these might not be for me.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

I really, really wanted to like the new gilded transfers from I.O.D.

I ordered the one called Étiquettes, because it has all of that fabulous typography.  I mean, just look at it.  It should be right up my alley.  The designs themselves are fantastic.  And wouldn’t these be a great addition to some of my toolboxes?

The gilded transfers are a little bit different than your typical transfer.  So after watching a handful of YouTube videos on how to apply one, I pulled out a small terracotta pot and painted it black using Dixie Belle’s Anchor for a test run.

One difference with these transfers is that the entire sheet is opaque.

That makes it a little trickier to place because you can’t see what’s under it, and the usual grid lines have been eliminated.  It’s also quite a bit trickier to tell whether your transfer is fully adhered without lifting it up to check behind the backing sheet.  In addition, if you rub too hard on the non-transfer part of the sheet it can also rub off onto your project.

So I would say that the application process is a bit more difficult than with a non-metallic transfer.

In addition, the result with a gilded transfer is just not as crisp looking as your typical black (or blue, or white) transfer.  For example, the roses on the transfer I used just look like blobs to me.

I also really struggled to get the smallest details to transfer.  In this case there was some small writing above the word ‘PARIS’ that I simply couldn’t get to transfer no matter how much I rubbed.  I barely even got the ‘PARIS’ to transfer.

One tip from the videos I watched is to make sure that your paint is absolutely fully dry before applying these transfers.  I thought mine was fully dry, but it was a humid day and I only waited a couple of hours after painting before attempting the transfer.  As a result there were a couple of spots where the transfer pulled off the paint, rather than sticking to the paint.

I should have let my paint dry overnight, so that’s my fault.  If you’re going to attempt these gilded transfers, be sure to give your project plenty of dry time first.

OK, so I will be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a perfectionist.  I like a crisp result, and you get that with black transfers, even if they are really, really  small.

So the results I got with the gilded transfer just aren’t cutting it for me.

Even without my mistake of not letting the paint dry fully, I wouldn’t be happy with this result.

Back in early 2019 re.design with prima tried to create a gold leaf look with their adhesive transfers paired with their decor foils and I have to admit I didn’t like that look either.  I think I used them once and then never went back to them again.

In the end, maybe it’s just that the gold leaf look isn’t for me.  It’s simply too shiny for my taste.  If you’ve followed me for long, you know I’m just not a fan of super shiny things.  And these are very shiny, almost mirror-like.

If a super shiny look is what you’re going for, you might really love the gilded transfers.

I was hoping for a more muted look though, similar to other more matte gold transfers that I’ve used, such as the Flower Collector transfer from re.design with prima.

Or re.design’s Somewhere in France transfer.

In the end, what I’m really hoping for in a transfer is a fabulous new collection of typography in black that I can use on small projects.  Is that too much to ask for?

In the meantime, I haven’t entirely given up on the gilded transfers.  I’ll go back to the drawing board and practice with them a bit more and see if they grow on me.  As I often say, never say never.  A year from now I may decide that I love them, you never know.

Have any of you tried these new transfers?  And if so, what did you think of them.  I’d love to hear from you so be sure to leave a comment.

the international friendship garden.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Once again, this morning’s post doesn’t come from my own garden.  If you read my recent post about our road trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin, you may remember that I promised I’d share the surprise from behind the lovely hotel we stayed in, Hatchery.

When we booked our room, I had no idea that the Riverside International Friendship Gardens surrounded the side and back of our hotel.

Had I known, I would have booked even faster!

Apparently La Crosse has seven sister cities.  For those of you who might not have heard of sister cities, here is the definition from Wikipedia:  A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.

For La Crosse those seven sisters are located in China, Germany, France, Norway, Russia, Ireland and Cameroon.  There are 7 sections to the International Friendship Garden, each meant to represent one of the sister cities.

Let’s start in the Chinese Garden.

You enter this garden through a dragon gate to find a lovely koi pond.

La Crosse’s sister city in China is Luoyang and the garden brochure calls it the ‘city of peonies’, but unfortunately July isn’t peony season.

But the garden was still beautiful.

Next up was the French Garden.  The sister city of Épinal, France was the inspiration for this formal garden with its knot garden and formally trimmed shrubbery.

This was definitely my favorite section, I just love a formal garden with urns and fountains.

There was even a mini hedge maze.

La Crosse’s sister city in Norway is Førde, and it is located in the waterfall region.  The Norway section of the garden has not just one, but two waterfalls.

Here is the second …

The Norwegian garden also features seven ‘hidden’ trolls, although they weren’t terribly hidden.

La Crosse’s German sister city is Friedberg.  This section of the garden contains a lovely pergola with a climbing hydrangea, unfortunately not in bloom while we were visiting.

I loved this bench with its winged lions for support.

The Russian garden has this beautiful pavilion, or besedka.

It is a replica of one on the banks of the Volga River in Dubna, the sister city in Russia.

We just happened to catch it in the most beautiful evening light as it was nearing sunset.

Three rivers come together in La Crosse, the Mississippi, the Black and the La Crosse, so I’m not precisely sure which river is directly behind that besedka.  I just had to grab a photo showing how high the water is this year.

We’ve gotten so much rain.

The mill wheel in the Irish Garden was copied from one in Bantry, the Irish sister city.

It totally reminded me of one we saw in Prague.

Lastly, we have the Cameroon Garden.  Kumbo is the sister city in Cameroon.  This garden contains the Mami Wata, an Africian water spirit, fountain.

I was so impressed by the Riverside International Friendship Gardens.  They were beautifully designed and maintained.  Each section felt very different, and totally reminded me of the country being represented.

I mentioned that the French Garden, with its formality, was my favorite.  Which garden would you pick as a favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know.

And if you ever happen to be in La Crosse, Wisconsin be sure to check out this gem of spot.  It is located at the north end of Riverside Park.

the duchesse’s toolbox.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

One of my lovely readers came to my occasional sale bearing gifts (actually two of my readers did this, but I’ll share the 2nd one later).

She brought me this adorable little mini cabinet …

which I’m still working on.

And she also brought me a toolbox.

I love the way this one hinges open.  It also came with a tray.

After my usual prep which includes washing with Dawn dish soap to cut any greasy residues, a light scuff sanding to smooth out the surface a bit, and a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss, I painted the outside with DB’s Drop Cloth.

Typically I paint the inside of toolboxes first, and then the outside.  But I hadn’t quite decided on the interior color yet, so I started with the outside.  It wasn’t until I was done painting that I remembered why I usually do it the other way around.

Painting a different color on the inside, with the lid open, results in a checkerboard look on the hinges when you close the lid.  If you paint the outside last, with the lid closed, the hinge ends up a solid color when closed.

And actually, the checkerboard can be a fun look.  But when you’ve already added some transfers, so it’s too late to repaint the outside … well, it was just a bit unexpected.

But in the end, I decided I rather like the look in this instance.

That brings me to the transfers.  I used sections from the new I.O.D. Rose Botanical transfer on the outside of the toolbox.

I love the colors they’ve used for these transfers, so pretty.  I also like that there are several different sizes of roses giving you lots of flexibility for using them on different size projects.

The wording is from the old (and sadly retired) I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

Will they ever release a replacement?  Something like the new Étiquettes Gilded Transfer, only in black rather than metallic gold, would be awesome.  But so far, no such luck.

The toolbox had a little metal name tag on it that was stamped with the name of the former owner.  I painted over that and added the ‘Duchesse de Berry’ portion of the Label Ephemera transfer thus making this her toolbox.

Based on this portrait of her, I’m guessing she would be happy to own a toolbox covered in roses.

Initially I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to paint the inside of the toolbox in green or pink.  I ended up opting for full-on feminine with Dixie Belle’s Cottage Door.

Then I added just a little wording from the Rose Botanical transfer to outside of the tray as well.

I finished everything off with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

And there you have it, the duchesse de berry’s toolbox.  What do you think?

This toolbox is for sale, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

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

a road trip test run.

Published on by Quandie3 Comments

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’m not a huge fan of the road trip.  In this case the acorn did indeed fall far from the tree.  My mom loved a good road trip, and she packed us kids into whatever vehicle we had at the time (ranging from a car, to a conversion van, to a motor home) and drove us across country nearly every summer.

I loved those trips!  Especially the ones in the van or motor home where I could sprawl out in the back with a good book while my mom did all the driving.

Here’s the time we got a flat tire on the road in 1980.

That’s my mom in the white pants, my bff in the short shorts, and my mom’s bff in pink.  LOL, just look at all of those perms!  Curly hair was all the rage in 1980.  My brother is changing the tire.

On that particular trip we went from Florida to California, stopping in New Orleans and Las Vegas along the way.

But these days I definitely don’t love being in a car that long, and I really don’t love being the driver.

However, now that Mr. Q and I are both retired, we’ve been thinking about the potential for future road trips.  After all, we can take as much time as we want to get somewhere.

We just haven’t quite managed to talk ourselves into it yet.  But, recently the parent of one of Mr. Q’s friends passed away and the memorial service was being held in La Crosse, Wisconsin which is about a 2.5 hour drive straight down the Great River Road from us.  So we decided to turn it into an overnight getaway, and sort of a road trip test run.

We got really lucky with the weather.  We had two gorgeous sunny days in the 70’s, which made it perfect for driving my VW bug convertible with the top down (and lots of sunscreen on).  The route from St. Paul to Lake City is rather bucolic, mostly farmland and a handful of small river towns like Hastings and Red Wing.  From Lake City to La Crosse the scenery is gorgeous.  The road runs right between the river on one side, and towering bluffs on the other.

We decided to splurge on a special place to stay since we’d only be there for one night.  So after a bit of googling, I found Hatchery.

This is a small boutique hotel in the historic fish hatchery building right next to the Mississippi.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic places and is located in Riverside Park.

After a two-year historic preservation project, the six room hotel was opened about 9 months ago.

As you may have guessed, having only six rooms, Hatchery does not have a front desk.  Instead it operates a bit like an Vrbo or Airbnb.  They texted us a code for the outside door, and another code for our room door.  Also, as expected in an historic building, there is no elevator and all of the rooms are on the 2nd floor.

But it was easy enough to let ourselves in and make our way upstairs, where even the hallway is pretty cool.

I love that wallpaper.

All of the rooms have a different look to them, and are themed with a historical fairytale character commissioned from a French artist.  We chose the Jean de La Fontaine room.

According to wikipedia, Jean de La Fontaine wrote fables, many of which featured a cunning fox.

Our room was gorgeous.

I loved the exposed brick walls paired with walls painted in a deep bluish green.

The king sized bed was super comfy.

Each room comes equipped with a record player and records.

Although I have to confess that we did not fire it up.

The bathroom was beautiful too.

I love that marble sink!

There was a steam option for the shower, but again, we didn’t use that.  The regular shower was quite nice though.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Hatchery is located right in Riverside Park.  All of our windows looked out onto the park.

And as the name implies, this park is situated right on the Mississippi River.

Hatchery also has a lovely cocktail lounge with beautiful views of the river.  I didn’t manage to take any photos of the lounge myself, so I’m borrowing this one from the internet.

Our room came with a couple of free cocktails, so Mr. Q and I headed down there in the evening.  He tried the Espresso Martini, and I believe the drink I order was called a White Cosmo … maybe?  Well, whatever it was called, it was delicious.

We followed that up with a sunset stroll along the river.

In the morning we headed to The Breakfast Club in downtown La Crosse (easy walking distance from the hotel) where I enjoyed some chicken and waffle kabobs.

Those waffles were amazing, but there was way too much food food for me and sadly much of it went to waste.  I didn’t think it would survive the drive home in a takeaway box.

There was also a lovely surprise around the back side of our hotel, but I’ll share more about that in this coming Sunday’s garden post.  So be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, if any of you local readers are looking for a romantic overnight getaway, I highly recommend a scenic drive along the Great River Road to La Crosse and then staying the night at Hatchery.

As for our road trip test run, we’re still not sure we’re ready to tackle a longer road trip.  We may have to consider purchasing a more comfortable vehicle for longer forays.  The VW bug convertible is fun, but I don’t think I’d want to do a much longer drive in it.  For now we may just have to stick to flying!

the fairy garden, 2024.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

 Good morning from the garden!

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

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

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

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

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

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

So I knew it was time to expand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the queen of procrastination.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

I’ve noticed that wallpaper is making a big comeback.  I get it, wallpaper can be gorgeous.  It can add so much interest to a room, and it also can hide a multitude of sins on 100 year old plaster walls.

I was a new homeowner the last time wallpaper was ‘in’, and I pretty much wallpapered every. single. room. in our house.  I even wallpapered the ceiling in our bathroom (never again).

But in the decades since then, I’ve also stripped all of that wallpaper back off.  And that was no fun.  Well … except the time my bff, her daughter and her daughter’s bff helped me strip the three layers of wallpaper in our master bedroom.  We did actually have fun, and that job would have taken forever on my own.

The last bit of wallpaper we had in our house was in our dining room.  There are two squares of wall in that room on either side of the windows, the rest of the walls (and ceiling for that matter) are clad in reclaimed barn wood.

The wallpaper was pretty subtle.  It was a beige-ish color with slightly darker colored writing on it.

A while back (and by a while back, I mean in 2017) I decided that I wanted to remove it and paint those squares white to bring a little more light into the room.  At the time I was really hoping this would be an easy removal job.  After all, those square aren’t that big, it’s not like I had an entire room to do.

Sometimes wallpaper comes off really easily, just start tugging at a corner and you can pull it away in practically full sized sheets.  And sometimes it doesn’t.  This wallpaper was in the latter camp.  It seemed to have a vinyl layer with the design on it, and a paper layer underneath.  When I tugged, the vinyl layer came off leaving the paper layer still glued to the wall.

I still had my full time job at that time, plus the blog, and honestly, I just didn’t want to deal with stripping that wallpaper.  But now I had a big chunk of that upper layer of the wallpaper torn off.  So I decided to cover it up with vintage paper player piano music rolls instead.

  That was back in September 2017 (you can read all about it here).

That was supposed to be a temporary measure, just until I could get around to a full fledged strip job.  Uh, yeah, six years went by with those rolls on the wall.  How did that happen?  Clearly I am just really good at procrastinating!

The winter before last I decided that I would focus on getting some projects done inside the house.  Surely that would be a great way to get through the winter while we’re stuck inside anyway.  I could finally get this wallpaper down.  And maybe our front stairwell painted.  Or maybe the baseboards upstairs.  I definitely need to repaint inside all of our closets, and our kitchen cupboards.

Yet that entire winter went by  and I hadn’t done a single one of the projects on that list.  Somehow I always managed to find something else I’d rather do.

But one rainy day in March 2023 I decided enough was enough with the procrastinating.  That player piano music, and the wallpaper under it, was coming down!

After removing the player piano music, and all of the many staples that held it in place, I then peeled off all of the outer vinyl layer of the wallpaper.  Then I had to go back and wet down the paper backing layer and scrape it off.

  None of it came off in big chunks, but bit by bit I got it all off.

You might be inclined to think that I then jumped right into giving those walls a fresh coat of paint, but no.  I managed to procrastinate on that for another entire year!

What was I waiting for?  Well, to be honest, I was trying to come up with a fabulous wall treatment for those two squares.  Something exciting that would be ‘blog worthy’.  Maybe a hand-painted mural a la Miss Mustard Seed.

Or possibly an all-over stencil of some kind.

But in the end those sort of treatments just didn’t feel quite right for this room with its rustic barnwood cladding.

So I spent another rainy (seriously, it just won’t quit) morning a few weeks back just painting those bits of wall white.

I say ‘morning’, but it literally only took about an hour or so, not even a full morning.

So yeah, they’re just plain white, nothing terribly exciting, but at least they are presentable now.  Maybe the white will be the perfect blank canvas for something more exciting down the road.  Then again, maybe these walls will just stay white.

How about you?  Do you have projects that you’ve procrastinated on for years?  Surely I’m not the only queen of procrastination around here, am I?

a succulent experiment.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Remember the antique newspaper roller that I turned into a succulent planter last year?

It did really well out on my deck over that summer.

I brought it inside to overwinter it, but by spring it was starting to look a bit rough.

The succulents had all gotten either quite leggy or too big for the container.

Initially thought I would just pull everything out and start over.

So I picked up some fast-draining potting mix and a few new succulents.  But just as I was about to pull out the leggy succulents I thought, gee, this is a waste.  I really should try reviving some of them.

Now, I’m definitely no expert, so if you’re looking for the best advice on this process you may want to look further.  But I thought I’d go ahead and share the results of my efforts here anyway.

After a bit of online research, I discovered that succulents are theoretically really easy to propagate.  There are different methods, but I went with what looked the easiest to me.  That was simply cutting them off and then setting the cuttings aside for a few days to let the cut ends dry out.

That felt entirely bizarre to me.  Who would think that you can let a cutting just sit there for days without water or soil?  But after three days, they still looked perfect fine.

So I filled up some small plastic pots with the soil I’d purchased and simply pushed the cuttings into the soil.

I’m not sure where I went wrong with this process, but ultimately those two big succulents were the only ones that survived this method.  All of the smaller ones ended up with rotted stems.  It’s likely that was the result of too much water.  As I’ve mentioned (ad nauseum), we’ve had a lot of rain so far this summer and I had left these outside.

As a sidebar, I also planted five Amstel Netja Dark begonias this spring and every single one of them ended up rotting at the base as well.  That was despite zero watering on my part and pots with good drainage.  We just had so much rain!

Anyway, back to the succulents.  Although those cuttings didn’t make it, I did leave some of the cut off stems in the container.  And lo and behold, some of those sent out new plants.

I also left the bright lime green drapey succulent (sorry, I don’t know the name of this one) in place, even though it was looking a bit shabby, and it has bounced back beautifully.

I also added a few new succulents to the mix including this funky one …

I also wanted to add something dark to balance out that bright lime green.

And I had to add these next two just because I thought they were so sculptural.

In the end, I guess I was following that rule I talked about a couple of weeks ago of having each of the four colors of green, yellow, blue and red represented.

I really love how this succulent planter has turned out again this year, but I can’t seem to find the perfect spot for it in my garden.

For that reason, I put a price tag on it at my recent occasional sale.  It didn’t sell though.  Perhaps because I marked it $40 (after all I have at least that much into it, if not more).

So, I still have it.  In fact, I just pulled it inside because as I’m writing this post on Saturday there is a big thunderstorm rolling in.  More rain.  I’m trying not to drown this bunch of succulents.

I’ll keep carrying it around my garden looking for a spot that is worthy of it, but in the meantime I’m also listing on it on my ‘available for local sale‘ page just in case one of you locals has the perfect spot for an antique newspaper roller turned succulent planter.

Now, how about you?  Have you had luck propagating succulents?  What was your method?  Leave a comment and let me know.

an updated mid-century bed.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Earlier this year I mentioned the White Bear Lake Trash to Treasure Day.  This is a day when the residents of White Bear Lake can put their cast offs at the curb, and people like me can drive around and take whatever strikes our fancy.

I had fairly good luck this year, and I even brought home a mid-century bed frame.

It was a bit dirty, and a bit dinged up.  And the spindles on the footboard were coming loose.

It was easy enough to add some glue to those spindles and clamp them in place while it dried.  Then after a good clean, I scuff sanded the entire piece including the two side rails which aren’t pictured above.

Next up I pulled out the Dixie Belle Smoky Mountains paint.  This is the same paint that I used on the bookcase that I refurbished a month or so ago.  I just love this blue-green-grey color, it reminds me of the color of ‘blue’ hostas.

I also love the fact that this color is from Dixie Belle’s Silk line, which means it has a built in primer and top coat.  So after two coats of paint, it’s done.

I think the clean lines of the spindles on the footboard are really appealing.

It’s not at all frilly, while still having some style.

Normally I would be tempted to do something inside the frame on that headboard, but I don’t think that would be appropriate for this mid-century modern sort of look, do you?

This bed was missing the slats that go from side to side and sit on the ledge of the side rails, but it was easy enough to find a trio of boards that would work.  I snapped a quick photo with just two of them in place while I waited for Ken to cut a 3rd one to size.

And with that, this makeover was complete.

What do you think?

This bed is for sale, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for all of the details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint used in this makeover.

a rainy garden tour.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

We’re not in my garden this morning, instead I’m sharing the Munsinger and Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud, MN.

These are two distinctly separate gardens that are across the street from one another.

The Munsinger Gardens are shady, informal gardens located right on the bank of the Mississippi River.

These gardens are filled with some lovely examples of things you can grow in the shade like hostas, coleus, begonias …

and that trendy favorite from last year, Sun King Aralia (or Golden Japanese Spikenard).

They also have a fairy garden in a wheelbarrow (sounds familiar!).

The Munsinger Gardens were created in the 1930’s using labor from the WPA.

As you may have already noticed by these photos, it was raining the day my sister, niece and I drove up to St. Cloud.

It was also super buggy.  All of the rain we’ve been having has meant bumper crops of mosquitoes.

Fortunately we were armed with umbrellas (after a quick stop at Target because I forgot mine) and bug spray.  Plus, I happen to think that most gardens look prettier in the rain than they do in blinding sunshine (lucky thing since we also visited de Hortus in Amsterdam in the rain!).

Across the street from the Munsinger Gardens are the Clemens Gardens.

These gardens were developed in the 1990’s by Bill Clemens in honor of his wife, Virginia.

They are much more formal and include some really beautiful fountains like the Renaissance Fountain with Cranes …

and the Windsor Court Fountain.

There are also some gorgeous examples of ironwork including some lovely benches …

and a beautiful arbor.

The quadrants surrounding the arbor are each devoted to a monochromatic scheme.

There is a yellow garden.

Although I’ve never been a big fan of yellow flowers, I defer back to my motto, never say never.  Lately I’ve been really enjoying the yellow in my garden starting with yellow daffodils in spring, then my yellow bearded iris, followed by evening primrose.  I even added a yellow Baptisia this year.

But that being said, I’m still not sure I like a monochromatic yellow garden.  To me it just looks a little bit sickly.

The red garden was full of Astilbe while we were visiting.

Unfortunately I somehow managed to miss getting photos of the blue and the purple quadrants, aside from this photo of the gorgeous variegated foliage on what I am guessing is an iris.

There is also a formal rose garden, and all of the roses are labeled.

  So if you’re into roses, you can pick out some that you want to try in your own garden.

If I grew roses, I’d be tempted by this one called Pop Art.

But the Japanese beetles in our area make a mess of roses, so I’ve mostly quit growing them.  I have one shrub rose left and that’s it.

I do prefer the look of a slightly wild, less formal shrub rose in the garden also.

Unfortunately, aside from the roses, I didn’t see many other plants with identification tags.  So I can’t tell you what variety of clematis this is …

but it sure was pretty.

As were the delphiniums that were in full bloom.

It may have been rainy, but it was still fun to visit both of these gardens.

Do you have any fabulous gardens near you that are worth a visit?  If so, leave a comment and let me know.  I’d love to hear about them.

a patriotic lunchbox.

Published on by QuandieLeave a comment

Some time ago I came into possession of this vintage blue lunchbox.

I rather liked it ‘as is’.  The blue was perfect, and it had just the right amount of authentic wear.

But I thought I should give it a good clean and that’s where things went a little wrong.  I started to wipe it down with a damp rag and some Dawn dish soap and the blue paint was coming off on the rag.  So then I thought I should just give it a quick coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat to seal it in.

Unfortunately, the flat clear coat looked a bit filmy over that blue.  That can happen sometimes when you use the flat version over a dark color.

So back to the workshop it went.  Since I loved that blue so much, I decided to stick with it and give the lunchbox a quick couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue.

It was a pretty good match for that original color.

I sanded the edges to try and bring back that distressed look.

After wiping away the dust, I added a white transfer from I.O.D.’s Traditional Pots.

I followed that up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

I love the little stars on the sides of the lunchbox.

It wasn’t until I was editing the photos for this post that I realized I really needed to put some sort of decorative paper in that label holder.

I ended up going with a simple red gingham after determining that my October Afternoon Farm Girl labels were too big.

Bummer, they would have been so perfect if they were the right size.

While I was at it, I also lined the inside of the lunchbox with some of that gingham paper.

This lunchbox would make an adorable decoration for a 4th of July table if you left the lid open and placed a couple of small potted red geraniums in it.

Despite not actually being able to save the original blue paint on the lunchbox, I think I did a pretty good job replicating it.

What do you think?

Although this lunchbox was available at my sale, it did not go.  So it’s still available if any of you locals happen to need a fun 4th of July table decoration!  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

I’m off to spend this rainy 4th of July morning finishing up the clean up out in the carriage house.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get some projects going out there despite the forecast of rain, rain, and then probably some more rain.  I hope some of you are getting the perfect day for a BBQ!