Friday, January 27, 2012

Keep Organized With Baskets

I love using baskets for storage they are so functional and can add great texture to your interior decor.

I use baskets  in just about every room of our home. They are great for hiding stuff you don't want to see or corralling your stuff so you can find it.

The oldest set of baskets have been used for 20+ years.
This nesting set was originally brown, then painted blue for our daughters' nursery and now it's painted gold and it holds Qtips and cotton balls in my bathroom.  You can see that some of the gold has rubbed off and the previous blue finish shows through. Love that!

A square basket in our Breakfast Room keeps napkins handy.


A little basket next to the breakfast table keeps magazines and catalogs nearby.

Extra sets of keys are kept in a basket box by the door. I keep only one set of keys on the key rack and the rest go in here.

This heavy duty covered basket held my oldest daughter's books.




A larger basket holds more magazines and catalogs in the Family Room.


These cute baskets in the Laundry Room hold cleaning rags, stray socks and misc. stuff.


The linen closet in our Master Bath stays neat and tidy with the addition of these lined gray baskets

The latest additions to my basket collection are these three baskets


 The  three baskets add height to my vintage cabinet. I haven't decided what will be stored in them yet.



 I find almost all of my baskets at HomeGoods, Marshalls or TJ Maxx. You can't beat their prices. These lidded baskets were only $6.99.

 I am constantly looking for more baskets to keep me organized. My pantry and office could definitely use more of them.

Where do you use baskets in your home and where is your go to place to find them?


Pam

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Ruby Red Glasses

There are still a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day, but I've already set the table.

HomeGoods was on the way home a few days ago and I had to stop in to see what they had. Found the red napkins on the clearance aisle and thought they'd go perfectly with my ruby red glasses. Everything else on the table is something we already had.

The sun made an appearance today and it was nice and warm at 64 degrees. Not bad for January!

The khaki placemats are too wide to put down the regular way, but they worked perfectly turned vertically.

I shopped the house for the centerpiece.



Hope you are having a good week!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Wax Paper Crayon Hearts

Saw some wax paper crayon hearts on Martha Stewart awhile back and thought they'd be fun to make.

Here's mine...


I used crayons leftover from raising our two girls. Yup, still have them in a drawer in the basement.

I shaved some red and white crayons onto a sheet of wax paper, covered it with another sheet of wax paper. Then I put these two pieces between two pieces(top & bottom) of newspaper and ironed. You can read better instructions on Martha Stewart. Here hearts have less shavings and are spread more evenly.

 The windows in our breakfast room is a perfect place for them.



Little wax paper crayon hearts might be fun hanging from the chandelier, as well.The big ones look so cheery on this dreary day.
Hope you had a fun weekend! 
Wish I could say the same :(    I really can't stand not being able to fix something. Are you the same way?


Pam

You can see more Valentine's Day crafts HERE




Tuesday, January 17, 2012

One Word ~ Grateful

Layla over at the Lettered Cottage is having a This Little Word Of Mine” link party.  My word for the year is how I'm feeling about life.
My word is...

GRATEFUL


I saw this saying on Pinterest awhile back and I often think about how true it is, especially with the state of the economy of here in the US and around the world.

If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation vou are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.

If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all.



Ungratefulness is one of my pet peeves.
Sorry, didn't mean to make you feel bad.


So, start each day with a grateful heart.



So true.



I have so many things I am grateful for that if they were listed here the would go on forever. I would like to encourage you to take the time every day and be grateful to God for the big AND the little things; big things like your family and health and little things like a comfy warm bed to sleep in at night. 
I hope you will be grateful all year long and every single day.

Pam

Sunday, January 15, 2012

DIY: Sewing A Pillow Cover Is So Easy

Pillow covers are so easy to make whether you sew them or use a no sew product. If you have several pairs of them, they are easy to change  out seasonally and  take up very little space compared to having several sets of pillows.  Plus, if you make them yourselves, pillow covers are a lot cheaper to make than going out and buying a bunch of new pillows.

The other night Mr. Fanatic had to do some paperwork in the office and asked me to join him, so I thought I'd whip up a pillow cover with some fabric I found the last time I was at Mary Jo's.
Here it is:

 I just took one of the down pillows I already had, took off the cover and slipped on the cover once it was made. I think it took me all of 30 minutes to cut out the fabric and sew the pillow cover.

I thought the newly covered pillow would look great on the gray sofa.


Then I tried it on one of the leather chairs.


The gray sofa pillows were on the leather chairs, but I think the green fabric looks so much better.



Since we have 2 leather chairs, it looks like I'm going to have to make a trip to Mary Jo's and get some fabric to make another pillow cover for the second chair.
It's been cold here the past couple of days and the sun hardly shined at all last week and I would love to just skip over the next two months and go straight to Spring! 
How about you?
Hope you did something fun weekend!
Pam




Wednesday, January 11, 2012

What Santa Brought And A Vintage Cabinet

I know, I know, January is almost halfway over and I'm just now sharing this with you.... 

Mr. Fanatic took a photo of me on Christmas with my new Canon T3i. You'd think that since I've been wanting one for so long that I would have opened it right away and started taking photos.

 Fact is...Today is the first day I took photos with my new camera.
Thought I'd show you something else I've been hiding:
Found this on Craigslist several months ago and it sat out in the garage on the trailer we brought it home on for a couple of months. Then, it made it all the way into the living room because the Christmas tree was on this wall during December. I originally thought it would look great in my office.

Hmmm, maybe we will go back to the Tobacco Barn and get this one for my office:



I love the turned legs...


and the scrollwork on the door is so pretty.

I plan on painting this piece, but will wait until after the Family Room is painted....gotta get on that!

The photos of the vintage cabinet were taken with my new camera, but on the auto mode. I'm hoping to read up on some tutorials on how to use it and if the sun comes out tomorrow...guess what I'll be doing?

Hope y'all are having a great day!

Pam

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Spreading The Word:


While I was on Facebook today  Fox Hollow Cottage posted a reminder for everyone to back up their blog with a link to an informative post done by Donna of Funky Junk Interiors last January.
It was a great reminder to back up my blog, so I did immediately and decided to pass it along to all of you! I try to remember to back up my blog every week or so just to be safe.
Head on over to Funky Junk Interiors to see the instructions on how to back up your blog.



Pam

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Painted Wood Sign

I hope you are having a fantastic New Year so far. 
Things have been slowly getting back to normal around here and  I've finally caught up. 
Today I even had little time to do a small project.

There are so many cute wood signs  that have been posted in blogland and on Pinterest and I wanted to make one.

I knew exactly where I wanted to put the sign...in my Breakfast Room.

 Here's the before:


Mr. Fanatic had a leftover piece of 2 x 6 from another project he just finished up and it was perfect to make a sign with.
Here's what I made:


 Here's how it looks in the breakfast room:

This was such an easy project and I hope to make a few more.

Have a great week!

Pam









Monday, January 2, 2012

Asheville, North Carolina

Last Thursday Mr. Fanatic had a couple of days free, so we took a mini-vacation in Asheville, North Carolina. We've been there a couple of times with our girls to see Biltmore House, but Jenny had to work on Thursday, so we went by ourselves. We had to be back on Saturday for Jenny's annual New Year's Eve party, so we drove to Asheville on Thursday and came home on Friday. Asheville is only a few hours from our home, and it's perfect weekend getaway.

I have to tell you about two of the places we went...just in case you ever visit Asheville.
I found both of these places on Trip Advisor and highly recommend using this website whenever you take a trip anywhere...even in your own town!

The Tobacco Barn Antiques was FABULOUS!

It has over 77,000 square foot warehouse full of antiques. Mr. F. said it looked like the warehouse where the ark of the covenant was hidden in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I loved this china cabinet and would have bought it, but I already bought a similar one on Craigslist a few months ago. Haven't shown it to you because I have to refinish it.




I really love teardrop pulls and turned legs.



These tin letters were pretty cool...






 The other place you need to know about is Books & Breadboard. It's a cafe/gift shop that has fabulous food. The service was great too!

Their website is very user friendly...

The menu offers some pretty awesome items. Mr. F had the "Chapter 6" and I had the "Chapter 4". It was the best sandwich I've ever eaten!

This is the "Chapter 4"...roast beef on focaccia and blue cheese aioli...Yum!


The sandwiches are served on a big breadboard and came with veggie chips and a cup full of thinly cut marinated julienned vegetables. Here's Mr. F's "Chapter 6"...definitely a fancy and tasty ham and cheese!

We are definitely going to plan another trip to Asheville very soon.
Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy New Year, again!!!

Pam