder in Blake’s room.

I had to share this bear with you …

Jodie had it made out of one of her dad’s old work shirts.  You see, Jodie’s dad was killed in a motorcycle accident 14 years ago.  Jodie’s boys were very young at the time, so how awesome that they have this reminder of their grandpa even though they didn’t get the chance to really know him.

This cute little desk sits next to the ladder.

Blake is currently a pre-med student at the U of M in Rochester.

I love that Jodie kept this board in it’s original condition and mounted it on the wall with a few nails for hanging hats and baseball gloves.

Just outside in the hallway hang these ribbons with all of the boy’s sports pins on them.

There are so many that they actually hang from ceiling to floor, but I wasn’t able to get far enough back to get them all in my frame.  What a great way to display them all though, right?

I hope you enjoyed today’s post.  Next week I’ll share the final segment of Jodie’s house tour, and I’m also working on a pair of nightstands that I hope to finish up this weekend.  So have a great weekend, and be sure to stay tuned!

all that glitters.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

The holiday season is the perfect time of year to add the glimmer of metallic’s to your home, but I bet there are a few of us who love to see the glint of gold year round.

Along with the IOD Decor Stamps that Prima Marketing sent my way last week, they also sent a few of their Art Alchemy Metallique waxes.

Aren’t they pretty?  The Vintage Gold looks like gold leaf in wax form.  It’s not too shiny or bright, but the perfect aged gold.

As soon as I opened these up I wanted to try them out on something.

Then I remembered this pair of frames that I found at a garage sale last summer.

They are fairly beat up, which is part of what I love about them, and they also have a hint of green to them.  I thought it might be pretty to add just a bit of metallic shimmer to the high points on the frames.

I used the Vintage Gold on one frame …

And for a more subtle look, I used the Bronze Age on the second frame.

I used q-tips to apply the wax.  I dipped the q-tip in the wax, swirled it around a bit to coat it well and then lightly rubbed the q-tip over the frame just hitting the high points.  Then I buffed very lightly with an old rag.

It couldn’t have been any easier.

These frames are so gorgeous that they can stand on their own as art without needing anything in them.

They are perfect just propped on a shelf with some old book pages adhered to the wall behind them.

All that glitters may not be gold, it might be Bronze Age instead, but either way it sure is pretty!

These waxes would work really well for touching up the finish on vintage hardware or for highlighting details on furniture as well.  I plan to do some more experimenting with them along those lines, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

By the way, if you want to try one of these just google the name.  They are readily available online.  I found them for less than $10 each on Amazon including shipping.

family traditions.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that my sister and niece moved here from New Jersey a couple of years ago.  Since they’ve been here we’ve started some new Christmas traditions.  Last year we drove around looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, and I think we’ll do the same this year.

And last Saturday, for the third year in a row, I went to my sister’s house to help with her Christmas baking.  My sister definitely got all of the baking genes in our family, and basically there were none left over for me.  She loves to bake, and she makes a ton of cookies, quick breads and candy at Christmas.

Let’s face it, I really just go over on baking day to hang out, watch Christmas movies and eat cookies.  I do however have one official duty.  Ball rolling.  I wrote about discovering my mad skills at ball rolling the first year I helped Debbie with her baking.

Apparently no one really enjoys this part of the baking process.  My niece made up some lame excuse about being the godmother at a baby christening back in New Jersey just to get out of it.  So this year most of the ball rolling fell to me.

And although my sister cut down on the number of kinds of cookies she was making this year, apparently most of the cookies that require ball rolling remain on the list!  That includes Snicker Doodles, Almond Cookies, Ginger Cookies and Peanut Blossoms.

And this year a new task was added to my to-do list, Hershey Kiss unwrapping.

Yep, I can handle that one too, no problem.  Although now that I think about, maybe that is a bit of a demotion from ball rolling.

When I’m not rolling balls, or surfing Netflix in search of Christmas movies, I play around taking photos with some of my sister’s vintage cookie cutters (even though we really didn’t use these to make any actual cookies).

With all of this going on last weekend, I didn’t have much time to paint furniture or even finish the final post about my tour of Jodie’s house.  But I hope to be sharing that by Friday, and maybe this coming weekend I’ll find time to paint some real furniture.  I’m starting to suffer from withdrawal.

Oh, and one quick public service announcement.  If you’ve been thinking about painting your own gift boxes …

Or maybe even just a decorative hat box or two …

the plain cardboard boxes are 50% off this week (thru Saturday, 12/16) at Hobby Lobby making it a great time to stock up.

IOD decor stamps.

Published on by Quandie27 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog over the past year, you’ve probably noticed that I have succumbed to an addiction.  Yes, it’s true.  I’m addicted to Iron Orchid Designs Decor Transfers.

I discovered them back in March when I saw one on a Facebook group I belong to, How to Paint Like a Pro.  I promptly ordered two of them online.  My first project with a Decor Transfer was the cupboard where I store my painting supplies (well, to be honest, just some of my supplies fit in this cupboard, there are two more cupboards full of supplies in other rooms of my house, who’s with me on that one?).

I love these Decor Transfers so much that I went on to do countless projects with them over the last 8 months (some of my faves can be found here, here, here and here).

So you can just about imagine my delight when I found out that Fusion and Iron Orchid Designs/Prima Marketing were teaming up.  Now Fusion retailers have the option of also stocking the IOD Decor Transfers.  And as an official Fusion Mineral Paint Blogger, I was offered the opportunity to receive some IOD products to try free of charge!

I believe I did a little happy dance when that message came across my computer.

But then I was stopped in my tracks by that word, ‘try’.  Hmmmm.  I have to admit, I felt like I would be a bit of a fraud if I sent back a big list of Decor Transfers that I wanted to ‘try’.  After all, technically I’d already tried almost all of them, many of them more than once!  And some of the ones that I hadn’t tried yet, I already had in my cupboard (yes, that same one shown above) waiting to be used on something.  I’ve had poor Mr. Q ordering IOD transfers for me via Amazon for months (he himself is an Amazon addict).

So it felt a bit greedy to ask for more!

But guess what?  Prima Marketing and IOD have some other cool products too, like their Decor Stamps.

These are stamps that are designed and sized appropriately for use on furniture or for other home decor applications, like walls for example.

So, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!  I asked them to send me some of their Decor Stamps to try, as well as their 10″ x 12″ acrylic stamp block.

If you are not familiar with changes that have been made in rubber stamps over the past number of years, you may not be aware that many of them no longer come adhered to a wood block.  Now they make them out of a sticky rubber-like stuff that sticks well to a clear acrylic block, but also peels right back off again.  It’s so much easier to store lots of flat sheets of stamps and just one acrylic block (or several of differing sizes).

When my box arrived from Prima Marketing it was like Christmas came early for me.  I immediately opened it up and started fondling the supplies.  I decided to try a quick little project just to test them out.

I purchased this wooden sock stretcher at a garage sale last summer.

Back in the olden days when socks were made with wool, after you washed them you then put them on a sock stretcher while they dried.  That would ensure that the sock didn’t shrink up and no longer fit.  But when I see these old sock stretchers, I always immediately think ‘Christmas decoration’.

So I thought I would use the IOD stamps to give them a little more Christmas style.

I started by laying out my design right on the sock stretcher.

This way I could move the stamps around and make sure they fit where I wanted them.  These stamps are from the Alpha II set, by the way.

Once I had them where I wanted them, I simply placed my acrylic block (this is a block I already had, I didn’t need the big 10″ x 12″ IOD block for this small design) over them and pressed down to attach them to the block.

Next I lifted them off the sock stretcher and inked them up.

Although Prima Marketing/IOD does currently carry some inks, and they did send me a couple, they are not going to continue to carry ink in their line up.  So I went to my local Michaels and purchased some Ranger Archival Ink in a color called Watering Can.  You can use any kind of ink with the stamps, but be sure to choose one that is suitable for your project (especially if you are stamping fabric, which I hope to try soon).  In this case, I went with a permanent, waterproof ink.

You should absolutely test out your stamp on paper a couple of times before finally stamping your project.  That way you can get a feel for it, and work out any kinks.  You can see if you are getting enough ink on your stamp as well.  Always be sure to have your project on a hard, flat surface when stamping.  Of course, if you’re stamping furniture or walls, they will be their own hard, flat surface.

Finally, ink up your stamp again, place it where you want it and press down firmly.  I usually avoid rocking the stamp back and forth because that can blur your design.  Just press firmly straight down.

I added this sweet little crown to the top of my sock stretcher.

The crown is from the Grain Wreath set.  What I love about this is that the crown doesn’t look ‘new’ or recently added.  It looks like it could be an original detail.

Next I attached a pretty ribbon and hung my ‘sock’ up on the aforementioned cupboard.

This was a pretty simple, basic project using the stamps.  As you can imagine, the sky is the limit design-wise, but I wanted to start out with something easy to get my feet wet (or get my wool sock wet?).  I’ll be sharing a slightly more advanced stamping project soon.

But in the meantime, I’m almost entirely happy with my sock stretcher except for one thing.  I think she looks kind of lonely hanging there all by herself.  She needs a mate, don’t you agree?

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more sock stretchers during next year’s garage sale season!

In the meantime, have any of you tried the IOD Decor Stamps?  If so, I’d love to hear about your project, so be sure to leave a comment.

jodie’s house, part 2.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

Welcome back to part 2 of our tour of Jodie’s lovely home (if you missed part 1, you can see it here).  Today we’re going to take a look at the kitchen, the enclosed porch, the laundry room and the garage.  Yep, we’re even including the garage!

We’ll start in the kitchen where I’m pretty sure my sister got drool all over everything.

Especially the giant refrigerator.  My sister could easily fill that thing up, but I think my two bottles of wine, ketchup and other condiments would look pretty lonely in there.

I know my sister was also picturing just how many different kinds of Christmas cookies she could make if she had that huge island to spread out on!

As I mentioned in part one of our tour, all of the counter tops in Jodie’s home are made out of Granicrete, a concrete like product that can be colored to look like other stone materials.  Jodie chose a paler shade of brown for her island, but more of a dark granite color for the rest of her kitchen counters.

Just outside the window over Jodie’s kitchen sink, you can catch a glimpse of her enclosed porch.  Let’s head out there next.

Jodie and Doug did some really cool things out on the porch using salvaged materials.

The walls are a combination of old barn wood and sheets of galvanized metal.

The metal was salvaged from storage buildings on a friend’s property.

Isn’t the ceiling amazing?

Jodie has some great upcycled pieces out here on the porch as well, including the old military trunk turned coffee table.

I love what she has done with this old mailbox …

as well as the way she added a little pop of mid-century madness with this hanging light fixture.

Next let’s head back through the kitchen and into the hallway that leads to the laundry room.  Here’s another of Jodie’s window creations hanging on the wall.

I’ve got to keep that idea in mind the next time I see a pile of old windows for sale!

Also in the hallway is this giant ruler for keeping track of her kid’s growth.  Looks like they are both pretty tall, huh?

We’ve all seen this idea before, but I’ve never seen it done with the school pictures alongside.  Isn’t that clever?

And here is the laundry room.

I love this little arrangement that Jodie has on her counter top with the vintage iron in the old enamelware container.

 While I was admiring the arrangement, Jodie reminded me that I gave her the cross-stitched Noel towel.

I’d forgotten all about that!

This milk can arrangement in the window is also adorable.

That milk can has been in the family since Jodie was a kid.  Her grandparents owned a dairy farm just down the road and Jodie would use this milk can to get milk right out of the bulk tank.  I don’t believe that I’ve ever had fresh milk right off the farm, have you?

One of my favorite features in the laundry room is the old ladder hanging from the ceiling.  I’m a sucker for old ladders.  This particular ladder belonged to Jodie’s uncle and was much longer at first.  Doug cut it down to fit in this room, and you’ll see two more pieces of the ladder in other rooms before our tour of Jodie’s house is over.

Back out in the hallway we can take a look at Jodie’s gallery wall.

The use of horizontal stripes on the wall is perfect in this spot.

And what a great way to display many family photos all on one wall.

Before we finish part 2 of our tour, I just want to show you the garage.  Normally there isn’t much to see in the garage, but since Jodie took a couple days off work a few weeks back to paint her garage, I felt like I should be sure to include it.

Yep, that is the garage.  I think Jodie & Doug’s garage might be decorated better than some people’s living spaces.  Doug was working on building some sliding barn doors to close off one side of the garage while we were there that day.

Debbie might have drooled over the kitchen, but I drooled over the garage.  What I wouldn’t give to have a clean, bright, large work space complete with modern conveniences like plumbing.

Before we leave the garage I have to share this unique fishing rod holder that Doug made.

It’s made out of old clothes pins mounted on a board.  Isn’t that clever?

I hope you’re enjoying the tour of Jodie’s house.  I’m planning to share the final segment later this week, so be sure to stay tuned!