Saturday, August 31, 2013

Pottery Barn Inspiration

One of my favorite places to go for home decor inspiration is Pottery Barn. 
Their vignettes and windows are always so well put together. 

I love their casual and comfortable style.
I do not, however, love their prices. 

I've been looking for some wing back chairs on Craigslist for awhile now and was happy to see this timeless classic in an ever so popular grain sack fabric.
I didn't even bother looking at the price on this chair because I know I can get a good wing chair on Craigslist for about $100 and make a slipcover for it for about $50, depending on the price of the fabric . 
Wing Chair



I am always inspired by the bedding at Pottery Barn  as they are always so darn fluffy. A little bird told me that they get this look by stuffing 2 down comforters in a single duvet. 

Clever

I admired the upholstered headboard because making one has been on my project list for, like, FOREVER.

I looked at the price on this one and gasped.


This giant yardstick would make a great diy project, that would be pretty easy to make. I might have to put that on the list because it would look great in my craft room.

Loved these lanterns

This little vignette is inspiration for a big project coming up. It has to do with what we've been saving our money for. Can't really share it now...you know how things sometimes fall though.

The tables at Pottery Barn are always so awesome.




Got a kick out of this one....do you see them?


The chargers are pigs.

Of course, there were also little piggy salt and pepper shakers. I should have purchased those, but ya know I'm saving my pennies for something big.

These little owls are salt and pepper shakers too. There were several other types of shakers, as well.
 I also saw the table we used for inspiration to make our picnic table.  Click the link if you missed it.
 I liked mine better and it didn't cost us $1,000

So what store or stores do you go to that inspire you and your decorating???

Hope you're doing something fun this weekend. 

Pam

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Shopping For Vintage And New Finds

We were back up in  Blowing Rock, North Carolina recently and took the opportunity to stop in a store on the way home. I really wanted to go here in May while we were on vacation, but we just ran out of time. 
On our last trip to Windwood Antiques in  Blowing Rock, we found several Vintage and New Finds at their smaller downtown store. I was so excited to finally get the chance to visit the larger warehouse store in Blowing Rock Square. It is filled with so many wonderful antique and new furniture pieces and accessories. 

One of the first items to catch our eye was this gorgeous trestle table whose top was made with reclaimed wood. 
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style

So gorgeous!
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier
 Loved the vintage looking chandelier above it too.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier
These slipcovered chairs would go perfectly with the trestle table. 
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier



Mr. Fanatic parked himself at this awesome oversized bar height table and was trying to figure out where we could put this in our home.  
It is huge!
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier



This wire and glass open cabinet would look fantastic in a bathroom.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

Fell in love with this steel topped island. Hmmmm
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

It had such an interesting top. 
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier




 The shop had some interesting lighting fixtures. 
This one was made out of a squirrel cage roof  vent. 
Very clever.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

 We bought one of these rusted metal arrows for our daughter the last time we were in Blowing Rock at the downtown store.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier


 There were also mini metal arrows...
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

 And metal ampersands.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

 Loved this open bookcase cabinet with drawers at the bottom. 
It was filled with vintage books in German.
I bought a few last time.
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

Really wanted this vintage watering can...but it was $89 and a little too pricey for me. 
farmhouse table, vintage finds, diydesignfanatic.com, farmhouse style, cottage style, chandelier

I was able to find a several good buys and will show you how I used them another time. 

For those of you who live in the Charlotte, North Carolina, you'll be happy to know that they have a store in the Meyers Park area and the Arboretum. Maybe it's a good thing they aren't closer. I will have to stop by there some time soon though. 
Hope your week is off to a good start!

Pam

ps. I was not compensated in any way by Windwood Antiques. I thought you'd enjoy hearing about a fun place to shop. 



Thursday, August 15, 2013

12 Ideas For Landscaping On A Slope

For all of you who have been stopping by diy Design Fanatic for awhile, you know that I LOVE gardening.

I love everything, well, just about everything about it.
I love transforming an outdoor space from an idea to a beautiful garden. 

We took our backyard from wild, vine covered woods and made it into a garden we enjoy.
Our current home has a slope starting at the middle of the house, down into the backyard. 

I can tell you from experience that gardening on a slope can present a challenge, especially if the slope is very steep. 
But, even though gardening on a slope can be a challenge, there are many beautiful ways to make it both useful,  practical and beautiful.

Hometalk.com asked me if I would curate a board for ideas on how to garden on a slope and so here it is.
You can find the board HERE which has comments or tips for each photo. 
You can also just click on the pic and it will take you directly to my Hometalk board.
Hometalk, gardening, gardening on a hill, gardening on a slope, organic gardening 
 Hometalk has some pretty awesome projects on it's site that people submit and you don't have to be a blogger to do so! 
You can even ask a question about a problem you've been having with your landscape or home decor project. 


To see more of my gardening projects,  you can click the following links:

raised beds, raised beds on a slope, vegetable garden, building project, diyDesignFanatic.com, building project



raised beds, raised beds on a slope, vegetable garden, building project, diyDesignFanatic.com,


raised beds, raised beds on a slope, vegetable garden, building project, diyDesignFanatic.com


raised beds, raised beds on a slope, vegetable garden, building project, diyDesignFanatic.com

Hope you have a beautiful day!

Pam

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

How To Add Social Media Buttons To Your Blog Sidebar

I just spent many hours figuring out how to add some new social media icons to my sidebar yesterday and the night before. 
I google and googled and googled; then I googled some more.
There was downloading, then uploading, then trying to figure out some HTML code.

I just couldn't do it

I am NOT a web designer and I DON'T understand HTML code. 
And I don't have the money right now to be paying a blog designer to do all these things for me, even though I would rather do so.

(Can you feel my frustration???)

So, I googled some more.
And I found this:


And I heard angel sing Hallelujah! OK, maybe I was the one singing!
In this video Emily from Blogoholic Designs
explains how to put  social media icons onto your blog
"WITHOUT
 using a 3rd party hosting site (like photobucket)
or 
WITHOUT
 having to manually edit any code"!!!
The above video is for a Blogger blog, but if you click on the video and then click on her Youtube page, there is also a video on how to do this for Wordpress.


~Anyway~
So, after I found out HOW to put social media icons on my blog, I had to find some social media buttons.
I could have made them, but why, when there are so many great ones out there.
for FREE!
There are also many cool ones that you can buy for
$5, but hey, I'm on a budget...a ZERO budget right now.  
soooooo
I went on Pinterest and searched for "social media icons" and this is what I found:


and I clicked on these beauties:

 They can be found at Craftiments.com

Then, I followed the directions for downloading the icons and downloaded the icons to my computer.

These icons are 100 pixels in size and I needed them to be 48 pixels so that I could get 6 of them on one row of my sidebar (my sidebar is 300 pixels wide)
I opened each one up in Paint and resized them to 48.
(select all, resize, choose pixels, then type in 48 where it says 100, then crop)
I saved the icons in my "blog design" folder on my computer,
then followed the instructions in the video.

It's a little time consuming, but 
I DID IT!!!
Yay!
 Of course, you can see them on my sidebar, but here they 
are:
social media icons, social media icons, how to add social media icons to your sidebar
(lol, I just noticed my spelling error. Changed it on my sidebar, but this pic is all over Pinterest!)

To recap, here are the steps:


1. find your icons and download them. 

2. resize and save them in a folder. 

3. watch the video and install the icons. 

The whole process takes awhile, so break it down by 3 sessions if you get overwhelmed.
 That makes it so much easier. 

 I hope I saved you a lot of time and frustration 
and maybe a little money too!

I've also been  working on my sidebar pics and popular projects so they are easier to find.
Would love it if you checked them out.

ps. I might be able to tell you what we're saving our money for by the end of the week... if  all goes well....

Please feel free to ask me a question you might have after reading this post.

Pam

ps. you might want to pin this page for later when you need it.

Thanks so much for all your nice comments! 
Hope you will all come back and see me again.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Discontinuing Networked Blogs

Hey ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are having a great Friday!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be taking Networked Blogs off my sidebar soon.

If you follow on Networked Blogs, please be sure to choose another way of following. 
I would suggest either 




or
 



Either click on the links in the post or click on the links in the sidebar, then follow along.

I appreciate all of you who stop by when I post and really love it when you leave me a comment!
I hope you all have a great weekend!

Pam

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Fabulous Haven 2013

Wow, Wow, Wow!

I had a FABULOUS long weekend.
I'm going to warn you right now there are going to be a lot of exclamations points throughout this post
AND
 words written in all CAPS
AND
 I'm going to use the word FABULOUS
A LOT!!!

Have to tell you right now that I'm a little reserved when I meet you in person
but I'm jumping up and down inside and trying to contain myself, just like I am as I write this post and remembering how FABULOUS this weekend was!


First off, everyone and everything at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead was FABULOUS!
The staff went out of their way to attend to every need and was so very helpful. Everyone that I encountered from the parking attendant, valets, driver, front desk, bellmen, banquet servers, wait staff....ALL were so friendly and helpful. 
I loved my home away from home while I was at the conference.
Grand Hyatt Buckhead


Our sponsors were FABULOUS, as well and treated us with like queens! (there were  a few kings who attended Haven, as well)

I ran into these ladies Thursday night at the Homes.com mixer. Later, we all went to dinner with another Kim (you'll see her later.)
Y'all know who these ladies are right?
Kim from Savvy Southern Style (on the left), Yvonne from Stone Gable (center) and Shirley from Housepitality Designs.


Ran into these ladies the first night too. Heather and Vanessa from At The Picket Fence. They are even sweeter and prettier in person.

Finally got to meet Becca from Adventures In Decorating. 
Doesn't she look fun?
Haven Conference



The Home Depot and Rustoleum  hosted a cocktail party for us on Friday night where we got to rub elbows with some more FABULOUS bloggers... Janette and Jordan from Two Seasons with Rhoda from Southern Hospitality in between them.

 Ryobi invited all of us to a swanky soiree at the Intercontinental Hotel later on Saturday night and it was, 
you guessed it, 

FABULOUS

 The Ryobi guys showed up with their Ryobi umbrellas and danced to "It's Raining Men". I was too busy hootin' and hollerin' to take a photo. Sorry about that!
Ryobi's photographer did, however, capture some crazy bloggers doing the "DIY Shuffle"
Ryobi Power Tools
 My first Cosmo...so pretty!


Here's the lady whose blog got me hooked on blogs...Susan from Between Naps On The Porch. 


 Fun at the Ryobi Party...

Ryobi Power Tools

Ryobi tools, haven conference
Ryobi Power Tools




The Sessions were FABULOUS too.
Ana White gave the opening session.


I learned so much. The information in the sessions were definitely worth the price of admission.
My head was swimming after one session called Google guice (juice). And no, you don't have it for breakfast as Mr. Fanatic joked about. 
haven conference, Atlanta, Grand Hyatt Buckhead




Saturday morning was the second day of the Ballard Designs Bookcase Challenge. I pegged this one right away as one of the winners.

 I wasn't biased in the least because my new friend Kim from La Belle Epoque was on the team.  Kim's the cute blond on the far left.


I was so excited to meet Ana White. She is so sweet and talked with me as if we had known each other for a long time. 


 Then there's KariAnne, another sweetie. She was smiling everytime I saw her.


Found Roeshel from DIY Showoff on Saturday and had to take a pic with her. Hers was one of the first diy blogs I followed.


Then, there was the FABULOUS swag that I got to bring home.



Kreg gave everyone a choice of  one of three Kreg tools. Mr. Fanatic wanted a Rip Cut. Not sure what that is, but I'm hoping he will make something fabulous with it.

Now here's what I really want....A Ryobi Impact Driver. It's lightweight and has more power, making it easier for me to use, instead of having to wait for Mr. Fanatic to do something. 


I was already starting to look forward to Haven 2014 when we all got together for the closing session.



There are so many other bloggers that I didn't get to meet...guess there's always next year.


Thanks so much to the Haven team who put together such a FABULOUS conference! You know I will be first in line for next years event.
Who would you like to meet at Haven next year???

Pam



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