spring painting projects.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

It would probably be fair if you were starting to wonder whether or not I still do much painting, and the answer is yes!

But much of what I’ve been painting recently hasn’t been terribly blog-worthy.

However, it has kept me rather busy for the last couple of weeks.

First I painted the potting shed.  It was starting to look a bit rough around the edges, especially the south facing side.  Fortunately it didn’t require too much scraping and I was able to get it done in a day.

I also took some time to spring clean the interior.  Stuff tends to accumulate in there over the winter.  So I pulled everything out, washed down the walls and the floor, and then only put stuff back in that belongs there.

The potting shed wasn’t my only big paint job this spring, I also stained our fence with the help of my neighbor nnK.

You may remember that we added a new section to our fence last year.

You’re supposed to let that new wood dry out for 4 to 6 weeks before staining.  Well, in our case, we waited until spring.  But we finally got ‘er done!

Here’s an action shot.

We used a sprayer, and I used my trusty painting chair to do the bottom half.  When my trigger finger wore out, nnK took over and did the top.

At this point you might be thinking ‘whoa, black?!’

Yep, we went with black stain … or to be more precise, it’s Behr solid color stain in Slate.  I’d recently seen one of the gardening YouTubers that I follow (Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat) give a similarly decrepit fence a facelift using this color.

As we all know, dark colors make things recede.  In addition, most of this fence is in deep shade most of the day, so it sort of just disappears into the shadows now.

And that was my goal.

It also creates a good backdrop for garden photos.

The garden really pops now.

Once the fence was stained, I planted three Arctic Fire Yellow dogwoods in front of it, behind the ferns.

As you can probably tell, this time of year you can’t really even see them through the ferns.  But I’m growing the dogwoods for winter interest.  They have a lovely yellow stem that will be visible in winter when the ferns have died back, and the dogwoods have dropped their leaves.  It should look amazing against that black fence, although I’m not sure they will get enough sun in this location to keep them happy.

I do also have a pagoda dogwood tree in this area and it seems to be thriving …

although growing very slowly.  At this rate I will be 80 years old before it starts to look like an actual tree.  But it gives me hope for the Arctic Fire dogwoods.

It sure feels good to have these two projects checked off on the to-do list.  I’m planning to get to some other more fun painting projects this week, so be sure to stay tuned!

thinking outside the box.

Published on by Quandie3 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I have a large window box that goes across almost the entire width of our front three-season porch.  Our house faces north-west-ish, so it’s basically full shade in that spot although it does get some evening sun.

I’ve tried lot of different looks over the years, but so far there is really no contest for the most successful plant for this shady window box, it’s definitely coleus.

It absolutely thrives, and it creates quite a dramatic show along with some sweet potato vine and lemon coral sedum.

In fact, it’s almost too successful as it grows high enough to block any breezes that might want to try to get through those windows.

Quite honestly, it almost feels like cheating to just fill up the window box with coleus and sweet potato vine and call it good.  It’s a little too easy, and it also seems a bit … well … uninspired.

So sometimes I try to change it up, think outside the box a little (pardon the pun).

Unfortunately that can lead to what I consider to be window box fails.  Last year is a good example of that.  I tried experimenting with some new things, and the combination really didn’t work.

The silver of the Dusty Miller and the Dichondra Silver Falls just wasn’t me.  I put in some lovely coral pink begonias that ended up being totally swallowed up by other more vigorous plants, as did the Streptocarpus Ladyslippers™ Deep Blue Vein.  Although those did become some really pretty houseplants.

The very worst year for the window box had to be 2015 though.

Oh my gosh, does that look like a hot mess or what?  That was the year I tried angelonia.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  They clearly require full sun, and I definitely don’t have full sun here.  Plus, I combined the angelonia with a purple annual salvia and some Diamond Frost euphorbia, all of which have a delicate, airy look about them.  I definitely needed to add something more substantial to the mix.

I did have some success in 2017 when I decided to go with a deep coral pink sort of color scheme.

The New Guinea impatiens did well, and paired nicely with some fuchsia.

But when the cooler purple astilbe that is in the ground right below the window box was in bloom, it didn’t really pair well with those colors.

I did enjoy the monochromatic white color scheme that I tried back in 2014.

That year I used white impatiens, euphorbia, jester’s crown ferns, a swedish ivy and a gorgeous white and green caladium.

And when fall came around I pulled out the impatiens and replaced them with white mums.  Then I popped in a couple of white pumpkins, and added some cut Annabelle hydrangea blooms for a less traditional autumnal look.

As much as I love that look, I will admit that it doesn’t have the same impact from the street as the brighter coleus combinations.

Once again this year, I was in the mood to do a bit more experimenting instead of falling back on the tried and true coleus/potato vine combo.  After checking out what was available at a few of my favorite nurseries, I ended up with a ‘black and white’ theme.

First of all, you have to know that gardeners call colors by the wrong names.  Anything called ‘blue’ is typically really purple, while ‘purple’ is often a hot pink or magenta color.  And ‘black’ is really a very deep purple.

I based my ‘black’ on this coleus that I found at the Amish farm that my neighbor nnK and I visit every spring to buy plants.

It didn’t have a label, but I think it may be a variety called Black Coral.

I know it doesn’t look too exciting at first, it’s not bright, it’s not wildly variegated.  But I next found this rex begonia to add to the mix, and it is pretty exciting.  Paired together, I think this is going to make a fantastic combination.

Once again, no label, but I think the begonia may be Curly Mint.

I also added this rex begonia to the mix …

Both of the begonias have that rich plum color that ties in with the ‘black’ coleus.  I’m just hoping that they won’t be overpowered by the more vigorous growth of the coleus.

For the ‘white’ component in my window box I went back to that white caladium that I loved so much.

I also added a bunch of white New Guinea impatiens, and some Diamond Snow euphorbia.

The Diamond Snow euphorbia is supposed to be a more dense and compact, less ‘airy’, version of the Diamond Frost that I usually use.  And again, I’m hoping this one won’t overpower the other plants.

Finally, I also threw in a Firehouse White trailing verbena.

I may have trouble getting the verbena to bloom in this shady location, but I thought I’d give it a try.  For now all of those blooms are compliments of the greenhouse that grew it (Country Sun in Stillwater, FYI).  Also, you do need to deadhead trailing verbena to encourage more flowers, so we’ll just have to wait and see if I keep up on that.

I added some more ‘black’ to the mix with this Charmed Wine Oxalis from Proven Winners.

It will have white flowers when it blooms as well, so it’s perfect for my black and white theme.  However, I grow it mainly for it’s foliage, it won’t bloom profusely.  Much like the Streptocarpus I mentioned from last year, Oxalis can be taken inside and wintered over as a houseplant.  I may give that a try in the fall.

Finally I put in a couple of Blackie sweet potato vines.  I guess I couldn’t fully escape the coleus or the sweet potato vines.

Now, I just have to be patient and wait for all of these to fill in.  I’m guessing that’s going to take at least a month or so.  Gardening is not a hobby for the impatient.

I’ll try to remember to give you all an update on how my black and white window box turned out at the end of summer.

How about you?  Have you ever tried a black and white theme?  Or do you have another combination that you love for containers?  Leave a comment and let me know.

the garden herbs tote.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

I’ve posted before about the Trash to Treasure day hosted by a neighboring town, White Bear Lake.  Basically the home owners in WBL can put things that they want to discard at the curb, and the rest of us can drive around and take anything that catches our fancy.

I’ve found a few fun things there over the years including my concrete Japanese lantern.

I gave it a bronze metal makeover last year, and it still looks great in my garden.

I often even find a couple of decent pieces of furniture.  I brought this washstand home for a makeover back in 2021.

I did check out this year’s Trash to Treasure day back in April, and I brought home a small pile of goodies.  However, I didn’t get a photo of my haul because it was raining for most of the day.  So I tucked it all away in the carriage house thinking I’d pull it out later and get a photo.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

But as time goes by, and I give the items some much needed makeovers, I’ll be sure to share them here on the blog starting with today’s project.

This large wooden tote was sitting at the curb filled with plastic pots and other junk.  It was half full of rain and quite bedraggled.  But I sensed some potential.

After bringing it home, I gave it a good scrubbing with some hot soapy water and then hosed it down.  I left it out in the sunshine to dry out.  Once dry, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Once the paint was dry, I sanded the entire piece to distress it.

Next up I pulled out my Garden Herbs stencil.  I first stenciled ‘Garden Herbs’ and the herb names in DB’s Dried Sage.  Then I shifted my stencil up and over just a tiny bit and stenciled ‘Garden Herbs’ again in DB’s Drop Cloth, thus creating a bit of a shadow behind those words.

I finished it all off with a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta which really brings out the deep rich color of the Caviar.

The tote is quite large at 24″ by 18″, and it’s also a bit heavy.  So it wouldn’t be practical to use for actually toting things around the garden.

But wouldn’t it be fab for your potting shed?  You could fill it with gardening books, or magazines, or just empty clay pots and vintage garden tools.

Of course, you could also fill it with potted herbs and put it outside, but since it’s made of plywood, it wouldn’t hold up forever.  But then again, who needs it to last forever?  Isn’t it kind of fun to have pieces like this that last for two or three years and then you move on to something else?  Or is that just me?  I would recommend drilling some drainage holes in the bottom if you were going to go that route.

This tote is headed to the pile of merch that I’m accumulating for my upcoming sale.  Locals, don’t forget, save the date for June 21 and 22!

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co. for supplying the paint and topcoat for this makeover.

from plastic to fantastic.

Published on by Quandie17 Comments

Last summer while out garage saling I saw a house with fabulous lights in big flower pots on either side of their driveway.

I have to laugh, because initially I was completely flummoxed as to how they accomplished that.  I thought they’d had to run electrical wiring to the pots somehow.  But duh, of course, they were solar lights.

Seriously, how did I not just realize that immediately?

Well … anyway … I thought they were fabulous, so I decided to copy the idea myself this year.

But I didn’t want to spend the $70 for the really pretty copper lights that I found online, so I decided to see what I could do to dress up a pair of plastic lights that I found at Fleet Farm for less than half that price.

I’m not sure that photo shows it, but these are made out of black plastic and that’s exactly what they look like up close.  In other words, not terribly nice.

So I pulled out Dixie Belle’s patina paint and went to work on them.

Rather than doing my usual rusty finish using the Iron paint and Green spray, I brought out the Copper paint and Blue spray.

Full disclosure, I probably should have used the Bonding Boss primer in this situation since I was painting over slick plastic.  But I was being impatient and I skipped it.  I may pay for that later, especially since these lights will be out in the elements.  I’m willing to risk it though.

So although I skipped that important step and went right to stippling on two coats of the Copper paint, you should do what I say and not what I do and use the Bonding Boss over slick surfaces.

While the 2nd coat of Copper was still wet, I sprayed on the Blue spray.  It was looking really blue though, and I wanted more of that green verdigris sort of color, so then I quickly added some Green spray as well.

Perfect!

I think the lights look totally legit with this paint treatment.

If you want to see the full instructions on how to use the Dixie Belle patina paint, check out my how-to post by clicking here.

My only complaint about the lights is that big honkin’ solar power collector thingie.  No one would mistake these for proper electric lights!

Although the panel is not very well disguised right now, as my plants get a little taller it will be a bit more hidden … but I can’t let it get too hidden or it won’t work properly.

But aside from that, I love how these turned out.

I’ve had them outside for a couple of weeks now, and so far the paint is holding up just fine as well.  I’ll be sure to give you an update at the end of the season to let you know how they did.

By the way, speaking of plastic to fantastic, those planters are also plastic.

I gave them the rusty treatment (Iron paint with green spray) last year … or wait … maybe two years ago?  I’m not sure.

Either way, they definitely don’t look plastic anymore, right?!

Leave a comment and let me know if you’ve tried any of the patina paint, or if you have something that you think would benefit from the rusty treatment, or the verdigris copper treatment.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the patina paint used for these projects.

practicing jumping worm safety.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there (wait a minute, that sounded a little wrong)!

Earlier this week I mentioned having purchased some plants while out garage saling last weekend.  I have always been a big fan of what I call garage sale gardening.  So many of the plants in my garden came from garage sales, such as the Bigroot Geranium (or Geranium macrorrizum) that grows like mad in just about any conditions.

So when I saw some of the plants on my ‘wish list’ being sold for $5 each at a sale in Tangletown last week, I couldn’t resist.

For one thing, I found a Sweet Autumn clematis.  You may remember seeing this growing on the side of our carriage house (the vine with the little white flowers on the left below).

It was spectacular in the fall, but last spring it didn’t come back.  I find that this happens sometimes with clematis, possibly due to clematis wilt, I’m not really sure.

Anyway, I picked up a new one for $5 and we’ll try again.

But, that brings me to today’s q tip!Have you heard about jumping worms?  They are a non-native earthworm that strips the nutrients from top soil.  And according to Ramsey County they are an emerging problem in our area.  They can be introduced to your garden in mulch, compost and potted plants.

For that reason, I am now hesitating to continue recommending buying plants at garage sales because it puts you at risk of bringing home jumping worms.

However, garage sale perennials can still be a good bargain, so if you have jumping worms in your area (check with your local University Extension program if you don’t know) you should practice some jumping worm safety if you purchase plants at a garage sale, or even at a garden club plant sale for that matter.

Here are some recommendations from the U of M Extension:

  • Accept only plants from gardeners that have looked for jumping worms and use these practices to prevent their spread:
    • Plants and materials do not come from an area known to have jumping worms.
    • There is no reason, like soil that looks like coffee grounds, to suspect there are jumping worms at the site that produced these plants or materials.
  • Remove soil from all plants before transporting them to limit the spread of weeds and worms. This helps to remove earthworm cocoons (egg cases) or weed seeds.
  • Completely submerge plant roots in water and wash away remaining soil. Actively look for worms. Protect clean roots for transportation and sale.
    • Water is sufficient to remove soil and other materials from the roots.

I questioned the person I purchased plants from and she said they were not grown in soil from her garden, but in a potting medium (sorry, my eyes glazed over at the exact details).  So they should be jumping worm free.

OK, let’s move on from the worms.

The garden has just exploded over the last week, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite spots with you this morning.

Remember the tulips that the deer like to eat?

I saved a couple of patches of them by enclosing them with chicken wire and they look amazing right now.  Unfortunately, only a handful of the patch of 100 that I planted in fall of 2022 came back this year.  I had chosen Darwin Hybrid Pink Impression tulips specifically because that variety is one that will naturalize.  But apparently not for me.  However, I’d also planted 100 new ones this past fall and those look fantastic.

In the end, I have come to realize that I need to treat tulips as an annual in my garden, and an annual that has to be protected from deer at that.  I tell myself that they just aren’t worth it, but right now they look so good that I know I’ll be tempted to plant them again this fall!

The Double Sherborne Narcissus that I planted last fall are also looking good.  They add a bright pop of yellow next to the red carriage house.

I’ve mixed in some muscari (grape hyacinth) and I love the combination.

In the background of that photo you can see the azalea that I added a few weeks ago.

I can’t take any credit for all of those flowers since this shrub was already covered in buds when I purchased it at Home Depot.  This particular azalea is supposed to be hardy in zones 5 thru 9, and my area was bumped from 4b to 5a last year.  Will it survive our winter?  That remains to be seen.  I plan to protect it over winter for a few years until it gets established.

The Sugar and Spice tiarella (foam flower) that I put in last year is just starting to bloom.

As is the Raspberry Splash lungwort.

Aren’t those color gorgeous?

The star of the garden this week has to be the Phlox divaricata, or wild blue phlox.

It has created a lovely patch of bright blue.  I have it planted ‘under’ a Sun Power hosta.  You can just barely see the Sun Power in the early stages of emerging behind the phlox.

I love this combination because although the phlox looks gorgeous right now, after it blooms it looks fairly weedy.  But that’s when the hosta takes over and fills in the space and I just cut back the phlox.

Last, but certainly not least, the lilacs are just starting to pop.  We’ve had some cool nights recently (in the 40’s Fahrenheit), and I think that is slowing them down a little.

Also, I’m finding that they last a lot longer in a vase if I cut them before the flowers are completely opened up.

So tell me, do you have jumping worms where you are?  Have you gotten many plants at garage sales?  And what’s blooming in your garden this week?  Leave a comment and let me know.

 

no more government gray.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Bryn Mawr calls their neighborhood sale the Festival of Garage Sales, and with good reason.  There is definitely a festive atmosphere.  They have food trucks and porta-potties, which both say ‘festival’ to me.  They also have LOTS of people.  Even in the rain.

Parking can be a challenge, so our strategy is to bring some foldable carts with us, find a spot for the car, and then walk the alleys.  My sister employed her step counter and we logged just under 10,000 steps.

We managed to fill up our carts more than once, and here’s most of what I brought home with me.

My ‘find of the day’ is missing from that photo, but I’ll share that in a minute.

But otherwise, as you can probably see, I ended up with some more potential art for my gallery wall.

I really love this next watercolor, but I may have to hunt down a frame for it.

I also found a set of four mid-century prints by Jan Korthals.

Korthals was a Dutch artist, but these 4 prints feature London landmarks including St. Paul’s and Big Ben.

I also brought home a lovely set of poetry books.

The covers on these are just gorgeous, as are the colors.

I also nabbed a nice tacklebox.

I love the muted aqua colors on the little circular label on the front.

It’s even already a pretty blue color on the inside.

So now I’m torn.  Do I paint this one?  Or would someone buy it ‘as is’?  That is a pretty dull gray on the outside.  What do you think?

Speaking of ‘should I paint it?’, after the last sifter that I painted turned out so pretty, I decided to grab another sifter to paint.

After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep, followed by a topcoat of their Big Mama’s Butta.

How perfect is it as a succulent planter now?

While I was at it, I also painted the postal scale that I picked up.  It was a very dull grey color originally, let’s call it ‘government gray’ since it’s a postal scale.  After giving it a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of the Mint Julep as well.

No more government gray!

For those of you who don’t know, I retired from my government job 2 1/2 years ago, so there’s definitely no more government gray for me.

I’ve already added some apothecary labels to the pair of amber bottles that I picked up.

I liked the simple lines of the silver pitcher that I purchased.  It will make a beautiful vase for peonies when they start blooming, but for now I filled it with some faux hydrangea that I also bought at Bryn Mawr.

I typically no longer pick up Ball jars unless they are either priced really low (I did get a pair of them with original zinc lids for 25 cents each in North St Paul), or they are unique in some way.

This one says “the Mason” on it, and it has some nice bubbles in the glass.  I’ll be adding it to my own non-collection of mason jars.

I’ve saved my ‘find of the day’ for last, and coincidentally it’s also the last thing that I purchased.  We were literally back in the car heading out of Bryn Mawr when I spotted a concrete dog garden ornament out of the corner of my eye.

Isn’t he handsome?  And he is also solid, ie. heavy, concrete.  I had to get my sister to help load him.  I was surprised that no one had snatched him up earlier in the day, and I can only conclude that he was just too heavy for anyone to tote around.

It feels great to be back out garage saling again!  I’ll be out again this Saturday at another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Linden Hills.  So far the forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 71°, wish me luck!

tulips in tangletown.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

My friend opK and I held a garage sale marathon this past weekend.  We hit the sales on Thursday and Friday, and then on Saturday my sister joined us as well for the Bryn Mawr neighborhood sales.

Thursday dawned cold and rainy.  opK and I gathered up our rain gear and a list of addresses and headed to North St Paul.  I’d say out of our list of 25 or so sales, only about 10 of them had braved the weather and opened up.  We then headed to our hometown of Oakdale, and it was more of the same.  In desperation, we headed to Cottage Grove next.

All three of these towns were allegedly having their city-wide sales, but we found few sales.  Since the forecast for Friday was sunny and a high of 70, we figured most people had decided to hold off on opening up on Thursday.  I can’t say that I blame them, it was fairly miserable outside.

Here is the meagre pile of goodies that I brought home on Thursday.

That is nearly my entire haul.  I also purchased some peony cages for the garden, a set of old casters and a tall lantern that isn’t pictured, but that’s it.

The ‘find of the day’ from Thursday would have to be the little cast iron stove (it didn’t have much competition).

Isn’t that fun?  I thought it was possibly vintage until I looked it up online and discovered you can buy it at Walmart.  LOL, well, I only paid $1.50 for it, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

I woke up on Friday to glorious blue skies.  The Tangletown neighborhood in Minneapolis is one of my favorites, and that’s where we were headed.

I had to stop and get a picture of this gorgeous terraced hillside garden full of tulips that we spotted while twisting around on the Tangletown streets.  My photo doesn’t do it justice, it was gorgeous.

We also had much better luck with the finds in Tangletown.

The chair on the right was from a ‘free’ pile.  The cane seat is ruined, but that’s OK because I’m planning to turn it into a planter chair.  I’ve done a few of these in the past (check them out here).  My only regret is that I didn’t take more of the free chairs that were in that pile, there were several to choose from.  What was I thinking?  I could have made multiple planter chairs!

I also brought home a vintage Joy of Cooking, a nice globe, and an ironstone chamber pot.

Obviously no one needs a chamber pot for its original use these days, but they are lovely filled with flowers.

I also picked up this pretty amethyst colored glass bottle on Friday.

I thought the color was pretty, and I was drawn to the ‘antique’ look of it.   But don’t be fooled, much like the cast iron stove, this one isn’t authentic either.  I found info online that says it’s a 1970’s reproduction and only worth between $3 and $5.  Lucky I only paid $1.

I picked up this small enamelware tray and have already added a simple re.design with prima transfer to it.

I also found a couple of possible additions for the art wall in my q branch (a.k.a. my home office) starting with this pretty little mountain scene.

I’ve already found the perfect spot for it on my wall.

I’ve decided the 2nd oil painting I brought home is just a bit too bright for me.

This one came with a story.  The woman selling it said she bought it at a charity auction when she lived in Washington D.C., and supposedly it originally belonged to one of the Kennedy’s.  I can’t quite read the signature at the bottom, so I haven’t been able to find any pertinent information about it online.  Was someone just spinning a yarn to earn more funds for the charity?  I guess we’ll never know.

There were three good candidates for ‘find of the day’ from Tangletown.  First up there was the St. Francis statue.

You gotta love a good garden statue, right?  I plan to give him the rusty treatment using Dixie Belle’s patina paint.

There was also the Japanese maple tree.

I’ve been passing these by at the nurseries for years because of their high price tag.  I rarely see one for less than $100.  And they are an iffy proposition in my formerly zone 4b, now zone 5a garden.  So I’ve never wanted to spend a lot of money on a plant that may or may not survive the winter here.  But this one was $20, so I snatched it up.

Sure, it’s small.  But I’m going to try growing it in a pot on the deck.  That way I can move it to a more protected area for the winter.  We’ll see what happens.  If it dies, I’m only out $20.

I did also pick up a few other plants in Tangletown, but I’m going to share more about that in my ‘sunday mornings in the garden’ post this week, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

In the end, I have to give ‘find of the day’ status for Tangletown to this little cupboard.

That’s a beveled mirror in the oval, FYI.  This is going to be a fun one to paint up!

As for day 3 of our garage sale marathon, we were back to cooler temps and rain as we headed out to another of my favorite Minneapolis neighborhoods, Bryn Mawr.  But I’m going to share more about that one in my next post, so be sure to stay tuned!

But first, let me know, what would you have picked as ‘find of the day’?

decisions, decisions.

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

Back in May of 2022, I purchased this watering can at a garage sale.

I called it my find of the day at the time because I was looking for a functional, yet vintage, watering can.  Most of the vintage watering cans I have don’t hold water anymore and this one did.  Plus it had that nice big spout.  I mainly wanted to use it for fertilizing my annual pots with a water soluble fertilizer like Miracle Grow.

It did work quite well for all of gardening season 2022, but when I pulled it out last summer I found that it had sprung a leak.  Drat!

Since it’s now suitable as decor only, I decided to go ahead and give it a makeover and then add it to the growing pile of stuff for my occasional sale.  But that was just the beginning of the decision making process.  Next I had to decide what treatment to give it.

As you probably know, I’ve painted quite a few watering cans in my day.

My all-time favorite painted watering can is this one …

But technically I didn’t paint it.  It already had chippy white paint when I bought it, but I added the smaller version of the IOD Petit Rosier transfer to it.  I’ve hung onto this one because I love it so much.  I would have loved to do this same look on today’s watering can project, but I don’t have another of those transfers.  Although it is a retired design, you can still find them online with prices ranging from $17 (plus shipping) to as high as $30 (with ‘free’ shipping), but I just didn’t think I could sell the watering can for enough to make that purchase worthwhile.  Plus, I have so many other options on hand, I really need to use what I have first.

So I next considered adding a more simple transfer to the watering can, like this one …

That’s one of the Classic Vintage Labels from re.design with prima, and I do have one of them left in my stash.

That would have been lovely for sure, but then the watering can that I added the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay to caught my eye.

That’s another one that I’ve kept for myself.  It lives in my pantry along with some of my other favorites.

I pulled out my Rose Chintz inlay to make sure I had enough left to do both sides of the watering can, and sure enough I did.

But that led me to another decision to make, what color to paint the can?  I did consider Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass, which is the color on the watering can that I kept.  But I wanted to do something different.

I’ve used the Rose Chintz paint inlay over a number of colors, naturally including Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

I also loved it over Dixie Belle’s English Ivy.

It also worked well over their lighter green shade called Kudzu.

I even used it over their Cobalt Blue, which was lovely.

And I loved it over the Cottage Door color too …

But then I remembered the black toolbox that I used it on way back in October 2022.

Now that was gorgeous!  It really pops over black.

So, black it is.

After giving the watering can a good cleaning, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Then I applied the paint inlay into a fresh 3rd coat of paint (for full instructions on applying a paint inlay click here).

I absolutely love how the inlays have a distressed sort of look, they aren’t perfect … and they aren’t meant to be.

I’d be tempted to add this one to my own non-collection of watering cans, except I already have one with the Rose Chintz paint inlay on it.  So this will be making its way into the pile of stuff for my upcoming sale.

What do you think?  Would you have gone with black, or would you have chosen a different color?  Leave a comment and let me know!

garage sale season is here!

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

It’s finally here!  Garage sale season!

I’m so excited to get out there and see what I can find this year.

For those of you who may be new here, I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities (that’s Minnesota, in case you didn’t know).  Our garage sale season probably starts a bit later than most.

And definitely quite a bit later than at my mom’s house in the Vegas area.  While my sister and I were out visiting her a couple of weeks back we stopped off at a handful of garage sales.  I have to say, they were pretty bad.  For one thing, apparently people don’t bother to price stuff at garage sales out there (one of my pet peeves, I hate having to ask for a price on every item I look at).  For another, apparently they have a lot of outdated electronics and office supplies that they think people will buy at a garage sale.

I’ll admit, sometimes the garage sales around here are just as bad, but sometimes they can be pretty fab.

Here’s an example from last week …

Now, I have to admit, I didn’t actually purchase any of the items shown above because they were just a little out of my re-sale price range.  If I personally collected vintage thermoses or buffalo check items I would have been all over them.

My friend opK and I spotted those fun vintage camp items when we went to a handful of sales last week just across the border in Wisconsin.  Although I didn’t buy any of those, I did come home with a handful of goodies.

I was initially thinking I’d leave the galvanized scoops ‘as is’ …

but in the end I decided to dress them up just a little bit.

I simply added some wording from the old I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

I purchased the big bouquet of faux lavender because I’m always on the hunt for good florals for staging pieces like french floral buckets, or vases.

At $5 for the whole bunch, they seemed like a pretty good deal.

opK spotted the little toolbox for me.

Its petite size made it perfect for the daisy transfer that I used on a lockbox a month or two ago.  I liked that one so much that I wanted to do something similar again.

I think it turned out rather sweet.

As for the shiny bucket, I gave it the same treatment as a bucket I painted a month or two ago.  After giving it a good washing, I stippled on a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage paint mixed with their Sea Spray texture additive.  Once dry, I sanded it back a little to take some of the peaks down then added two coats of Drop Cloth.  Once that was dry, I sanded it a bit as well to allow some of the Dried Sage layer to show.

I painted the interior of the bucket in Dixie Belle’s Deep Sea just to clean it up a bit.

Plus, the deep dark blue worked beautifully with the dark blue of the re.design with prima transfer I then applied to the front of the bucket.

I did also pick up this small wooden box while out garage saling in North Hudson.

I’ll be honest, I only grabbed it because it was only $1 and I thought I could give it a quick makeover for my sale.

I gave it two coats of Bonding Boss to block any stains from that orange-y wood, then gave it two quick coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I decorated it with some scraps from I.O.D.’s Redoute II transfer.

I followed it all up with some clear wax to finish.  It would be perfect for a small jewelry or trinket box.

This coming weekend we are spoilt for choice as the garage sale season kicks off with a bang in my area.  The cities immediately surrounding me of Oakdale, Maplewood and North St. Paul are all having their city-wide sales this weekend.  In addition, a couple of my favorite neighborhood sales are this weekend; Bryn Mawr and Tangletown.  Finally, there is also the 100-mile garage sale that runs along the Great River Road from Hastings to Winona.

So many options!  We can’t possibly get to them all, but here’s hoping I find lots of great stuff no matter where we end up.

impatiently waiting.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

I know it’s only late April, but I have been patiently waiting all winter for spring to arrive.  Since returning from my mom’s house, where it was in the 80’s and sunny, I’m officially now impatiently waiting.

I’ve also been watching many of my favorite garden YouTube channels (Garden Answer, Hello Garden, The Impatient Gardener and Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat), and most of them are far ahead of my formerly zone 4b/now zone 5a garden.  With the exception of The Impatient Gardener, because she’s in Wisconsin.  But I have a serious case of spring garden envy when I see these videos with hostas already completely leafed out, crabapples in full bloom and masses of tulips and daffodils flowering.

I’ve done pretty much all I can in the garden for now until I can plant annuals, which around here is not until mid-May at the earliest.  However, our average last frost date is May 21, and the official recommendation is to wait until the last week of May to plant.

I rarely follow that advice though.  I definitely can get some pansies in way before that, which is why I went ahead and planted some up this week.

Pansies are pretty cold-tolerant so they will be OK unless we get below 20 degrees or so.  If I see any cold nights in the forecast, I can just cover them up with some old sheets to protect them a bit.

There are a handful of bulbs blooming in my garden already too.  Remember those leucojum’s I planted last fall?

They’ve come up and are pretty sweet.  I’m hoping that they multiply for next year.

They’ve turned out to be deer resistant too, which is nice.  Especially since once again the deer have munched most of my tulips down to the ground.  I have a couple of groupings that I managed to protect with chicken wire, but the deer got to all the rest.  Please remind me to quit trying to grow tulips, it’s just not going to happen for me.

That being said, I have a handful of tulips that the deer missed that are blooming now …

It looks as though grape hyacinths are also a safe bet.  I was pretty excited to see them coming up and blooming for me.

You may remember that I purchased them already potted up and blooming in about mid-May last year.

After using them as a photo prop, I decided to pop them in the ground and see what happened.

They were perfect right between my Maiden Hair ferns and those small lime green hostas (that I don’t know the name of).

Unfortunately, their normal bloom time appears to be much earlier than mid-May (ie. now), and the hostas and ferns are barely even out of the ground yet.  So the grape hyacinths stand alone this year.

I have just one variety of daffodil blooming this week …

The rest of the daffodils in the garden are up, and they have buds, but they seem far from opening.

Daffodils are also deer resistant, so maybe I need to add more of them this fall as well.

I do have a few perennials that are already blooming including variegated vinca and bleeding heart.  My fern-leaf bleeding heart is particularly pretty right now.

This type of bleeding heart is a workhorse in the garden because it will keep blooming all summer, unlike the more traditional bleeding heart which blooms early and then pretty much dies back and looks terrible for the rest of the season.

Maybe I should quit feeling sorry for myself.  My gardens may not be completely up and filled out yet, but they are getting started.  What’s up and/or blooming where you are?  Leave a comment and let me know.