a brown christmas.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Merry Christmas from the garden!

The probability of a white Christmas in the Twin Cities is somewhere between 70% to 75%, depending on which source you look at.  I’m surprised it’s that low, it really feels like we almost always have a white Christmas.

Last year we definitely had a white Christmas …

and then a white January, and a white February, March and even April!

We got a fresh foot of snow on April 1.

But according to sources online, 2021 was a brown Christmas.  I definitely don’t remember it that way.  I have photos here on the blog that would beg to differ.

But apparently all of that snow melted by Christmas Eve, technically leaving us with a brown Christmas in 2021.

Prior to that both 2018 and 2015 were brown Christmases.

I did get a photo of the carriage house in 2015.

Seeing that picture reminds me of how much I liked having evergreen garland and lights hung all the way across above the doors on the carriage house.  I may have to try that again next year.

While digging out that brown Christmas pic, I came across our family Christmas photo from that year.

That was a fun year, despite no snow.  From the left; that is my sister, my nephew (her son), my mom, me, Mr. Q and my niece (also my sister’s kid).  My nephew was visiting from Philly and my mom was visiting from Las Vegas.  It was so nice to have both of them here.

It must just be that I don’t really remember whether a Christmas was snowy or not, I just remember the fun times spent with friends and family.

That’s lucky because it looks like we’re having a brown Christmas this year.

It may not look as festive, but it certainly makes it easier to spend some time in the garden when there isn’t any snow and/or ice, or sub-zero temps.

I re-visited the idea of a garden Christmas tree this year.  Back in 2021 I put up a faux tree that I’d gotten for free at the curb.

I’d filled it with watering cans and garden implements.

But that tree ended up getting blown over in a storm and the ‘trunk’ was bent so much that it couldn’t be salvaged, at least not if I ever wanted it to stand upright.

This year I decided to purchase a small real tree and put it in a pot in that same spot.

It’s quite a bit smaller though, so the watering cans were a no go.

Instead I used some terracotta pots.  I also added some real winterberry sprigs and some rusty ornaments that I use somewhere outside every year.  I topped it all off with a rusty garden crown.

All things considered, I much preferred the full size tree.  Not only did it make much more of an impact, it was also much cheaper!  That little bitty real tree was $50!  I’m going to be on the lookout for another cheap/free faux tree to use next year.

By the way, did you notice the pair of skates hanging from my Rudolph and Co sign on the deck?

Those are the pair that I was questioning whether or not to paint.  At the time, I suspected I would end up using these outside.  Although paint with a good sealer would hold up outside, I don’t think a rub on transfer would.  So in the end I did not paint this pair for now.

I hope that those of you who celebrate Christmas have a very merry one, whether it’s white or brown.  I’m going to take a bit of a blog break over the next week, but I’ll be back in the New Year so be sure to stay tuned!

one last christmas project.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

Today I’m squeezing in one last Christmas project.

I found this old beadboard cupboard door at a garage sale a few months back.

You know, back when there were hostas and lots of other green things in my garden.

I’ve always been a fan of old beadboard, and I thought the hardware on this one was kind of fun too.

I ended up painting it in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky and then adding the North Pole stencil from Wallcutz in Drop Cloth.

The beadboard did make the stenciling a bit more challenging, and it looked a bit sloppy when I first pulled the stencil away.  I had to go back with a small artist’s brush and fill in a lot of grooves to keep the wording legible.  Especially the smaller section in the circle.

Once that was done I added a couple of rusty, old, metal hooks from my stash.

These sort of hooks just screw into place.

I had initially taken photos of this sign hanging on a tree out in the garden.  I was planning to bring the sign into the shop with the rest of my Christmas merchandise.

But then I realized that this one would be perfect for hanging stockings.

And since we don’t have any sort of mantle I decided to keep it for that purpose.

I also had the perfect spot for it in the piano room.

Who knows, maybe next year I’ll sell this one on, but for now I’m really enjoying it in this spot.

A few of you have mentioned hoping that I’d share a tour of my Christmas decor this year, but to be honest, my indoor decorating was a bit haphazard.  I think that trip to Mexico back in late November kind of threw me off.  I never even put up the tree.

Do you remember the clock cloche?  I like to switch up the contents under the cloche depending on the season, and I did get that done this year.

It’s a simple look with some bottle brush trees and a tiny greenhouse full of poinsettias sitting on a vintage gardening book that my friend Sue gave me for my birthday.

And remember that Dutch ice skate I brought home from Amsterdam?  I hung that on my old wooden ladder along with some greens.

My friend opK was going through her stash of vintage Christmas cards and came across one with a snowy windmill scene and she thought it would be perfect for me.  I framed it up in an old chippy frame that I had on hand.  I layered it with an old invoice (sometimes the accountant in me still comes out).

I hung that from the ladder using some green velvet ribbon.

I’ve already shared the little bit of decorating that I did in our bedroom, and now this beadboard sign in the piano room.  Otherwise, I think you’ve seen everything else I have out this year in previous years including my toolbox full of tree toppers …

and my Christmas village …

To be precise, I actually set up my village twice.  I originally thought it would be nice to change it up and put it in the living room under the window.  I had it all set up there, and then decided it wasn’t working so I moved everything to the top of my English cupboard in the q branch.

I had to consolidate it down this year to fit entirely on top of that cupboard.  Last year I also had the blue rooster cupboard in that room, but if you’ll remember I moved it out when I brought in a larger desk.

And speaking of the q branch, finishing up the makeover in that room is on my to-do list for January.  I’ve picked out the new wall color, so once I get that village put back away again I’m going to get started on painting the walls.  So be sure to stay tuned in the new year!

’tis the season.

Published on by Quandie27 Comments

‘Tis the season for the ever popular gift exchange.

For a recent gathering I attended I needed to bring an item for a gift exchange, so I decided to turn a wooden recipe box from the thrift store into my contribution.

After giving it a light scuff sanding and wiping it down with a damp cloth, I painted it in two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Next I added a small bit of wording from the I.O.D. Melange paint inlay.

I applied most of it to the top of the box, but there was a bit leftover and that went on the front of the box.

Once the paint inlay was applied (see full instructions for applying a paint inlay here) I gave it a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum clear matte spray sealer to seal it before moving on to add the floral transfers.

The florals are all from the Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer, which I am nearly out of now.

I sanded the edges of the box to distress it a bit, and then finished it off with some clear wax.

I then lined the inside with some October Afternoon scrapbook paper.

Before gifting the box, I added some shredded book pages and a pretty glass ornament.

The theme of this gift exchange was supposed to be ‘favorite things’.

First of all, DB’s Drop Cloth is my favorite warm white paint color.  Their Evergreen and Holly transfer is my favorite Christmas floral (oh, how I wish they’d brought it back this year!), October Afternoon was always my favorite brand of scrapbook paper (and sadly, they have gone out of business), and that style of typography from the Melange paint inlay is my favorite as well.

So yeah, I think I nailed it, from a ‘favorite things’ point of view anyway.

I’m always a little nervous about whether or not my style meshes with that of the recipient, but I think this one was a hit.

And hey, remember those old paint brushes I purchased at the estate sale a week or two ago?

I thought it would be fun to dress one up with a couple of Tim Holtz transfers and use it to embellish the wrapped gift.

It maybe wouldn’t be the right look for just any crowd, but this particular gathering was for my fellow vendors at Reclaiming Beautiful (the shop where I sell some of my merch), so I figured they would share my affection for a worn out old paint brush.

How about you?

the north pole bed and breakfast.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

Last summer one of my readers offered me some cupboard doors.  She was remodeling her bathroom and the doors were going to be discarded.  They are the perfect size and shape for turning into stenciled signs.  I always appreciate finding the ones that don’t have an arched panel that makes them wrong for turning sideways.

I’ve already shared a makeover of one of these doors, but I had three left that I was saving for Christmas themed signs.

But then time got away from me.  I worked on other projects, and I spent a week in Mexico, and now here we are just 10 days away from Christmas.  It’s pretty much too late to sell Christmas decor.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t still paint one up for myself, right?

After my usual prep of cleaning with a TSP substitute and scuff sanding, I decided to pull out some milk paint.  It’s been a while since I’ve used milk paint, I wasn’t sure I still knew how!  But I like a chippy look, so I decided to go for it.

I wanted to go with a traditional Christmas red and I ended up having just enough of Miss Mustard Seed’s Tricycle left for this sign.

However, as any of you who have used milk paint know, sometimes you just don’t get the chipping!  I tried to fake it by using tape to pull off some paint (sort of like using tape to remove cat hair from your black leggings) and I got a few little chips here and there, but not a lot.

I also ordered myself a new stencil for this one.  I did have an older ‘bed and breakfast’ style stencil that I’ve used on lots of items …

but it was getting rather worn out (because I’m not good about cleaning my stencils after each use!).

So I searched high and low for a new stencil, and I specifically wanted a Christmas themed bed and breakfast design.  I thought there would be lots to choose from, but I really only found a handful of possibilities.  Ultimately I decided on this one from The Stencil Smith.

I liked that I could order it in an appropriate size for my cupboard door.  Well … close to the right size anyway, I did have to mask off the border.  But that’s OK, I don’t particularly love the border anyway.

I did use my shadowing technique just on the words “bed” and “breakfast”.

If you aren’t familiar with this technique, you simply place your stencil just below and to the left of center and apply the stencil with a darker, shadow color.  In this case I used Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  Once that is dry, move your stencil up and over just a tad and stencil again with your final color.  I used Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth here.

The shadow barely shows up in photos, but it really does make a world of difference in person, adding a lot of depth to the final look.

By the way, I don’t think I mentioned it, but the reason I specifically wanted a ‘bed and breakfast’ sign was because I planned to hang this in our bedroom.

I’ve hung it above my jelly cupboard (where I keep clothes, not jelly).  I draped it with some faux holly garland and a string of red, green and white lights.

I added a vignette to the top of the cupboard made up of a few of my favorite things.

Some vintage ornaments and ornament boxes, and that cute little lantern that I made up last year.

I also added some red and green books, and a ‘Christmas time’ clock

By the way, my friend Netti gave me that red book, The Q Document.  She thought it had my name written all over it 😉

I found these red and green vintage ornaments while out shopping with opK last week.

Now, I have to confess.  My original plan was to give the entire room a new red and green holiday look this year.  I was going to use those green shutters that I picked up last week and hang them behind the bed and breakfast sign, but ultimately I didn’t think my plaster walls could handle the weight.

I also found this adorable throw pillow at Michaels …

and I ordered a green and red plaid duvet set from Amazon.

Unfortunately, when that set arrived it was awfully cheap and tacky looking.  So that went back.  I found a nice looking set on Pottery Barn’s website, but at about $300 for the duvet cover and a pair of shams it’s a bit out of my price range.  I did then find another set on Amazon that I’m going to try, but it won’t be here in time for a Christmas blog post.

So for this year, the full-on red and green Christmas bedroom is on hold.

In the meantime, how do you like the Bed and Breakfast sign?

Although I did paint this one up with myself in mind, I would be willing to part with it if any of you locals need a last minute Christmas gift for someone … or even just some last minute decor for yourself.  I can always paint another for myself.  So check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details!

94 aldersgate street.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

You may remember that I purchased a dollhouse while out garage saling this summer.

It was a bargain at just $5.  It needed a few repairs, but nothing major.  I asked my handyman Ken to create a replacement shutter for the window next to the door, and he made quick work of that.

Ken also created a new window sash for the upper right window, and re-installed the glass in that lower window, which involved adding new stops to keep it in place.

I also needed to replace some of the ‘roof tiles’.  Conveniently enough, I found a pack of popsicle sticks that were the exact size I needed for $1.50 at another garage sale.

I cut them to size and glued them in place.

Easy peasy.

As I was working on those repairs, I noticed that there was a signature on the bottom of the dollhouse.

Looks like Al made this dollhouse back in 1978.  It’s held up pretty good for 45 years old, don’t you think?

Initially I decided to use the Dixie Belle Patina Paint to create an aged faux metal look to the roof.  I first gave it a base coat of black with their Caviar paint, and then painted the shingles with their Bronze patina paint.  Then while the 2nd coat of the Bronze was still wet, I spritzed on the green spray.

But that’s where things kind of fell apart.  I started painting the body of the dollhouse with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, but that warm white just wasn’t working with the bronze roof.

So then I decided to paint the body of the house with DB’s Sea Glass.  And I sort of hated it.  Sea Glass is a very pretty color, and it worked nicely with that verdigris patina on the roof, but the whole combo just wasn’t what I was envisioning for this makeover.

Then I reminded myself that my original idea for this house was to paint it white.  All white.  So that’s what I did next.  I painted over everything with DB’s Drop Cloth.

But I wanted the shutters and front door to stand out just a bit more, so I mixed up a custom paint color using 50% Drop Cloth and 50% French Linen to create a nice, pale grey.

It’s just enough to let those features pop, without taking away from the monochromatic look I was going for.

I felt like the trim over the door was the ideal spot for typography of some kind, so I cobbled together an ‘address’ from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer.

Perfect.  I love it!

Once everything was painted, I distressed the edges a bit to make it look a little bit worn.  I feel like distressing adds so much character to a piece, even a dollhouse.

I finished off the painted areas with some clear wax, then I used hot glue to affix some wreaths to the windows and door.  I attached the lights around the roofline with some Stick-Um candle adhesive, which is basically a super sticky wax.

All of that Christmas frippery could be easily removed after the holidays.  The Stick-Um residue can be removed with a hot soapy rag.

I didn’t do anything to the interior of the dollhouse except use a Magic Eraser to remove some pencil marks on one of the floors.

This way the future owner can dress it up with their own style.

To be honest, this ended up being one of those ‘what was I thinking?’ projects.  I don’t need a dollhouse.  I don’t have a spot for a dollhouse.  In fact, I got rid of my own pretty spectacular dollhouse six years ago (more about that here).

But this dollhouse was a mere $5 investment, so really, what do I have to lose other than the time it took to paint … and then re-paint … it?

And it ended up being a rather fun project to work on.

I had actually planned on doing this well ahead of Christmas, because I thought it might be the perfect time to sell it.  Wouldn’t it be adorable to find under the tree?  While it would make a fantastic gift for a child, it would also just be fun to have as Christmas decor.

But once again, time got away from me and here we are with just one week to spare.

I went on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist to see what kind of competition there will be for selling it and there were tons of dollhouses for sale there!  I didn’t even take the time to count them all there were so many.  So clearly trying to sell a dollhouse around Christmas is not a unique idea.

The prices for those similar to this one ranged from around $150 to $250.  I’m going to price mine well below that though.  I really just want it to go to a good home.  If any of you locals are interested, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Meanwhile, I think I did right by this 1978 dollhouse.

What do you think?

 

one last port of call.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

I do have one last port of call to share from our cruise around Norway back in September, and it was everyone’s collective favorite so I had to be sure to include it.

Mr. Q and I had been to Flåm, Norway once before, and that time we opted to walk from the port up to the 1670’s church that is about 1.5 miles up into the valley.  We had a beautiful sunny day for a walk on that trip.

But this time around my sister really wanted to take a ride on the scenic Flåm Railway.

I had done a little bit of research for our first trip to Flåm, so I knew that the ship’s shore excursions that included the train were ridiculously overpriced.  I also knew that the train station was literally right there next to where the ship would dock, so it would be super easy to do on our own.  I also knew that you could easily buy the train tickets online, or so I thought.

What I didn’t know was that you’d better buy those tickets way ahead of time before they sell out.  We went online about a month before our trip only to find that there were no tickets available for the time slot we needed (clearly the cruise ships buy up big blocks of tickets).  So then we decided we’d better book the ship’s shore excursion despite its inflated price tag because, as my sister put it, this was ‘the one thing’ she most wanted to do in the entire trip!

So we signed into the Holland America website and went to book the excursion for the train, and … as you may have already guessed … it was also sold out!  At least the basic version with just the train journey was sold out.  There was one last excursion available that included the train, but also lunch at a hotel, followed by some free time in Voss and then a bus trip return to the ship.  The price tag?  A whopping $329 per person.  Yikes!

But … as I said … it was ‘the one thing’ my sister really wanted to do.  So we all signed up for it.

So, was it worth it?  Absolutely not.  Would I do it again?  Absolutely not.  Was it still one of the best things we did on the entire cruise?  Yes, it was.  Let me explain.

The train ride was pretty much a bust.  It was pouring rain, the windows were foggy, and really only those people lucky enough to have a window seat could really see anything.

My sister managed to get a few blurry photos through the window.

And we all got out at the mid-way point to see the Kjosfoss waterfall, but it was definitely a case of hopping off the train, fighting the crowd to get a quick photo, and then getting back on the train before you got totally drenched.

I was impressed that the forest spirit, or Huldra, was still up there singing and dancing despite the rain.  See her in the red dress on the right side of the water, about 2/3 of the way up?

We changed trains at Myrdal Station and continued on to Voss, Norway where we were all herded into a hotel for our lunch.  The lunch was served buffet style in a room that closely resembled a high school gymnasium.  There had to be at least 200 people there, if not more.  The line of people waiting to get food stretched all the way around the perimeter of the room.  I don’t think the food was all meant to be cold, but it certainly was.

Since the lunch process took so much time, our ‘free time’ to explore Voss was cut pretty short.  It would have been cool to take the gondola in Voss up to Mount Hangur, but we didn’t have time for that.

We did enjoy some pretty views of Vangs Lake though, where we took a quick group selfie.

Next we boarded a bus for the return trip to the port.

This part of the trip was described as follows by our cruise line, Holland America, “Brace yourself for the serpentine bends of the Stalheimskleivane — the steepest road in Norway — skirting the Sivle and the Stalheim Waterfalls.”

However, we didn’t actually take that route.  Apparently that serpentine road has been permanently closed to vehicles since 2021, so that was a bit of false advertising on the part of Holland America.  My sister did snap a photo of the road as we passed by on the train earlier in the day …

I’m sure there were many people on this excursion that were really disappointed about this, but not me.  I’ll admit, I was relieved.  I was really dreading heading down that road in a big tour bus, it looks terrifying to me.

Instead, the return trip by bus ended up being my favorite part of the entire day.  The bus was quite comfortable with huge windows, and the views along the way were outstanding, even if we weren’t on a serpentine road.

There were small waterfalls absolutely everywhere, I suppose because of all the rain.

We also stopped off at one of the larger waterfalls, the Tvindefossen, where we had just enough time to take a few photos and possibly purchase a souvenir or a snack.

Our route followed the Nærøy river and we caught glimpses of it here and there.

We also made a 2nd stop at Gudvangen, which was really lovely.

We actually even started to see a little blue sky at this point.

We arrived back at the port just in time to do a little bit of shopping before the ship sailed.

After reading this description of our shore excursion in Flåm, you must be thinking that it had to have been my least favorite port on our cruise.  But this area of Norway is just so beautiful that I absolutely loved it despite the bad weather, and the bad shore excursion.

If we could do it over again, we would rent a car in Flåm and drive that route along the river on our own.  We could stop somewhere for a really nice lunch, and make photo stops whenever we wanted to.  All for a fraction of the over $1,200 we paid for 4 people to take that excursion!  Well, live and learn.  If we ever find ourselves in Flåm again we’ll know better!

in the bleak mid-winter.

Published on by Quandie4 Comments

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty winds may blow.  But you also might stumble upon a fabulous estate sale when you least expect it.

Such was the case last Friday when my friend opK and I got together for a little shopping.  She had seen an ad for an estate sale up in Centerville, MN which is about 20 minutes north of us so we decided to check it out.

As soon as we walked up to the property I knew we were in for a treat.  Just take a look at the garage.

Those yellow metal motel chairs were fabulous, but a little out of my price range.

As was this fantastic wooden cart …

I could just picture that out in the garden holding a big Christmas tree all lit up.  Unfortunately it was priced at $220 which was a bit high for me.

The garage was full of fun vintage items, and it was very tidy (definitely not always the case at estate sales).

The person who lived here clearly liked to keep things organized.

 The entire house was open as well as the garage, but by the time I got in the house I’d picked up a few things to purchase so I couldn’t be fumbling around and taking photos with my phone.  Suffice to say the house was also really cool with some amazing french doors, a wrap around porch, and views of the nearby lake.  The decor was definitely dated, but all I could think as I went through was how amazing this house could be if someone updated it just a bit.

When I was checking out with all of my goodies, someone asked if the house was sold, or still going to be listed.  The person running the checkout said she wasn’t sure but it was rumored that the house was going to be torn down and replaced with an apartment building, at which point there was a collective gasp amongst everyone in the room.

If the rumor is true, it certainly will be a shame.

Although I didn’t splurge on that awesome cart, I did bring home a few other goodies.

I was drawn to the painting because I thought it would make a great companion piece to my genuine Al Teeter .

I’m planning to use both of the paintings in the q branch when I complete its makeover this winter (promises, promises).

I always nab vintage books like these when I find them at a good price.

It probably seems a bit strange that I also picked up a bunch of old, gunky paint brushes.

But I have added transfers to these in the past and went on to sell a few of them.

I plan to use some of these in the q branch makeover too.

I never seem to be able to pass up ironstone when I see it either.

This platter is huge at 19″ across, it will probably go in the ‘to sell’ pile because it’s too large to fit in my Welsh cupboard where I display most of my ironstone.

I do love the shape of it, I have another smaller platter in this same octagonal shape.

I took a bit of a gamble with this next item.

I was banking on being able to take it apart and clean the glass.  The dome was held in place with some kind of woodgrain looking tape.  It took about 20 painstaking minutes with an exacto knife but I eventually got the tape off and was able to wash the glass.

That tiny little label on the base says “PERU” on it.

Does that mean these butterfly specimens are from Peru?

This sort of entomology taxidermy art has been seeing a resurgence in popularity lately.  It works really well with the dark academia aesthetic.  I’ll likely bring this into the shop as soon as I can figure out a way to do that safely.  The glass is quite delicate and I don’t want to break it.

Finally, you may have noticed the green shutters in the background of my haul photo.  I didn’t find those at the estate sale, instead they were from a shop in Forest Lake called Vintage Junky.  We stopped in there after the estate sale.  I plan to use them as part of my Christmas decor, so hopefully I’ll be sharing that soon.

It was an unexpected bonus to find such a fun sale in the middle of winter … well, really it’s just the beginning of winter, but I’m trying not to think about all of the winter that is still left to come.  Hopefully we’ll find a few more of these random estate sales to tide us over until next spring!

will it last?

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

I don’t usually spend much time out in the garden in December, but this year has definitely been an exception.  So far we’ve had a lovely warm fall/early winter, and although we’ve had a dusting of snow here or there, it has melted pretty quickly.  We’ve also had some lovely days with sunshine and temps near 50° this past week.

Will it last?

Well, it’s unlikely to last all winter, but for now it has given me plenty of time to get out and rake leaves, clean up wilted hostas and do some extra mulching (we chop up leaves with the lawn mower, and then spread them on the gardens).  I also managed to get some protection set up around my newest lilac bushes in an effort to keep the rabbits away from them this winter.

I purchased a roll of chicken wire at a garage sale for $1 and it was just enough to do my five newest lilacs.  I simply surrounded the lilacs with a length of the chicken wire, and then filled them in with some chopped up leaves.  Fingers crossed that this will be the trick to getting these shrubs established.

Speaking of winter protection, I decided to risk leaving my fairy garden in place for the winter.  I covered it with some chopped up leaves and am hoping that’s enough.

There’s a chance that everything in it will perish, but I’m willing to risk it.  Worst case scenario, I have to buy all new mini plants next year.  But the Alberta Spruce is a zone 3, as are the mini hostas.  The mini Barberry shrub is a zone 4.  The rule of thumb for overwintering perennials in a container is that they should be hardy to two zones below your growing zone.  Since we were just updated to 5a, maybe these things will be OK.

I was also able to fill my window boxes for winter without having to battle rock hard frozen soil this year!  I can’t even remember the last time that’s happened.  I looked back at some of my blog posts from previous years, and even November 9 was too late in 2019!

You may remember that I put some ornamental kale in the front window box for fall, it was still looking so good that I decided to leave it in place for winter.

Will it last?

I really doubt it.  I suspect it will turn into a frozen glob of mush by mid-January at which time it will be frozen in place and impossible to remove, but I thought it was worth a gamble.

In addition to the kale, I filled the front window box with spruce tips and a variety of other evergreens.

Then I added some faux branches of red berries.

I purchased a bunch of these at the after-Christmas sale at Bachman’s last year.  I decided that buying some faux items that I could use year after year in the window box was a good investment.

I think they look fairly realistic mixed in with the real stuff, and they are especially pretty with the dusting of snow that we got yesterday.

I also invested in some faux garland at the same sale, and I used it along with more of the berries to crown the headboard sign on our carriage house.

When I pulled out my Christmas lights this year I found that quite a few of the strings weren’t working.  I’ve always just used white lights in the past, but this time around I decided to add some strings of red and green lights that I found at Home Depot.  So I have a mix of white, red and green both over the headboard and in the front window box.

In addition to keeping the kale in place, I also decided to experiment with some ivy.  This past summer I planted ivy in the front window box, and also in the rusty urns next to the deck and like the kale, it was still going strong.

Since ivy is technically evergreen (meaning it doesn’t lose its leaves in the winter), I thought it might be worth keeping in my winter arrangement.

Will it last?

A quick bit of research online tells me that English Ivy is hardy down to around 10°, so no, it likely won’t last all winter.  But here we are in mid-December and it still looks good, so this will be another experiment to see if keeping the ivy is worthwhile or not.

I filled out the rest of those urns with the usual suspects, some spruce tops, a variety of other evergreens, some birch logs and some dried hydrangeas.

Add some lights and a little bit of snow and they look quite magical.

I was beginning to think that there wasn’t much chance of a white Christmas this year, but then we got an inch or so of snow yesterday.

Will it last?

Nope, I don’t think so.  It’s supposed to be in the 40’s here this week so it should all melt.

We’ll just have to wait and see if we get anymore snow before the big day!

tackling a tackle box.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

I can’t exactly remember how I came by the tackle box that I’m sharing today.

But I’m fairly sure that one of my friends must have found it for me.

I say that because I really don’t think I would have purposely chosen to tackle this one (ha, tackle, tackle box, get it?).

I tend to avoid things with old contact paper stuck to them like that yellow floral stuff in the tray.  This box is also pretty dented and misshapen.  Plus there was some kind of gunk that had totally hardened inside the bottom of the box.  Ewww.

But it was in my stash somehow (I don’t know, maybe I did purchase it myself?), so last fall when I was cleaning up a few other metal boxes out in the yard using the garden hose I added this one to the pile.  First I removed the contact paper, and then I scrubbed it with soap and water.  I then tried to scrape that hardened gunk off the bottom, but it wasn’t going anywhere.  I also tried to sand it down, but it was nearly impossible to get my little palm sander inside the box.

Eventually I just gave up on getting that stuff removed.  I moved on to painting the box with some of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. and then shoved it to the back of the project pile again.

I pulled it back out a couple of weeks ago when I was working on some other Christmas themed items and decided to just see what I could do with it.

I started by painting the inside in Dixie Belle’s English Ivy.

This is such a pretty shade of green, and perfect for Christmas.

Since I couldn’t get the bottom nice and smooth, I opted to line it with some gingham scrapbook paper after I painted it.

I painted the exterior in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once that was dry, I sanded it to distress the edges and then I brought out my transfer scraps to see what would work.

I ended up finding some cursive script that fit the top of the box.  I’m not sure what that was from, but it was most likely a re.design with prima transfer.

Once I had that script in place, I filled in some of the corners with bits and pieces from the Evergreen and Holly transfer from Dixie Belle.

This sweet little red breasted bird fit perfectly on the front of the box.

If you’re someone who pays attention, you might be wondering at this point how I seem to always have more of this transfer even though I’ve mentioned that it’s no longer available.  It was a limited release for Christmas 2022.

Well, as it turned out, one of my local readers purchased it online (you can still find it from various vendors online) and asked me to do a custom lockbox for her.  She had the lockbox, and the transfer, I just painted it up for her.

And as a bonus, she let me keep the remainder of the transfer after finishing her lockbox.

So I do have a bit more of the Evergreen and Holly and I’m rationing it out for a handful of projects.

Now, what would one do with a Christmas tackle box?

I suppose you could put your Christmas card supplies in it.  Is that a bit of a stretch?  Do very many people even do Christmas cards anymore?

What would you do with it?

If you are local and can think of a good purpose, this particular Christmas tackle box is for sale locally.  And I’m pricing it low due to that gunky bottom.  So be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

and I’m back.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

First up, congrats to Gretchen!  I drew her name using a random number generator to win my 10th blogiversary giveaway.

In other news, I’m back from a very relaxing week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

If you were following me last year around this time, you’ll know that last year my neighbor nnK’s parents invited me along on their family vacation to Mexico.  They had been finding it more and more challenging to navigate the airports at either end on their own, so I went along to help tote their luggage and so forth.

It ended up working out really well last year, and I guess they didn’t find my company too tedious, because they invited me back again this year!

We had a lovely time, mainly just hanging out at the pool, sipping cocktails and reading.  I also enjoyed my coffee out on the beach in the early hours.

I have to tell you guys, the grounds at Velas Vallarta are immaculate.  There were groundskeepers out every day pruning, mowing, blowing, and raking.

They also cleaned up the beach and ran some kind of roller over the sand.

It was pristine first thing in the morning.

In general, the level of service at this resort is spectacular.  We were enjoying the all-inclusive package, and I have to say the poolside waiters delivered drinks all day long.  They also delivered lunch to your poolside table.  I can recommend the chicken taquitos and guacamole.

I had a good indication of how things were going to go our first night at dinner.  I ordered a glass of Tempranillo (wine) and they brought me the entire bottle.

While it seems like so many places have really cut back on their housekeeping services since Covid (including even DisneyWorld resorts where they are still only cleaning your room every other day), Velas staff is not only cleaning your room every day, they also come back in the evening for a turn down service and to replenish towels and drinks in the fridge (also included) if needed.

The number of people I spoke to at the resort who come back year after year after year speaks volumes.  This place is a gem.

All of that being said, I have to admit that spending a week in a tropical paradise does not exactly put you in the Christmas mood (despite their lovely addition of poinsettias to the gardens).

I’m struggling to get back on the holiday decor band wagon, although the snow that we got the night before last helped some.

So I’m going to fire up the Christmas music, pull out some paint and a new Christmas stencil I ordered before I left for Mexico and see if I can get back in the groove.

So be sure to stay tuned!