q is for quandie

rope dropping sedona.

Published on March 23, 2022March 22, 2022 by Quandie30 Comments

Those of you who visit Disney parks will know exactly what I mean when I say ‘rope dropping’, but for the uninitiated, rope dropping is when you get to a park before it opens to try and beat the crowds. Back in the day they literally had a rope across the entrance that they dropped at opening time, hence the name.

My sister and I are expert rope droppers, we wouldn’t do Disney parks any other way. They get so crazy crowded later at mid-day. These days I find that the only enjoyable time to be in the parks is early morning, or late evening.

Well, as we discovered on our trip out there last week, Sedona, Arizona is a bit of the same. Debbie and I put our expert rope dropping skills to work in Sedona!

But let me start at the beginning. After flying out to our mom’s house, we got up early the next morning, packed up the car and headed for Arizona. It takes just over 4 hours to drive from Henderson, Nevada to Sedona, Arizona.

We drove to Flagstaff, and then took 89A, a.k.a. the Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Drive, south from there into Sedona. I took this photo from the Oak Creek Vista just so I could show you guys what that road looked like.

Uh, yeah, it was kind of scary.

Rock wall on one side, massive drop off on the other. My mom was cool as a cucumber in the back seat, but Debbie and I white knuckled it the whole way down. The scenery was absolutely spectacular though.

If you head into Sedona from Phoenix or Tucson you won’t be coming this way, but it’s worth taking the drive up and back just for the scenery. Just take 89A north out of Sedona.

Just to mess with our heads, we were traveling on the first day of daylight saving time. Plus, Arizona is a different time zone than Nevada. Plus, we had just flown in from Minnesota which is in even another time zone. Plus, Arizona doesn’t do daylight saving time, but Nevada does. Seriously, wrap your head around that. We had a heck of a time figuring out what time we needed to leave my mom’s house in order to be in Sedona for a 2 p.m. tour we had scheduled.

But we managed it.

Prior to leaving home, we had read a travel tip that suggested taking a trolley tour when first arriving in town to get a good overview of the area and to decide what areas you want to go back to explore further.

So we had booked the Sedona Hi-Points Tour through Red Rock Magic Trolley.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I realized that our tour was in a van, not a cute little trolley. Once again, I hadn’t read the fine print. Only the shorter 55 minute tours took place in a trolley, our 2 hour tour was with a van. But in the end, it was a fantastic tour. In addition to the three of us, there was only one other couple in our group so it really felt like we had a private tour. Our guide was super nice and very knowledgeable about Sedona. We visited Bell Rock, The Chapel of the Holy Cross, and Airport Mesa. Our guide explained the energy vortexes that Sedona is known for, and even did a little demonstration at the Airport Mesa, which is considered to be the most powerful vortex in Sedona. I have to admit, I’m a bit of a skeptic about these things. I didn’t get any sort of magical tingly feeling, but hey, maybe my chakras were a little cleaner after that. Who knows? My mom wasn’t up for much walking so she opted to stay in the van at Bell Rock and at the Chapel and our guide stayed with her and regaled her with stories of Sedona. He was super nice to her and didn’t make her feel like she was an added burden at all. It was handy having a driver to drop us off at both of these locations because they were very crowded and parking was a nightmare, so the tour was worth it just for that.

After our tour concluded, we settled in to our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Arroyo Roble Hotel in the Uptown area. The view from our patio was pretty spectacular.

Just behind the hotel you can walk down to Oak Creek, and my sister and I did that just before sunset on our first night.

It was so peaceful and picturesque.

And having just flown in from Minnesota (where it was 7 degrees) the previous day, it just felt amazing to be outside in such beautiful surroundings.

The hotel also offered a fire pit.

Seriously, does that look like a fake backdrop or what? Nope, that was our actual view. Some other travelers at the hotel joined us out there after dark and it was fun chatting with them.

The pool area was lovely as well.

Although it was fairly cool while we were there, the pool was heated and people were using it in the afternoon. We hadn’t brought swimsuits though, so we missed out on that.

I should mention that this hotel is right smack dab in the heart of the most touristy part of Sedona called Uptown. I didn’t get any photos of that area, but it’s full of over-priced restaurants, cheap souvenir shops and LOTS of tourists. It’s a strange juxtaposition to have all of that beautiful nature out the back, while being steps away from all of that intense action out front. It was interesting to note that everything closed up fairly early though. By 8 p.m. the area out front was practically deserted.

I have absolutely zero complaints about this hotel. The customer service was fantastic. In fact, on our last night there were weren’t able to get into the safe in our room and my sister had put the car keys in there while we went to dinner. After the hotel staff couldn’t get it open either, they located someone at 9 pm to come and drill the safe open so that we wouldn’t have to give up our plan for a sunrise hike the next morning. The included breakfast buffet was really nice too.

And speaking of breakfast, I think the best advice we got from our tour guide was to get up before dawn and do some of the popular hikes before breakfast to avoid the crowds. In other words, we had to be at the trailhead at rope drop!

Now, I should preface this next bit by pointing out that my sister and I aren’t getting any younger. She’s nursing a knee injury, and I have tendonitis issues in one of my heels. Add on to that the fact that we are both afraid of heights. So we planned on hiking the easier trails in Sedona, and not doing any climbing. But for those of you in the same boat, these hikes are still well worth it for seeing some pretty spectacular views.

Our sunrise hike on the first morning was to Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.

We started off down this trail headed towards Bell Rock just as the sun was coming up.

As you can see, the trail is pretty flat at first. You can opt to climb Bell Rock, and there were plenty of people doing that, but I got sweaty palms just looking at other people standing at the edge up there. So we chose to just walk around the perimeter, which still offered awesome scenery.

Just to be clear (for those who may also want to take this hike), the trail wasn’t flat sand the entire time. There was some easy rock scrambling involved too. But it was very doable.

Next we headed off towards Courthouse Butte.

The butte is pretty darn impressive.

By the way, a butte is defined as an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top (similar to but narrower than a mesa).

As impressive as that view is, if you turn around, the vista from here is even more spectacular.

After hiking for a couple of hours, we headed back to our hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we decided to check out a popular shopping area called Tlaquepaque.

None of us are big shoppers, but the area was so pretty that we could have wandered around in there for quite some time just admiring it.

Tlaquepaque was designed in the 1970’s and the design was based on traditional Mexican villages.

There were pretty little plazas around every corner.

And the tilework was really gorgeous.

I really did feel as though I was in another part of the world entirely. But then, this is completely different from anything you’d find in Minnesota!

We did a shorter sunrise hike the next morning before heading back to mom’s house.

I have to say that the hike into Fay Canyon wasn’t quite as impressive as the previous day’s hike, but it was still rather magical.

As with the Bell Rock hike, there was only one other car in the parking lot when we arrived, but it was almost full when we left. All the way back to the hotel we saw cars lining the roads at each trail head that weren’t there when we arrived at dawn.

So my biggest q tip for you if you ever get to Sedona is to be sure and rope drop the hiking trails. They are absolutely gorgeous in the morning light. You won’t have them entirely to yourself, but there won’t be hoards of people on them yet. And best of all, after all of that hiking you don’t feel one bit guilty about that extra sausage you’ll have with breakfast later!

Be sure to stay tuned because I’ll be sharing the rest of my trip out west next week and I’m planning a fabulous giveaway to go with it. In the meantime, I have a dresser that I just finished up that I’ll be sharing on Friday. See you then!

a cloche call.

Published on March 21, 2022March 10, 2022 by Quandie39 Comments

I originally purchased this really cool clock at a garage sale over a decade ago.

It didn’t quite look like that when I bought it. It had glass over the front, and of course it had hands and was a functioning clock.

I had it hanging in my living room. But one dark, stormy night (OK, I don’t know that it was actually stormy) it fell off the wall startling both Mr. Q and me awake from a deep slumber.

I was bummed to find that the glass had broken and the metal clock hands were bent out of shape. I’d still have been happy using the clock without the glass, but those hands never did work right again. So I tucked it away out in the carriage house thinking that one day I would fix it.

Remember those library books I reviewed while visiting my mom in February? Well, flea market chic had this photo in it …

It’s my clock! And they called it a French Train Station clock, or some such equally fabulous name (sorry, I didn’t take specific note). That sure made it seem like a more glamorous item.

Seeing it in the book inspired me to pull it back out of the carriage house once I’d returned home from my mom’s house last time. I purchased one of those battery operated clock kits from my local hobby store and figured it would be super simple to just pop it in. But the hands were too small, and too shiny, and just didn’t fit with the look of the clock.

I have to confess to you guys, I’m sure I could try and find a more suitable clock kit to repair it with. And I could probably get the glass replaced fairly cheaply. But I tend to get easily frustrated with these sorts of projects and just throw in the towel. I had enjoyed the clock for a long time, I didn’t spend much on it in the first place, maybe it was time to just chuck it.

I had placed it on the table near the door to be carried out to the trash on my next trip outside.

But then my friend Patty stopped by. She saw it there and mentioned how fabulous it was, and I told her my sad story and that I was at the point where I was going to just toss it. And she said ‘why don’t you just use it like that, laying flat on a table as some sort of pedestal for something’.

Eureka! What a brilliant idea! Why didn’t I think of that?

And just a foot away on that same table was this …

the giant cloche that I purchased at one of my local garden centers just after Christmas.

I had it sitting on the wooden charger that I painted and added a clock transfer to, remember?

So I thought, hey, that cloche just might fit perfectly on top of the French clock. So I whipped it off the charger and what do you know? It did fit perfectly!

How cool is that?

I switched out the black books that I was using under the cloche for this warmer toned brown book. I think it works better with the brown clock.

But otherwise, I kept the rest of the items that I used originally under the cloche.

To think that I nearly threw that clock in the trash, what a cloche call (pun compliments of Mr. Q)!

What do you think? Pretty awesome, right? Thank you Patti for giving me this fabulous idea!

wearin’ the green.

Published on March 17, 2022March 10, 2022 by Quandie18 Comments

In honor of St. Patty’s Day, and since green is one of my favorite colors, I thought I’d share some of my favorite pieces painted in verdant shades while I’m off enjoying my visit with my mom.

I think my all time favorite shade of green is In a Pickle from Sweet Pickens milk paint.

I absolutely LOVE this color. Isn’t it gorgeous on this washstand? Pieces in this color never sell quickly for me, but every once in a while I paint another piece in it just because I love it so much. I always eventually find someone who loves it as much as I do though. I remember this particular washstand sold to an artist who wanted it for her studio.

I also used In a Pickle on this dresser.

This one crackled in the most perfect way. And again, it took longer than usual to sell but I did eventually find a buyer.

I have one more favorite piece with this particular paint, this farmhouse table.

I really kind of wish I’d hung onto this piece now. I’d love to be using it as my own desk. It’s a bit larger than the one I have now, and I do need a little bit more space. I’m keeping an eye out for another one like it.

My second favorite shade of green is Fusion’s Park Bench.

I’ve painted so many mid-mod pieces in this color. Since I don’t want the chippy look of milk paint on the mid-mod’s, the Park Bench is the perfect choice for them.

Unlike with the In a Pickle, the pieces I’ve painted in Park Bench just fly out the door.

Especially the credenza’s.

Adding gold hardware to this color is always a hit.

My latest favorite green is Dixie Belle’s Kudzu. It was gorgeous on the interior of this little cabinet.

It made a fabulous planter chair.

And it was perfect on this painted toolbox.

I also love it with the Rose Chintz paint inlay from IOD over it.

I still have a mostly full jar of this paint, I’m just waiting for the perfect piece of furniture to come along to put it on.

My mom’s town usually has a parade on St. Patrick’s Day so maybe my sister and I will check that out today. I hope you’re doing something fun today to celebrate too. I don’t have any Irish ancestry (that I know of), but I can get behind any holiday that celebrates the color green, how about you?

mom’s canisters.

Published on March 14, 2022March 10, 2022 by Quandie21 Comments

Hey everybody, I’ve gone to visit my mom in Vegas again this week. But no worries, once again I’ve pre-scheduled a couple of posts to keep you entertained while I’m gone. This time around my sister is joining us, and we’re going to take a little road trip to Sedona. If anyone has any tips on what to see and do in Sedona, be sure to leave a comment today!

Meanwhile, it feels apropos to share this post about my mom’s canisters with you guys while I’m away visiting her.

If you’ve followed me for years, you’ll know that my sister and niece moved here to Minnesota from New Jersey nearly 7 years ago now (gosh time flies!).

When they initially moved here, my sister stored some unpacked boxes upstairs in my carriage house. Once she bought her house a few years later she moved almost everything over to her place. She just left behind a couple of things that she no longer wanted. One of those things was my mom’s old canister set.

I have photographic evidence of this set when it was new.

That’s my mom, and she is pregnant with my sister in that photo, making it 1961. That is my parent’s first apartment in Chicago, and there are the canisters.

My mom says they were either a bridal shower gift, or a wedding gift. Seems like a canister set would be a more typical shower gift back in the early 60’s (it’s not fancy enough to be a wedding gift, those were more likely china, silver or crystal).

My mom used these canisters for 20+ years. Until after my sister got married. At some point my sister mentioned to her how much she liked them and my mom gave them to her (she has always been, and still is, my mom’s favorite!). Then my sister used them for another couple of decades until they ended up in a box in my carriage house. And she doesn’t want them back (and yet, she’s still the favorite, go figure!).

I am a little stunned by how well the canisters have held up after 60 years!

I gave them a good clean, and they look amazing.

A couple of little dents here and there, and one lid is missing its knob.

But otherwise they are in really great condition.

It is a little obvious that neither my mom nor my sister drink coffee or tea,

those two canisters are in the most pristine condition.

It’s also obvious which one got the most wear at our house …

Duh.

I am a self-professed cookieholic. Give me a fresh baked cookie and I simply can’t say no. I’m sure my grubby little hands were into that one on a regular basis (given the state of my dress in the photo below one has to assume that my hands were pretty grubby!).

And hey, can I just note that I was rockin’ the beachy wave before it was even a thing. These days I have to work really hard to get my hair to look that good.

I have to admit, it cracks me up a bit that these were called ‘BeautyWare’.

As though they were some sort of cosmetic product, or pretty clothing, rather than a functional kitchen item. Seems like a blatant attempt to glamorize the drudgery of housework to me.

I wish mid-mod was my thing. But it just isn’t. I can appreciate the aesthetic, but it doesn’t work with the rest of my décor.

I know what Marie Kondo would say, that I should thank these canisters for the service they have done over the years and then let them go. And I have to agree.

I would much rather see them go to someone who is going to appreciate them and give them another 20 years of use. I did a little googling and found a never used, still in the original box, set of 4 of these canisters (it doesn’t include the cookie one) for $299.95 on Etsy. Wowza! I also found a set in similar condition to this one (also without the cookie one) for $129.99, also on Etsy.

So I’m going to price this set at $49, and include the cookie one, and hope that some mid-mod lover out there will want to purchase them and continue to use them.

How about it, are any of you locals in need of a mid-mod canister set? If so, be sure to leave me a comment.

the fine print.

Published on March 11, 2022March 10, 2022 by Quandie50 Comments

I picked up this dresser at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore a few weeks ago while out thrifting with my friend/picker Sue.

It felt very much like a blank slate to me. I knew it would be pretty with the top stripped, and the bottom painted. There were a few ideas that went through my head from there, but then I saw this photo …

I love that look! I know it may not be to everyone’s taste (sometimes I feel like I’m the only one out there who still loves toile), but I thought it was gorgeous. That is another of the new IOD paint inlays called Grisaille Toile on the front of that dresser. I immediately thought that this would be the perfect look for my piece. So I ordered the paint inlay online. While I waited for it to arrive, I stripped the top of my dresser, and prepped and painted the base in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

I was basically going for the same look as on the example piece above.

I was super excited waiting for my package to arrive. And FYI, I ordered from The Painted Heirloom. My order arrived promptly and I would certainly order from her again. The paint inlays were on sale for $38.40 (and last I checked they still are) and shipping was $2.95 for orders over $100 (and free for orders over $150). I added some Homestead House milk paint (including more of their fabulous Soldier Blue) to my order to bring it over $100.

I pulled the paint inlay out of the package and trimmed off all of the edges as per the instructions (for my complete tutorial on applying a paint inlay, click here). I then laid out the sheets trying to match up the edges to create a cohesive design to fit across the front of my dresser. And that’s when things went haywire. I just couldn’t figure out how to lay out the design at 4 sheets wide by 2 sheets tall and still match up the repeat (think of wallpapering).

I had made the assumption, based on that photo above, that I would be able to use it that way.

Turns out that in order to go wider than two sheets of the paint inlay, you have to have more than one packet (and even at $38.40, these things aren’t cheap). Clearly I should have read the fine print!

To save any of you from making the same mistake, here is a helpful graphic that I found online.

You can do 2 sheets wide by 4 sheets tall. Or you can do 8 sheets wide by 1 sheet tall. You can not do 4 sheets wide by 2 sheets tall without using multiple packs.

So, now I have the Grisaille Toile inlay in my stash of supplies waiting for another project that it might work on. I’ll have to find a tall narrow piece because I can’t see myself ever wanting to put over $80 worth of paint inlays on one piece of furniture. OK, it would be one thing if I was doing a piece for myself. In that case I might splurge in this way, but if you’re painting furniture to sell and trying to make some sort of a profit, this is a non-starter (in my opinion).

Back to the drawing board. I still had my dresser ready to go with a stripped top and a body painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. So I gave some thought to how I could create a similar look using supplies that I already had on hand. I started by going through my stencils and pulling out the Dixie Belle Royal Damask stencil.

Then I tested out a couple of different paint colors for stenciling over the Drop Cloth on a test board.

I decided that using Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy would give me a look very similar to the example piece, at least color-wise, plus I preferred how subtle it was compared to the Burlap.

As I was stenciling the front of the dresser I was reminded of the benefits of using a stencil rather than a transfer or paint inlay. You can cover as much square footage as you need with a stencil at no extra cost. You can use whatever paint color you want to. If you mess up, you can just paint over it and start again without any additional outlay of cash. You can re-use a stencil over and over on other pieces, thus bringing the cost per use way down. So at $24.95, this stencil is a much better buy than the paint inlay. Just sayin’

Today’s stenciling q tip: when working with an overall pattern like this be sure to start stenciling in the center of your piece and then work your way out on either side. This way your finished design will be symmetrical.

Once I had the front of the piece stenciled, I sanded the edges of the dresser with 120 grit sandpaper to distress them and then sanded all of the flat areas with 220 grit to smooth them out. I then added a top coat of clear wax.

For the top of the dresser, I had already stripped it using CitriStrip, so I simply sanded it smooth and then finished it with some white wax.

I toyed with the idea of adding a more modern hardware to this dresser. Unfortunately, all of the options that I found online that I thought would work were out of stock. Have you tried finding inexpensive hardware lately? Is it just me, or is it hard to come by?

I felt like the drawer pulls and key hole escutcheons that came on the piece were just a tad over the top, so I decided to try toning them down with a little paint. I didn’t want to give them a solid coat of paint though.

So I made a wash of the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth paint by mixing water and paint about 50/50. I painted that on the hardware, making sure it was in all of the crevices, and let it dry. Then I used a damp cloth to remove the paint from all of the high points. I followed that up with some clear wax.

I like the look of painted hardware that has been worn down over time.

I also like the subtlety of the almost tone on tone look of the Sawmill Gravy over the Drop Cloth …

and that sort of washed out, beachy vibe from the pale colors paired with the white waxed top.

I also think the fine print of this stencil gives a more delicate look than had I used the Grisaille Toile inlay.

Personally, I feel like there is pretty much no contest between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of this dresser. That ambered oak finish had to go.

What do you think?

If you’re local and in need of a dresser, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for details on this piece.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the paint and stencil used on this project.

one last paint inlay experiment.

Published on March 9, 2022March 7, 2022 by Quandie20 Comments

I wanted to share one last IOD paint inlay experiment with you today.

According to IOD, the paint inlays can be re-used up to three times. So I thought I’d try using a sheet more than once to see how it goes.

I started with this trio of books that I had lying around.

I painted the middle book (Robinson Crusoe) in Dixie Belle’s Kudzu and stenciled the spine.

I thought it would be nice to have a coordinating color to go with my pair of floral books.

Next, I painted the smallest book on the top of the stack in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth. I let the first coat dry, and then added a second coat and while it was still wet I applied the IOD Rose Chintz paint inlay.

As a reminder, you can find a how-to on using the paint inlays here:

It was fairly easy to apply the inlay to a book cover …

As you can see, the texture of the cover causes the inlay to not transfer perfectly. But I think that is part of the charm of an inlay and it gives the book an authentically distressed look.

Finally, I painted the third book in DB’s Drop Cloth as well, and then I pulled out my used inlays.

For comparison purposes the inlays above are (from left to right) unused, used once over Kudzu, used once over Sea Glass. As you can see, the inlay will pull some of the paint you are working with back off with it when you peel away the paper.

I decided to use the inlay that had been used once over Sea Glass for my 2nd book.

And here you can see the result.

That book on the bottom of the stack is the one done with a 2nd pass of the inlay. The design is quite a bit more faint. I rather like it, it’s as though it has faded over time like chintz fabric would. In fact, I think I like the look of the used inlay even better than the fresh first time inlay. I thought I would see more of that Sea Glass color transferring back off the inlay. Had I used the Kudzu sheet, I think you’d see some of that green coming back off onto your project though.

I’ve had fun playing around with the paint inlays. I think they will be great to use on various small projects like my watering can, flower crates, and now these painted books.

I also think they’d be awesome for collage style art projects. Also, one packet of the paint inlays will go a long way on smaller projects. I’m not so sure that I would choose to use them on furniture though, especially furniture that one intends to sell. The cost is a bit prohibitive (and spoiler alert, as you’ll see in this coming Friday’s post, you may need more than one packet of paint inlays to cover a piece of furniture) and I’m not sure they add enough value to allow you to recoup that cost by charging more for the furniture piece. Be sure to stay tuned for Friday’s post where I’ll explore this subject a bit more!

painted watering cans.

Published on March 7, 2022March 6, 2022 by Quandie15 Comments

Continuing my experiments with the IOD Rose Chintz paint inlay, I pulled out this watering can to see how hard it was to apply the inlay to a non-flat surface.

Normally I don’t paint galvanized cans like this one, but I had attempted to add an IOD French Pots transfer to it a couple of years back and as you can see, that didn’t really work out very well.

The French Pots transfers from IOD were the first generation of this design, and they were a charcoal grey color. The color wasn’t really dark enough to show up well on galvanized metal. Although I can see where that faded appearance might appeal to some.

Just for reference, the newer black Classic Pots and Traditional Pots transfer show up much better on galvanized metal.

But for this watering can, I felt like my best option for ‘fixing’ it was to paint it. The only way to get that transfer off would have been to sand it off, which would have compromised the patina in that spot. It never would have looked right.

So I painted it with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass. Then I applied the Rose Chintz paint inlay (for details on how to apply a paint inlay click on the image below to see my how-to post).

It really wasn’t difficult at all to work with the inlay on the curved surface.

Rather than use a brayer to press the inlay into the wet paint, I just used a wet cloth to smooth it into place. I was worried I would have problems with the design getting smudged, but even over the curved surface it was easy to get crisp results.

One sheet of the paint inlay was not quite enough to go all the way around one side of the can. I wanted to be sure and share this with you because there is a very definite line where the inlay ended.

I wasn’t expecting the line to be quite so obvious, so just be aware of that.

Since a) I’m a total cheapskate, and b) I was doing this watering can just for myself and therefore knew that this wouldn’t be noticeable where I was putting it, I decided to just try to soften that line rather than use another sheet of the inlay to piece in that space.

Before you seal the inlays (with a spray sealer), the paint (because they are indeed just paint) can be manipulated when wet. So you can use a small artist’s brush and some water to reactivate the paint and move it around a bit.

Hmmm. I may need a bit more practice at that. I think I succeeded at softening up that edge a bit, but clearly I need to work on my fine painting skills.

Regardless, I’m quite happy with how this project turned out.

This watering can is joining a few other painted versions that live above the shelves in my pantry.

The 2nd one in line is one that was already painted white when I found it, but I added the IOD Petit Rosier transfer to it.

The 3rd can in the lineup was also already green when I purchased it.

So far I’ve left it alone, but you never know, I may add something to it one day.

And the last one in line is one I painted in Homestead House milk paint in a color called Maritime Blue.

I just fell in love with that pretty shade of blue.

I’ve done one more quick project to show how the paint inlay looks when re-using a previously used sheet and I’ll be sharing that on Wednesday. Otherwise, I still have quite a few sheets left and I’ll be on the lookout for more fun ways to use them! Have you tried them yet? If so, be sure to leave a comment and let us know if you liked them or not.

flower crates.

Published on March 4, 2022March 3, 2022 by Quandie24 Comments

My picker found these wooden crates for me last summer … at least I think it was last summer. Time tends to blend together for me these days.

Either way, last summer was when I added some stencils to the sides thinking that I would sell them that way.

But ultimately I decided that I didn’t like the dark stains on the wood, and I also didn’t think the stenciling in black worked well with the dark wood. So I never did try to sell them, I just tucked them away and figured I’d give them a do-over sometime.

Well, that sometime is now!

I painted the first crate in Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I just added one quick coat of paint and didn’t worry too much about completely full coverage. I knew I wanted to sand the paint way back in the end to make the crate look super worn.

I re-stenciled the ends in the same ‘flowers’ stencil that I used on one of the crates last summer. This is part of a larger stencil that I purchased on Etsy from The Stencil Market.

I used my normal process for adding a shadow to stenciled letters. I stenciled the design first in Dixie Belle’s Putty, then moved the stencil slightly up and over and stenciled again in DB’s Drop Cloth.

It’s a small detail, but I think it adds so much depth. I also filled in the bridges on this stencil using a small artist’s brush.

Once I’d sanded heavily, I added a coat of clear wax. I happened to have this cool zinc liner that fit this crate almost perfectly so I’m going to pair them together.

Lastly I filled it up with some of my matte white pottery just for the photos.

For the 2nd crate, I went in a different direction color-wise. I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Kudzu. I really wanted to try that IOD paint inlay over the green.

I had a feeling those pinks would really pop over the green.

If you want a step by step on how to use the IOD paint inlays, check out my how-to post by clicking on the image below:

I’m doing a bit of experimenting with the inlays, and you’ll be seeing the results of that in the next week or two. But in the meantime, after adding the paint inlay to the two ends, I stenciled the sides of the Kudzu crate with the same ‘flowers’ stencil. This time I did not add a shadow.

The need to get photos of these crates was a really good excuse to go to my local nursery and pick up some flowering plants. They didn’t have much to choose from, but I got a few pretty cyclamens.

And I always get sucked in by those Baby Tears plants, and I can never keep them alive. I think it has something to do with forgetting to water them on a regular basis. They look great while they last though.

As per usual, my decorating split personality loves both versions of the crate. The simple, worn black version and the colorful floral green version both really appeal to me.

As for the 3rd crate, I had something different in mind. I wanted to provide a container for that mid-mod china that I found while thrifting last week. I’m going to try to sell it at the shop, so I thought it would be fun to package it somehow.

First, I asked my handyman Ken to re-size that crate to fit the dishes. He cut it down and reattached everything to create a perfectly sized container.

I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Silk paint in Tide Pool, taking that color cue straight from the dishes. Then I added the ‘Bon Appetit’ from re.design with prima’s Delicious Menu transfer.

Mr. Q was not a fan of the way I wrapped the wording around the two sides of the crate, but I rather like it. What do you think?

I brought both flower crates (not including contents) and the crate of mid-mod china in to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater on Wednesday evening, so if any of you locals need a fabulous flower crate be sure to stop by the shop this weekend (note: closed on Sunday).

Which crate is your favorite? Or do you have a split personality when it comes to decorating like I do? Leave me a comment and let me know.

blame it on the cabin fever.

Published on March 2, 2022March 2, 2022 by Quandie39 Comments

First things first, congrats to Patty. I drew her name at random to win my Shades of White giveaway. There were a couple of Patty’s who commented, but I have been in contact with the winning Patty so I apologize to the other Patty’s who may have momentarily thought they won and now realize they didn’t.

My friend Sue and I went out thrifting on a cold, but sunny, day last week and I managed to fill up the trunk of her car. That’s saying something, because as Sue likes to say, she originally purchased her car for the size of the two-body trunk (yep, you could easily fit two bodies in there, or a ton of garage sale/thrift finds). On the other hand, my car (the VW bug convertible) has a trunk about the size of a bread box.

Anyway, I came home with A LOT of stuff. And not my typical haul, I have to say. I don’t think I purchased a single item that needs to be painted. Want to see what I found? That’s rhetorical, I know you do.

Let’s start with the clear glassware. Normally I totally steer clear of glassware (lol, pardon the pun), but for some weird reason I was just drawn to it this time.

Ideas came to mind for most of these items.

For example, I added transfers to a few of the canister type pieces.

These two glass vessels would be great for holding gardening tools, or kitchen utensils (or paint brushes for that matter).

I initially thought this next one would just make a great vase, but I also like it filled with vintage silverware.

You can’t quite see it in the group photos, but I purchased a clear glass hobnail jar.

I’m keeping it to use for casual bouquets of flowers from the garden next season … or maybe even just tulips purchased at the grocery store while it’s still bitter cold outside.

Sue suggested I try turning the larger vase I purchased into a cloche. She’d seen it done on White Cottage Co’s YouTube vlog just that morning. So I gave it a shot.

All I did was flip it upside down and use E6000 to glue a glass knob to the top (former bottom).

I’m always looking for cute little jars to put in metal baskets or wood totes that I find, so when I saw this trio I thought I’d tuck them away for the next container that comes along.

They fit pretty nicely into this one, for example …

And speaking of containers, I purchased this metal one separately from the jars that are in it. I only bought the jars for their zinc lids. I needed lids for some older, cooler lid-less jars that I had at home.

Instead of filling that wire basket with jars, I decided it would make a fantastic windowsill herb garden.

My local Bachmans just happened to have these potted herbs on sale for $3.99 each so I grabbed four of them and put them in clay pots and then in the basket. This is my feeble attempt to bring a little summer to my wintery world.

Last up in the glassware category are these corn on the cob dishes.

I purchased these just for myself. Probably the last thing in the world I need is specialized dishes just for corn on the cob. But as I stood in the aisle at Goodwill looking at them, I could just picture a summer BBQ on the deck with steaks sizzling on the grill, a delicious cocktail in my hand, and fresh picked corn on the cob swimming in melted butter in those dishes.

What can I say, there’s a foot of snow on the ground and it was about 9 degrees outside that day. I’m totally blaming that decision on the cabin fever!

I was lucky this time out and came across the holy grail of thrifting … ironstone.

I rarely find ironstone at our thrift stores here in the mid-west. I am separating the pitcher from the bowl. I think a pitcher in a bowl has that 80’s country antique vibe, but separately they are both great pieces.

You can’t tell from that photo, but the pitcher is a big one at about 8.5″ tall. I’m probably going to end up adding it to my non-collection. It was definitely the find of the day.

The bowl is 14″ across and would be perfect to use as a fruit bowl in the middle of your kitchen table, it’s going to go to the shop to sell along with a couple of other large ironstone bowls that came from my picker.

I wasn’t planning to keep the gravy boat, but I just happen to have the perfect spot for it on my Welsh cupboard so I may just have to.

That tall piece in the background of my ironstone haul photo is not ironstone. It’s a sort of faux, crackly … I don’t know what material it’s made out of. But I knew it would look great with a transfer on it.

I came across a few galvanized items that day as well.

The two pieces on the left are from the Hearth & Hand line. And all three of these are much bigger than they look in the photo. The tallest one is 2′ tall, and the squat one is 16″ across.

I had to dress up the two tall ones with some transfers, but I left the short one unadorned.

I also came home with some dishes. I seem to be a sucker for these sets of decorative plates.

They are perfect for tucking into a gift basket.

I happened to have purchased another cute metal basket and a book called The Cheese Course while thrifting that day.

I added some cheese knives that I had on hand. Now all it needs is a couple of fancy cheeses, and it’s the perfect hostess gift.

In the ‘fail’ department, I also purchased this fabulous cheese baker that I was going to include in my cheese themed basket …

But I made a rookie mistake. The cheese baker was in a box when I picked it out, and I never pulled it out to look it over. When I got it home and out of the box, I discovered it was chipped.

Drat! Now what do I do with it? I certainly can’t sell it like that. Is there a simple way to repair that chip? Do any of you have any ideas? I may just have to toss it.

I also grabbed this set of china as a sort of experiment.

I thought the colors on them were lovely.

They were in perfect condition, and there were six dinner plates and six salad plates. And hey, they say right on the back that they are ‘vintage fine china’, so who am I to argue?

I googled them and found some interesting info on them. They were manufactured from the 1950’s through about 1964. In addition, according to antigotrunk.com “this was an exclusive pattern for Max Schoenfeld (that’s the MS on the back stamp). Max was was a California distributor of china and pottery in the Los Angeles area and distributed for many different porcelain houses. Some designs were given to him as “exclusives” only he could sell them, and the initials MS would be added to the back of the each piece.”

Anyway, I thought I’d give it a shot and see if a set like this will sell at the shop. I’ll keep the price very affordable and see what happens.

So there you have it, a bunch of fabulous finds from the thrift store. Which one is your favorite?

the latest thing.

Published on February 28, 2022February 27, 2022 by Quandie14 Comments

I must confess, I am rarely on top of the latest, newest thing out there. I was one of the last ones to get a DVD player, an iPod, a cell phone, a digital camera and so on and so on.

But lately I’ve been seeing all kinds of YouTube videos about the new IOD product, paint inlays.

While out visiting my mom in Las Vegas, I popped into a shop called Bloom. There are several Bloom locations in her area, but I went to the one in The District (I’ve also been to the one in Boulder City on previous visits).

They just happen to be IOD stockists, although I will warn you now, don’t go in there expecting to see a large inventory of IOD products. They had a handful of transfers, some of the molds (although none of the paper clay that I was hoping to find) and just a couple of the new paint inlays. I would have loved to get the Grisaille Toile one, but they didn’t have that one. They did however have the Rose Chintz.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m still a sucker for Rachel Ashwell’s shabby chic style and this Rose Chintz falls right in line with that look. So I couldn’t resist.

Now, before I go any further I want to address the elephant in the room. These things are Pricey, with a capital “P”. I paid $47.95 plus tax for one package that includes eight 12″ x 16″ sheets. Ouch!

I know I’ll be able to get quite a few smaller projects out of one package of the sheets, but if you want to use these on a piece of furniture it could get expensive. According to what I’ve seen online, you can get at least two and sometimes three uses out of a sheet before discarding it. However, the look you get on the 2nd pass is not the same as the look you get from a fresh sheet. In other words, you couldn’t really re-use them on the same piece of furniture and expect it to look uniform. I’ll be experimenting with this going forward and I’ll keep you posted on the results.

As with any new technique or product, I highly recommend creating a test board first to avoid wasting too much of your very expensive product if you have a failure while learning. As you’re about to see, paint inlays are nothing like transfers. It’s a totally different process.

So, taking my own advice, I pulled out a small board that I use for lots of practices and gave it a shot.

Step 1 – paint a first coat of your chosen paint color. I should note here that this product is best used with chalk style paints only. I used Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass.

Step 2 – while your first coat of paint is drying, take the time to get the lay of the land with your paint inlays. They all have a repeating pattern, sort of like wallpaper. So all 8 sheets can create one large connected pattern. What I discovered while trying to line up the Rose Chintz is that there are 4 sheets with one pattern, and 4 sheets with a 2nd pattern. Those with the same pattern can be lined up going horizontally all the way across all four sheets. Those with the 2nd pattern can be lined up below the first pattern, and also can go four across. I hope that makes sense.

Step 3 – trim off the excess margin all around each sheet of the paint inlay. This is mainly important if you are going to be lining up the sheets side by side (and if you don’t do it, just remember that the design does not go all the way to the edge of the paper), but I did it for my test project too.

Step 4 – dry fit the paint inlay to your project. In my case, I was just using it on a small board, so I cut the sheet down to size. I didn’t want to waste any of the excess, I can save that to use on another project. If you are using multiple sheets on a larger surface, now is the time to make sure that you know what order they go in, and have them lined up and ready to go.

Step 5 – this isn’t really an official step in the process, but I recommend that at this point you have all of the items you’ll need at hand and ready to go. You’re going to be working in wet paint, so you don’t want to dilly dally looking around for tools. You will need your paint and brush, your paint inlay trimmed, cut to size and ready to go, a spray bottle of water (or a damp rag), and a paper towel. You can also use a brayer, but that’s not an absolute requirement.

Step 6 – apply a generous, even coat of paint to the surface of your project. Since my practice board is small, I could do the whole thing at once. But if you’re working on a larger surface, it’s best to work in sections no bigger than the size of each sheet of the inlay. While the paint is still wet, lay the paint inlay with the pattern side down onto the wet paint. At this point you can either spritz the inlay with water and then use a brayer to press the inlay down, or you can use a damp cloth to press the inlay into your piece. Make sure that the sheet is fully in contact with your paint. You can blot away any excess water using the paper towel.

Step 7 – let it dry. This is the easiest step. Just let the paint and inlay dry. You can tell that it’s drying because the sheet becomes more opaque when dry. Once it is dry to the touch, you can move on to step 8.

Step 8 – once dry, it’s time to remove the paint inlay sheet from your surface. Spritz it again with water. The inlay becomes translucent again. Let the water soak into the inlay paper for about 30 seconds or so, just long enough to soften up the paper backing.

Step 9 – carefully peel away the inlay paper. If you find that you can’t get the paper unstuck, you may need to dampen it a bit more. Let the removed paper dry, and you can then use it again on another project. FYI, the 2nd use will likely produce a more faded looking result. In addition, you’ll see that the paper has taken away with it some of your base paint color, and that color may transfer to the next project somewhat as well.

As you can see in the photo below, places where the paper wrinkled will show as texture in your dried paint. You can reduce that by getting the inlay nice and flat using the brayer in step 6 above. Conversely, you can also leave more texture in the form of wrinkles if you like that look.

Step 10 – once you’ve peeled away the paper, simply let your piece dry thoroughly.

Step 11 – seal the inlay. This is important! It’s best to seal the inlay with a spray sealer of some kind. The inlay paint is easily reactivated with water, or a water based sealer. If you brush a water based sealer over it, or rub over it with wax, it may smear. I say ‘better safe than sorry’, use a spray sealer. I used the Rust-oleum Chalked protective topcoat in matte clear.

Once the topcoat is dry, you can sand to distress and then topcoat again with your finish of choice. In my case, I sanded my board to distress the edges and also to knock back a little bit of the texture overall. Then I added a coat of clear wax.

Isn’t that pretty?

I feel like the look is reminiscent of vintage wallpaper. Mr. Q says the end result looks much more like a hand-painted design rather than a decal. If you’re one of those people that just can’t live with the slight halo that comes with transfers (although that problem has really been minimized in more recently released transfers), you might really love paint inlays. So far there are only three designs available, but I’m sure there will be more coming in the future (at least I hope so).

Be sure to pin this post so you can refer back to it when you get some paint inlays!