an embarrassment of riches.

Published on by Quandie106 Comments

Recently Dixie Belle sent me a few of the new brushes they have come out with. In fact, they sent me three sets of two of them. The first set were prototypes of a sort and they just wanted some feedback on the quality. Then they sent a 2nd set of them … honestly, I’m not quite sure why … maybe they just mistakenly sent them? The third set was the final version of the product, and they have the name of the brush engraved on the side of the handle which is a nice touch.

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I’ve worked with both of these brushes now and I found that the Best Dang Brush works beautifully for stenciling.

It’s nice and big, so you can make quick work of it.

I also think the Best Dang Brush would work well for waxing, although I haven’t tried it.  I did try the La Petite brush for waxing, and it worked quite well.

That pointy end is perfect for working the wax into corners.

Both of these new brushes are now available on the Dixie Belle website in case you are in need of a fantastic stenciling or waxing brush.

Receiving these new brushes made me realize that my brush storage system was already at full capacity and I needed a new solution. So I headed off to Hobby Lobby and I came home with these galvanized containers.

They are divided into three sections each (although you can’t see that in the ‘before’ photo) which will help keep my brushes standing upright.

They aren’t terribly exciting to look at, but I liked the size of them and the price was right. They were originally $12.99, but 50% off the day I found them, so I got them for around $6.50 each.

Of course I had to dress them up a bit first, so I added some sections of the IOD Label Ephemera transfer to the front of each one.

Someone recently mentioned in a comment that this transfer has been retired.  Such a bummer!  It was so perfect for using on small projects like this.  I guess you should stock up while they last (but leave some for me please)!

I decided to put all of my paint brushes into one container, and my wax brushes in another.

I know some of you must be looking at all of those brushes and thinking ‘jeesh, that’s an embarrassing quantity of brushes!’ and I don’t disagree.

When it comes to paint brushes, I really can use lots of them though.  In the summer when I’m able to paint out in my carriage house workshop I often have multiple projects in different colors going at one time.  I’ll often have half a dozen or more brushes in use simultaneously.  I also like having different brushes for different things.  Sometimes I want an angled brush (to get a clean edge), sometimes a brush with a short handle (to paint the insides of cupboard), sometimes a smaller brush, sometimes an inexpensive chip brush because I know I’m going to wreck it (using it for applying mod podge, I can never get that brush perfectly clean again) and so on.

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So yes, I really can use this many paint brushes.

On the other hand, I definitely have too many wax brushes.

Don’t get me wrong, I always apply my wax with a brush and it’s very convenient to have enough wax brushes that I can use each one exclusively for a particular color of wax.  At a minimum it’s good to have one brush for dark wax, one for white wax, and one for clear.

But as you can see, I have far more than that.

Quite honestly, having this many extra wax brushes has led to total laziness on my part.  Rather than wash my wax brushes, I just pull out a new one when I’m ready to wax.  How wasteful is that?  So as soon as I’m done writing this post, I’m going to wash all of my wax brushes so that they are ready to go for my next painting project.  I find the Fusion Brush Soap is perfect for cleaning wax brushes (check out this post for more on keeping your brushes clean).

I always end up feeling a bit guilty when I have ‘too much’ of something.  Excess makes me uncomfortable.

So I’ve decided to give away the extra set of these brushes that I received from Dixie Belle.  I suspect that some of you don’t have a bunch of wax brushes, or possibly don’t have any at all.  For the first couple of years that I was painting furniture I applied my wax with an old t-shirt because I didn’t want to splurge on a good quality wax brush (and FYI, it’s much easier to apply wax with a brush).  I’m hoping this pair of brushes can go to someone who will put them to good use.

The rules:  Simply leave a comment on today’s blog post to have your name thrown in the hat to win.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, 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 Friday, March 26, 2021 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 $50, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, April 2, 2021 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the items I am giving away.  Good luck!

the great american road trip.

Published on by Quandie41 Comments

First up, congrats to Debbie Dee!  I drew her name at random to win my giveaway from last Friday and I’ll be getting her prize shipped out just as soon as I get it boxed up and send Mr. Q to the post office 😉

In the meantime, in my post about my mom’s patio makeover, I mentioned that she downsized her home at the end of 2020.  As a result, she was clearing out and getting rid of things.

She phoned me one day while she was in the midst of that process and happened to mention that she had thrown away the scrapbook that her mother made of a family road trip they took out west in 1953.  I believe my response was “You did what?!!”

Of all the things she could have thrown out, she chose that scrapbook because ‘it was falling apart.’

Seriously, does my mother not know me at all?  Have I ever been know to shy away from something simply because it was falling apart?  Do I not have a huge stash of the old black and white family photos that no one else wanted, even though we aren’t even sure who the people are in them?

Fortunately, she had literally just thrown it out, so I asked her to please go back out to the garage, dig it back out of the trash can, and save it for me.

In my mind, this scrapbook chronicles not only an amazing piece of family history but also a classic story of the great American road trip.

My mom was a surprise baby that came along a bit late in life for my grandparents.  My grandmother was 42 and my grandpa was 48 when my mom was born.  She had two older siblings but by 1953 they were married and out of the house and she was effectively an only child.

That summer my grandparents loaded up the car and the three of them headed to South Dakota to pick up my grandmother’s brother and his wife, Uncle Knute and Aunt Alma, and then the five of them headed off for adventure at 5 a.m. the next day.

My grandmother documented the entire trip in this scrapbook starting with a map of their route.

There wasn’t an explanation for the two different routes shown, but it was noted that they followed the one shown in purple crayon.  The red crayon route must have been rejected for some reason, or perhaps it was plan B.

It seems that their goal was to not only see America, but also dip into both Canada and Mexico.  It must have been the trip of a lifetime for the adults (I can’t say the same for my mom, she went on to travel the world!).  They drove 7,000 miles and it took 22 days.  They saw snow deeper than their car in the Beartooth Mountains and temperatures of 105 degrees in the Mojave Desert.

But my mom still says that one of the things she remembers the most about this trip was having to sit in the back seat of the car in between Knute and Alma for all of those 7,000 miles.

I was surprised to learn that that between them my grandparents and my great aunt & uncle had relatives spread across the country all the way to California.  Out of 22 nights on the road, they spent 10 of them at the homes of various family members including a night at Aunt Nettie’s house in Long Beach, CA.

I once posted here about Great Aunt Nettie Fleaner.  I’d found a photo of her and her daughter in another old scrapbook and the photo was labeled “Great Aunt Nettie Fleaner and her daughter Flossie”.  It took me a second, but then I realized that made the daughter’s full name Flossie Fleaner.  You can’t help but laugh out loud at that one.

I also had to chuckle over my grandma’s caption for this next rather blurry photo.

Apparently several of her relatives lived in ‘modern homes’.  I suppose in 1953 that house was the height of modernity!

They seem to have hit all of the classic stops for a road trip out west including the Badlands, Yellowstone, Mount Hood, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Redwoods, Yosemite, Los Angeles, Tijuana, Zion, the Grand Canyon, and even Las Vegas …

I believe I may have inherited my feelings about Vegas from my grandmother with her comment that it was ‘mostly gambling places & motels’.  She doesn’t sound impressed, does she?

My mom said that Aunt Alma put $3 in a slot machine and my grandma was absolutely scandalized and called it sinful.  Hmmm.  In this case, the apple fell very far from the tree indeed.  I wonder what grandma would think of the fact that her daughter now lives near Vegas and I suspect she puts a little more than $3 into those machines.

For some reason I find it fascinating to think about how different Vegas must have looked in 1953.  Here’s a photo that I found online.

While searching around for that photo, I also learned that the U.S. government was testing atomic bombs in Nevada in 1953.  In some cases the mushrooms clouds could be seen from the strip.  And apparently it became a tourist attraction (check out this quick YouTube video if you don’t believe me).  Can you imagine?

I asked my mom about that and she didn’t remember seeing any mushroom clouds on their trip.

My grandmother kept track of the entire cost of the trip, which added up to a whopping $278.63, which I imagine was a fair amount of money in 1953.

I also thought it was interesting to note that my grandpa had to take an extra week of vacation without pay.  I assume he only got two weeks of vacation per year, and they were gone for three weeks.  I wish they’d noted how much a week’s pay was for him.  My grandpa worked in a bakery, so I don’t think that they were wealthy by any means.  According to the US Census Bureau the average family income in 1953 was around $80 per week.  So if you consider that, this trip, including the lost week of wages, cost about the equivalent of a month’s pay.

I wish I knew more about what inspired my grandparents to make this road trip.  I did a little online research and discovered that the popularity of road trips really took off in the 1950’s due to the rapid growth of ownership of automobiles by American families.  That made me wonder if the car they drove was their first family car, so I asked my mom about that.  Unfortunately she wasn’t really sure, but she does remember her dad taking the bus to work when she was younger so it is possible that they didn’t have a car prior to this time.

I also wonder if this trip is what inspired my mom’s love of travel.  She took us kids on roads trips nearly ever summer when we were young.  We drove to Florida once, and to California multiple times.  Of course, that is what inspired my own love of travel as well.  Speaking of, we just learned that the European cruise we had booked for September has been officially canceled.  This is cancellation number two, we were originally supposed to go in September 2020.  We’ve rebooked once again, now for September 2022.  Let’s hope that the third time will be the charm.  By the time it rolls around it will have been 4 years since our last trip to Europe and that just seems plain old crazy.

So tell me, do any of you have good stories to share about taking the great American road trip?  Or maybe you’ve taken road trips in other parts of the world?  I’d love to hear about your favorite places to visit, or trips taken, in the comments!

a tiny dresser.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

When I returned to the office at my day job after my recent trip, I found this waiting for me on my desk.  My picker/co-worker Sue had picked it up for me at an estate sale while I was gone.

Nothing special to look at ‘as is’ really, it was definitely in need of a makeover.

I didn’t get a photo of the insides of the drawers, but they were lined with green felt.  So, I removed the green felt and then immediately painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Then I picked out some pretty scrapbook paper to use for lining the drawers.

Once I’d chosen the paper, I also chose another Dixie Belle paint color to paint the insides of the drawers, Vintage Duck Egg.  I thought it worked beautifully with that blue ribbon on the paper.

Once everything was painted, I sanded to distress the edges and then I pulled out some transfer scraps to add some personality to the outside too.

I used a combination of bits from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer and from the Tim Holtz Specimen rub-on’s (the butterflies and the numbers on the knobs).

Once I had the transfers on, I added a top coat of clear wax.

I used my tiny camera and an old family photo displayed in a vintage flower frog to stage my photos.

In case the scale of this piece isn’t coming across at all, this little dresser is only 7″ tall and 6″ wide.

Using this little piece as a jewelry box is the most obvious choice.

But I think it would also work well to store smaller craft supplies, like your washi tape.

Or maybe your metallic waxes …

It might also work well on your desk holding all of those pesky office supplies like post it note pads and paper clips.

It would make a unique container no matter what you choose to store inside of it.

This tiny dresser is for sale, in case any of you locals are interested (check out my available for local sale page for details).

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the paint used on today’s project.

red rock canyon.

Published on by Quandie102 Comments

I am not your typical Vegas tourist.  If my mom didn’t live nearby, I’m sure I would never go there.

That being said, there are things you can do in the Las Vegas area that don’t involve gambling, drinking or bright lights.

One of my favorites is hiking in Red Rock Canyon, which is only about 25 miles from the Vegas Strip.

Red Rock offers something for every fitness level.  You could do some serious rock climbing, you could bring a bike (there are mountain bike trails, or you could just ride on the road), you can hike a 14 mile trail, you can hike a 1/2 mile trail, or you could just enjoy the scenic 13 mile loop through the park from the comfort of your vehicle.

My sister and I were looking forward to doing some longer hikes, however I managed to trip over a step on my mom’s patio the day before and injure my foot.  That sort of put a damper on the hiking.  We still managed to do several short hikes though, and we still enjoyed the beautiful desert scenery.

It was interesting to see the sandstone quarry where huge chunks of sandstone were cut out of the Calico Hills from 1905 to 1912.

The cost to transport the huge blocks of sandstone ended up being too costly to make a profit so after 7 years they gave it up.

We also checked out the petroglyphs.

They estimate that these petroglyphs are around 800 years old.  I have no idea what kind of message they were trying to convey, but it is fascinating to see them.

Our final stop was the Red Spring Boardwalk.

The purpose of the boardwalk is to keep people from walking directly on the grasses that grow near the spring and damaging that delicate ecosystem.

It was easy to see how different this area looked compared to the more dry areas of Red Rock Canyon.

And sure enough, there was even some water trickling down from the spring.

And even a little bit of green!

The next time you’re in Vegas, I totally recommend getting away from the glittering lights on the strip and checking out some nature instead.

Now, if you’ve followed me for long, you know that I always like to pick up a little something on my travels to give away here on the blog.  I know, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to travel, so you’ve probably all forgotten that I like to do this!

All I managed to pick up this time around was a magazine at the airport, but I’ve added a few other things to the prize that have a sunny desert sort of feel to them.

So in addition to the magazine, I’m including some Dixie Belle paint in Putty (a good desert hue), Haint Blue (not quite the color of that desert sky, but a pretty pale blue none the less), some Mud, a jar of the new Silk paint in Sun Kissed, some Easy Peasy spray wax, some Howdy-Do hemp seed oil and finally one of the new Dixie Belle La Petite brushes.  This brush works really beautifully for getting into some tight corners.  I’m not sure I would use it to paint, but it’s fantastic for waxing.

The rules:  Simply leave a comment on today’s blog post to have your name thrown in the hat to win.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, 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, March 14, 2021 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 $150, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, March 19, 2021 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the items I am giving away.  Good luck!

mom’s patio makeover.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

You may or may not have noticed that I took a while to respond to comments on my blog last week.  That’s because I was out west visiting my mom.  If you’ve followed me for long, then you may know that my mom lives out near Las Vegas (she’s in the suburb of Henderson).

My mom turned 80 last year.  I had always thought we’d do something amazing for her 80th.  After all, we took her on a cruise for her 70th, so we had to top that.

But then there was COVID.

I didn’t even think going out there to see her would be a good idea, let alone going on some kind of trip together.  So her 80th birthday came and went with nothing more than a phone call between us.

Some of you also know that my mom was a travel agent who specialized in cruises.  She was still working at 79.  Not full time, but she had her regular clients and she would still go in to the office and set up trips for them (myself included).  But again, then there was COVID.  Obviously, the travel industry was hit hard, and one of the segments hit the hardest was cruising (for obvious reasons).  So after helping all of her clients with canceled cruises and making sure they got refunds (myself included), she decided to officially retire late last year.

At the end of 2020, my mom also sold her big house (it was 4 bedrooms, 3 baths) and moved into a much smaller townhome.  The house was too much for her to handle, and although my brother is there to help her, it made sense to move into something a bit more reasonable.  Again, I really wanted to go out there and help her with the move, but then there were all of those COVID surges right after the holidays.

More recently, my mom has had some health issues and I realized that I could no longer let COVID stop me from flying out to spend some time with her.  My sister was planning to go with or without me, so last week I masked up, hopped on a plane and few out to Vegas.

Because my mom has been feeling so poorly, she hasn’t really done much with her new place.  Her townhome is accessed through a small courtyard …

and quite honestly, it was looking a bit sad when we got there.

There were some tired old patio chairs, a cast off kitchen chair and some empty planters.  It definitely needed some help.

So we piled my mom into the car and headed off to her local Lowes, which was literally just around the corner.  We picked out a fun bistro set and had my mom pick out some plants to fill the empty pots.  We also grabbed some solar lights on our way out.

Mom has always been a big fan of bougainvillea, so that was an obvious choice.  I don’t know much about gardening in the desert climate of her area, so I hope we made some good choices with the other plants as well.

In the end, it was really lucky that the Lowes was just around the corner.  The box that the bistro set came in was so huge that we had to put the back seat down to fit it in Mom’s SUV.  That meant we had to leave someone behind, go home and unload the box, then turn around and go back for them.  Fortunately, this was in the same shopping center …

I was more than happy to spend a little time checking out their local Goodwill while my mom and sister unloaded the car.

I have to say, it’s kind of amazing how a Goodwill looks pretty much the same no matter where you go.  Sadly I didn’t find a single thing that I just had to make room in my suitcase for.

Anyway, once we returned back to the house again, my sister tackled assembling the bistro set and I set to work filling up the pots.

That variegated cactus looking thing went in a pot that is out front beside her gate.

Honestly, I don’t know what that plant is, but it looks like something that can survive the occasional lack of watering.  Since this planter is outside the gate (and my mom will access the courtyard through her garage instead), I suspect that my mom may forget to water it on a regular basis, so I wanted something that would have a better chance of surviving a few droughts.

For the remaining planters, I emptied out the old, worn out dirt and refilled them with some Miracle Grow potting soil.  This way Mom won’t have to worry about feeding them for about six months.  Then I planted them up with the rest of the plants.

The tall skinny planters got some bright pink geraniums and some sedum that I hope will spill over the sides.

The larger pot was planted with the bougainvillea, some bright yellow ornamental grass and some more sedum.  This is the same sedum that I grew in my window box last summer and it did really well for me.  Hopefully it will do as well in my mom’s pots.

I sure was wishing I had some of my Dixie Belle products on hand!  This pot would have been the perfect candidate for some rusty patina.

By the time I had everything planted, my sister was working on the final touches to the bistro set.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike assembling things that come in a box?  Yeah, it’s not my cup of tea.  But my sister is good at it.

Fortunately, the chairs came fully assembled.

And aren’t they fab?  They totally look straight out of a Parisian bistro.

My sister just had to put the legs on the table, and that was touch and go.

If I’d had access to my full compliment of painting supplies and a little more time, I would have totally preferred to make over a vintage set of some kind.  After working with this set (which cost $248, check it out here), I was reminded of what I love about refurbishing vintage pieces rather than buying new.  This new stuff is super flimsy, way over priced, and a huge pain to assemble.

The solar lights went alongside the sidewalk leading from the gate up to the courtyard.

As a final touch, we found a cute lantern at Target for $10 and added a faux candle with a timer and placed that on the table.

Now this is the perfect spot to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning, maybe even one drunk out of my mom’s wedding china.

To be quite honest, I don’t think my mom will actually spend much time sitting in her courtyard (and she doesn’t actually drink coffee).  She and I could not be any more different in that regard.  I would eat every meal out there, and spend a little bit of time every evening sitting there with a glass of wine (she doesn’t drink that either) and listening to the birds in the huge tree that is nearby.  But my mom isn’t really a ‘sitting outside’ sort of person.

But I couldn’t stand thinking of her being greeted by that sad old kitchen chair every time she returned home from somewhere.  Now she has a cheery spot with bright flowers and a little European flair to greet her instead.

Hopefully every time she passes through here on her way into her home she will not only be reminded of her many travels to Europe, but also of my sister and me even though we can’t be there with her on a regular basis.

a mirror makeover.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

I find mirrors so challenging to photograph.  I re-do my share of mirrors, but I rarely share them here on the blog simply because I can’t seem to figure out how to take a good picture of one.

But I thought I’d give it a go today.  Please don’t judge my photos too harshly, starting with this ‘before’ picture.

Of course this is simply a mirror that I removed from a dresser.  As you probably know by now, I like to do that.  Dressers just seem to sell more quickly without their mirrors, in my opinion.

But I don’t just trash the mirrors, I generally revamp them.  Sometimes I remove the mirror and switch it out for a chalkboard (like these).  Sometimes I paint the frames and add hangers to the back so that they can be hung on the wall instead of mounted on a dresser (like these).

In the case of this particular mirror, neither of those two options seemed like exactly the right choice.  The silvering was not in great shape so leaving it a mirror wasn’t going to be the best choice.  The frame wasn’t terribly interesting, so turning it into a chalkboard wasn’t going to be a great option either.

This was the best I could do trying to capture the look of that silvering on film.  All of those black spots and markings are in the silvering behind the glass of the mirror.  In other words, they could not be cleaned off.

So ultimately I decided to let those flaws add to my piece rather than detracting from it by adding a transfer over the front of the mirror.

But first I painted out the wood frame in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter (a.k.a. black).

Here’s a quick q tip for you; I never tape off mirrors or windows when painting them.  I find that it’s quite easy to remove excess paint from the glass using a razor blade.  Just be sure to use a sharp blade.  No need to waste your tape!

It’s interesting how milk paint reverts back to powder when you do this, while chalk paint comes off in curls or strips.  I wonder if you could sort of reconstitute that milk paint powder by adding water to turn it back into paint again.  Hmmmm.  That would be an interesting experiment.  Maybe one for another day.

I was hoping to get some good chipping on the frame, so the only prep work I did was to clean it with some TSP substitute.  I didn’t do any sanding.  Sure enough, I got some amazing chippy-ness.

Next up was applying the transfer.

I must warn you that applying a transfer to glass or mirror can be a little tricky.  The transfer will be attracted to your glass surface like a magnet.  Seriously.  Get too close and it will reach out and grab that glass and not let go.

So when working with glass, my advice is to dry fit your transfer with the backing paper still in place.  When you have it exactly where you want it to go, tape it down along one side.

Next, carefully, keeping that taped edge down, fold the transfer towards you along that taped edge and then remove the backing paper.

Then very carefully flip it back over and apply as usual.

Goodness.  Trying to get my camera to focus on that was an exercise in futility.

By the way, that is a section from the Parisian Letter transfer from re.design with prima.

For my photos I’ve hung the mirror over a desk.  It would work really well in any spot where you want to reflect some light, or maybe get a quick glimpse of your hair before you head out of the house.  It certainly won’t let you examine yourself in any kind of detail though.  At my age, that seems like a bonus rather than a flaw.

I probably would have had better luck with my photos if I’d waited for an overcast day.  Instead it was bright and sunny and we had lots of snow to reflect the light as well, so my piano room was flooded with bright light.

But hopefully my photos do some justice to the end result.  I think it looks pretty fabulous and if I had a spot for it, I’d keep it.  But I don’t, so this mirror will be for sale.  If you’re local and you need a mirror to bounce some light around be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

a simple (or maybe not so simple) wooden box.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

Last summer my friend Sue picked up a couple of old wooden boxes for me.  I painted one of them last summer and I ended up selling it before I even had a chance to take photos of it.

I tucked the 2nd one away to save for a winter project.  I like to have some smaller things to work on when I’m stuck doing all of my painting in the house.

Here’s the outside of the box …

Yep, it was pretty grungy.  And the inside was even worse, making it the perfect candidate for some paint.

Once again, this is a story of an original idea that was modified a few times before I got to the end.

First I thought I’d paint it in Dixie Belle Drop Cloth inside and a dark blue outside.  I have a really gorgeous re.design with prima decoupage tissue that I wanted to use to line the bottom that I thought would work beautifully with that color scheme.

So after cleaning the box, I painted the inside with a coat of Drop Cloth.  As it dried I could see that some of those gross stains on the inside were bleeding thru my paint.  Ewwww!

I could have stopped and added a coat of Dixie Belle’s BOSS at this point, but as I was contemplating the situation I decided that I didn’t want to paint the inside white after all.  Instead I wanted to paint the outside white and add a pop of color inside, and switch up my choice of decoupage tissue.  So I pulled out all of my tissue and chose another option that had a lot of pink in it.

That’s when I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to try some of the new Silk paint from Dixie Belle for a few reasons.

First of all, the Silk paint has a built in top coat that is washable once cured.  That makes it perfect for the insides of things (cupboards, hutches, boxes).  Two coats of paint and you’re done, no need to add a durable top coat as well.  Once cured, the inside of the box will be washable.

Second of all, and this is key, the Silk paint also has a built in stain blocker.  Holy cow, that could be a game changer.  Why purchase three products; a stain blocking primer (like BOSS), the paint, and a top coat, when one will do?

Third, Dixie Belle had sent me a color that I thought would be perfect for the inside of the box, a pale-ish pink called Conch.

So, I painted a coat of Conch on the inside of the box.  It went on beautifully, and it blocked the stain completely in just one coat.  See …

Now, just a heads up on that.  Although the Silk blocked my stain in one coat, some more stubborn bleeders might require more coats.  Dixie Belle recommends three coats of paint with 4 hours of drying time between each coat for the really stubborn bleeders.

I was really impressed with the stain blocking quality of the paint on my box.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t terribly fond of this color.  I would describe it as a cool, muddy sort of pink with a lavender-ish undertone.  Personally, I like my pinks to be warm rather than cool.  It’s just a preference thing, and this particular color wasn’t working for me.

So I went back to the drawing board again.  I chose yet another decoupage tissue paper, and this time decided to pair it with Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.

The inside of the box got two coats of Gravel Road, the outside got two coats of Drop Cloth.

Once dry, I lined the box with re.design with prima’s decoupage tissue paper in Celeste.  I used Dixie Belle’s Gator Hide as a decoupage medium (you can read more about that technique here).  I also added a top coat of Gator Hide over the Gravel Road so that the inside would be durable and water repellant.

Then I stenciled two sides of the box on the outside using a stencil from Maison de Stencils and some Gravel Road paint.  I used one of Dixie Belle’s new brushes, the Best Dang Brush, for the stenciling.

I think this brush is meant to be a wax brush, and it would work fantastically for that I’m sure, but I’m loving it for stenciling.  Since it’s quite large with a 2.5″ diameter you can cover a lot of area quickly, which is great when doing these larger stenciling jobs.

Once the stenciled design was dry, I sanded the outside of the box heavily to distress it and then gave it a coat of clear wax.

I popped it up on top of my giant pine cupboard and it would work beautifully there for storing additional items that I don’t need to get to frequently, but I am not going to keep this one.

To be entirely honest, and I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I never would have dressed up the inside of this box to keep for myself.  I only do that to make it special for someone else.

It adds a nice touch, don’t you think?

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing all of their products that were used on this box.  You can find Dixie Belle products here.

watering cans.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

Anyone else out there have a thing for watering cans?

That is my friend Sue’s watering can non-collection, so I know that she does.  I have quite a thing for them myself as well.  How about you?

Watering cans are such a quintessential gardening tool, yet I’ll admit I rarely use one to actually water my plants.  I mostly use the hose for that.  For me, they are more for decoration rather than actual function.

I’ve shared a few watering can transformations here on the blog, one of my favorites being this one …

I simply added the small version of the IOD Le Petit Rosier transfer to a can that had already been painted white.  I ended up selling that particular watering can, but I loved it so much that I did another one just like it to keep for myself.

That was one that was also already painted when I found it, as was this green one that is part of my own non-collection …

I enjoy painting them myself as well though.  I painted this one in Miss Mustard Seeds Flow Blue.

This next one is also painted in milk paint, Maritime Blue from Homestead House.

That one was another one that I loved so much that I kept it.  I also decided the color should be called Hydrangea Blue rather than Maritime Blue since it was such a lovely match to those pretty hydrangeas.

Your q tip of the day;  I have found that milk paint will adhere fairly well to clean galvanized metal that has a dull finish that feels a little toothy to the touch.

The next little can had a shinier, smoother finish and probably wouldn’t have been a good candidate for milk paint.  Instead I just added a Classic Vintage Label transfer from re.design with prima …

This next watering can also has a Classic Vintage Label added, and this is another that I’ve kept for myself since I love it so much.

I’ve found that the original version of the IOD French Pots transfers (the grey ones from Prima Marketing) were a bit too pale for use on galvanized metal.

Unless of course you like that very subtle look.

The newer French Pots transfers that were released by IOD are black rather than grey, so they stand out quite nicely.

Anyway, all of this wandering down memory lane was my way of gathering inspiration for another watering can that I picked up at a garage sale last season.

If you look closely, you can see that it isn’t sitting flat on my work surface.  I don’t know why watering cans often develop a sort of bulge in the bottom.  Maybe because water is left in them over the winter and it freezes and expands?  For whatever reason, they are often wonky like this when I get them.

That is easily remedied by turning the can over and smacking the bottom with a hammer a few times so that it become concave rather than convex.  Now it sits flat.

After reviewing those watering cans that I painted in pretty shades of milk paint, I decided to pull out the Sweet Pickins Patina for this one.

I absolutely love this color, couldn’t you just eat it up?

Unfortunately, I’ve found that it is a tough sell on furniture.  I painted a dresser in it several years ago and it took a quite a while to sell.  So now I tend to reserve it for smaller projects, like this one.

I felt fairly sure that the milk paint would stick to this piece, but just to be on the safe side I scuff sanded it just a bit.  As you can see, I did get good adherence for the most part, with a little chipping here and there … in my opinion, the perfect result.

I got the most chipping on the handle, which makes me think that I didn’t clean it well enough to remove any oily residue from the previous owners handling of it.

As I’m sure you realize, I love that chippy look though, so this is just fine by me.

In order to preserve it, I gave the watering can two coats of Dixie Belle’s Flat clear coat.  That should reduce any further chipping down the road.

I waited until after the clear coat was dry to add the IOD transfer.  I find that transfers adhere really well over the flat clear coat.

Now, you may be wondering what happened to that medallion sort of thingie on the side with the bee on it?

Well, I was unable to remove it, so it’s still there on the other side.

Before selling them on, I like to test watering cans to make sure they are water tight and they function properly.

This can is water tight, but oddly enough the rose (that’s what they call the spray nozzle thingie on a watering can) is removable.  Which also means that it leaks quite a bit.

So I wouldn’t use this as an actual watering can, but it makes a fantastic vase for a bunch of tulips.

This one won’t be joining my own non-collection though, I think I’ll sell it on.  So it’s in the pile of stuff to take to Reclaiming Beautiful and has a price tag of $22 on it.

toolbox no. 3

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

Sometimes when you have a formula that’s working really well you just have to stick with it.

This is the umpteenth toolbox that I have painted, and the 3rd one that I have specifically painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Each time I post one of these I have multiple people who’d like to purchase it, so I thought, why not do another?

Before I proceed with today’s post though, I want to mention that this one is already sold.  I offered it to one of the people that missed out on the last one and she has already come by and picked it up.  In fact, I think I am going to start keeping a list of who wants one so if you want to be on the list let me know (you can leave a comment on this post, or email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com).  I am definitely going to be on the lookout for more toolboxes!

In the meantime, I popped out into the carriage house and looked around to see if I had any toolboxes left, and sure enough I did.

Yikes!  It was in rough shape though.  But then again, they have all been in pretty rough shape.  I think that is part of their charm.

So, once again I sanded off the rough spots a bit, then scrubbed it up with Dawn dish soap, let it dry and then gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s BOSS to seal up that rust. Although all three of the toolboxes have been painted in Drop Cloth on the outside, I’ve chosen a different color for the inside of each.

The first one was Peony.

The second one was Flamingo.

And now this one is Apricot.

I apologize that I haven’t really kept track of the names of the different decoupage tissue papers I’ve used to line them.  If you really want to know, leave me a comment and I’ll look them up for you.

But in the meantime, which is your favorite color for the inside?  I originally thought the Peony was perfect, but then I loved the warmer color of the Flamingo, and now I must say that I also think the Apricot is lovely.

Although the outside is Drop Cloth on all three, the snippets of transfers I’ve used are slightly different on each.

The first one had the large crown on top, and sort of naturalist themed wording.

The second one has a crest on top and the historic styles of ornament wording.

This last one is similar with the wording just moved around a bit.

I did treat the hardware a bit differently this time around.  It was quite rusted up, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in my opinion …

But I decided to spruce it up a bit.  So I pulled out the new Gilding Waxes from Dixie Belle.

I chose the Bronze and applied it to both the latch and the handle.

I had first sanded the handle to get it a little more smooth, but I think you can see that I left the texture of the rust in place for the most part on the latch and just applied the wax over it.  Once again I used a small artists brush to apply the wax because I wanted to be precise and not get any on my white paint.

After letting the wax dry overnight, I buffed it a bit to bring out some shine.

I just love working on these toolboxes, although they can be a bit putzy.  There is a lot of ‘paint the outside, let it dry, paint the inside, let it dry, paint the bottom, let it dry,’ going on.  Each step doesn’t take more than 5 minutes, but there is a lot of drying time in between.  They are great projects for those of us who have day jobs because each evening after work you can add a coat of something and by Saturday you are ready to add transfers!

And that’s the really fun part.  I cut them up and place them where I think they look best, and sometimes I keep adding more here and there until I have a look that I like.

Here’s hoping I find a few more toolboxes to paint at garage sales this summer!

a tote for les fleurs.

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

I picked this item up at a garage sale at some point in the past.  Honestly, it was in my front hall closet for at least a year, maybe two.  Then it got moved out to the carriage house workshop last spring so that I would be sure to get to it over the summer … and well, here we are in February and I’m just getting to it now.

I suspect that this item was some sort of promotional giveaway from Frerichs Construction.  I bet it came with beer inside, hence the bottle opener on the side.

But if you ignore those two things, this has a lot of potential as just an adorable little tote.

So I removed the bottle opener (and am saving that for another project that I have in mind).  The company logo seemed almost branded into the wood, so I added a little of Dixie Belle’s Mud to fill it in.

I just smoothed it on with a putty knife and once it was fully dry, I sanded over it to smooth it out a bit.

A quick q tip on the Mud; never wash it down your sink drain.  You don’t want this stuff hanging out in your pipes.  Instead I use a damp paper towel to clean off my putty knife, and then I can just toss the paper towel in the trash.

Next I simply painted the tote with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Then came the fun part, digging through all of my transfer scraps to come up with some fun things to dress up it up.

The front of the tote got some scraps from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer.

The sides got the left over bits from the IOD Flora Parisiensis transfer that I used on a washstand I painted back in the fall.

Once I had the transfers applied, I sanded the tote to distress and than added some clear wax.

I also lined the inside with some pretty scrapbook paper.

I asked Mr. Q to pick up some tulips at the grocery store so that I could stage this with some real fleurs.

Aren’t they pretty?  They barely survived the trip back to our house in the 20 below wind chill, but I’m glad they did because they added such a lovely pop of pink to my photos.

This was such a fun little project for a cold winter afternoon, and also a great way to bring a little early spring into the air.  I suspect we all could use a little bit of spring right about now, am I right?