who me? a collector?

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

I always try to tell people that I’m not a collector.  I don’t really collect anything in particular.  I don’t like a lot of clutter.  And all of that is totally bogus.  I am clearly in denial.

tree toppers

 As I sit here typing this post I can look at the cupboard next to me and see my collection of vintage silver salt & pepper shakers, behind me is my collection of tiny dressers.  And right next to that is the tree that contains my vintage Christmas ornament collection.

tree 1

I’ve been hoarding collecting vintage glass ornaments for many years now.

vintage ornaments

Long enough that I have been able to refine my collection to mostly pinks and aquas (oops, that’s kind of bogus too, the silver and gold ones are just in the dining room).  I really love the hand painted versions.  They are so charming with their little painted flowers and flourishes.

vintage Christmas ornaments

I have a couple of strategies for adding to my collection each year.  First and foremost, I visit a little second hand shop called La Garage in North St. Paul.  This shop is like a garage sale in a store.  I believe they get most of their inventory from estate clean ups.  Each year they close up for the week preceding Thanksgiving and they completely revamp the store for Christmas.  They open back up on Black Friday with tons of ‘previously loved’ Christmas decorations.  I’m always able to find quite a few vintage lovelies on their trees.

ornaments 3

I don’t do much shopping in antique shops anymore, but I will make an exception for this collection.  I can find ornaments a few dollars each, which is a pretty affordable splurge.

ornaments 4

In the case of my ornaments, I even have a sub-collection.  Vintage glass Christmas tree toppers.  A couple of you noticed these in the background when I posted about the sweet little mini dresser on Monday.

vintage Christmas tree toppers

I was able to add that tall silver one to my collection this year.  I found it at an antique shop for $15.  A splurge for me, but worth it I think.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  Prior to this acquisition, obviously the little aqua and silver one was my favorite.  Now it has competition for the top spot.

In case you are wondering, those tree toppers are not just precariously balanced on that window ledge.  I have added a little Stick Um Candle Adhesive to the bottom of each one so it is securely held in place.

This year my silver tree is in the Q Branch.

ornaments 5

If you look really closely, you can see a bunch of little reflections of me with my tripod taking these photos in the ornaments.  Ha!  Thank goodness it’s blurry because I’m pretty sure I was wearing paint splattered clothes and I hadn’t put on any makeup.

aqua reflection

Come back next week for a full tour of my house all decked out for Christmas!

Merry Christmas ornament

Linking up with:  French Country Cottage and Making Broken Beautiful at the Curator’s Collection.

 

sleigh ride.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

Last summer my sister Debbie picked up this little oak sleigh on the cheap at a garage sale.  I think she only paid a dollar or so for it.  I didn’t get a ‘before’ snap of it, but it was basically that 80’s pale oak with a shiny poly on top.  Debbie painted it with Miss Mustard Seed’s Tricycle way back then and then it sat up in my carriage house for a few months.

debbies sleigh before

Both Debbie and I were keeping our eye’s peeled for the perfect stencil for it.  We saw a couple that we both liked, but they were either too big or too expensive.  Finally Debbie picked up an inexpensive snowflake stencil at Michaels, and I suggested we try cutting our own stencils for the rest using my Cricut machine.

We started with “Brrr…” on the side.

debbies sleigh side

And then we added “No. 25” on the front …

debbies sleigh close up front

The beauty of cutting our own stencils was that we could size them precisely for this project.

Once the paint was dry, we sanded lightly and then waxed.  We used hot glue to adhere some floral foam inside the bottom of the sleigh.  The we gathered up some things Debbie had been stocking up on to use inside.

debbies sleigh filled

The birch logs were gathered by the roadside when we were up north for our scrapbook retreat.  The single spruce top was free at Home Depot.  They don’t sell them singly, but when Debbie asked the garden center manager if she could buy just one he said “oh, just take this one!”  Some of the other greens are also free ones from Home Depot.  Did you know they keep a big bin of the branches that have been trimmed from the Christmas trees and you can just help yourself?  Jeesh.  Wish I had known that before I bought all the greens for my front window box!  Debbie did purchase the red and white candy decorations and the red twigs, as well as some of the nicer greens.

debbies sleigh close up side

All in, I think Debbie spent under $25 for everything needed to make this darling Christmas decoration.  She’s going to put it on the balcony of her apartment.  Unless she decides it just too darn cute to be outside!

it never hurts to ask.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

Last summer my number one craigslist spotter (a.k.a. nnK) forwarded me a craigslist ad for a garage sale that was in our neck of the woods.  It was accompanied by just one photo.  This one.

tiny dresser

Do you see what I see?

Yep, a tiny dresser!  You know I simply can’t resist miniature furniture of any kind.  Ironically, nnK hadn’t even noticed the small dresser, just that there seemed to be a lot of furniture and it was close by.

Unfortunately, the sale started on a Thursday at 9 a.m.  I have to be at work at the day job on Thursdays at 9 a.m.  Argh.  We ‘day job’ people miss a lot of the bargains this way.

So I said to myself “you know what?  it never hurts to ask!  maybe they would be willing to hold it for me, or better yet, let me come over Wednesday evening and pick it up.” and I sent them an email.  I even offered them a little extra cash.

And guess what?!  They were happy to let me come over early for it.  They were the sweetest older couple.  Their children and grandchildren had played with this little dresser, but now they were all grown up and none of them wanted it.  The sellers really wanted it to go to a good home.  I assured them that I would take good care of it.  I’ll admit, I didn’t exactly mention that I would be painting it.  You know how that is, right?  Some people are just simply anti-paint.  I always listen for clues, you can usually tell if you’re dealing with anti-painters.  But this little dresser really wasn’t made out of a beautiful grained wood (I believe it’s probably maple).  It didn’t have a beautiful time-worn patina or anything like that.

Sadly, I could have sworn that I took some ‘before’ photos of this one (other than the craigslist ad photo above), but dang if I can find them now.  Argh.  So that brings us right to the ‘after’.

mini dresser full

I did my usual prep, light sanding and a wipe down with TSP substitue.  I wanted two layers of color on this one, so I began with two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s Layla’s Mint.  Next I added two more coats of MMS Linen.  In hindsight, the Mint was a waste of time.  It barely shows on some of the edges.  Also, the contrast between the Mint and the Linen isn’t strong enough for the little Mint that does show to even be noticed.

But I can hardly be upset about that because I totally love how it turned out!  I got some fabulous chipping.

mini dresser chippy

I replaced some ugly yellow floral 70’s porcelain knobs with vintage glass knobs.  In fact, these are the knobs that came off farmhouse dresser no. 5.  I’m happy to have put them to good use!

I thought that it would be fun to stage all of my furniture pieces for Christmas during the month of December.  For this one I used a boxwood wreath that I just purchased at Target.  It’s the 11″ wreath from the Smith & Hawkin line.  It was on sale for $17.99.  It was Rhonda’s comment on my mirror post that inspired me to use the small wreath on this piece, wasn’t it a great idea?!  Thanks for that Rhonda!

mini dresser staging

I added a little box of vintage mini-ornaments.

mini dresser ornaments

And my favorite tiny Christmas elf.

mini dresser elf

Here’s a photo without the wreath just to give you a better look at the mirror.

mini dresser without wreath

This little dresser is a bit bigger than my usual mini dressers at 35″ tall.  For the moment I’ve put it in my living room, but I don’t plan to keep this one.  It’s just a tad too big for me.

mini dresser in living room

So it is for sale.  Although I won’t be too sad if no one buys it and I just have to keep it after all.

tom’s workshop.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

Mr. Q’s mom and step-dad, Naomi and Tom, moved back to this area from New Orleans a few years back.  They wanted to be close to family again, especially Naomi’s parents (Mr. Q’s grandparents) who are both still with us at 98!

So even though Tom has a serious aversion to cold weather, they moved to a small farmhouse about an hour east of here in the countryside of Wisconsin.  Tom had one major requirement, a workshop that could rival the one he had in Louisiana.  And obviously it had to be heated!  He started from scratch and has been working on it since they got here.  It’s still not done, but I thought I’d get some photos when we were out there for Thanksgiving so I could share it with all of you.

toms workshop exterior

Yep, that’s his workshop.  Are you green with envy yet?  I know I am.  How I would love to have something like this to work in all the time!  It would be the perfect spot for painting furniture in the winter.

Here is Tom with Mr. Q.

tom and mike

Tom is an artist who works with wood.  He can do just about anything with wood, build stuff, carve designs, work in miniature, and so on.  He made those doors (above photo) for example, and all of the trim around them.  He also carved the plaque with his initials that is hanging about the doorway.  Here’s a close up…

toms plaque

Here is a photo of the interior lower level.

toms workshop interior

Imagine how much stuff you could store in all of those cupboards!  I wonder how many dressers I could paint at one time with all of that space?  I’m afraid that if I had a space like this to paint in, I would never come inside the house.

The place is heated with a wood burning stove, which keeps it fairly warm and toasty.

tom wood burning stove

The upstairs isn’t finished yet but eventually will include a stained glass workshop for Naomi, as well as a small library/sitting room area.

Tom likes to work in miniature.  Here is his own miniature self …

toms mini me

Ha!  It really does look like him, right?!

I love this row of miniature boats.

toms boats 2

Just look at the detail on these!

toms boats

All of these are handmade by Tom and I think they are around 8″ long or so.

If we step back outside we can find some of Tom’s fairy houses out in the field.

toms mini house 1

The detail on these is just amazing.  There are furnishings inside and even light fixtures that work.

toms mini house 3

They are quite fabulous.

toms mini house 4

When Tom and Naomi moved in there was a barn still standing on the property, but it has since fallen down.  I plan to salvage some of the wood for a future project in my dining room, but I may not get to it until spring now.  There was also another building on the property that they took down because it wasn’t safe.  But they did manage to salvage one outbuilding.  Tom used wood from the other building that they took down to add onto this one for more storage area.  The half of the building to the right with the door is newly built.  Blends right in, doesn’t it?

farm in snow

The other side is graced with some of Naomi’s stained glass work.

farm stained window

Isn’t that barn wood amazing?  I’m so glad that Tom saved it!

As you can see, we had a snowy Thanksgiving Day.  We also got a few more inches of snow this past Monday.

farm snowy pine

In other words, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.  Check back next week when I plan to share my Christmas decorations, as well as the most darling little dresser that I am just finishing up.

quick mirror makeovers.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

A common question facing most of us who rehab furniture is whether or not to keep an attached mirror with a piece.  I’ve written about this a few times.  A dresser can be so much more versatile without a mirror.  It can become a TV stand, a buffet, a kitchen island, etc.  Once you put the mirror back on, it becomes a piece that is really just suited for a bedroom.  A vanity without its mirror can become a desk.  If you have a large room, you can place it back to back with a sofa that floats in the room.

Sometimes the mirror is what gives a piece its personality, as was the case with the Prize Winner dresser I posted on Monday.  But I often remove mirrors and separate them from their furniture when they aren’t very special.  Last summer I removed the mirror from this vanity, turning it into a desk.

seriously studious desk

The mirror just didn’t work with the vanity.  It felt too narrow to me.  Also, it was not securely attached and I didn’t want to mess with it.  And honestly, I thought the mirror was kind of unattractive.

blue mirror before

The mirror sat out in the carriage house for a few months.  Then last week one of the shops I sell in, Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, sent out a request for mirrors.  I pulled this one out of storage, as well as another mirror I purchased at a garage sale last summer.

grey mirror before

I have to laugh looking at these pictures.  It looks as though I took these at the height of summer, but in reality I took them early last week.  It was a bright sunny day, our grass was still green, and I happen to have a pear tree in the front yard.  Pear trees are notorious for losing their leaves very late in the season, sometimes not until a heavy snow storm knocks them off.  It no longer looks like this outside my windows since we got several inches of snow on Monday!

Anyway, back to the mirrors.

The former vanity mirror got a quick sanding and a wipe down with TSP substitute followed by two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s Flow Blue.  I expected a lot of chipping because the former finish was fairly shiny.  But as per usual, milk paint surprised me and I got no chipping at all.  Dang!  I shouldn’t have sanded.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

blue mirror topiary

I ended up distressing the paint and finishing with a coat of hemp oil.

blue mirror closeup

For my photo shoot I just placed it on top of a farmhouse style table and pulled my grandma’s chair up to it.  This chair is the first thing I painted in Flow Blue, if you check back to that earlier post you’ll see that I didn’t much care for the color then.  I have since changed my tune and I now absolutely love this color.  I even used it on the hutch in my Q Branch.

farmhouse table as desk

A vast improvement for the mirror I think.  I love the richness of this vibrant color.  This would add a gorgeous pop of color to your foyer, or perhaps help reflect light in your hallway.  Hang it over the sink in your bathroom, or above the dresser in your bedroom.

I just couldn’t pass up this next mirror at a garage sale last summer.  It had such beautiful details.  Unfortunately, part of the trim was broken off at the top.    I also didn’t really love that cherry colored wood mixed with the gold.  So this mirror was destined to be painted from the start.

grey mirror damage

First I removed the remainder of the damaged trim.  That was easy to accomplish with my handy scraper.  I just gently pried it off.

grey mirror damage repair

I followed my normal prep steps of a light sanding followed by some TSP substitute, then painted two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s Schloss on this one.  I always think the Schloss is going to be darker than it is based on the little color sticker on the package, but no, it is a fairly pale warm grey.

grey mirror

I used my tape trick to encourage chipping on this one (I did try that on the Flow Blue mirror, by the way, and it didn’t take any paint off), but the chipping is hard to see in these photos.  You’ll just have to trust me that it’s there.

I added a simple stencil to the decorative oval at the top of the mirror.

grey mirror stencil

You can see that I let some of the gold peek back through after painting it.

I love this detail at the bottom of the mirror.

grey mirror detail bottom

I had some fun switching up the accessories to go along with the mirror change.

grey mirror with farmhouse table

I moved the lemon cyprus topiary into a silver ice bucket, I switched out the chair, I swapped the cage over the baby tears plant for a glass cloche over some old letters and I switched from blue vintage books to a stack of Jeanne d’ Arc magazines.  Did you notice?

mirror collage

So which look is your favorite?

the prize winner.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Sometimes it’s a bit wild how things just come together.  I believe some might call it serendipity.  In this case, I painted a dresser last Friday in one of my new Little Billy Goat colors called Prize Winner.

little billy goat paint 2

 It wasn’t until I started writing the blog post about it that I realized I would also be announcing the prize winner from my Thanksgiving giveaway in the same post!  Now, I’d like to be able to say that I very cleverly planned this little play on words with my paint color choice, but no.  It didn’t even occur to me until I started writing.

Well, with no further delay, the winner of the giveaway is Sarah M.  I’ve already contacted Sarah and she’s super excited about winning!

prize winner staging

And now for the prize winner dresser!

It started out looking like this when Mr. Q purchased it via craigslist.

prize winner before

I was particularly drawn to the little finials on the harp that holds the mirror in place, and also to the fact that the seller included a photo of the label in his ad.

prize winner label

That little detail in his ad really caught my eye.  I love a good vintage label.

To me this dresser has a little yin and yang going on.  A feminine mirror with a slightly curved top on a masculine tall dresser with straight lines and no fuss.  I decided it would be lovely painted in a rich, dark blue.  I debated using Miss Mustard Seed’s Artissimo or Annie Sloan’s Aubusson, but then I remembered my new Little Billy Goat paint in Prize Winner.

prize winner title

After doing as much furniture painting as I’ve done, I’ve learned to not fight against the existing color on a piece of furniture.  The finish on this dresser was quite dark, so trying to paint it in a pale shade would have likely required several coats of paint.  I got away with just one coat of Prize Winner, with just a quick 2nd coat on only the top to touch up a couple of spots.  Yep, that is just one coat of paint on the fronts of those drawers.  I finished with Miss Mustard Seed clear wax.

Mr. Q did all of the prep work on this one and he really struggled with the knobs.  They all had some sort of glue holding them on in addition to the screw.  I suspect people do this sort of thing because they want those knobs to be FIRMLY attached.  They aren’t thinking ahead to some far flung future date when someone wants to take them off again.  In the end we had to get Ken’s help drilling out one of the screws altogether because it just wouldn’t budge.

prize winner close up

Once the knobs were all off, I really wasn’t planning to put them back on again.  I was going to use some pretty clear glass knobs.  But the holes for these knobs were really large.  The glass knobs had too much wiggle room.  I consulted with Ken on this and he suggested we glue dowel sticks in all the holes, and re-drill.  A great idea, and it would have been the proper fix, but it would have been seriously putzy.  I vetoed that idea and put the original wood knobs back on!

prize winner angle

I have to say, this color is really gorgeous.  I tend to have a hard time capturing these dark blues in photos, but these photos come fairly close.  The color might be just a tad darker in person.

Isn’t this little cup I used to stage this dresser lovely?

prize winner cup

I’m pretty sure I paid about a quarter or so for it at a garage sale.  I just thought the design was so pretty.  For a long time I used this little cup to measure out plaster of paris when making my own chalk paint.  Now it’s filled with moss and I just keep it in a window sill.

Since so many of you mentioned how much you enjoy the ‘before and after’ pics, I’m going to try to be sure and include them from now on (promises, promises, but I’ll do my best).

prize winner before and after

This dresser is available.  If you are local (Twin Cities) feel free to leave me a comment if you are interested.

a farmhouse fix.

Published on by Quandie7 Comments

First, this is just a quick post to say thank you so much for all of your kind comments yesterday!  What an awesome day.  I really enjoyed hearing from each one of you.  Remember, you have until Sunday to get your comment in if you want to participate in the drawing.  So if you didn’t get one in yet, you still have time.

fixed title

Second, I just wanted to share the fix for farmhouse dresser no. 5.

You remember, from the other day …

farmhouse dresser

I had issues with the non-hardening filler that I used to fill some old drawer pull holes.  It resisted the milk paint and ended up looking like this …

farmhouse problem

Although I badly wanted to go along with some of you who said it was fine as is, in the end the spots really bugged me, which is what the majority of you said as well.

And some of you had some really great ideas for fixes.  I loved the idea of adding vintage wallpaper or floral napkins to the drawer fronts.  I thought the idea of re-filling the holes and adding some vertical stripes of paint to camouflage them was awesome too.

But in the end, I decided different hardware was the easiest fix for me.  Also, the spacing of the holes was just right for some glass drawer pulls from D Lawless Hardware.

fixed farmhouse close up

Unfortunately, this fix was expensive at $38.90 for 10 glass drawer pulls.  It was a costly lesson about non-hardening filler and milk paint not mixing.  At least the rest of you don’t have to learn it the hard way like I did.

fixed farmhouse 1

And although I think I preferred the look of the single knob over the look of a pull, I do think these pulls fit this dresser.  I feel better about not leaving the poorly filled holes as they were too.  So thanks to everyone who left a comment on that post with either an opinion or an idea for a fix.  All were much appreciated!

If anyone needs a fabulous chippy farmhouse style dresser with glass drawer pulls, leave a comment.  This one is available!

 

a thanksgiving giveaway.

Published on by Quandie173 Comments

I have so much to be thankful for this year, but I’m sure you all know what tops the list.

courthouse group

I’m so thankful to have my sister Debbie and my niece Kris living here in Minnesota!  I honestly can’t even remember the last time I spent a Thanksgiving with them.  But I do have one very vivid Thanksgiving memory.  The year was 1986.  I was living in South Carolina with my parents and the three of us drove up to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.  At the time, Debbie was pregnant with Kris.  She was very, very pregnant, yet she put on a huge Thanksgiving dinner at her house for both sides of the family.  I still clearly remember getting up the next morning and finding Debbie cleaning up the kitchen.  She made a comment to me about how she thought maybe she was going into labor.  She said it so matter of fact-ly.  My only experiences with child birth were what I’d seen on TV, so I was pretty sure she should have been writhing in pain and rushing around to find her overnight bag and speed off to the hospital.  But no, she was very calm.  Several hours later, sure enough, she and Kris’ dad went off to the hospital where she gave birth to my niece.  It was pretty fabulous timing since it meant that my parents and I were there to greet the new addition to our family!  I’m pretty sure this Thanksgiving won’t be quite as eventful, but I’m very happy to be spending it with family.

In addition to Thanksgiving, I have one more thing to celebrate today.  It’s my blogiversary!  How appropriate that it should fall on Thanksgiving Day this year.  I’m so thankful for all of you who read my blog and occasionally take the time to leave a comment or two (or many!).  I’ve been blogging for two years now, but it weirdly feels longer.  It’s strange to look back at some of my earlier posts and to see how much my blogging style has changed.  And it’s hard to believe it was only two years ago!

As a way of showing my gratitude to all of you who follow q is for quandie and to celebrate my two year blogiversary, I’ve decided to host a Thanksgiving Giveaway!

giveaway

Here’s what is included:  the November Jeanne d’ Arc Living magazine, a bag of MMS milk paint in Bergere, a jar of Fusion’s Mathew Mead Studio Metallics in Bronze …

giveaway paint

Some Miss Mustard Seed brush soap (I swear by this stuff!) and a pretty vintage glass …

giveaway soap

A lovely vintage soup bowl that just wants you to believe …

giveaway bowl

And because I want the whole box to smell fabulous when it arrives at your door, I am also throwing in a bar of Thymes Frasier Fir soap.  This stuff smells amazing.

giveaway soap 2

All you have to do to enter your name in the drawing is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite part of q is for quandie is.  Are you a fan of chippy pieces painted in milk paint?

rooster cupboard

Or maybe you love just seeing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics.

french dresser before and after

Are the garage sale ‘find of the day’ posts your fave?

cameras

Or perhaps you really enjoy the gardening posts.

plant a garden

Do you get inspired by the room make-overs the most?

q branch carpet

Or maybe you love the quick and easy makeovers like these stenciled buckets?

stenciled buckets

Whatever it may be, leave a comment and your name goes in the hat for the giveaway!  You have until Sunday, November 29 at 6 pm to get your comment in.  The winner will be announced on Monday.

Mr. Q and I are off now to pick up Debbie and Kris and head out to my in-laws for Thanksgiving.  This year we’ll have quite the feast since my sister is adding 4 dishes to the mix.  I’m bringing my favorite sweet potato casserole (shared here last year).  I’m also bringing my camera because I want to get some pics of my father-in-law’s amazing workshop to share with you guys, so check back next week!

a pottery barn wanna be.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

Last week my no. 1 craigslist spotter (that would be nnK) spotted this dresser.

pb before

Pardon the bad ‘before’ shot.  I forgot to take one until just moments before I started painting.  As you can see, my operations have moved indoors for winter!

The drawer pulls have been removed for sanding, so you can’t see how fab they are.  But the drawers pulls were what pulled me in (get it? pull? ha!).  This isn’t my usual style, but the price was also a no-brainer at $25.  Add to it the fact that this dresser had never been used!  Instead it had been stored somewhere with stuff on top of it, so the top was in very bad shape.  Lots of deep scratches.  But the rest of the dresser was in very good condition.

pb staging

nnK sent me the ad for this piece within about an hour of it being posted, and Mr. Q went and picked it up about an hour later.  Items that are a bargain like this go fast on craigslist, at least here in the Twin Cities.  So, if you are wondering how I find these things, the answer is 1) with help and 2) by moving quickly.

Those drawer pulls gave me an immediate ‘pottery barn’ vibe, so the obvious color choice was black.

Here’s an example of a similar pottery barn dresser.  This one is part of a set that includes a bed.  If you get the queen size bed, the set is $3,569 … and that is a sale price!

branford-dresser-o

Wowza!  Who are these people that are spending thousands of dollars on furniture?  All I know for sure is that I am not one of them!

Here is my pottery barn wanna be …

pb title

I asked Mr. Q to help with the prep on this one.  The top needed quite a bit of sanding due to the scratches, and it was getting pretty cold out in the carriage house.  So, Mr. Q sucked it up and sanded it for me.

Then we brought it inside and I quickly painted it with just one coat of Cece Caldwell’s Beckley Coal.  I chose chalk paint over milk paint for this one because I didn’t want a chippy look.  I probably wouldn’t have gotten much chipping since the previous finish was pretty dull and also because Mr. Q had sanded quite thoroughly, but I had some Beckley Coal on hand so I went with it.

pb angle

After sanding to distress the edges, I add a coat of MMS hemp oil.

This dresser was fun to stage for photos!

pb staging angle

I used a fab old birdcage that I purchased recently.  I plan to use it for a Christmas decoration, but for now I added some sheet music wrapped plants and used it in today’s photo shoot.

pb cage

I used some of my painted books …

pb books

 and I used my vintage postal scale …

pb postal scale

If have to say, if you’ve been thinking about trying your own hand at furniture painting, this is one of the easiest looks to copy.

pb wanna be

But if you don’t want to do the painting yourself, this dresser is available!

reflections on gratitude.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

I’ve mentioned my friend Meggan a few times on the blog now.  I shared her magical home with you last January.  Meggan is the queen of thrifting!  She has an amazing ability to spot the buried treasure among a pile of tacky junk.  Such was the case a week or so ago when we visited her favorite thrift store together.  Not only did she find the most darling little turkey molds (that I never even noticed on the shelf), but she put together the sweetest little Thanksgiving favors with them.  She texted me a photo of them when they were completed and I immediately had one of those eureka! moments and realized that I needed to invite her to write a guest post and share them with you all.

So, with no further ado, I hand over the pen to Meggan!

Hello Quandie Readers!  I’m interrupting your usual broadcast of fabulous painted furniture to bring you a quick idea for a Thanksgiving hostess gift!  If you are a lucky one that gets to breeze into a celebration with a gift and a side dish or two that is…  If not, whew, whip off your apron to have a well deserved holiday spirit and maybe you will be the lucky recipient!

A little history….Linda and I have mutual friends, but had never met.  Our friend knows our aesthetic is similar and fortunately pointed me to the Carriage House sales.  Obviously, I fell hard for her style, impeccable taste and abundance of treasures.  I went to her sales every summer and fall with a girlfriend of mine and did introduce myself, but it wasn’t until I entered (AND WON!) one of her giveaways that I really got to know her.  Instead of her mailing a heavy package, I invited her over to my house to see my office that my husband very patiently and lovingly (ha) wallpapered with a 1940 Webster Dictionary.  He adores my ideas…does sarcasm translate in the blogosphere?  I’m always coming up with grand schemes and he, like Mr. Q. plays along like a champ.  Linda, of course, brought her camera and snapped away.  I loved meeting someone that understands the bliss that comes with unearthing a diamond in the rough of garage sales, thrift stores or a curb.  I found my sale soulmate, you complete me Linda (she jumps on the couch a la Tom Cruise).

This kinship has led to some thrifting adventures, most recently a trip to my favorite happy place on earth, Arc’s Value Village in St. Paul.  Linda has a rule that if she’s shopping with someone who wants something for their home, it trumps her buying it to sell.  Isn’t she something?  Very honorable, which is a good thing, because I could get scrappy if I needed to.  She’s about a foot taller, so I don’t think I’d win, but I love a good find!  I came across 3 vintage turkey molds for a whopping 79 cents each.  I knew I could turn them into a hostess gift, or three, for Thanksgiving.

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Aren’t they delicious?  Uhh, love them.  Instead of using them for their intended purpose, I thought they’d make a great basket of sorts.  I collect things throughout the year and have a gift shelf (well, lots of shelves that borderline hoarding for full disclosure) that I delve into for special events.  Why do I do this?  Because I always have a hard time finding the perfect thing at the right time.  Anyone else?  It also saves a ton of money!  I’m no Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopper, but rather a hunter/gatherer type. I will pick things up for gifts even if I don’t have a particular person in mind.  In this instance, I had grabbed some pumpkin spice Burt’s Bees lip balms for half price last season that were perfect for Thanksgiving… #pumpkinspiceeverything  During one of my son’s friend’s birthday parties, I had 2 hours to myself (a luxury as a mom of 3 grade school boys), so I went to a few garage sales.  I came across the most lovely lady selling her daughter’s essential oil concoctions.  We had the best conversation, I meet the nicest people that way.  I know half of Stillwater from going to sales!  Mostly the old guys, they love to chat.  I bought 6 of the salves because at $5 each they were an amazing deal.  At least twice that at the co-op.  They smell fantastic and have no chemical ingredients.  Win/win.

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So, I had the essential components for a gift, but wanted a way to wrap it all up with a bow, so I thought a dish towel would be a useful addition.  I found some in the Target clearance aisle.  They killed it with their fall line this year!  So, a towel to dry dishes, salve for your hands after all those dishes, lip balm for after all that eating and a cute little turkey that could be a table decoration for next years feast.  I just tied it with some twine that I had left over from another project.

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Et Voila!

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Ok, one more gratuitous outdoor shot with the crabtree background…

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A cost breakdown:  This all came together for around $8.50.  Of course, these are deals I’ve scoured for, but it could all be done quite reasonably or with other small items.  My love language is gifts and it brings me such pleasure to find just the thing that lets my loved ones know I’m thinking of them and appreciate our time together through these little tokens.  Adding vintage touches add character, color and creativity.  These are headed for my Mom, Grandma and Aunt.  I won’t show them this post until after the holiday!

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Reflections on Gratitude…

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Thanksgiving reminds us to be grateful, but honestly, it’s something to practice every single day.  The Universal Law of Attraction is such that the more grateful you are, you will receive more things to be grateful for.  I spend time each day counting my blessings.  I smashed my car last night, it’s undriveable.  I scored 1 and the deer, well…0.  It’s most likely totaled and my neck is feeling it today, but it could’ve been so much worse.  So, I’m lucky.  Plus I had time to be home and take fun pictures and write this post, hey!  My girlfriend hit a turkey and I hit a deer so I said we are well on our way to the best Redneck Thanksgiving EVER!  Turkey feather headdresses and deerhide moccasins for everyone!  Too far….

This past year has taught me a lot about giving and being thankful.  My Dad needed a kidney.  My Mom gave him one of hers.  So, so many life lessons there.  She gave him life, quality of life…for both of them.  It has also taught me a lot about letting go of trying to control everything and being truly grateful for life’s experiences.  There are blessings in every one, even if you have to look a little harder to find it.  The view is worth it.  Wishing you all a bountiful Thanksgiving.  May you break off the big piece of the wishbone.  Thanks for reading along and thanks to Quandie for the invite, I’m honored to be at your table per se!  XO – Meggan.