the same ol’ thing? (blogiversary giveaway!)

Published on by Quandie53 Comments

Today I’m celebrating my 12 year blogiversary (read to the end for my annual giveaway)!

Sometimes it feels like I’ve been doing this forever, while at the same time I can’t believe that 12 years have gone by since my first post.

In some ways, so many things have changed over the last decade or so.  Not only have my blogging skills improved a bit, but my sister and niece moved here from New Jersey, and both Mr. Q and I retired from our day jobs.

I’ve also made quite a few changes to our house.

For example, the q branch (which is my home office where I write this blog) went from chartreuse …

to beige …

to deep green.

The piano room went from horizontal grey and white stripes …

to faux board and batten paired with charcoal grey.

The potting shed went from shabby chic she shed …

to photo cottage …

to potting shed.

But aside from all of those changes, in other ways I sometimes feel like I’m just doing the same ol’ thing.

For example, my first post about painting books was way back in 2015.

And I’m still painting books.

My first post about painting toolboxes also goes all the way back to 2015.

And I’m still painting toolboxes.

I also shared some stenciled suitcases back in 2014.

And I’m still stenciling suitcases.

I don’t know, am I still doing the same ol’ thing?

Or has my style changed enough that these things feel different?  All three of these examples show how much my style has evolved, even if the items themselves are technically still ‘the same ol’ thing’.

Last winter I did add something entirely new to the blog.

I gave my old dollhouse a total makeover.

I had so much fun working on that project and it filled up many cold winter days (if you are viewing this on a desktop, you can look to the right side of the screen and under the word ‘sorted.’ you can click on the “mini’s” category to see all of my dollhouse posts).

But the dollhouse is mostly done now, and I’m not sure if I’ll continue to do more miniatures or not.

I did briefly consider the idea of creating miniature furniture to sell.

But that plan didn’t really go anywhere.  I still have quite a few pieces for sale, check out my ‘miniatures for sale‘ tab if you want to check them out.

But despite a brief collaboration with Miniature Crush, and a few early sales, I ended up unable to find a market for my miniature pieces.

So currently I am rather unsure what projects will fill my days this coming winter, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.  It may end up being more of the same ol’ thing, but hopefully with enough of a twist to keep you interested.

In the meantime, as is my blog tradition, I have a giveaway today to celebrate my blogiversary.

  I’ve included both of the magazines that I was featured in recently, Flea Market Decor and American Farmhouse Style.

If you win you’ll also receive a couple of my favorite paint colors for this time of year, Ecru and Barn Red.  You’ll also get the Clear Bonding Boss that I use on all of my toolboxes.

I’m also throwing in the clear wax that I use all the time, plus Big Mama’s Butta in the Orange Grove scent (my favorite of the scents) along with some brown wax.  I like to mix these last two products together to create an easy to apply aging finish (you can see that result on the bar stools that I painted last summer).

Finally, I’m also including two bars of Dixie Belle’s Scrubby Soap, one orange and one lemon.

I love this stuff for both cleaning my paint brushes and cleaning paint off my hands … and maybe my arms, and on occasion possibly even my legs (I’m a messy painter).  Not only does it work great, but it smells great too.  I guess you could say that I’m a fan of citrus scents, both in Big Mama’s Butta and Scrubby Soap.

By the way, FYI, from now through December 1 if you buy 2 Scrubby Soaps from the Dixie Belle website, you get 1 free.  They make awesome stocking stuffers for the painters/gardeners/mechanics in your life.

Oh, and hey, while we’re on the subject, Dixie Belle has a couple of other deals this weekend only.

The Black Friday Deal:  Buy one, get one 50% off on Friday, Nov 28 from 12 a.m. through Saturday Nov 29 at 11:59 p.m.

The Cyber Monday Deal:  Free shipping on orders over $99 from Monday, Dec 1 at 12 a.m.. through Tuesday, Dec 2 at 11:59 pm.

So be sure to check those out if you need to stock up.

Meanwhile, best of luck on today’s giveaway.

Here are the rules:  Simply leave a comment on this blog post to have your name included in the random drawing.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.

  Also please note that if you are leaving a comment for the first time I will have to approve it before you will see it on the blog (this is to reduce spam and/or inappropriate comments).  Be patient because I’m heading to Mexico on Saturday and may not be getting to comments while away.

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, December 7, 2025 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $200, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, December 19, 2025 another name will be drawn at random to win, yada, yada, yada.

Good luck!

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for all of their support over the years, and for supplying all of their items included in today’s giveaway.

winter window boxes.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

You may remember that a couple of years ago I made the mistake of not cutting and drying any of my hydrangeas before they turned brown.

Well, I definitely did not make the same mistake this year.  I had bushels and bushels of hydrangeas drying in the carriage house and in the potting shed.

  I also dried more allium and astilbe flowers this year.

So a week or so ago when we had an unseasonably gorgeous day, sunny and a high of 70°, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and put together my winter window box arrangements.

Honestly, it’s lucky that I have so much dried material to work with because I have a lot of containers to fill outside.  I usually put arrangements in both of my galvanized boiler ‘window boxes’, my two rusty planters at the back door, one or two rusty planters in the shade garden, and my ginormous window box on the front of the house.  If I had to buy everything to fill all of those each winter it would cost a fortune.

I started with the galvanized boiler window box on the carriage house.  I had done a fall arrangement in that one right before my sale, and although the mum I used had totally bit the dust, the ornamental kale and heuchera still looked pretty good.  So I decided to leave them in place.

The kale can handle temps down to around 5°, so hopefully they will last through Christmas.  In case you are new here, I garden in zone 5a in a suburb of St. Paul, MN.  So yes, we’ll definitely get colder than 5° over the course of the winter.  Eventually they will start to look pretty sad.  As for the heuchera (dark purple foliage at bottom left), so far it seems to handle a bit of freezing weather as well (we have had lows in the 20’s already).

Since I was keeping those deep purple shades, I decided to use the Vanilla Strawberry dried hydrangeas because they dried to nearly that same color this year.

In case you aren’t familiar, the flowers on this variety start out white and then slowly turn  more and more pink as they age.  I waited longer to harvest them this year, so they were pretty dark when I cut them.

After filling in the back of the planter with the Vanilla Strawberry, I used some of my dried Little Lime  flowers in the front.

I then decided to embellish it all with some touches of gold including that bunch of gold bells that I picked up at last year’s Bachman’s after-Christmas sale.

The sprigs of gold balls that I used were initially way too bright for my arrangement, so I sprayed them with some of the Rust-Oleum metallic paint that I had on hand.

I also sprayed a few of my Quick Fire Fab dried hydrangeas and popped them in here and there.  You can see the gold on the hydrangeas much better in person than you can in photos though.

You may remember that I did that last year for my front window box too.

They didn’t hold up all winter, but they did make it through Christmas.

I kept the front window box super basic this year.  I started with a base layer of faux evergreen garland and my twig lights

Then after adding some spruce tips from Home Depot, I just filled in with dried hydrangeas, astilbe, and allium.

I also found that my verbena bonariensis dried quite nicely on its own, so I cut some and used it too.

This is definitely a more subdued look than some I’ve tried in the past, but I like it.

I did use some more traditional holiday colors on our deck.

Now all we need is a little snow to brighten things up a bit!

How about you?  Do you decorate outside for winter?  Or do you try to hibernate as much as possible?  Leave a comment and let me know!

the north pole suitcase.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

I worked on a couple of Christmas projects for the shop earlier this week, so I thought I’d share them with you today.

First up is this vintage suitcase.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if I liked this one, but I it was only $3 at a garage sale.  So I figured if it didn’t turn out, I was only out three bucks.

I didn’t even open it up before I got it home, but when I did I was awash in a sea of cobalt blue.

Isn’t that pretty?

Whenever I share a vintage suitcase project, I’m inevitably asked how I combat odors inside them.  I’ve tried any number of things with moderate success.

no 1 – fill the suitcase with crumpled newspaper and close it back up for a week or so.  The newspaper will absorb some of the odor.  Repeat several times with fresh newspaper if necessary.

no 2 – throw a scented dryer sheet inside.  Maybe pick a nice lavender scented variety.

no 3 – spray with Febreeze.

no 4 – give the suitcase its day in the sun.  Open it up and set it outside in a sunny spot to air out.

no 5 – throw a scented votive candle or bar of soap inside.

I’ve tried all of these options … and I often employ several of them in combination.  But, I still haven’t found a 100% fool-proof way of totally removing that musty old suitcase smell.  Once the suitcase goes back to sitting around closed up all the time, it will likely return.  For that reason, I use my own vintage suitcases to store things that won’t pick up odors like my glass tree toppers and other Christmas ornaments.

Initially I thought I would paint the outside entirely first, and then add a stencil.  That’s my usual M.O., like on this one …

But lately I’ve been experimenting more with just adding a stencil over the existing surface, like I did with this one last year …

So I pulled out my North Pole Trading Co stencil (from Wallcutz) and gave it a go.

I used my usual technique to add a shadow behind the words “north pole” by first stenciling them in Dixie Belle’s Caviar, then moving my stencil slightly up and over and stenciling the entire design in DB’s Ecru.

The texture of the case is not entirely smooth, so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t get a clean look with a stencil, but for the most part it turned out fine.

And personally, I like that I was able to keep the slightly beat up look of the original surface.

If you’re wondering what one would do with a Christmas suitcase, I suggest placing it in your foyer to greet your holiday guests.  Or, style it on top of a cupboard, or tucked under a sideboard.  And of course, it would be perfect for housing your vintage Christmas ornament non-collection in the off-season.

When styling photos of the suitcase for the blog, I added in my Christmas tuba.

What?  You’ve never heard of a Christmas tuba?

If I remember correctly, my neighbor nnK’s dad found this tuba in the trash at their storage facility.  Someone must have been cleaning out their unit and tossed it.  After he gave it to me, I thought it would make a unique bit of Christmas decor with the addition of some greens and some this fabulous wide vintage velvet ribbon from my stash.

I’ve been hoarding this ribbon for years, using it in the occasional photo shoot, but never wanting to ‘waste’ it.  It’s about time I started using it on things.

I guess both of my projects today are a bit on the more unusual side.  A Christmas suitcase and a Christmas tuba.  Why not?

What do you think?  Would you decorate with either of these items?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Meanwhile, if any of you locals are in need of a Christmas suitcase, or a Christmas tuba, I brought both of these items into the shop last night so be sure to swing by Stillwater this weekend to check them out!

more altered books.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

Remember all of my painted books from last summer?

They all sold, so I figured it would be worthwhile to try some with a more wintery/holiday look.

I started by purchasing some of the old Readers Digest books at a garage sale figuring I would paint them.  But these books have such pretty patterns on their covers.

In the end I couldn’t bring myself to cover that up with paint.

So then I thought, why not try adding some transfers to them ‘as is’.  I started with just adding some small images to the spines.

They’d be perfect to just pop into a bookcase just like that.  What a fun and easy way to add a little holiday cheer to some old books.

I have a lot of Christmas transfers though, many of which ended up being too small to use on my other holiday projects.  So why not add some to the covers of these books as well?

One of the green books was perfect for a Santa from the I.O.D. Santa’s Hollow set.

And this brown book was perfect for an adorable squirrel from one of the older I.O.D. holiday transfers called Yuletide.

But I didn’t completely forgo doing any painted books.  My neighbor nnK has a bit of a stash of slightly outdated hardcover books, so she gave me a few to paint.

This time around I painted all of the books in Dixie Belle’s Ecru, and then added some of the I.O.D. Clementine transfers to the spines.

After adding the transfer, I filled in the empty space at the tops and bottom using the I.O.D. Ephemeral Type stamps and some VersaFine Clair ink in Pinecone.

After giving the ink some time to dry (an hour or so), I applied Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the books.  I followed that up with applying some of their Dixie Dirt in a color called Earth around the edges to add some age.

I made two sets of these painted books.

That Clementine transfer is so pretty.

I have one last set of altered books to share today.

One of the Reclaiming Beautiful shop owners gave me these coverless books.  They had been in the shop for quite a while and weren’t selling so she thought maybe I could do something with them.

Personally, I really like the deconstructed book trend.  But since they weren’t selling ‘as is’, I decided to take some inspiration from the spine lining on my 1852 Swedish bible (thanks to Paula C who pointed me in the direction of some interesting info on spine linings in old books, now I know what it’s called).

Initially I was going to just add some typography, but once I started looking at all of my transfer options I went in a little different direction.

To be honest, I wasn’t at all sure how this was going to go.  I didn’t know whether or not the transfers would adhere to those exposed book spines.  But as it turned out, with a little patience they went on fairly easily.

I started by creating the background using the Dixie Belle Vintage Post transfer.  Then I added some color with various bits of holly from some of the I.O.D. holiday transfers.

Before I began adding transfers, I noticed that a couple of the books were hymnals.  So I moved one of those to the front/top of the stack and added a transfer to the first page.

I tied them all up with some of that same velvet ribbon I used as laces for my altered ice skates this year.

Now all that remains is to see whether or not they sell better with a little embellishment.

I took the the reader’s digest books and the painted books into the shop a few weeks back, and I’ll be bringing this last set of altered books in this week.  So we’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, which of these altered books is your favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know.

christmas in tinseltown.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

Well, it’s taken me a few days to recover from my latest trip.  Not because we walked more than 20,000 steps every day for 9 days straight, although that was exhausting.  But because this time I ended up with food poisoning on our last day (getting sick on trips seems to be my thing lately).

I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say that I’m impressed with how much those airsick bags on planes can hold (sorry, probably TMI).  Yuck!

That was definitely not an experience that I ever want to repeat.  But, I’m home now and I’m finally feeling good, and luckily I had scheduled a few blog posts for earlier this week so they were already ready to go and I had a few extra days to recover.

When we left Florida it was sunny with temps in the 80’s, and we arrived home to 29° with gloomy skies.  Talk about an abrupt start to winter.

Speaking of winter, we did return in time to see the amazing Northern Lights that were visible across much of the U.S. earlier this week (although I did read that they were even visible in parts of Florida, so maybe we would have seen them from there too?).

I took that picture from my backyard, it was quite the show.

We also experienced an abrupt start to the holiday season while away.  We arrived at Disneyworld on October 31, which was the final night of their Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party (an extra cost event that we did not attend).  So for our first morning in the park on November 1, there weren’t any holiday decorations around the Magic Kingdom.

But Christmas decorations appeared overnight and by day 2 things were suddenly looking very festive.

Even the Dapper Dans had their holiday outfits on.

My sister was thrilled to get a serenade and a dance from one of the Dan’s.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here, but my sister is definitely the extrovert of the family while my niece and I are both introverts.  We’d rather poke our eyes out with a sharp stick than be singled out in a crowd, but my sister loved it.

Anyway, I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of details about our time in Disneyworld, but I thought that some of you might enjoy seeing the vintage-style holiday decor that was up in one of the four Disney parks in particular, Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Studios was modeled after Hollywood, a.k.a. Tinseltown, of the 1930’s and 40’s (I’m talking about the original parts of the park, not the newer Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge).  So obviously it includes plenty of tinsel!

Many of the facades were designed based on actual buildings in Hollywood, California (allears.net has an interesting blog post about that here).

There is a definitely a retro vibe!

And that applies to the holiday decorations as well.

Most of these could have come right out of my grandma’s box of Christmas decorations.

Well … except grandma’s stuff would have been a bit smaller.

Pink poodles for Christmas?

Why not?

There were wreaths and garland everywhere, most of it very tinsel-y.

While my sister and niece did some souvenir shopping along Sunset Boulevard, I walked around and studied the details in the decorations.

I loved their use of non-traditional colors like the aqua and gold combo in this next garland …

or the cobalt blue and purple in this next one.

I think my favorite of the many wreaths I saw were these …

Who would have thought that matte black ornaments were suitable for Christmas, but they are perfect paired with the gold and aqua in a silver wreath.  And I just love those golden deer in the middle.

These poodle wreaths were a close runner up for most-favorite.

I wasn’t able to get a good shot of them since they were hung fairly high, but that is a sparkly poodle in the middle.  How fun is that?

If you’re a fan of retro holiday decor, Hollywood Studios in November is definitely the place for you!

Switching gears slightly, I just had to share one last photo from my trip.  Look what I found in the gift shop of the Norway pavilion in Epcot!

I had to do a double-take!  Have they secretly been studying my blog?  If I didn’t know better I’d almost think I painted that.  You may remember my Norske toolbox …

I think I might have to paint a Norske sled now!

Of course, I’ve already painted all of my sleds for this year, so it will have to wait until another one comes along, but I’m definitely tucking this idea away for later.  This sled could be displayed all winter unlike my holiday versions that I take down after Christmas.

Anyway, I’m back from Florida and I have a few more holiday projects up my sleeve.  I’m also planning a fun giveaway for my upcoming blogiversary.  So be sure to stay tuned!

our final port of call.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

The final port of call on our Québec intensive cruise back in September was Trois-Rivières, which apparently, among other things, is known for its black squirrel population.

Well, in fact, all of Québec has a significant population of black squirrels.

We have them here in Minnesota too, so they aren’t new to me, but I was wondering if I’d see any on our trip.  Sure enough, as soon as we walked off the ship in Trois-Rivières we saw one.

He wasn’t exactly posing for photos, but I managed to get a shot of the back of him.  He held some of the other cruise passengers enthralled as they’d never see a black squirrel before.

There was more to see in Trois-Rivières than black squirrels though, well … sort of.

Unfortunately, we were there on a Monday to find that the one museum that I really wanted to visit was closed.  That was Le Musée québécois de culture populaire, or Le Musée POP for short.

My Lonely Planet guidebook said that this museum included quirky exhibits featuring pop culture.  At one time they even had an exhibit on “the social significance of garage sales”.  Would that have been right up my alley or what?

Clearly I should have read the fine print and realized that the museum would be closed when we were there so that we had a back up plan.  Instead we just spent a couple of hours walking along the riverfront promenade  and through the oldest section of town along the Rue des Ursulines.

Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634, however, it was mostly destroyed by a fire in 1908, so the oldest section of town doesn’t date back any further than that.

The preponderance of wrought iron railings reminded me quite a bit of Charleston.

Some of them were quite elaborate.  I loved this next one with its weeping tree design.

I had to give this next house some demerits for not planting anything in that fantastic stone wall planter.

Wouldn’t that be spectacular filled with something?  Something as simple as an ivy, some impatiens (it was in shade), or even just some creeping jenny would be perfect.

I enjoyed checking out some of the interesting old houses in this area.

That’s kinda my jam.

But there were really only a block or two of those.

We eventually came upon a little crepe place called Le Sacristain and decided to stop and get something to eat.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that the food on our cruise was not very good.  Of course, I realize that since I had Covid for the last half of the trip, my opinion on the food should be taken with a grain of salt.  Also, most of my meals came from room service at that point too, so that made them even worse.  But Mr. Q wasn’t impressed with the food on the ship either.  The simple ham and cheese sandwich I had at Le Sacristain was absolutely delicious, and Mr. Q also really enjoyed his crepe.  So that tells me that you can’t blame the bad cruise food entirely on Covid.

In previous posts I’ve mentioned that we had spectacularly glorious weather nearly every day of our trip, but on this final day it started to rain shortly after noon and it continued for the rest of the day.  But that was OK, we needed to get our bags packed anyway.  Plus, I was still feeling pretty wiped out from the Covid.  So we headed back to the ship after our lunch ashore.

I can’t really give you an unbiased review of our overall experience on an Azamara cruise.  My experience was definitely sub-par having had covid for around half of our journey.  However, I can say that although we didn’t enjoy the food, we did enjoy sailing in this part of the world.

It was pretty magical to be floating along on calm waterways just enjoying the views.

But would I do it again?  Probably not.  That area of Canada was lovely, and I’d certainly recommend visiting.  But the cruise itself was rather expensive, and I’m not sure it was worth it.  In fact, Mr. Q and I may be avoiding cruises overall for a while (not including a cruise that I have already booked with my sister in February, but more on that in a future post).  We have realized that we definitely enjoyed our trip to the Brandywine Valley in May much more than this cruise, so we’re planning to do something similar to that next spring.  Fly to a major city, rent a car, stay in hotel suite with a little more space and just explore the surrounding area at our leisure.

We’re thinking about Chattanooga, Tennessee.  After all, it was named the friendliest city in the U.S. by Conde Nast last year.  Have any of you been?  If so, be sure to leave a comment with any recommendations for that area!

déjà vu.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

You might get a bit of déjà vu with today’s post.

Sometimes I just like to go with what has worked for me in the past (OK, maybe a lot of the time), and such is the case with both of today’s toolboxes.

Well, technically this first one is a tackle box.

My friend Jackie gave me this one last summer, and I actually began work on it right away while the weather was still warm enough to clean it up with the garden hose, and also to spray paint.

After my usual prep of cleaning, scuff sanding and a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss, I gave the inside a few coats of Rust-Oleum spray paint in Leafy Green.

Those tacklebox trays can be a bit putzy to paint with a brush, so I have two methods of dealing with them.  I either spray paint them while it’s warm enough to do that outside, or I have my neighbor/handyman Ken remove them entirely.  He does this by drilling out the rivets that hold them in place.

I think I sprayed this one back in August and it’s been waiting in the wings for the rest of its makeover.

I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and gave the outside a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Chantilly, which is one of the new Silk colors.  It’s a bit brighter of a white than my usual Drop Cloth or Ecru, without being so bright that it stands out.  After the paint dried, I sanded to distress the details and then wiped away any dust.

Then I basically copied a look I’ve done twice before.

I used two Dixie Belle transfers.  All of the black typography is from their Vintage Post transfer, and the red and green florals are from their Evergreen and Holly transfer.  You won’t find either of these on their website because, sadly, I think they are both retired.  But you can still find them online, try Etsy or just simply google them.

I thought the address of ’41 Winter Street’ was a fun little detail for a Christmas tackle box that probably no one will notice except me.

As per usual, I finished off the tackle box with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

My 2nd repeat for today is another red toolbox (why are so many of them red?).

This one goes way back to the windfall of toolboxes that I got from my friend Kathy back in 2024.  It had gotten tucked away upstairs in the carriage house and I forgot all about it until I was cleaning up for my recent sale.

After my usual cleaning, sanding and Bonding Boss, I gave this one a coat of Dixie Belle’s Barn Red on the inside.

I also added a bird transfer from the I.O.D. Winter Botanist set inside the cover.

I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Ecru, and then repeated a design I’ve used twice before.

The wording is from the I.O.D. Cosette transfer, and those florals are from the Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer.

As many of you already know, I like this design so much that I have one I’ve kept for myself.

I fill it with my non-collection (‘non’ because I’m in denial that I collect anything) of vintage glass tree toppers.

Both of these ‘repeats’ went in to Reclaiming Beautiful before I left for Florida.  When I get back this week, I’ll have to head in there to see whether or not they have sold.

this year’s sleds.

Published on by Quandie11 Comments

I briefly shared the vintage sleds that I’ve painted up this year in my post about my Carriage House Sale back in early October.

But today I thought I’d give a little more detail, starting with a ‘before’ photo.

That is my stash of sleds that either I picked up a various garage sales throughout the summer, or that a friend found for me.

It seems that I always manage to come up with 3 or 4 sleds each year.

I only buy them when I find them cheap … like $10 or less.  Once in a blue moon I will splurge and pay up to $15, but not often.  So I actually pass up a lot of sleds that are priced much higher.  The thing is, I have to buy them cheap, because I like to keep my final price low too.

This year I painted 4 of them, starting with this one.

It’s pretty similar to one I did last year when I discovered that I really prefer using Dixie Belle’s Barn Red rather than the Honky Tonk Red that I used to use for Christmas items.

Never underestimate how much definition a shadow will add to your stencil.

In this case, I stenciled the top two lines of text using Dixie Belle’s Caviar (black), then moved my stencil slightly up and over and stenciled again using DB’s Drop Cloth.  You’d barely notice it if I didn’t point it out, but it gives the lettering an almost three dimensional feel.  I do find that it’s more difficult to do on smaller fonts like that bottom line of text, so I usually skip the shadow on those.

The 2nd red sled has a bit of a space age feel with all of its chrome.

If atomic ranch is your jam, this is the perfect sled for you.

Once again I used Dixie Belle’s Barn Red, Caviar and Drop Cloth on that one.

I decided to go a little less red on sled no. 3.

This one is painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth with just a little of their Barn Red in the wording.  I really liked the patina on the wood that I left unpainted.  I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to breathe a little new life into it and to add some protection going forward.  In fact, I gave all of these sleds a final coat of clear wax, including the metal runners.

I hung the sled sideways on the potting shed to show you how that looks.

With all of these sleds you could either hang them horizontally, or lean them somewhere vertically.

Sled no. 4 goes even more neutral with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage as the background color and stenciling in Caviar and Drop Cloth.

Although I almost always paint the sleds that I find, this year I did leave one untouched.

I felt like that original chippy red paint was perfect ‘as is’.  I still haven’t decided whether I’ll sell this one, or keep it myself.  I’ll probably take it to the shop and if it sells, great, and if it doesn’t it can come home to live with me.

Sleds make fantastic Christmas decor both inside and out.

I sometimes lean one next to a small bench on the deck …

and sometimes I hang one on the potting shed.

My personal favorite is the one I painted up last year that I hang inside over my bed bench.

I paid a little extra for that sled because its solid seat made it perfect for adding a stencil.

What would you do with one of these sleds?  And do you have a favorite from this year’s sleds?  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

I brought all of these in to Reclaiming Beautiful before I left for Florida, so if you’re local and would like to add a sled to your holiday decor be sure to head to Stillwater to see if there are any left.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for all of their products used on my sled makeovers.

covid, crowds and caramel corn.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

If you’ve been following along with my posts about our Azamara cruise in Canada, we’ve reached the point in the trip where I came down with Covid.

Just in case any of you are wondering what happens when you get Covid on a cruise ship these days, I thought I’d share some of those details.  First of all, some fellow passengers that Mr. Q befriended while getting me some hot tea offered us some Covid tests because we hadn’t thought to bring any.  We both did a test, Mr. Q was negative, but I was definitely positive.

Because I am one of those rule following sort of people, and because you’re supposed to report any highly contagious illness to the ship’s medical center, I called them from our cabin.  They sent a nurse to our cabin and he administered another Covid test, still positive.  However, I did not have a fever.  The Azamara policy was to quarantine me to our cabin for 24 hours, and if I still did not have a fever after 24 hours, I could leave the cabin wearing a mask.  Mr. Q, being negative, was free to do as he pleased.

The nurse returned the following day to take my temperature, and I still didn’t have a fever, so I could leave the cabin.

Getting Covid on vacation was definitely a major bummer, but I will say that the timing was better than it could have been.  The first day that I felt really poorly was a port day in the Magdalen Islands, and I was in no condition to go ashore.  The 2nd day, which was the day I reported my illness and was quarantined, was a day at sea.  Honestly, I would have stayed in bed all day regardless.  So ultimately I only missed one port of call.

The day that I was released from quarantine was the port that I was most looking forward to, Québec City.  Although I still didn’t feel great, I put on a mask and got off the ship.  Then Mr. Q and I spent a couple of hours wandering around.

As you can see in my photos, it was another absolutely spectacular day weather-wise.

And as you also might be able to see, Québec City is very hilly.  There were lots of stairs to tackle.

Which isn’t exactly ideal when you have Covid.

They do have a funicular though, if you want to skip some of those stairs.

Having been on a few funiculars before like the one in Bergen, Norway and the one in Santorini, I was expecting something a little more elaborate.  This was more like a small elevator that traveled on an angle rather than straight up and down.

Another thing I have to note about Québec City, it was very crowded.  I should have expected that, but since we were there in the shoulder season (September), I thought the crowds wouldn’t be as bad.

I was wrong.

But it was a beautiful day, and it also was a Sunday and there seemed to be quite a few locals out with their dogs in addition to all of the tourists.  So it was definitely busy.

We walked around for a bit checking out some of the things I wanted to see, like the umbrella street …

and Place Royale, which is where where Samuel de Champlain founded the City of Québec in 1608.

We checked out a couple of really cool murals on the sides of buildings.

We found a bench near this next one …

and I have to admit that I found it very amusing to sit for a bit and watch people setting up their very elaborate selfies in front of it.

There was one thing I enjoyed seeing lots of in Québec City.  Can you guess what is was from this picture?

Verbena bonariensis!  You know I love it, and for those of you not in the know, it’s the tall purple flower shown above.  It was everywhere!

We eventually ended up in Mary’s Popcorn Shop where we purchased the most delicious maple syrup and pecan caramel corn.

Quite honestly, this was probably the tastiest thing I had on the entire trip.  And really, if you go to Canada and don’t have maple caramel corn, have you really gone to Canada?

FYI, sidebar, you can also go to fake-Canada in Disney’s Epcot and get maple caramel corn …

In fact, I might even stop in there today and get some (I’m at DisneyWorld with my niece and sister this week).  I wonder if their maple caramel corn is as good as the stuff from Mary’s Popcorn?

I enjoyed seeing Québec City, but I’d definitely love to go back and explore it more in depth one day.  We just barely skimmed the surface before I ran out of energy.  By they way, in case you’re wondering, despite sharing a very small cabin and an even smaller bathroom, Mr. Q never did get Covid.  He has an immune system of steel.

Have you been to Québec City?  Or maybe you’ve tried that amazing caramel corn in either real Canada, or fake Epcot Canada?  If so, leave a comment and let me know.

an unmatched pair.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

A short while ago my friend Jackie gave me some toolboxes.

I’m not sure what those two shallow red boxes in the front were meant for, maybe just to hold a few screwdrivers and a hammer or two?

Regardless, I decided to give them both a makeover for Christmas.  I started by removing the labels and then giving each one a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss inside and out.

Next I gave the inside of the first one a quick coat of DB’s Barn Red.  It really just required one careful coat since I was painting red over red.

The outside, however, required two coats of DB’s Ecru to cover up the red.

Before the final coat was dry, I added one of I.O.D.’s Twelfth Night paint inlays to the top.

After spraying that with some matte spray sealer to keep it from smudging, I applied some holly from Dixie Belle’s Evergreen and Holly transfer on either side of the inlay.

The little bit of holly just under the handle is from one of the I.O.D. Christmas transfers.

Now it’s perfectly Christmas-y.

The 2nd toolbox got a coat of Dixie Belle’s Rusty Nail on the inside.

As the name implies, this is more of a rusty or brick red.

I chose it because it worked beautifully with this row of sweet little birds from the I.O.D. Yuletide transfers.

I believe the Yuletide transfer was from the 2024 holiday collection and was then retired, but you can still find it online.

And by the way, I did paint the outside of this toolbox in Ecru as well.

I went back to my old favorite I.O.D. Label Ephemera for some of the wording on the front and top.

Then I also added some numbers and more wording from the Tim Holtz Eccentric Remnant Rubs transfer.

As for the handle, it was a rather pitted chrome so I gave it a new golden glow using Dixie Belle’s Gilding Wax in Antique Gold.

After adding a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the paint and transfers for protection, I decided to add a little more depth using a product that is new to me, DIY’s Decrepit Dust in Warm.

This is very similar to Dixie Belle’s Dixie Dirt …

except the Dixie Dirt doesn’t come in a rusty color.

I used a small artist’s brush to apply some of the dust around the latch immediately after adding the clear wax.  The dust will stick to the wax, and I just use the brush to blend it in a little.

It’s a subtle detail, but I think it adds a lot more depth and helps ‘age’ a newly painted item.

I have to confess that I personally prefer the toolbox with the birds on it, but the first one is a bit more Christmas-y.

Which one do you like best?  And what would you keep inside it?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Meanwhile, I brought both of these toolboxes in to Reclaiming Beautiful along with many more holiday items.  They are hosting their Holiday Open House this Thursday, November 6, 2025 from noon to 7 p.m. (while I’m away in Florida).  If you’re local, be sure to stop in!