Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The Painters Have Arrived...


Our home is in a little disarray. Ok...a lot in disarray! 
But, it's a good mess because in a few days it's going to look gorgeous! If you follow diy Design Fanatic on Facebook, I posted  these two photos on my wall. 
I'm so excited that our Family Room, Foyer and two hallways are being painted that I couldn't wait to show everyone.

The last little bit of yellow paint has now been covered.   : )  : )  : )  I'm loving the new color and can't wait to get started on some new projects that the new paint color will inspire.

 In the meantime, Thought I'd share with you what's going on in the garden...
Lettuce doesn't do well in the hot Southern sun and humidity and we've had to cover the lettuce with some screens for shade. As an experiment, I let a couple of lettuce plants bolt(go to seed) They are now about 4 feet tall and full of flowers.

When the pretty flowers fade I will put bags over them to catch the seeds. 


I've just planted more lettuce seeds on the North Side of our house by the chimney. I should have done this last month, but this is only my 2nd year of growing veggies and I'm learning something new EVERY day. I've read that many people grow  lettuce in the shade in hot climates, so I'm giving it a try. Since this spot near the chimney is pretty bare and in the shade(except for 2 hours in the morning), it was a good space for my experiment.


The area was prepped by first removing the mulch, terracing the slope and spreading some organic garden mix. After that I planted the tiny lettuce seeds. 

I was amazed that the lettuce sprouted after only three days. 

The tomatoes are producing well and the we should have a whole bunch  more in the next couple of days. (this photo was taken a couple of days ago) Guess we'll be canning some salsa this weekend!

The zucchini and cucumbers are producing madly, but with all the rain we've been having, the leaves are getting powdery mildew. I've sprayed them with neem, but I think I'm losing the battle and planted two more seeds in the north bed, (just in case) so that we can continue to have zucchini until Fall.

Mr. Fanatic's favorite Butternut squash are growing slowly and are doing well.


Anyone know what this is???


It looks like Queen Anne's Lace, but they're actually the flowers from two carrots I planted.  Queen Anne's Lace is a wild carrot.

I planted 4 rows of carrots, but this is the only plant that flowered. The other carrots have all been harvested, but I'm letting this one go to seed.We didn't have any black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars munching on the carrots like we did last year. You can read about our butterfly adventure here if you missed it.


Pretty.
 Well, now you're up to date on what's happening at Casa Fanatic ~both inside and out. Hope you are enjoying Summer and are
having a fantastic day.

Pam

Monday, June 25, 2012

Wooden Crates For The Breakfast Room

Hope ya'll had a fantastic weekend! 
Has it been hot where you are? The weather has been really HOT here in the Charlotte area. It feels like the end of July! It's been so hot my newly planted flowers have to be watered morning and evening. So far they're doing well.

You've probably seen these wooden herb crates before around blogland,
I couldn't resist buying them and thought they'd look great in our Breakfast Room.


The little wall to the left  of our pantry was the perfect spot to hang them.

Faux flowers in the top box, gorgeous hydrangeas from our neighbor's garden in the middle and the third box holds napkins.

They certainly add a little color to the room and go well with our cherry kitchen cabinets. 


Parsley, sage, rosemary and...

Thyme...

The largest box holds magazines and sits on the floor in front of the windows.

Today the painters are going to be prepping our Family Room, Foyer and two hallways and getting ready them ready to paint. I'm so excited to finally get this done. 
Painting, of course, will create a domino effect of projects, as one thing always leads to another. 

Does this happen at your house, or is it just me?

Can't wait to show you our Family Room and Foyer when it's all finished.

Pam

Friday, June 22, 2012

Flowers For The Garden

Went to Lowe's the other day and picked up some pretty new additions for my garden with a gift card given to me by my youngest daughter for Mother's Day.

As I was deciding where the new flowers would go, a new friend  joined me in the garden. He wasn't too thrilled to see me, even when I brought him some lettuce.





 
I can't remember the name of the taller pink flower, but the other beauties are lantana, coreopsis and purple coneflower. They all like a sunny spot and hopefully they will like their new home. These flowers don't need a lot of watering once they get established. The lantana didn't even droop a little after being transplanted and  being in the sun. As an added plus, lantana and coneflowers attract butterflies.


I never get tired of looking at gorgeous trees....


or pretty flowers.

It's suppose to be 100 degrees again today. Really, it's only suppose to be 91, but it felt like 100 yesterday! What a way to start off Summer. We were having such nice weather last week and weekend....I would definitely love more of that weather.

Hope you are staying cool.

Pam

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Pretty Little Pillows

Our oldest daughter had a birthday a few days ago.
She turned 20.
My how time flies.
She moved to SoCal last year in May and has been there over a year now. 



You might recall I went to visit her this past March to help her get settled in her apartment.
 Here's what we used for design inspiration.


A lot was accomplished during my trip to  SoCal. We bought all the basics she needed, but didn't have time to add any color. She still needed some curtains and the little light blue pillow inserts from Ikea needed pillow covers(among other things), so I thought I'd make her the covers and send them for her birthday.


I really wanted to find some faux fur in turquoise for the pillow covers, but couldn't find any at the fabric stores locally. There was some faux fur online, but I would have had to buy a minimum of 1 yard at $20 a yard plus shipping. The little pillow inserts are only 12 1/2", so I only needed less than 1/2 a yard for both pillow covers.

I made one last visit to Hancock Fabrics in hopes of finding something that would work for a pillow cover.
As luck would have it, they had some embellished turquoise taffeta in the bridal section. 
YAY!!!



The pillow covers are made with a zipper...I was also lucky enough to find a matching turquoise zipper!


For the photo op, the pillow covers are stuffed with plastic grocery bags. 



I  wrapped the pillow covers up with some jute twine and added a gift tag.



Here's a photo of the birthday girl ~ All grown up.
We miss her terribly.

Now I need to get working on the rest of the things  and send Mr. Fanatic out to SoCal to work on her to do list.

Pam 

Monday, June 18, 2012

How To Make A Fabulous Jewelry Organizer


Hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day celebration and a great weekend!
A big thank you to all who entered the Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway! The lucky winner gets one stencil up to a $50 value. 

 Before we get to that, I wanted to share the whole project with you. 
I started off with our daughter's existing cork board and Mr. Fanatic cut a piece of plywood the same size.



Then, both were painted white.


Two pieces of burlap were cut a little larger than the plywood and cork board. Then the stencil was place on the burlap and taped down so it wouldn't move. The paint was rolled on using a foam roller. I used the All Over Trellis stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils.  The paint is Valspar Nautical, which was leftover from our daughter's bookcases.You can see them here.

The burlap was wider than the stencil, so to continue the pattern, I just slid the stencil over and matched up the pattern.


Here's the finished burlap.


Once the paint dried, the burlap was attached with a staple gun.




Upholstery tacks were added every couple of inches.

Drawer pulls and knobs were attached to the plywood with screws from the back.


Here's the finished bulletin board.


Earrings are kept organized on the drawer pulls ~ bracelets and necklaces are fit nicely on the knobs.
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I'm loving how this project turned out and now am looking  for something else I can stencil using this wonderful pattern.
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And now for the winner! Drum roll please!
The winner of the  Cutting Edge Stencil giveaway is Silver:

 
Congratulations! I will email you.

Pam

Disclaimer: The above post is how we made our jewelry organizer. I don't take any responsibility for any errors or results obtained from using this information. When using power tools, use safety equipment.