Saturday, March 30, 2013

Happy Easter!

Spring is back here in the Carolinas and the weather is absolutely gorgeous!

Yay! 

Hope it's warmed up where you are, as well. We might have some rain this weekend, but at least the temps are in the mid to upper 60's. 
We'll be doing some work in the garden this weekend...
Let me rephrase that: I'll be supervising some teenagers we're hiring this weekend, that is, if we don't get rained out today.

 I will be doing very little because I had a little "tune up" on my right leg on Thursday and it will take some time to get back to normal. 
Silly me, I  believed the doctor when he said I'd be back to my regular activities the afternoon of the procedure. What did he think I did all day, sit around and eat bon bons?

Now I'm sounding nasty.
Forgive me.

Needless to say, I didn't get much of anything done for Easter this week other than buy the food. The Easter bunny is not stopping by our house this year. 
One thing I can do, however, is to set a pretty table while Mr. Fanatic whips up some mashed potatoes and cooks a beef tenderloin. 
Yum...
I am a lucky girl. 

I will have some pretty tough choices to make though...

Plain, white china...

....floral napkins and chargers?


A colorful bouquet?...

or "Springy" white and green one...


Good china?
or every day dishes?
Such difficult choices.

Now I'm sounding snarky.
(I don't do well when I'm immobilized.) 

Hope you're doing something  fun for Easter. 

Would love to know what awesome things you cook for  Easter dinner.

Especially dessert. 

I'm not sure we've figured that out yet.

Happy Easter!

Pam






Friday, March 22, 2013

Open, Open, Open...

All you young whippersnappers won't remember this, but there was a commercial on TV a loooong time ago where a woman  standing outside a store the night before a big sale has her hands on the store window peering in and is saying
 "open, open, open". 

That's exactly how I feel about Spring.

Especially this Spring.

Baby, it's cold outside.
The air outside is brisk and breezy.
Not complaining after the HOT summer we had last year, but...
Nothin' is blooming and it's already March 21st

and we live in the South.

I'm just waiting for those budded out leaves to 
"open, open, open"

Ok, truth be told, our Bradford Pear has already bloomed and is starting to turn green,

But our woods look still show no signs of life
and I REALLY want to step outside my basement door and see this:


And sit for a spell on our patio in the woods
without a jacket on.


And take a walk through the woods and look up at all the glorious LEAFED OUT trees.


Oh, there is sooooo much work to do to get the yard to look like this...
Our backyard is looking pretty rough right now

& dead.

Guess what we're working on this weekend?
and the next month 
or so?

Is it Spring where you are yet?


Pam

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Spring Mantel

Spring is here...
YAY!!!
ok, not officially, 
but, here at Casa Fanatic, it definitely is.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Spring!!!

Here's where I put the twig wreath I made with all the dead fall from the birch tree in our front yard.
I've already started collecting more branches so I can make another wreath. Here's the link that tells how I made it if you missed it. 

That is, AFTER I get finished getting the accounting and tax stuff  ready for the accountant.


Back to the Spring mantel....
Couldn't resist the cute bunny I found at HomeGoods awhile back.
I already had everything else and just borrowed things from other rooms. The mirror was hanging in the hallway. 


Love all the green in the house...

now if only the trees would green up....

Had to show you the little table I found on ebay awhile back. One can never have too many little tables.

Just love that little bunny. Reminds me of all the pet bunnies we had when I was a kid. We named one of our rabbit's Puff Puff. 
The past several days I've been busy planting potatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, lettuce, broccoli and turnips. 
Can't wait until they pop up. 

That's what I've been doing to get ready for Spring.
What have you been doing in to get ready for  Spring?

Pam

Thursday, March 7, 2013

How To Make A Twig Wreath or When Life Gives You Lemons...

*this post contains affiliate links...

Y'all know I LOVE trees...(if you don't, just click on the pic of my garden on my sidebar)...
but, after any kind of storm, there's always a large number of branches that end up on the ground.
That's ok in our backyard
In the woods
But, not ok in the front yard.
on the grass and sidewalk.
We have a fairly large Birch tree in our front yard that I'm about ready to take a chain saw to because I have to pick up piles of branches after every wind and rain storm we have. 
What does that have to do with how to make a twig wreath?
That's what I made with the pile of blown off twigs.
Kind of like the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com

Or in my case, a windstorm gave me twigs, so I made a twig wreath.
Here's the pile of twigs I've been collecting over the last several weeks from the Birch tree in the front yard. 
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com


HERE'S HOW I MADE THE WREATH:

I had one wire wreath form in my box of goodies in my craft room and thought the branches were enough to make two wreaths, so I made an additional wreath form out of some wire and floral tape I also had. It might have been faster and easier to just get in my car and pick up a couple of new wreath forms, but I wanted this to be a no cost project. 
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com
You can also buy similar ones HERE from Amazon


After making the wreath form, I cut the branches down and made  about  10 bundles of them. These turned out to be too tall and I cut about 6 more inches off the bundles before I attached them to the form. 
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com


I used some thin wire to attach the bundles to the wreath form. 
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com


Then, to cover the wire, I hot glued some additional twigs over the wire.
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com


I repeated this step until the entire wreath form was covered. This project took me a long time to finish. I thought it would take me an hour and a half to make two of them. 
HA!
Turns out I only had enough Birch branches for one wreath and it seems like it took me all day. Of course, I did a few other things during the day.
I now need to collect more Birch branches to make another wreath. 
Lucky for me it was very windy yesterday (said sarcastically)

cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com





I love the way the wreath looks in it's natural state, but I had planned on spray painting them white ( lightly) so they would show up on the dark stained Barn Doors. 
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com

But, the wreath looks so pretty the way it is, I could just hand it above the mantel against a light background.
cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, white pitcher, twig wreath, diy design fanatic.com

So what do you think...
natural or
lightly spray painted white?
Update: we've since moved into a new home and I've decorated the wreath several different ways and moved it around the house. Currently, it's in our guest room on the Gustavian style Plank Headboard. You can see the guest room HERE.

Pam

*This post contains affiliate links, which means I'll make a small commission should you click on the link and purchase something. So, thanks!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Antique/Vintage Shopping

Are you glad it's Friday? 

 and March 1st?

I sure am. 
We are just a few weeks away from Spring's arrival and I couldn't be happier.
Spring is my favorite season of the year. 
My apologies to all of you who have allergies. 

If you've noticed lately, there haven't been many diy projects being done around casa Fanatic lately.
Seems Mr. Fanatic has been working hard and been out of town  a lot lately. Of course, that doesn't excuse me from doing painting or sewing projects, but we won't discuss that. 

Anyway

A week  ago I drove up to stay with Mr. Fanatic up in Raleigh.
While he was working, I went shopping. About 5 minutes after arriving at the hotel I desperately needed a diet Coke and hadn't brought any with me.
All the hotel had was diet Pepsi.
:(

Sorry dietPepsi fans, but it's not the same.

So, I got in my car and drove to find some diet Coke and the car somehow found it's way to the nearest HomeGoods.
 lol. 
(stop laughing, they sell diet Coke in bottles)

but that's not what I wanted to share with you

The next day I went to SuzAnna's. 
Many of you know Kristen from Sophia's. She has a booth at SuzAnna's. 
She makes these wonderful "typewriter" bracelets.


and rings...



There are many different booths at SuzAnna's. I thought this blue display was lovely. 

I love old books and couldn't resist buying the one on the far right in the bottom corner of the pic.


Here's Kristen's booth.




Hmmm...what could I do with one of these?

There are several other antique/junk shops all located in a little alley. It was fun looking at everything.

Hope you have a terrific weekend.

Pam