Happy Tuesdayto you all! I know it’s late in the day and I had my Bible study earlier today so I’m just getting this posted, but I wanted to be sure and share more with you from the Fall In Love With Texas blog tour…
Both the lead photograph and this one were created by my very talented friend and fellow blogger Katie at Let’s Add Sprinkles. If you’re stopping by from Katie’s blog or from any of the bloggers on the tour, welcome!!! I’m glad you are here. Katie has worked hard on this tour and is creating a collage for each day. Don’t you just love these sweet graphics?
So that got me thinking, if you’ve never created a Pinterest collage on Canva or Pic Collage {like Katie did here}, especially in the beginning they can be a real challenge! I enjoy making them now and probably should do more as they are real eye-catchers. I did make this one for a past post on decorating with white:
I love decorating with white and am looking to do more here for the holidays. This particular post can be found here.
Whichever company you decide to use to format your graphics
they all have pre-formatted templates to help you with your design.
I’m always making Pinterest graphics onCanva.com but there are a wide variety of things which can be made:
*presentation slides
*posters
*Instagram posts
*Facebook covers
*email banners
*cards
Since we are heading towards the holidays; you might like to make this…
How to create your graphic
Take one of your photographs and imported it into your graphic design site, then cropped it large.
Pick out what type of item you want to create, such as a Pinterest graphic.
From there play around with highlighting the different template’s words and entering your own.
Then play around with different fonts and colors ~ this is the hard stuff in the beginning but gets really fun as you start creating!
Save your graphic and “publish it.” You can send your graphic straight to Pinterest, Twitter and other places, or board you have on just download it to your computer to save and add to an upcoming post. This is what I tend to do most of the time. Your program should automatically save any work you create so you can use it again at a later date.
Well that’s basically it for creating a Pinterest graphic! I haven’t created too many other things yet but I once you start using a graphics program you’ll immediately see its future potential.
🙂
Coming tomorrow I’ll keep this post short and sweet as
I have a much longer post one coming out in the morning…
It’s Mr. Ethereal’s and my wedding anniversary!
Here are the links for Days 1 and 2 of the tour and each day goes
“live” that morning.
Stop back by tomorrow to catch the next day’s party-goers and please visit the previous day’s Texas bloggers if you haven’t already. Lots of wonderful fall decor and ideas being shared.
I have a friend here where we live who has special needs and lives on her own however organizing her living spaces
is just not her forté.
She and I have been friends for a little over a year now and we walk together all the time and I help her with things
she may need from time to time.
I have helped by taking her to get groceries or driving her to the doctor, as a number of her other friends also do.
It is a privilege to be able to help in this way and it is really an honor to be able to use my organizing and decorating skills
to make her life more
functional and beautiful.
🙂
Begin by clearing out
My friend had already begun packing up things
she no longer needed and had outgrown in bags.
We continued some of this on our first day organizing.
Since she has lost a considerable amount of weight
she is excited to be receiving gently used clothing
from friends and finding new clothing at a few nicer local thriftshops.
We concurrently went through her kitchen pulling out
duplicate and unneeded items and talked about having everything you need to prepare meals and for baking everyday right where you cook and mix things.
We also discussed ways to organize the kitchen ~ by use and item.
You can see in the top photos we have begun putting all the
kitchen appliances in the cupboard above the tan chair.
Then we worked on putting paper goods and less needed
kitchen items together in that same area.
Reorganize and space planning
Since my friend has lost a considerable amount of weight she is excited to be receiving gently used clothing from friends and finding new clothing at a few of the nicer local thriftshops.
A mutual friend takes her out shopping about once a month
or so and they make a day of it by going out to lunch, too.
As we worked on purging those no-longer-needed clothing pieces
I spent time teaching my friend about hanging long items
together and about taking unrelated items out of each closet.
Small space living is the same whether one lives in a trailer,
a small cottage home or in a studio apartment.
Really organizing one’s built-in cupboards and closets
is key to making our homes look and feel bigger!
😉
Our Yoda shows an interest in helping clean and organize.
Clean as you go
One of the biggest tips I can offer is to clean and wipe down
cupboards inside and out and the items going inside as you go through them.
Putting everything away all nice and clean makes a big difference in how we feel about ourselves and about our home!
Since there are only three small storage drawers in the kitchen which were meant for the silverware, some utensils and a few linens for wiping and washing dishes,
I showed my friend how to display her silverware in large
water glasses up on her counter along with an unused crock
to hold her utensils.
Just doing this gave us a free drawer to have the
ever-needed “junk drawer.”
Repurpose closet spaces
Above her television is a perfect spot for my friend’s jeans
casual pants that can be folded and t-shirts.
Here we will put in some foldable shelving to give her
better stacking ability.
This closet will probably hold other things as well
but she really needs clothes closet storage ~
her chief complaint with not being able to put
things away as she would like.
Store away non-used items
Christmas is just over for the year so we worked on
giving her a bigger storage box for her needs.
In this new box we were able to put in all of her blank
Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations
and ornaments as it was just the perfect size!
This box fit perfectly in her really unused storage area
on the outside of her trailer.
We will be storing more items there as we get further
into our reorganizing adventure.
😉
Fixing up the bedroom will be here in the next few weeks.
To be continued…
I’ve been over one other day and we worked more on
putting things for donation out in my car
so…
The next time we get together we will probably tackle
the bedroom closets and storage needs in there.
Here are some items we might need in my friend’s home
that I began pricing when I picked up my own groceries
this past weekend.
Stay tuned!
Being kind and helping others is what I believe in.
I love my decorating and gardens but my heart is
firmly planted in helping others and especially friends
Sharing with Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style Hearth and Soul Linky ~ April J. Harris Totally Terrific Tuesday ~ The Savvy Apron Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage Thursday Favorite Things ~ Katherine’s Corner
*An Update
My friend and I walk together and attend the same Bible
study, but we haven’t really got back to more organizing
in her little trailer home.
I did share some organizational skills with her and we
took a bunch of outgrown clothes and other clothes
which were donated to her to the Salvation Army.
People at her church and here where we live give her
bags of clothes to sort through all of the time ~ one of
the problems she has with organizing.
So… with that, we will get back finishing organizing as
the weather cools off, hopefully!
🙂
AlsoI’m resharing this post with
Spread the Kindness Link Up #80 ~ Shelby on the Edge
Kris ~ Junk Chic Cottage PERK Project and Kindness Lavender Dreams The Give Way of Life Cindy ~ County Road 407 Serve and In Turn You Are Served Tammy ~ Patina and Paint The PERK Project Terri ~ Our Good Life One Word ~ Kind Carol ~ Bluesky At Home How to Write Your How for Your Why
I’m liking the new arrangement! Was drying laundry while potting plants that day, as you can see. 🙂
Over the past few weeks
our little
Texas Garden
is beginning to take shape.
🙂
Really like the terra cotta pot I found at At Home… I put a few rocks in the bottom to help with keeping dirt in and critters out.
Garden beginnings…
Before heading to California
After picking up the mail in Richardson,
I finally found out how on the freeways here
in North Texas to get to
At Home
which is down in lower
Lewisville
on the border with Plano, Texas.
At Home is a really nice decorating store
filled with current holiday decorations
to spruce up your home,
all kinds of garden pots and urns in many colors,
indoor and outdoor furniture including
slightly damaged pieces
{which I looked at since we need a small table in our bedroom}
for the adventurous person to take home and
repair and save
a little money at the same time!
The first time I stepped into At Home
I picked up a couple of kitchen and bath
storage pieces.
I’ll probably share those in the future
some time. Anyway…
I am in~love with this store!
If I had the funds, I could buy like
10 pots and urns and go crazy with plants!
But so far on the couple of shopping trips
I’ve taken, I purchased three.
Love this sweet Scripture pot! I saw it and knew it needed to come home with me!
Garden Structure
One of the things about living here
at Wagon Master
{and really any campground}
is there are always rules about
whether one can put out a carpet
build a deck and
whether you can decorate out of doors.
{and with good reason ~ nobody wants a trashy neighbor! 🙂 }
Even people coming in who aren’t staying
for an extended stay bring their plants
with them, surprisingly.
Kinda like bringing your cat or dog
we garden people have to have our gardens
in some form or another.
😉
I just got a very few plants to see how they will do here in Sanger. Found the lantana and this mini striped petunia along with the blue flowers in the Scripture pot. I want to plant the two pink flowers in with the rose bush I have coming. Plants overhanging from pots and flower boxes are sooo pretty!
Every spring I get this urge to be outside
and garden… It’s pretty hard to not garden.
So I asked if I could put out our garden carpet
like we had at Lake Skinner
when we were camp hosts.
The new terra cotta pot reminds me of these that I left at our Big House ~ including the angel one below. My friend Sandy has a good majority of my old plants and pots now. Photo right and below right show our Lake Skinner yard and the outdoor carpeting.
We can’t. It’s not that the owners
Ken and Janet
don’t want carpets ~ it’s that it’s too hard
for mowing around.
So… I noodled the idea around for a bit
and came up with a “visual carpet”
using regular decorating techniques!
{Can you see the rectangle ~ with the big square planter as the lower right corner ??}
With our big 9′ x 12′ hand-made wool Afghani rug, it was easy to put all of our dining room furniture “on the carpet,” as you can see here. I’ll probably use this beautiful rug in a family room when we get another house. It is the largest of the three rugs and carpets we have. My hubby brought it and three others home from the Persian Gulf after returning from Desert Storm in 1991. We gave three to family members as presents but two returned home to us.
When you decorate and lay out your furniture
inside your house
the rule of thumb is to either
put all of the furniture on the carpet {the rectangle}
when you use a rug in your living space
or
keep all of it off the carpet
putting the sofa, easy chairs,
lamps and end tables surrounding the rug.
So I made mine “on the carpet.”
Of grass, that is!
😉
Yoda likes the new arrangement ~ he’s happy in the shade under the table.
The furniture layout outside had really been bothering me
for about a month or more and I hadn’t really
sat down and figured out what exactly was it
that I didn’t like.
I had created a triangle with the picnic table
and the bench and The Girls
and it wasn’t working…
It was a hot mess!
The Solution
When I did figure it out, it was a simple fix:
add more pieces {hence the pots, which I wanted anyway}
and create a visual rectangle.
That did the trick!
😀
I knew I was looking for a few pots to put up
some plants and I already had the Garden Girls.
I’d also bought the bench a couple of months ago from
Wayfaironline when there was a sale
so it was fairly easy to lay everything out
like putting all of the furniture in an empty room.
Crystal embedded faucet handles, or taps, for your bath and kitchen. The lovely ladies who work for THG ~ sorry, bad iPhone photo shots!
Kitchen and Bath
1. THGa French company which I am just learning about, has some really exciting bath products for the lavatory. Their lead designer has used tiny Swarovski crystals in several of their taps {aka “handles”} giving those pieces such a textural and tactile experience! For this girl who just came out of 14 years working with autistic children, you’ve got to get these for your kids!
They will LOVE the feel of these!
THGalso asked Lalique, the company famous for their incredible crystal vases and perfume bottles, to fashion their crystal into the prettiest rose and apple taps and fixtures you’ve ever seen {the pomme collection}. I’m sorry I didn’t take a closer picture for you, but please check out their company website online HERE. Seriously in love with all of their line! Their idea is that these pieces should be “jewelry for your home.”
2. Miele {pronounced Mee-Lay} is a German company which makes a full range of kitchen and bathroom appliances, vacuum cleaners and hardware for the kitchen and bath. These aren’t technically an individual “new product” per se; however, they are new products in an established line and they are new to me so I’m sharing them here with you. 😉 These ranges have closed burners which are particularly nice to keep food from falling down below the cooktop, and I also really like the burners as they are large enough but move easily, good for people with grip issues.
Love these double ovens! Couldn’t you see yourself cooking a Thanksgiving turkey in one and your pie and other goodies in the other all at the same time??!
I’m hungry already!
Miele’s hardwarecomes in a wide range of colors
{some shown on this display board} and styles to fit yours or your client’s home and aesthetics. Please hop on over to Miele to see their full product line.
Home Decor
3. Universalcame out with these really cute chrome and cararra marble hexagonal-shaped tables. I was in love the minute I saw them since I live in my “Small Cottage” and we need our tables to be small. These cuties can be grouped and moved around super easily as each only weighs about 10 lbs. or so. Universal had a contest to see who could style their tables the best and the winner would win a table. Obviously, I didn’t win one. Sad face…. 🙁 I’m still thinking I might call them up and see about buying one {or two or three} as they are super cute and portable! Universal is only available to the trades; however, you can look them up online at: www.universaltothetrade.com.
Jickie Torres ~ editor of Country Cottages and Bungalows
Hello from Beverly Hills and the
Design Bloggers Conference!
Today I thought I’d share a little about styling your own
photoshoots like a professional.
This was the talk Jickie Torres and Courtney Allison
two of my favorite photo stylists and designers
gave on Sunday afternoon.
Jickie is the editor of Cottages and Bungalowsmagazine
and
Courtney is the photographer and blog-author of
French Country Cottage
one of my favorite blogs out there
in Blog Land.
Together they spoke about creating
good quality photos and the differences between
creating photos for your blog -vs-
creating photos aimed towards
magazine publication.
Two slightly different ways of photo shooting
that I think most bloggers wouldn’t just
intuitively realize.
Courtney of French Country Cottage
In this slide, Courtney compared two
of her photographs and talked about how
the one on the left is more of what the industry
calls “a vignette scene.”
See how it’s more of a “close-up?”
It shares more details like the pompom ruffle
around the chair pillow,
the thick plush down seat cushion
and of course
the ever sweet doggie!
These kinds of photographs work great
on your blog, but for editorial print work
there needs to be more of a “room shot.”
Editors also need your photos to
“tell a story.”
Jickie mentioned to make your photos
realistic ~ have a cup on the table,
drape a blanket over the chair’s arm.
You want those things in your scenes to draw a
reader in and make him or her
want to jump right into the picture and just
plop right down making oneself
right at home.
🙂
Well, those are just two of the big takeaways
from Jickie and Courtney’s talk late
Sunday afternoon!
There’s sooo much more to share from conference and I’ll be sharing more in tomorrow’s post.
As always, feel free to share this post and any others and please sign up if on my sidebar and follow along on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as I’m posting video and other photos there.
Happy Cyber Monday, Everybody! I hope your Thanksgiving weekend with family & friends was wonderful! Today I’m joininga wonderful group of bloggers in bringing my Favorite Holiday Gifts to give to family and friends and you’ll find them all at the click of your {Christ}mouse!
1. Wedding Cake Serving Sets
A wonderful presentfor the lucky couple with a wedding in the coming year or here at year’s end!
I gave this gorgeous Wedding Cake Serving Set from David’s Bridal to my son and daughter~in~law this summer and they loved it! This serving set must be based off real vintage pieces! I love the stamped “I Do” and the Art~Deco retro styling! Seriously pretty with its swirls and graceful lines reminiscent of that lovely era ~ a lovely, thoughtful gift any bride and groom would surely appreciate.
2. Warm & Cozy Winter Scarves
I have become a scarf~oholic the past few years.
I have had a few scarves since my early 20’s
but now there are soooo many choices!
I just don’t think anyone can have too many scarves.
Why not give your loved ones a little “coupon book”
homemade by you for homemade meals
that you’ll make for them?
or…
So many restaurants deliver so perhaps a gift certificate
or prepaid card with an amount that would cover
the cost of a nice meal.
Everyone appreciates a good homestyle meal so that
they can take a break from cooking ~
especially with today’s busy lives
after work.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope your holiday season is a wonderful one. I’ll be sharing more holiday decorating and gift giving ideas over the coming weeks.
Blessings to you, Barb 🙂 Please stop by and visit some of the other participants in today’s Gift Giving Guide blog party, thank you!
