a 10th blogiversary giveaway.

Published on by Quandie110 Comments

I honestly can’t imagine how it’s possible that an entire decade has passed since I began q is for quandie, but today is my 10th blogiversary!

I’ve shared 10 years worth of projects both large, like painting my baby grand piano …

and small, like painting this little dollhouse dresser …

I’ve shared interior decorating projects, like our principal bedroom makeover which included refinished floors, a shiplap wall and an antique headboard modified to fit a queen size bed.

I’ve also shared exterior decorating projects, namely the potting shed.  In fact, I’ve redone that one three times since I started the blog!

I’ve also shared 10 years of gardening successes, like my gorgeous Limelight hydrangeas …

and gardening failures, like that dang lilac hedge.

One of these days that thing is going to finally look good!  I’ve added some winter protection to the newest lilac additions to keep the rabbits from nibbling on them this year and hopefully that will help them thrive!

I’ve also shared a decade of travel with you guys, to both local destinations, like Duluth …

or Bemidji …

and destinations a little further out, like Charleston …

and Sedona …

and even locations way further out, like Malta …

and Split, Croatia …

and most recently, the Netherlands.

Then of course there is Disneyland …

and Disney World.

I’ve worked with a lot of different paint brands over the years, starting with Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint.

And Homestead House milk paint …

and The Real Milk Paint Co’s milk paint.

I’ve also shared some brands of acrylic paint, like Fusion …

and the Silk line from Dixie Belle Paint Co.

I’ve also used something that The Chippy Barn calls Amulent Paint, which was “created with a special type of ceramic technology,” whatever that means.

I’ve also worked with quite a few different brands of chalk style paint like The Urban Rooster and Annie Sloan.

Little Billy Goat …

and even the short lived Rachel Ashwell line of chalk paint.

I think Annie Sloan might be the only one of those paint brands that’s still available.

And then of course there is my favorite chalk style paint, Dixie Belle.

I’ve also shared too many projects to count with transfers on them.  I served as a content creator for re.design with prima for a while, until they wanted me to agree to be exclusive to their brand.

I just couldn’t agree to that when there are other brands like Iron Orchid Designs out there too.

I love I.O.D.’s style, and their paint inlays are fabulous as well.

I’ve also created a few projects for Wallcutz stencils.

As well as Ellen J Goods stencils …

and Gone Paintin’ stencils.

I’ve definitely come a long way since I first started blogging back in 2013.  Actually, I’m a little embarrassed when I look back at some of my earlier blog posts.  Not only have my painting skills improved, but so have my photography and writing skills.

When I first began blogging my goal was to last five years.  At the time it seemed like that was the average lifespan for most of the blogs out there.  I figured I’d have had enough of it after five years.  But that blogiversary came and went and I kept at it.

I came rather close to giving up the blog back in 2021.  I was very overwhelmed by my day job and I didn’t think I would be able to continue with both the full time (plus!) job and the blog.  Fortunately Mr. Q helped convince me that giving up the job was the better choice and I took an early retirement, probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Now here we are in 2023 and after a decade of blogging you might wonder where I’m headed from here and the truth is that I don’t really know.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m doing far less furniture than I used to.  I’ve been finding it more and more difficult to sell my painted furniture pieces.  I’m not sure if that’s because my particular vintage sort of style is on the way out, or if it’s because the market has become saturated with furniture painters, or if it’s simply because I just haven’t been putting as many pieces out there.  Back in the early days my furniture typically sold within the first week of posting it on Craigslist or Marketplace.  Now I have pieces that take months to find their new home and when that happens I lose my motivation to paint more furniture.

That being said, I still absolutely love blogging and I don’t want to give it up just yet.  So I’m going to keep plugging away for now and just see where the wind takes me.  You’ll definitely see more posts about holiday decorating, gardening, travel and plenty of toolbox makeovers.  So I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Now, of course, I want to celebrate this milestone blogiversary with a giveaway!

I’m including lots of fun goodies including some of my favorite Dixie Belle products; clear B.O.S.S., Drop Cloth, Caviar, Gator Hide, Big Mama’s Butta, Sea Spray, the Farmhouse silk screen stencils, a paint brush and some of their Scrubby Soap.  I’m also including 4 of my stenciled drop cloth Christmas stockings …

and finally a revamped toolbox.

The rules for today’s giveaway:  Simply leave a comment on this blog post.  I would love to hear if you have a favorite project or blog post of mine.  Please forgive me if I don’t respond to comments right away because I’m actually off in Mexico at the moment!

Speaking of which, I don’t have any other posts scheduled for the coming week.  I’m taking a week off to celebrate 10 years of blogging!  But back to the rules …

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, or follow my Facebook or Instagram accounts, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, December 3, 2023 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $380, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, December 8, 2023 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying most of the items I’m giving away today!

never say never.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

I’m pretty sure that ‘never say never’ should be my motto.

Having just celebrated my 60th birthday (good lord, how is that possible?), one thing that I know about myself is that I almost always change my mind about things over time.  I suddenly find myself liking something that I once thought would never appeal to me.

And that brings me to today’s project, another pair of ice skates.

This is not the pair that I asked you guys whether or not I should paint, this is another 80’s-ish pair of skates that my friend Sue found for me (probably at a garage sale, but I’m not 100% sure).  Sidebar; I decided not to paint that pair since I’m using them outside as winter decor (you’ll probably see them when I share some of my own holiday decorating in December).

Anyway, today’s skates were another pair that were a no-brainer for paint.  They were quite blah to begin with.

First up I pulled out the laces and tossed them.  They were pretty stained and I didn’t want to salvage them.  Next I cleaned up the skates with a damp cloth and then gave them a coat of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

I knew I was going to use the holly and red berries from the Dixie Belle Evergreen and Holly transfer …

But I also decided to use up some bits and pieces from my scrap pile for the rest.

I just happened to have a couple of lines of script in gold in my stash, so I added those to the upper part of the skates next.  I also had the ‘$10’ and ‘$4’ in gold left over from re.design with prima’s Flower Collector transfer in gold.

I still had a little bit of empty space towards the front of the skates, so I pulled out an old re.design with prima transfer called Gilded Home & Nature which is just a bunch of random things in gold.

I was able to piecemeal a few things to add to the skates including some scrolly bits and the word ‘ROYAL’.

After all of the transfers were in place, I protected everything with a coat of clear wax.

Lastly, I originally intended to add some red velvet laces.  The skates have a fabulous red fabric lining, and I also wanted to play off those red berries.

But the red velvet ribbon I had on hand was too thick to fit through the grommets.

Then I remembered a pair of gold laces that I had removed from a pair of skates last year.

I really didn’t care for the sparkly gold look on that pair of skates.  I swapped them out for some alphabet twill ribbon, which worked much better.

And I very nearly threw those gold laces into the trash.

But at the last minute I decided to keep them because … well … never say never!

You just never know when you might really wish you had a pair of gold laces.

Having the gold transfers on the skates makes the gold laces really work here.

So if you’re someone who likes a bit of sparkle in your holiday decor, these are perfect.

I am tempted to say that the moral to this story is never throw anything away.  But I don’t really support that plan.  No one wants piles and piles of cast off bits and pieces everywhere.  But use your best judgement, you may find a use for those random scraps of gold lettering or that pair of gold laces.

I took this pair of skates into the shop, so if any of you locals are interested you could head in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater today to check them out.  As an added bonus, they are serving free mimosas this morning from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  You gotta love a free mimosa!

rude kids.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Stavanger, Norway is know for its street art.  When we were there in 2017 we took a really interesting street art tour.

But they didn’t seem to be offering that tour the day we were there on our cruise in September, so we headed off on our own to explore the city.

We started off just wandering around the area near the port, which was mainly shops and restaurants.

We were up and at ’em pretty early though, so nothing was open.

And as you can see, it was raining once again.

We then headed over to the old town with all of its quaint white houses.

We wandered around there for a bit and I spent most of that time admiring the small gardens that some of them had.

But we were also looking for a small museum located in one of the houses that Mr. Q and I had visited the last time we were there.

We walked past it a couple of times before I noticed a little tiny sign on the side of the house.  Back in 2017 you could enter the house on its own and it was called The Workers Cottage, but this time around it was part of the Canning Museum.  So we had to buy tickets for the Canning Museum to get into the house (and we also had to ask a staff member at the museum to open it up for us, which he was more than happy to do).

It’s now called ‘No. 90‘ and the house was built in 1836.  It had been lived in by 4 generations of the same family.  The decor on the first floor is from the 1920’s …

while the 2nd floor represents the 1960’s.

It’s very small, but certainly worth a visit if you want to get a peek into the interior of one these quaint little white houses.

When we purchased our tickets for the canning museum, the guide told us that they were also good for the other museums in town.  So we decided to check out the Stavanger Museum next.

I really enjoyed this museum.  It was certainly on the small side, but that made it perfect for seeing everything without ending up totally exhausted.

I particularly enjoyed an exhibit exploring the bunad, a traditional Norwegian folk costume, from different regions around Norway.

I also really enjoyed seeing the traditional Norwegian bridal crowns and learning more about their history.

I had seen photos of young women wearing these crowns, but I didn’t know that they were brides.  Apparently the wearing of a bridal crown symbolized purity and chastity (similar to the white wedding veil we wear).

The museum also showed a bridal crown made of straw, which was apparently what the not so pure brides got to wear.

But most of the crowns were made with at least some silver elements to protect the bride from evil spirits.  I guess those less than pure brides were on their own when it came to being abducted by trolls or evil fairies.

We were running out of time after seeing the Stavanger Museum, which was too bad because I would have loved to also visit their art museum.

Instead we had to make do with checking out some of the street art on our way back to the ship, including a series of ‘rude kids’ by dotmasters.

Yikes, this next one is defacing the Mona Lisa!

And I think we all know this rude kid with his face in his phone all the time …

But we didn’t actually find any actual rude kids in Stavanger.  In fact, pretty much all of the people we encountered in Norway, young or old, were very friendly and helpful.  I totally recommend a visit to Stavanger if you ever have the opportunity!

painting vintage sleds.

Published on by Quandie10 Comments

By the end of last summer I was beginning to think that I wasn’t going to have any sleds to paint this year!

I hadn’t found any at garage sales, and usually I find at least 2 or 3.

Last year I had 4 sleds to paint.

That was a good year!

Maybe I should clarify that to say that I hadn’t found any affordable sleds at garage sales.  I’d seen a few that were priced in the $60 and up range, and I don’t even charge that much for mine once they are painted.

But then I found a broken one at a late season garage sale, and then another one at my friend Jackie’s sale in the fall.  Then I also remembered that I had a different sort of sled out in the workshop that I found in early summer.  I’d forgotten about that one!

So once again I pulled out my favorite stencils and got to painting.

First up, the broken one.

Fortunately, whoever owned this sled before me had already gone to the trouble of cutting out a replacement for the missing slat.  I’m not sure why they didn’t go one further and actually attach it, but my handyman Ken made quick work of that.

Then I painted just the slats in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry I pulled out my random selection of stencils to see what would fit.

This is really the most challenging part of stenciling on these sleds, finding wording that fits on the slats.  I have a selection of various stencils that I take lines of wording from for the sleds.  All three of these lines are from different stencils.  I’ve had most of them for quite a few years now, so I’m sorry but I don’t have sources for them.

I stenciled ‘Saint Nick’s’ in Dixie Belle’s Honky Tonk Red, ‘Christmas Trees’ in their English Ivy, and ‘cut your own fresh tree’ in Coffee Bean.

The next sled is the one I found at my friend Jackie’s sale, but somehow I neglected to get a ‘before’ photo of it.  But I didn’t have to do too much to this one aside from giving it a good clean, and then painting it.

That ‘Bed & Breakfast’ stencil is one of my favorites, but again, I couldn’t tell you where I got it.  But no matter, I’m sure you could find something similar out there if you do a little searching online.

I painted this sled in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, then added the bottom section of wording in their Coffee Bean.  I also added a shadow of the wording to the first two slats using Coffee Bean.

That shadowing really adds a lot of depth to a stencil, and it really helps make those words pop even though they are in that warm white.

It’s super simple to do, just stencil the design first in the shadow color, in this case the Coffee Bean.  Then move your stencil just a tad up and over and stencil again in the final color.

Last up is this sled I found earlier in the year.  This one is more of a toboggan, rather than a sled.

First I removed that bright yellow rope from the sides, that wasn’t going to work with my aesthetic at all.

Then after giving it a good cleaning, I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  The stencil is from Wallcutz and I used Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth for the stenciling.

I sealed it up with some clear wax, and the I pulled a length of old rope out of my stash and strung that through two holes at the top of the toboggan.

Although most of us think of sleds as an outdoor sort of item, I think they can be adorable hung inside as Christmas decor too.  When I brought these in to the shop, I hung the Bed & Breakfast sled in a ‘bedroom’ vignette and it looks great (and P.S., isn’t that bed gorgeous?).

photo from Reclaiming Beautiful Facebook page

That being said, I do have a sled that I’ve hung onto for myself and I’ve used in in several different spots outside.

Hanging on the potting shed …

Hanging on the carriage house …

Or just leaning on a bench.

So many options!

What would you do with a painted sled?  Leave a comment and let me know.

overwintering annuals.

Published on by Quandie8 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Do you remember last year when I said I was going to attempt to overwinter my caladium?

I went back to read that post and was reminded that we had a ‘feels like’ temp of 12° in October last year!  We are having a much milder fall this year, we had temps near 60° this past week which was delightful.

Anyway, my attempt to save my caladium was a dismal failure.  When I pulled the tubers out of their box in the spring to plant them they were totally dried up.  I totally overdid the ‘keep them dry’ thing.  I should actually have kept them slightly damp, but not too damp, and definitely not completely dry.

Maybe overwintering caladium tubers just isn’t for me.

But I am going to attempt to overwinter a couple of other plants this year, the first being the Streptocarpus Ladyslippers™ Deep Blue Vein that I had in my front window box.

These actually weren’t a great choice for that spot and I considered them to be a bit of a fail.  They were totally swallowed up by the more vigorous annuals planted around them (Dutsy Miller, Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Dark Eyes Fuchsia).

I was quite surprised by how large they had gotten when I dug them out before our first frost though.  They were so buried under those other plants, but they’d still put on a good bit of growth.  I hadn’t planned on keeping them, but they looked pretty good and were still full of blooms.  So I decided to pot them up and see how they perform as houseplants over the winter.

They’ve been blooming like mad since I brought them in.  Some online sources say they will continue to bloom all winter long indoors.  Since they like cooler temps, between 60° and 70° they should be quite happy situated next to our fairly drafty windows in winter.

I also decided to try and save my scented geraniums.

You may remember that I picked up a pair of them at Tangletown Gardens back in July.

I brought these indoors a week or so before I headed off to visit my mom.  They were growing in terracotta pots outside, so I didn’t have to dig them up or anything.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get watered while I was away and I came home to mostly dead looking plants.  After cutting away all of the brown stems, this is what I was left with.

Um, yeah.  Not much.

But they aren’t entirely dead, so I’m still willing to give it a go.

There are multiple ways you can overwinter a geranium.  You can let them go dormant and then hang them upside down, or place them in a brown paper bag, and put them in your basement.  However, if you use this approach you do need to give them some water about once a month.  I’m definitely an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ kind of gal, so I’m pretty sure I would have the same success with this method that I did with the caladium (in other words, none).

You can also take cuttings from your plants and place them in water in a sunny windowsill.  Once they develop some healthy looking roots, you can pot them up in small pots and keep them indoors until spring.  This would have been a great option had the leaves not all fallen off while I was away.

But the option I’m going to try is to just keep them as houseplants over the winter.  I’ve got three more trips planned for this winter though, so we’ll see if they manage to survive.

Last up is my newspaper roller full of succulents.

You may remember that I purchased this strange looking item at a garage sale last summer and learned that it was meant for rolling old newspapers into ‘logs’ for a fireplace.

I decided to turn it into a succulent planter, and it worked out beautifully.

I couldn’t bear to just let those succulents freeze, so I brought the entire thing in the house.

I made a spot for it in a sunny windowsill, so we’ll see how it does.

One downside to this arrangement is that the newspaper roller isn’t entirely watertight so I have to use caution when watering and not overdo it.  So far, so good though.

How about you?  Do you have any plants that you attempt to save each winter?  Leave a comment and let me know!

the bomb box.

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

Earlier this year I picked up this wooden crate at my friend Jackie’s garage sale.

Apparently it once held bombs.  I’m not sure what she was doing with a box of bombs … uh oh, maybe I shouldn’t be saying ‘bomb’ so much, my blog is going to end up on some kind of a watch list.

The rope handles on the sides were intact, and I think they add a nice touch.

I didn’t want to alter the original stenciling on the crate, just in case someone … you know … likes it?

But the opposite side was completely blank, so I knew I could do something there.

I also thought this box would be the perfect size to hold a small tabletop sized Christmas tree.  It is 10″ tall x 13.5″ wide x 12″ deep.

I went through my numerous Christmas stencils and decided that the smaller version of the Rudolph & Co stencil I had would fit quite nicely on the blank side of the box.

I stenciled it using Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

Next I pulled out this faux tabletop tree that I purchased at Target a few years back and it fit perfectly in the box.

Obviously this was a super quick and simple project.  But how perfect is that box for a little Christmas tree?

I’ve brought this box into the shop this week, so if you’re local be sure to head to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater if you want to check it out!

there is no bad weather.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Our recent trip was actually the 4th time I’ve visited Norway.  The first time I went was way back in the 90’s when my mom and I took a bus tour around Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  Mr. Q and I have since been on a couple of cruises that stopped in Oslo also.

But this time around my sister and niece were with us, and my sister has always wanted to see Norway, so after six days in Amsterdam we boarded a Holland America ‘Viking Sagas’ cruise around Norway.

I knew Debbie would love the open air museum in Oslo, the Norsk Folkemuseum, so that was our plan for our first port of call.

This time around our ship docked just a little bit further away from pier 3 where you can catch a ferry across to the Bygdøy peninsula, but it was still a fairly easy walk.  We chose to detour through the Akershus Fortress on our way.

It’s super easy to buy a ticket for the ferry at the ticket booth on pier 3.  The ferries depart fairly frequently and we were able to get right on one.

The Bygdøy peninsula is home to the Folkemuseum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, the Maritime Museum, the Holocaust Center and the Polar Ship Fram.  You could easily spend an entire day over there.  Unfortunately the Viking Ship Museum is closed until 2025/2026 while they build a new facility.  My sister was a little bummed about that, she really wanted to see the nearly 1,200 year old Viking ships they display there.

It’s another short walk from the ferry stop on Bygdøy to the Folkemuseum through a very lovely residential area (what the museums calls one of Norway’s most prosperous areas).

In case you haven’t already noticed, yes, it was raining.  But it was only a light drizzle, and it wasn’t cold outside so it wasn’t a problem … yet (that’s foreshadowing).

The Norske Folkemuseum is home to 160 buildings from the middle ages through the 20th century and is Norway’s largest museum of cultural history.  The buildings are situated by region.

This sod roofed farmhouse is from 1845 and from western Norway.

There were quite a few buildings from rural areas of Norway.

Including some spectacular examples of the stabbur, a building used to store food.

The Folkemuseum is also home to the Stave Church from Gol.

This church was built in approximately 1200.  It was moved and rebuilt on Bygdøy in 1884.  Stave churches represent an interesting combination of Christian symbols (the crosses) and Viking symbols (the dragons at the top of the building).

In addition to more rural buildings, there is also a section of the museum called the old town that contains buildings from Christiania, which is what Oslo was called in the 1600’s and 1700’s.

There are shops and townhouses.

You can go inside most of the buildings on display including the shops, although Mr. Q opted to hold up the side of the tobacco shop rather than checking out the inside.

In summer or on weekends there are costumed ‘museum hosts’ demonstrating various activities.  However, we were there on a Monday in September, so we nearly had the entire place to ourselves.

We did run into a woman doing some baking in one of the houses in town though.

  Can I just point out that table she is working on?  If I didn’t know better I’d swear the base of that table was painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s French Enamel.

Speaking of fabulously worn painted furniture, I also took a quick snap of this next table inside one of the buildings.

How’s that for a delicious authentic patina?

When we were done checking out the Folkemuseum, we headed back to the ferry and back across the inner Oslofjord to Rådhusbrygge 3 (townhall pier 3).

By the time we got back to the pier the rain was really starting to come down.  We had initially planned to spend some time walking around, maybe check out Karl Johans gate, maybe pop into a couple of shops.  But we were getting soaked.

We ended up in a duty free shop at the port instead where we found a really nice wool sweater for Mr. Q.  Remember when I mentioned that my first trip to Norway was back in the 90’s?  Well, I purchased a Norwegian wool sweater for Mr. Q on that trip and he literally has worn it for about 30 years!  It had only recently begun to fray a bit around the seams, so it was time for a new one.

We also ended up running into an older Dutch woman from our ship who asked us if we would be kind enough to walk her back to the ship.  She was soaked and didn’t seem to have an umbrella or any other rain gear!  And I think she wasn’t entirely sure she knew the way back.

So, we headed back to the ship where it was warm and dry.

We were hoping for a picturesque sail away out of Oslo, but the rain continued.

We were grateful for our somewhat protected connected balconies because we were still able to sit out there and enjoy it.

The ship’s cruise director gave some commentary on the sights as we passed them, including the Dyna Fyr lighthouse.

You can rent it for events including weddings.  How cool would it be to get married there?

However, you may want to save up for it.  According to their website, the price of the rent is 4500 NOK + 12% VAT per hour (or around $500 per hour). Lunch is a minimum of 3 hours and dinner a minimum of 4 hours.  Although that price includes the boat trip back and forth, it does not include the food (as best I can tell, it looks like the food is in the neighborhood of $100/person with a 20 person minimum).

This was my 4th visit to Oslo, and the 4th time it was overcast and rainy.  If you’re looking for a warm and sunny vacation, Norway probably isn’t for you.  But as they say in Norway, “Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær!” which translates to “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes!”  I totally recommend taking a trip to Norway, but be sure to pack your rain gear!

neutral or traditional?

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

A friend recently nabbed this cute little pair of mini chairs for me.

Although they had an awesome chippy paint on them, they were quite dirty.  I tried scrubbing them down, but they still looked fairly grungy so they definitely needed a paint job.

I decided to give them two different holiday looks; one is more traditional with red and green, and the other is more neutral.

Let’s start with the traditional look.

I painted this chair in my favorite Dixie Belle Drop Cloth.

Then I pulled out those same 6×6″ stencils that I used inside the Christmas clock shadow box that I shared a while back.  As I mentioned then, I ordered these from Amazon, but the exact stencils are no longer available.

I masked off the area for each of the colors that I used and stenciled them separately.

The truck is DB’s Honky Tonk Red, the tree is their English Ivy and the rest is done in Caviar.

It’s a little more time consuming to do a multi-color design like this, but I think it’s worth it in the end.

I painted the 2nd chair in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

I used another of the 6×6″ stencils on this one too.

I used DB’s Drop Cloth, and this one was a bit simpler since I just used one color for the stenciling.  I did add a little dimension by adding a quick swipe of French Linen on each of the letters.  I just used an artist’s brush and added those free hand.

One benefit to the more neutral chair is that it isn’t strictly a Christmas decoration.  You could leave this one out all winter.

Either way, both chairs turned out pretty cute.

I’ll be bringing these into the shop along with the rest of my holiday merch this week.  They are priced at $22 each if any of my local readers are interested.

Leave a comment and let me know which look is your favorite!

my holiday merch.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

Before I get into today’s post, congrats to Amanda whose name I drew to win my Christmas Inspiration giveaway!

Earlier this week I brought just a small sampling of my Christmas items into the shop where I sell some of my things on consignment, Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN.

By a small sampling, I mean I was limited to just five items this week.  It was a bit of a struggle for me to determine which five things to drop off, but ultimately I went with these five …

First, the skates that I shared with you guys last week.

These are priced at $55.

Next up, this stenciled sled.

It is 37.5″ tall x  22″ wide and is priced at $58.

I also brought in this adorable green kid sized chair …

It is 22.5″ tall x 13.5″ wide x 12″ deep and is priced at $48.

Item no. 4 that went in to the shop already is this wooden stenciled sign.  I thought perhaps I should round out my selection with something that wasn’t in the traditional red and/or green.

This sign is 28.5″ wide x 21.5″ tall and priced at $45.

Lastly, I brought in the birdcage centerpiece that I created last year.

The birdcage is 12″ tall x 10″ deep x 13.5″ wide and is priced at $48.

So that’s the five items that have already gone to the shop.  It’s certainly possible that they have not been purchased yet (although last night was the shop’s holiday open house), but you locals would have to visit the shop to find out!  Check out their Facebook page for hours and location.

Now, how about taking a look at a bunch of the other pieces that I have ready to take to the shop next week?  Let’s call this a bit of a pre-sale for any of my local readers who might be interested.  If you are interested, you can jump on them now by leaving me a comment or by sending me an email at qisforquandie@gmail.com.

I’ve been working hard pulling together a bunch of items for Christmas and I wanted to show them all here, but I’ll be taking the time to write proper blog posts about a few of these items over the next several weeks as well, so stay tuned for more detail.

I have one more vintage sled with metal runners (personally, this one is my favorite with its neutral shades).

This sled is 38.5″ tall x 23″ wide and is also priced at $58.

I also have this next sled, which doesn’t have metal runners, but it still turned out pretty darn cute.

This sled is 37″ tall x 12″ wide and is priced at $48.

I have another kid sized chair, this one is painted in my favorite warm white, Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and I think it has a bit of a Scandi vibe with the red and white.

This chair is also 22.5″ tall x 13.5″ wide x 12″ deep and priced at $48.

This wooden ‘bomb box’ is going into the shop priced at $45.

At 10″ tall x 13.5″ wide x 12″ deep it’s the perfect container for a small tabletop tree.

I turned this old beadboard cupboard door into Christmas decor, and it’s for sale as well.

It is 25″ wide x 22″ tall and for sale at $55.

I’ll be bringing this lantern in priced at $32.

I have this ‘let it snow’ kid sized vintage shovel, which I actually painted up last year and kept for myself.  But I’ve decided to let it go this year for $45.  It is 34″ tall.

Speaking of things I kept last year, but am going to bring in to the shop this year, this sign falls into that category too.

This one is 13″ tall by 28.5″ wide and also $45.

I’m willing to part with these petite vintage ice skates for $25 …

and this adorable lantern (on right) for $26.

I also have a few faux grain sack stockings leftover from last year.

I’m marking them down to $11 each, so I’m hoping they sell this time around.

Next up is a random cutting board that I had in my stash.  I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I trimmed up an image from the I.O.D. Candy Cane Cottage transfer set to fit.

Super simple, and pretty cute, right?  It’s for sale at $18.

Did I also mention that I didn’t just buy one of the Candy Cane Cottage sets?  I bought two just in case I really loved it, and they sold out quickly.  Turns out it was lucky I did that, they are already sold out and pretty much impossible to find.

I put that same Hot Cocoa design from my 2nd set on a vintage gingham tray that I had on hand.

That gingham pattern kind of messes with my camera’s ability to focus, but I promise, in person it looks good and it’s priced at a mere $12.

I also used the Grandma Kringle’s Candy Canes design on a vintage enamelware coffee pot.

Once again I had to trim off a little bit of the design in order to get it to fit my piece, but that was easy enough to do.

The candy cane coffee pot is priced at $25 (and FYI, both of the rolling pins in it are for sale at $10 each).

Next up are some bottle brush trees that I dressed up by adding them to vintage silver pieces.

I tucked some battery operated fairy lights into some of them, the battery pack just slipped right inside the silver piece.  Those with lights range from $18 to $22, those without lights are $16.

I also did some bottle brush trees in vintage door knobs, priced at $12 each.

They all look festive grouped en masse on a large silver tray (priced at $24).

And there you have it.  Most (but not all) of my holiday merch.  I’ll still be working on some fun holiday projects and sharing them here along with some more detailed posts about a few of the items shown above.

If you locals (Twin Cities, MN) are interested in purchasing any of the items (other than the first five that are already at the shop), be sure to leave a message here or send me an email at qisforquandie@gmail.com.  I’ll try to modify this post to mark items as sold if they get spoken for.  First come, first served, and you may want to act fast because I’ll be delivering these to the shop next Wednesday.  I should also note that I don’t always see the emails right away, so your best bet is to leave a comment here.

a road trip to Zion.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

As you know, last week my sister and I were out at our mom’s house near Las Vegas.  It was mom’s birthday on Halloween, and we decided to take her on a little road trip to celebrate.

We loaded up the car and drove up to Zion National Park in Utah.

We opted to take the more scenic route through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area rather than taking the interstate all the way.  This route makes a bit more sense when leaving from mom’s house in Henderson, Nevada rather than somewhere near the strip in Vegas, but it does also add about 30 minutes to the trip.  Mainly because the speed limit on much of I-15 is 75 m.p.h. while the speed limit through the rec area is 50 m.p.h.  Otherwise it only adds about 5 extra miles.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get there due to some road construction as well though.

I should also note that you need a National Park Pass to drive through the Lake Mead rec area.  My sister was able to buy an annual pass at the gate for $20 as a senior (you must be 62 or older, so I don’t qualify quite yet).  We were then able to use her pass for all of us to get into Zion as well, so it was definitely $20 well spent.

And Zion was definitely worth both the drive and the fee!

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Zion Canyon and when we drove up to our hotel we were not disappointed.

But honestly, there were quite a few hotels along highway 9 in Springdale, and all of them had a similar view.  I think one could be happy with any of them.

Before planning this trip I didn’t realize that Zion is the 3rd most visited National Park in the U.S. with over 4.5 million people visiting per year (wowza!).  It’s only beat by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.  I really thought Yellowstone would be higher up on the list, but it’s down at number 7.

Because of the large number of people visiting, the park has developed a shuttle bus system to move people around.  There is a shuttle bus line within the park that travels the Zion Canyon scenic drive, and another shuttle bus line that goes through Springdale and has 9 stops including one right in front of our hotel.  The shuttle buses are completely free of charge.

However, you should note that from March through November and around the Christmas holiday you are not allowed to drive your own personal vehicle on the Zion Canyon scenic drive (with one caveat, which I’ll explain later).

After arriving and checking into our hotel, my sister and I decided to walk to the visitor center while our mom rested up a bit.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and even the walk through town was gorgeous.

It took a little over 20 minutes to walk to the park entrance.

After checking out the visitor center a bit, we decided to take a quick hike on the Pa’rus Trail.  This is an easy 3.5 mile paved trail that starts right at the visitor center.

It follows the Virgin River up to Canyon Junction.

It was late afternoon by the time we started this hike and the golden light at that hour was absolutely stunning.

The leaves in Zion were just starting to turn for fall, they weren’t quite at peak color yet but were still very pretty.

The Pa’rus trail isn’t especially physically challenging, and in fact it’s even possible to do it with a wheel chair.  The scenery along it is beautiful, so even if you aren’t much of a hiker, you could still really enjoy a visit to Zion.

As the sun was coming down, we decided to hop on the Springdale shuttle and head back to the hotel to pick up mom and get dinner somewhere.

Funny sidebar tidbit, the two guys we sat next to on the shuttle were from Holland.  Seriously, as I keep saying, it’s a small world!  We were sure to tell them how much we loved our trip to Amsterdam in September.

We’d heard a lot of talk about how crowded Zion can be, and that there can be up to a 45 minute wait for the Zion Canyon shuttle.  So we planned accordingly and decided to beat the crowds with a sunrise hike the next morning.  We used this same strategy when we went to Sedona last year, and it worked out great.

The first shuttle leaves the visitor center at 7 a.m.  So we got up at 6, enjoyed the included breakfast at our hotel with mom, then drove up to the visitor center.  It was easy to find parking there at that hour (but the parking was completely full later).  We also got right on the shuttle with no waiting, and plenty of space (also, FYI, when we returned at around 11 a.m. there was only a very short line for the shuttle, so visiting Zion in late fall is also a good way to avoid the crowds).  We took the shuttle all the way to the final stop at the Temple of Sinawava.

This is where you will find the Riverside Walk that leads to the Narrows.  This is a 2.2 mile trail that follows the Virgin River deeper into the canyon.

At that hour we nearly had the trail to ourselves and it was magical to watch as the sun came up and started to light up some of the peaks around the canyon.

The popular thing to do at the end of the Riverside Walk is to continue your hike up through The Narrows by hiking in the river.

That explains all of the shoes left at the end of the trail.

But I have to tell you, it was 28° that morning.  And we were told that the water was around 47°.  Yeah, even us hardy Minnesotans weren’t brave enough for that, plus I’ve never really been one of the cool kids.

A few brave souls showed up while we were there though, and indeed they headed off in the water.

More power to ’em.

If you’re willing to suffer the cold, late October might be the best time to do this hike.  I’ve seen photos of how crowded this spot can be in the summer months …

But we just took a quick selfie (me on the left, my sister on the right).

And then turned around and headed back towards the shuttle stop.

There was a shuttle waiting, so we hopped right on and headed back to stop number 7 for the Weeping Rock Trail.

This is a short but steep trail that ends at a rock alcove with dripping spring water.  Being rather afraid of heights, I stayed as far from the edge of the trail as I could get.

They had a lot of plant markers identifying many of the wild flowers growing alongside this trail which I found interesting, and they also provided a good excuse to stop and catch my breath periodically on that uphill climb.

By the way, I mentioned that it was about 28° that morning, and here’s proof.

All of that dripping spring water was creating icicles!

After that short hike it was back to the shuttle and stop number 4, the Court of the Patriarchs.

We were able to get to the Sand Bench Trail from this stop.

This was a lovely trail, but it also doubles as a horse trail.  So much like our hike in Forestville State Park a couple of weeks earlier, we found ourselves dodging road apples (a.k.a. horse poop).  We eventually gave up on it and headed back to take the shuttle back to the visitor center.  It was time to return to the hotel, pick up mom, and find some lunch.

While riding the shuttle we asked the driver about handicap accessibility.  The shuttles are handicap accessible and they have a motorized lift that will help people get up and into the shuttle.  However, she also let us in on a not so well known tip.  If you have a handicapped person in your party, you can get a special permit that allows you to drive your private vehicle on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive along with the shuttle buses.  You can also stop at any of the stops and park your car to get out and look around.

We went to the information desk at the visitor center and the park ranger was more than happy to provide us with this special permit.

So after lunch we once again headed into the canyon, this time with our mom.  She enjoyed several of the scenic overlooks, like this one at Big Bend …

and she even walked a bit of the Riverside Walk with us (that paved trail we hiked at sunrise).  She was able to use her walker and the trail is quite flat at the beginning.

We ended up back at our hotel by late afternoon, and mom was a bit worn out.  So I have to admit we just lazed about for the rest of the evening.  In hindsight, I regret not thinking about doing the scenic drive in the Kolob Canyons instead.  That part of the park is about 40 miles north of where we were though, so it would have been a bit of a drive.  Plus part of the scenic drive there is closed due to damage from a rock slide.  So maybe I don’t feel so bad about missing it after all.  Instead we enjoyed a quiet evening visiting with our mom on her birthday.

If you ever have extra time in Vegas, and access to a car, I highly recommend taking a little road trip out to Zion.  It’s a little further out than Red Rock Canyon or the Valley of Fire, but definitely worth the drive.  Have you been?  Leave a comment and let me know!