Amy’s eclectic Christmas home, part 2.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Welcome back to part 2 of our tour of Amy’s house!  Today we are checking out her family room, party room and that fabulous greenhouse.

Let’s start out by heading downstairs to check out her family room.

Isn’t that collage of old shutters on the wall over her stairway awesome?

It’s the perfect spot for that festive banner!

While Amy used a lot of green and gold in her Christmas décor upstairs, the downstairs is devoted to red and white.

I love the way she mixes the mercury glass and bottle brush Christmas trees and masses them all together on the mantle.

I’m also a fan of these knit stockings with a Scandinavian feel.

Amy’s love of Christmas villages is apparent here in the family room too.  She has a few more Putz pieces sharing the bookcase with some fabulous vintage cameras and old books.

She also has this very old, and rather tiny, paper village showcased in a small cabinet.

I did a little quick google research and I think this little village might date to the late 1920’s (cardboardchristmas.com).  If any of you know differently, please let me know in a comment.

It always amazes me when something this delicate has held up for nearly 100 years.

Back upstairs let’s head into what Amy calls the party room.  This room is accessed through a pair of french doors off the foyer.

I think it’s an absolute testament to Amy’s decorating talent to note that this room is really a converted garage.  It has a cement floor and really no especially redeeming architectural features, yet I think it’s my favorite room in Amy’s house.

Maybe because it’s filled with treasures everywhere you look.

Really, how many people could pull off putting a simple metal bunk bed in the family room?  And it feels perfectly suited to the space.  I especially love the lanterns hanging from hooks next to each bunk.

The dough bowl on the coffee table is from my favorite shop (a.k.a. Reclaiming Beautiful, where both Amy and I are vendors).  One of the bonuses of being a vendor is that you often get first crack at items that are for sale.  Amy snatched up that giant dough bowl before it ever made it to the shop floor.

Amy has added another of her faux fireplaces to this room.

She created the whitewashed finish on the fireplace herself.

The fireplace is topped with a charming nativity set.

I asked Amy what her secret was for finding all of these fireplaces (because she often sells them at the shop too), and she said Facebook Marketplace.  So, FYI, if you’re looking for one, maybe check out Marketplace.

There is a fantastically rustic dining table on the other side of the room.

The fact that it has five (count ’em, 5!) chairs down one side should tell you how long this table is.  Isn’t it fantastic?

There is another lovely tablescape on this table, this time focusing on natural wood, white pottery and flocked greenery.

This room has a bit of industrial chic about it with the metal shelving at one end of the table …

and a set of lockers in the opposing corner.

And you know I love those suitcases!

A few of my favorite touches from the last time I toured Amy’s house at Christmas time have found their way into this house as well including this cool vintage postal desk …

the village displayed on top of the gigantic book …

this … um, what do you call these things?  Cubby holders?

and a gorgeous tree filled with lanterns.

I have to remember that idea for my garden tree!  I definitely need to find some lanterns to add to that tree.

I see these garden ornament type lanterns at garage sales and never think to snap them up.  Remind me to do that next year, would you?

Apparently Amy has a bit of an obsession with these Magnolia Hearth and Hand dollhouses.

I didn’t even know these were a thing.  Apparently they come out with a new one each year.  I’m loving the greenhouse one!  I might have to splurge on that myself.  They come as a kit and you have to put them together.  They are charming.  I’m curious, did you guys know that these were a thing?

And speaking of greenhouses, that brings us to the rest of our tour, the outdoor space.

I really admire Amy’s fearless style of decorating.

She’s fine with putting faux fur throw pillows and wool blankets outside and doesn’t worry about them getting ruined.  I believe she mentioned that a friend gave her a bunch of these, so while she wouldn’t spend a lot on something like this to leave outside, in this case she doesn’t have any cold, hard cash invested in them so why not?

But same goes for that old church pew, an old scale, and even an old chandelier (not wired to live electricity).

I definitely need to step up my own game in this area.  I tend to clear off my deck for the winter and leave it bare except for a pot of greens or something.

Amy’s area is much homier looking.

Amy and her husband only recently finished their greenhouse … well, or as she kept telling me, it’s not quite finished yet.  She needs to clean up some details still, but I don’t think they mattered.

They put it together using a bunch of inexpensive windows, and Amy painted the framework black.

She doesn’t actually plan to use this space as a functioning greenhouse, it’s just going to be a fabulous space for entertaining.

  And I imagine Amy is going to have a blast styling it for each season.

I think we might have to arrange to revisit the greenhouse in the summer just to see what she has done with the place.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m green with envy over Amy’s greenhouse!  Who’s with me on that?

I hope you all enjoyed this house tour as much as I enjoyed doing it.  Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I’m hoping to do more house tours here on the blog again.  Let me know if this is something you would like to see.

Many thanks to Amy for inviting us all in to see her lovely home.  If you have a minute, please leave a comment letting Amy know what your favorite part of her home is.  For me, I have to go with the greenhouse, but really I loved it all!

favorite Christmas projects revisited.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

For the past month or so I’ve been meaning to put together a blog post revisiting some of my favorite Christmas projects from year’s past.  Somehow we’ve gotten down to the wire with Christmas coming up at the end of the week and I haven’t done it yet.  So, bonus!  I’m posting on a Tuesday just so that I can take a quick trip down memory lane with you guys.

I’ve made a few Christmas themed signs over the years, and some of my favorites were the cupboard door signs I made last year.

and hanging from that last sign are the linen stockings that I stenciled …

I’ve also stenciled a few sleds in my day.

So far my favorite is this one I painted last year.

In fact, I liked that one so much that I kept it for myself.

Back in 2019 I did some stenciling on pillow covers.

I gave that one to my sister for Christmas, so I get to see how it’s holding up each year.  So far, so good.

The other pillow I stenciled turned out pretty darn cute as well.

I had purchased a bunch of old handsaws at a garage sale back in 2017, so I dressed them up for Christmas with stencils.

Not all of my Christmas projects are stenciled.  I’ve also been known to use a few transfers on them.  One of my favorites was this tackle box that I made over.

I thought these painted books with transfers were really lovely too.

The paint job on this toolbox wasn’t especially holiday themed …

But it made the perfect container for a holiday themed gift basket.

I’ve painted my share of holiday chairs over the years, and this trio had a mix of stencils and transfers.

This pair of painted ice skates looked great with a transfer added to them.

And just in case you missed them, here are a few of my favorites from this year.

The North Pole suitcase.

The Rudolph and Co truck.

The Rudolph and Co grain shovel.

The craft paper scroll sign.

The foot board sign.

The Milk & Cookies chairs.

It’s always fun to take a trip down memory lane and revisit a few of the projects I’ve completed in the past.  Now that I’m unemployed, next year I hope to crank out even more unique Christmas decorations!  Fingers crossed that I can stock up on raw materials over the summer garage sale season.

In the meantime, I’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of the tour of Amy’s house, so be sure to stay tuned!

Amy’s eclectic Christmas home.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I have a really special post for you guys today!  I’m so excited to be able to share part 1 of a tour of my friend Amy’s house all decorated for Christmas.

Amy is also a vendor at Reclaiming Beautiful, the shop where I sell on consignment in Stillwater, MN.  I shared a Christmas tour of her house once before, back in 2016 (I’ll share a link to that at the end of this post in case you want to revisit that one).  Amy, her husband and their four kids have moved since then, so this is a different house altogether.

We’ll get to that fabulous greenhouse later this week in part 2 of our tour, but for today let’s start inside shall we?

First up in Amy’s foyer is this narrow wall that she wallpapered in a buffalo check.  What a great spot for some wallpaper with a lot of impact, right?  And I love the simple way she’s decorated the mirror with a delicate garland and a trio of tiny flocked trees.

From here you just get a glimpse of the light filled great room to the right.

Unfortunately, I managed to neglect getting one big overall photo of that space.  I tend to focus in on details and ignore the big picture, I’m going to have to work on that!

I’ll have to just try to describe the space, which is large, open and has a vaulted ceiling and includes a living room, dining room and kitchen.  The space is large enough in fact, that Amy has not just one, but two live trees flanking one of the sofas!

Isn’t that gorgeous?  I love that look, and I bet it looks beautiful at night.

Amy wanted me to be sure and tell you that she had to send the family to pick out the trees without her this year because she had Covid!  So she takes no responsibility for the trees that were chosen.  But seriously, did I need to tell you that?  No.  Because these trees are fabulous!  And how she managed to do all of this decorating despite being ill is mind boggling.

I think Amy is the master of the faux fireplace.  You’ll see a couple more of them on our tour, but here is the one in the living room.

Isn’t the idea of filling it with a snowy village just lovely?

I’ve stolen her idea of using vintage books to add different levels for my own Christmas village, and it worked great here inside her fireplace as well.

I’ve also been inspired to change up the walls in my own living room after seeing Amy’s gallery style wall filled with vintage goodies like this mirror …

and these fabulous old paintings of Minnehaha Falls …

As soon as the holidays are over, I’m going to get to work on my own wall.

I didn’t ask Amy about this next piece while I was at her house, but now that I look at it in photos I think it must have been vertical shelving with adjustable shelves meant for papers that she has turned on its side and placed behind her sofa.

It’s filled with vintage clocks, radios, books and a pretty Putz village.

The dining space is just off to the right from the living room …

Isn’t that light fixture amazing?  I was really focused on Christmas decorations rather than the day to day features of Amy’s decorating and in hindsight I wish I’d paid more attention to the fixtures because as you’ll see, they are pretty fabulous.  Ditto her furniture.

Amy is also a furniture painter.  Be sure to check out her Instagram at skrallan.7 to check out some of her work.  She is fairly new to Instagram, so please show her some love and follow her account.

Anyway, I wish I’d also gotten a better photo of that dining room table because it’s gorgeous.

And isn’t her tabletop Christmas vignette pretty?

I’m fascinated by the primitive look of this feather tree …

I love the simplicity of it.

This tall pine hutch fits perfectly in her space.

and it houses a Christmas village in white …

The kitchen is open to the rest of this space, and darn it, I didn’t get a good photo of the overall space.  Once again, I was focused on the details.

You have to forgive me since I was clearly distracted by her gorgeous vintage scales.

And her really awesome Magnolia wallpaper …

Next up on our tour is the principle bedroom.

I love that Amy has put a live tree in front of the window, and when I looked at it more closely I recognized a few of the ornaments!

You’ll remember that I mentioned last week that I sold off a few pieces from my non-collection of ornaments.  Well, Amy purchased quite a few of them.  So it was fun to see them again on her tree.

I love the color combo that Amy has used in this room with it’s rich mix of green and gold.

And it’s carried over in the bottle brush trees on top of the hutch.

I neglected to ask if Amy died those trees herself, or if she just managed to find the perfect colors for her room.

Another faux fireplace fits in perfectly in the master bedroom.

It’s topped with a sparkling gold Christmas village.

Next on our tour is the bathroom.

I really wish I’d asked Amy where she found those letters, aren’t they awesome?

I think my favorite thing in the room is this cupboard though.

Amy has filled it with a bit of Christmas joy.

I hope you’ve been inspired by part 1 of our tour.  If you were inspired even half as much as I was by visiting Amy’s home, then my job here is done.  Well, it’s not really done, because I’ll be back on Wednesday with part 2 of our tour.  So be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you want to go back and check out Amy’s previous home, click these links for part 1 and part 2.

my vintage ornament non-collection.

Published on by Quandie40 Comments

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I am in total denial about being a collector of any kind.  I guess I really don’t think of myself as one of those people who collect items because they are valuable.  Or rare.  I hope to never be one of those people who has spent tons of money on some sort of collection believing that the items will appreciate in value, and then when I die my heirs can’t even give it away.

But obviously I do have collections, I just prefer to call them non-collections in order to maintain my delusion that I am not a collector.

I really have just one absolute requirement for the items I collect, they have to be something that brings me joy (I followed that rule long before Marie Kondo came along).  And I guess there are a handful of additional rules that I generally follow as well:

Rule #2 – the items must be fairly cheap.  I think I’ve pretty much established that I’m a frugal person.  I’m never going to spend a bunch of money on something just because it’s considered ‘collectible’.

My non-collection of vintage Christmas ornaments totally meets this rule since I typically find my ornaments at garage or estate sales.  If I’m lucky enough to find them there, they are usually less than $1 each.  These baggies of ornaments for $10 each were probably the most I’ve ever paid for ornaments at a garage sale.

On occasion I have also been known to splurge on ornaments at antique shops, but in this case ‘splurging’ still means paying less than $10 each for really special ones, like this Santa ornament …

Quite a few of my favorite ornaments came from a shop that was in No. St. Paul called La’ Garage.  I’m sure some of my local readers remember that place.  The best way to describe it would be as an estate sale in a storefront.  The proprietors bought out estates to stock their shop.  They had amazing vintage ornaments each year at Christmas and I always stopped by at least once each season and purchased some.

They also sometimes sold the old boxes separately and I snatched those up whenever I saw them.

They really came in handy when I sold off a bunch of my ornaments a few years ago.

Sadly, La’ Garage closed up shop back in July 2020, and I still miss them.

Rule #3 – the items collected must be something that I display or use, not something to tuck away in a cupboard somewhere.

I pretty much broke that rule last year because I didn’t put up my tree.  Let’s face it, Christmas 2020 was a weird one.  Covid was putting the kibosh on most of the usual socializing, and I just wasn’t in the mood to put up a tree.  Plus the day job was really overwhelming me, and I didn’t have the energy left over to decorate much last year.

But this year I’ve pulled out my tall, skinny, silver tree once again and filled it up with my vintage ornaments.

I love unwrapping each one from its tissue paper and admiring how pretty it is as I add it to the tree.

Rule #4 – I mainly collect vintage items.  They just appeal to me more than reproductions, or new items.

With the ornaments, I especially love the old hand-painted ones.  They are always unique.  Doesn’t the one above have a 70’s vibe with those daisies?  I think that particular ornament artist was ahead of her time.

I’m really drawn to the unique color combination on this next one with its blue and green …

It just happens to perfectly match the gorgeous colors on that vintage book that my friend Sue gave me for my birthday.

I’m not precisely sure what the flowers on this next one are supposed to be, but to me they look like Lily of the Valley.  Certainly not a flower you typically think of at Christmas time, but how pretty are they on this bulb?

I also enjoy the more geometric patterns.

Don’t they have a sort of mid-century atomic vibe?

I’ve read that there was a trend towards space age themed ornaments in the 50’s and 60’s as Americans were caught up in the space race.  I’m still bummed about the really cool planet ornament I once had that I broke back in 2015 …

I used it in a furniture photo shoot and it rolled off the dresser and shattered into a million pieces (which tends to happen when these fragile ornaments hit the floor).  What was I thinking being so cavalier with that ornament?

So far the closest replacement I’ve found for it is this one …

And let’s face it, it’s nowhere near as cool.

So I’m still on the lookout for a replacement planet ornament.  Maybe one day I’ll find another.

Rule #5 – I’m also not one who believes my collections have to get bigger and bigger and bigger.  Over time, as I find fabulous pieces to add to my non-collections, I tend to start narrowing my scope in some way.  As I mentioned above, I sold off quite a bit of my non-collection of ornaments a few years back.

For example, if I had six of the same design, I sold five of them and just kept one.

And I also sold some that weren’t in my preferred color scheme of pink and aqua.

Those gold ones were so pretty boxed up with old book pages to cushion them.

What is it about these vintage ornaments that I find so appealing?  Maybe it’s that my grandparents likely used ornaments similar to these on their Christmas tree and subconsciously I am trying to recreate my childhood love of Christmas.  Or maybe I’m just drawn to shiny, pretty things.  Who knows?

But how about you?  Do you have any Christmas related non-collections?  Do you follow a similar set of ‘rules’ for collecting, or do you just go for broke?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

I have a special treat planned for next week.  I’m super excited to be sharing a tour of my friend Amy’s house, which is looking amazingly festive.

Her holiday decorations make me drool, and I bet you guys will love them too!  So be sure to stay tuned!

the garden Christmas tree.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

Do any of you remember the free Balsam Hill Christmas tree that I found back in the spring?

The photo above shows my haul from the White Bear Lake Trash to Treasure Day, where residents leave items at the curb for anyone to take.  The tree is in two boxes at the back.

At the time, I knew enough to know that the Balsam Hill brand is generally good quality, and I googled this particular style and found that it was their most popular seller.

And it was free.  So I grabbed it.

It’s a pre-lit tree, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the lights wouldn’t be working properly.  Why else would someone be getting rid of an expensive faux tree?  So I can’t say that I was surprised when I got it all set up and plugged in and only about 1/3 of the lights worked (although I was maybe just a tiny bit disappointed).  None the less, I still thought I’d use it in my living room until I dragged it in there and realized that it was really too big for my space.  I’ve mentioned a few times here that our house is not large.  It’s a 1904 farmhouse, and back in 1904 they didn’t see the need for huge rooms.

At that point I debated just boxing the tree back up and putting it at the curb with a ‘free’ sign on it, but then decided why not use it outside?  I’ve done this before and really enjoyed having a Christmas tree in the garden.  So I lugged it out to the garden and Mr. Q helped me weight it down with some sandbags (crucial for an outside faux tree, to avoid having it blown over in a storm).

I knew that trying to remove the non-functioning lights would be a frustrating, time consuming exercise, so I opted to just add new lights on top of the old.  Then I set about decorating the tree with garden items that I already had on hand, including most of my watering can non-collection.

I didn’t attached the cans with anything, I just basically tucked them in between branches.

And by the way, I should throw in here that one of them has an IOD transfer, and one of them has a re.design with prima transfer, and both brands of transfer have held up perfectly on these watering cans that I leave outside year round.

Most of the decorations, including the big galvanized snow flakes, are just tucked in.

I harvested dried flower heads from the garden and tucked those in here and there too.

Along with some birch logs, vintage garden tools, and even some clay pots.

I topped the tree with a rusty crown that usually lives in the garden.

I really wasn’t sure how this haphazard approach to decorating the tree was going to hold up outside, but we had a fairly blustery storm a few days later and nothing fell down, or fell off.

So I think it’s good to go.

I do like the spot I put it in, it’s outside my kitchen window and it’s fun to see it out there, especially at night when it’s lit up.

All of the preceding pictures were taken before our big snowfall last Friday.  Now the tree looks more like this …

Still pretty, but a lot of the smaller details have been lost under the snow.  It does make me realize what a good choice those bigger items such as the watering cans and the big galvanized snowflakes were for outside though.

But I’ve been thinking that maybe next year I’ll put the tree in the photo cottage.  If I left the top half of the door open, you could see the tree inside there all lit up.  Hmmmm.  Well, I have another year to think about that idea.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the tree where it is.

Do you put any Christmas trees up outside?  Or decorate ones that are already there?

and just like that.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

There’s nothing like a good snow day to fill you with holiday spirit.  Last week I mentioned that we could use a little more snow for good outdoor holiday photos, and just like that, we got a perfectly picturesque snowfall last Friday afternoon and evening.

Some parts of the Twin Cities got up to 21″, but we probably got somewhere closer to 8 or 9″ here at our house.  Just the right amount to be festive, but not totally overwhelming.

And I’m sure some of you are tired of hearing about it, but boy, how fabulous to be retired and not have to commute in a snow storm!

Mr. Q and I stayed home and watched it come down.  He made his famous secret family recipe brownies, while I watched And Just Like That.  Any other Sex and the City fans out there?  I was a huge fan of that show.  I knew that they were coming out with a reboot, but I wasn’t quite clued in to the fact that I could watch it on HBO Max, which we just happened to add to our channel line up when Dune came out.  So, I’m a little behind (what’s new there?) and two episodes are out already.  Spoiler alert!  Don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you haven’t seen the show yet!  But wth?  I wasn’t expecting them to kill off Big in episode one.  Then again, it makes sense.  What would be the ongoing story line in ‘happily ever after’?  I love the fact that the characters are all around my age, and their lives have changed accordingly.  I can totally relate to Carrie trying to stay relevant with Instagram and podcasts.

But I digress.

I got up early on Saturday morning as the sun was just coming up so that I could get some photos before shoveling out.

On the one hand, the snow is gorgeous.  On the other hand, it covered up a lot of my outdoor decorations!

Hmmmm.  You can’t even see the arrangement of greens in my various containers.

But not to worry, that snow will melt later in the week and my greenery will be revealed once again, including my garden Christmas tree (I’ll share the details on that soon).

Since I knew the snow was coming, I took some time on Friday morning to finish up my front window box.

Well, more accurately, to almost finish it up.  You see those stars?  One of my readers (thanks again Connie!) sent me three of them.  I only had enough lights on hand for two of them on Friday though.  I’d like to get the third one in there too, hopefully I’ll get to that this week.

In the meantime, I’m just going to enjoy this snowy wonderland for a bit.

There’s nothing like that first good snowfall of the year.  I absolutely love it.  How about you?  Are you a fan, or are you in the ‘snow is a four letter word’ camp?

remember that bed?

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

Remember that bed that didn’t sell?

I ended up repurposing the headboard into a Farmers Market sign …

I was hanging onto the foot board for a similar purpose.  To make it into a sign.  Only this time one with a holiday theme.

And here it is.

I scuff sanded the foot board and gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then I added the stencil using their Honky Tonk Red, Evergreen and Midnight Sky.

I’d ordered the stencil from Wallcutz in just the right size for the foot board (sorry, can’t remember exactly which size it is, but the point is that you can order in a variety of sizes specifically to fit your item).

I love the way the curve of “Rudolph and Co” mirrors the curve at the top of the foot board.

And the classic red and green color scheme works beautifully on my red carriage house.

I debated adding a row of hooks in that bottom section, which would have made it the perfect spot to hang Christmas stockings, but I knew I’d be using this outside so I left them off.  And speaking of using it outside, I just used clear wax as my top coat.  I’ve done that on quite a few things that I use outside and I never seem to have much of an issue with it not adding enough protection.  Especially for seasonal items like this one.  It will be hung up for about two months each year, and the rest of the year will be stored inside the carriage house.

For those of you who may be newer-ish to my blog, this is my carriage house, a.k.a. the ‘garage’ a.k.a. ‘the barn’ a.k.a. my ‘workshop’ (in summer).  Technically it is a carriage house as evidenced by the doors which slide open to the side, rather than a barn.

Although our house was originally part of a dairy farm, the carriage house would have been used to store carriages and was never used to house animals like a barn would have been.

There is a 2nd floor that we use for storage.  In the summer it’s mostly empty, but in the winter we keep all of our patio furniture up there, plus a good bit of nnK’s garden furniture and pool parts.  I have thought about how fantastic it would be if I could use that space as a workshop, but carrying furniture up and down the steep staircase all the time wouldn’t be terribly practical.  And putting in an elevator wouldn’t really be practical either 😉  Also, heating it in the winter would not be cheap.  And I’m nothing if not cheap.

That’s an old photo, by the way.  We did get a little snow this week, but not quite that much, although more is coming this afternoon.  Maybe I’ll get a good opportunity to update that photo later today!

So, how do like my re-purposing of the foot board?

Although I’m starting to wind down on creating Christmas décor pieces to sell for this year, I’ll be keeping an eye out next year for more unique pieces that I can use this stencil on.

Next week I’ll share the rest of my outdoor Christmas décor, so be sure to stay tuned!

been there, done that.

Published on by Quandie38 Comments

I know, I know.  These craft paper scroll signs have been around for years.  As tends to be the norm for me, I’m the last one to catch on to a new (and by now, old) trend.

I really debated even sharing this project, fearing that you guys will all be thinking ‘been there, done that’.

But I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making one of these, and I never found the time when I was a 9 to 5’er.  Now that I am retired, I’m going to have time to get to more of these little side projects.

Not only that, but for me this project was completely free, only requiring supplies that I already had on hand.  Now that I’m on a fixed income, I’ll need to be watching my budget more closely.  Ha … who am I kidding?  I’ve always been a penny pincher, nothing has changed there.

First up, I gathered my supplies.  I always have a giant roll of brown craft paper on hand.  In addition, I pulled out my Dixie Belle paint in Caviar, my re.design with prima 1.5″ wax brush (which works great for stenciling larger designs), some stencils and some string (oh, and not pictured, some paper toweling and some Frog tape).

I rolled out a section of the kraft paper and weighted down the ends with heavy items that were close at hand to keep it from rolling back up as I worked.  Then I used yellow Frog tape to secure my stencil (I ended up going with my North Pole Trading Co stencil from Wallcutz).  I left about a foot of paper at the top and bottom to roll up later, and then cut this piece from the roll.

The yellow Frog tape is the one for delicate surfaces and I really recommend it for this project in particular because it won’t leave a mark on your craft paper when you pull it up.

Libby left me a comment last week suggesting I write a post about my stenciling technique, and I plan to do a more detailed one later, but for now, here is one of my most important q tips … always use a dry brush for stenciling.

What does that mean?  Well, basically you load your brush with paint and then dab most of it off onto a paper towel before using it.  It feels rather wasteful, but it’s the best way to get a clean result.

Another of my stenciling recommendations is to use a thicker paint.  In this case, I am at the very bottom of this particular jar of Caviar.  I’ve gunked up the threads on the jar so badly with dried on paint that the lid no longer seals tightly.  As a result, the paint has really thickened up, making it perfect for stenciling!

Patience is also key while stenciling.  If you aren’t getting immediate coverage with your dry brush, that’s OK.  Wait for the first coat to dry and then go back over it with a 2nd coat.  Just make sure your stencil hasn’t shifted in the meantime.

Once the paint was dry, I used my Carpenter Square to make a pencil line where I wanted to trim down the width of my craft paper.

After trimming off the excess on the side, I simply rolled the top and bottom and secured the rolls using paper clips.

Then I threaded my string through the top roll, tied it in a bow, and hung my scroll on the wall.

Ultimately I felt like it needed just a little something more, so I added a garland of faux greenery to the top to dress it up.

This project couldn’t have been more simple, or more cheap.

Have you ever tried making a craft paper scroll?  Am I hopelessly behind the times with this project?  Been there, done that?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

a handful of stragglers.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

First up, congrats to Jeanne Raway!  I drew her name to win my blogiversary giveaway.

Now, on with today’s post.

Way back before I went to Disney World in early November, I brought a load of Christmas items in to the shop where I sell on consignment, Reclaiming Beautiful.  At the time, I definitely thought I’d be painting up many more things and bringing them in.  And then life intervened and I spent a bunch of time and energy on arranging to retire from the day job.  And somehow I just haven’t quite managed to make it back down there again.  Now I feel like the Christmas decorating season is winding down and I may have missed the boat on that.  Do most people buy decorations well before the holiday so that they can enjoy them for a while?  Or is that just me?

Either way, I have a handful of stragglers that haven’t made it into the shop, and I thought I’d share them here today and see if any locals what to snatch them up (must be able to pick them up at my house in Oakdale, MN).

First up is one more stenciled sled.

It looks pretty cute on my deck …

but I have another very similar sled that I’ve kept for myself for this spot.  So this one is up for grabs.  It is 46″ tall by 22″ wide.  It’s for sale at $50.

Next up is this bucket (tree not included).

The bucket itself isn’t especially Christmas themed, but it’s the perfect container for a small tree.  And as a bonus, you can use the bucket year round for other things.

The bucket is $40.

And I have a 2nd bucket …

The buckets work well with a Christmas floral arrangement too.

This one is also available for $40.

I completely missed bringing this pair of ice skates into the shop this year.

I actually created these last year, but they didn’t sell.  So I put them away, and then forgot all about taking them back in to the shop again.

They would be fabulous filled with greens and hung on the door instead of a more traditional swag.

The skates are $28 (greens not included).

Last up is one more cupboard door sign.

It would be perfect for holding a couple of Christmas stockings.  Or maybe hang some mittens from those knobs.

It is 25″ wide x 10.5″ tall and is available for $28.

If any of you locals are interested in these items, be sure to shoot me an email at qisforquandie@gmail.com.

milk and cookies.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

Unfortunately, I neglected to get a ‘before’ picture of the pair of kid sized chairs that my picker, Sue, found for me last summer and I’m sharing here today.  Gosh, I’ve really been bad about that lately, especially with these Christmas items.

Anyway, I don’t have a ‘before’, but here is the after.

These chairs were a little bit smaller than the kid sized chairs I’ve painted in the past …

So the Christmas Farm stencil wasn’t going to fit on their seats.

I measured the seats of the chairs and determined that the 9″ x 9″ version of the Milk and Cookies stencil from Wallcutz would fit perfectly though.  So I ordered it a while back and had it ready and waiting.

I painted the chairs in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth first.  Then I decided it would be fun to do one of the chairs in traditional red and green, and the other in a more neutral palette so that you all could see a comparison.

To give the design a little more depth, I added a shadow to the ‘milk & cookies’ wording on the neutral version using Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.

To accomplish that, I simply stenciled just that portion first in the Coffee Bean.  Then I moved the stencil just a hair up and over and stenciled the entire design in Dixie Belle’s Putty.

So cute!  And perfect for those who aren’t necessarily fans of the traditional Christmas colors.

For the red and green version, I decided not to add a shadow.

I wasn’t sure what color I could use that would look good, so I went without.

Still super cute I think.

They are the perfect size to tuck under the Christmas tree, and a great spot to leave out the milk and cookies for Santa!

I took these chairs into the shop back before I went to Disney World (gosh, that seems like forever ago now!), so I’m fairly sure they are no longer available.  But which one would you choose?  Traditional red and green, or the more neutral option?  Leave me a comment and let me know!