Giveaway Winner & The Country Living Fair

Hello everyone!

Happy Friday to you all.  This is going to be a great weekend since the weather here is nice and it's Halloween.  

Thanks to all of you who signed  up for the sheet set giveaway. I wish I could pick more than one winner.  But there can only be one.   The winner is Jennifer Schmitz!  Congratulations! 

Last Friday, my sister and I went to the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain GA.  It's something I look forward to every year.  This year was another great show.  I took some pics to share with all of you.  I will divide this up into two posts since I took so many pics.  

I will share the second half of these pics in my next post.  As you can see, there were a lot of unique things for sale.  It was extremely crowded and a bit hot as the day wore on. I was very tired after I got home from this one!  I bought a few cute things too that I can't wait to show you!

Have a super weekend and a safe Halloween!

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Share Your Style Party #37

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another edition of Share Your Style! I'm Dian Mayasari from Dian Mayasari Style and I am thrilled to be your host this week.   

Last Friday, I posted about a fabulous sheet set giveaway and I will announce the winner this Friday. So, if you haven't signed up for it, please do so now!  Click HERE to read all about it.  

 It has been so much fun getting to see all of the Fall decorations and Halloween crafts you've shared lately.  Can you believe that Halloween is in just a few days now?! 

Here are just a few features from our party last week that I really liked.

Super Mommy Club shared  a lot of yummy breakfast casserole recipes that you can make ahead of time.  I think these would be great to do for the upcoming holidays.

Just 2 Sisters showed how to make the cutest ghosts out of milk jugs.  It's a fun craft to do with your kids and use for Halloween night!

House Honeys gave us a tour of Vermont in the Fall.  It is absolutely breathtaking and unlike anything I'll ever hope to see here in Georgia!  

I hope that you will stop in and visit these blogs.  

If you were featured, please feel free to add this button to your blog!

Ok, now are you ready to share your own inspiration with us all?  Remember that when you share your link here it also shows up on 6 other blogs!  

Please include a link back to this party on your post.

An InLinkz Link-up

My New Food Pantry

Hello everyone!

Remember when I mentioned last week that my husband and I worked on something very important for our house?  Well...............

It was my new food pantry!  Why am I so excited over something so basic as a pantry?  Because this is the first one I have ever had in my life!  I didn't grow up with one and when my husband and I moved into our first house, it was small and didn't have one.  Then, we moved into this house and it STILL didn't have one!  I thought that I had enough cabinets at the time, but eventually I ran out of room and had to come up with other places to put our food.  

Well, I recently had a light bulb moment and realized how seldom we use our coat closet.  Hmmmmm.......maybe I could clean that out and turn that into our pantry. It's right off the kitchen too!  So, with a little help from my husband, that is what I did.  

We stored our coats in bedroom closets and found new places for vacuum cleaner accessories, important papers etc that were in there.  

This is where we started.

It was just a plain-Jane closet.  (Look how much the white paint had yellowed over the years too!)

So, my husband added some more shelves.

And then, we filled it with food.  

I like having the top shelf for tall items and the lower area for bulky items.

I have no idea why I never thought of this earlier!  This makes my life so much easier not having to look through multiple cabinets and bins for things.   When I need to go grocery shopping, I can look at a glance and make a list faster. 

Our baking and seasoning items are still in the cabinet beside the stove though.  I keep some of my paper products in my laundry room and in a deep drawer in the kitchen.  So, this is mostly for breakfast foods, snacks, canned goods and side items.

So..............after I removed food from our cabinets to go in here, that opened up more cabinet space. Now I have more room for  serving pieces and other items that I once  had crammed in hard to reach places.  

It made my kitchen feel much bigger just by doing this.

Do you have storage problems too?  Try re purposing a closet that you seldom use.  You will be surprised how it will change your life!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Don't forget to sign up for the sheet set giveaway on my last post!

Sheet Set Giveaway

Hello everyone!

Are you glad it's Friday?  I know I am.  I have something very special for you today.  I am thrilled to be able to offer a fantastic giveaway to you for some amazing soft and well made sheets from Perfect Linens.  You may recall that I reviewed a set of sheets from them earlier this year.  I fell in love with them and they have since become my favorite sheets.  Well now you  have a chance to have your very own set for FREE!  

Perfect Linens is offering a set of Second Skin sheets to one lucky reader in either a queen or king size.  You get to choose which size you want.  Here are some pics of these pretty sheets.

They offer three different borders to choose from too.

Blue Double Stripe

Ribbon

Fern Green

To read the specifics about these sheets on their website, please click HERE.

Want to know why these sheets are so "perfect"?  

Here are some facts about these sheets.

• We're sheet experts, the only website that specializes in sheets; other retailers sell 500 types of products. With over 30 years experience selling sheets to the biggest retailers, no one knows sheets as we do. 
• We search the world for the best sheets.  Using tests and fabric analysis like Nike and NASA, we identify the most comfortable sheets.  We are unique with our novel emphasis on objective research. 
• Sheets change after use so we test after multiple launderings. Shoppers know how they'll feel during their lifetime, saving money and eliminating frustration. We offer free shipping both ways as a satisfaction guarantee.
• Instead of searching through hundreds of products and tens of websites, we offer a small curated selection of exceptionally comfortable sheets... the best of the best.

Are you excited yet?!

Ok, here are the rules for this giveaway.  

1)  Be a follower of my blog, if you are not already. 

2) Go to Perfect Linens website and sign up for their email newsletter. (located at the very bottom of their website)   Click HERE to do that.

3) Follow them on at least two of their social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest). (located at the very bottom of their website)  Click HERE to do that.

4)  Leave a comment on my blog telling me you did these things. Please include your email address as well.

This giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

I will draw a random name from the comments left on my blog on Friday, October 30th and announce it then.  So, be sure to check back with me next Friday for the announcement of the winner!  Perfect Linens will then contact you about what size and pattern you want as well as your shipping info.

One more thing!  For those of you who either don't win the giveaway or want to order a set of your choice, Perfect Linens is offering $30.00 off if you use discount code:  EssenceHolidays30  now through Dec 31, 2015.  

Good luck to all of you!  

Have a super weekend.

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Share Your Style Party #36

Hello everyone!

Welcome to Share Your Style!  We are having about the best weather we could ask for here in GA.  How about you?  I wish I could just bottle it up and use it on days that aren't so nice.  Pretty weather really helps put me in a good mood.  And you know what else does?  Looking at all of the great inspiration out there in blogland from all of you!  So, let's see what you have to share with us this week.  Lynn from The Vintage Nest is your host.

We are delighted you are here today for the 36th Share Your Style party.  Your host today is me, Lynn, of The Vintage Nest blog.  I loved going through all last week's fabulous posts and found it very, very hard to pick just a few for featuring  this week.  You all are so generous with your time, recipes, tutorials, DIY's, and so much more.  The weather here in Virginia has been picture perfect this past week.  I took my Mom on an outing Sunday and took so many photos of the happenings around our area.  Here is one that I would like to share with you.  To me it just epitomizes the season.  

Now on to the party.   Remember when you share on our party, you will be on seven (7) different blogs and if you are featured please take the special badge for your blog.  And please remember to link back somewhere on your blog post.  Now.....don't be shy.  Please don't  link and run.  Go visit some of the other partiers.  :)

Enjoy

Paige of A Junk Chick Life participates in a $10.00 Yard Sale challenge.  Look what she bought with only a small portion of the money.  Just shows you decorating on a budget can easily be done....along with a great imagination.  I love this!  So simple and elegant.

I have made the velvet pumpkins and love doing it and always wanted to make some of the cute little velvet acorns I see but I don't have much patience with little tiny items.  And then I saw this!  Angelina of Peonies and Orange Blossoms shows us such a simple and sweet way to make them.  Yep....gonna do it!

I just had to feature a  yummy recipe ..... what with football season here and we are all looking for delicious quick appetizers for tailgating and home viewing.  Walking on Sunshine shares this Warm Bacon-Cheese Dip.  I am thinking just perfect for the Thanksgiving football games. 

:)

And finally, I wanted to show you Michelle's beautifully decorated dining area for her home tour.  Gorgeous country charm here!  Thank You Dandelion Patina for sharing.

Now let's see what you are sharing this week.  Cannot wait!

An InLinkz Link-up

My Chandelier "Steal"

Hello everyone!

Did you have a nice weekend?  Mine was very busy but also very fun.  I got a lot done around my house.  One thing that got done was installing this new chandelier in my master bedroom.  I found it while out shopping at an antique store that is very close to my house.  They have a plethora of stuff that you may or may not find something good.  This time I found something VERY good!  This chandelier was originally from Ballard Designs and sold for over $200!  How do I know this?  Well, the dealer left the original sticker on it.  How much did I pay for it?  Just $45!  Oh yeah!  Needless to say, it had to come home with me.  

I decided to hang it in my bedroom because the other one that was in here was too small for the space after we got our king size bed.  (It was purchased when we had a queen size bed).  Also, since my other one was old, some of the lights didn't work properly.  Here is what I used to have.

(I snapped this pic after my husband already started taking it down so the ceiling plate is hanging down.)

So, now I have this much larger grey painted chandelier that fits the space perfectly and all of the lights work!

We put it on a dimmer because it has 12 light bulbs!  When that thing was turned on it looked like we were walking into a lit up ball field at night!

You may have noticed that I made a few other changes to my room.  They were actually made prior to getting this chandelier.  So, the chandelier was just icing on the top!

I brought my swedish style chair in here (from the family room).

I also changed the pillows on my bed.

And I made a pillow change on the chair in the corner of the bedroom.

Now, I LOVE my bedroom!  I think this chandelier change made all the difference.

My husband and I worked on something else in our house that we should've done after we first moved in almost 20 years ago!  I am super excited about it because we now have something that we've needed for so long.   I'll share that with you later this week.

Go forth and have a wonderful Monday!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Dian Mayasari ~

Adding Warmth to a Mostly White Room

Hello everyone!

I love white rooms.  However, with the cooler weather finally upon us, I've been craving a little bit of warmth in my mostly white house.  I already have dark brown wooden floors which is a huge help in offsetting all of the white.  However, I wanted a bit more.  So, I decided to bring in some more brown tones and wood.  It still keeps my rooms feeling soft but adds more dimension I think.

The first thing I did was to add stacks of old brown books in a large wooden tray to my coffee table.

I'm liking it already!  Then, I moved a few of them up to my mantel (sorry, white books that I just added recently).  

Then, I brought in a burlap pouf.  I like the look of burlap and the texture.  Plus, it is functional as well as stylish.

Over in my sitting room, I added a rustic wooden tray with rope handles.

I'm loving these changes and the warmth it brings to the space.  It keeps these rooms from feeling "too sweet".  I like the juxtaposition between the feminine and masculine too.

It is supposed to be beautiful here in GA this weekend.  Do you have any fun plans?  I will probably help my son with a school project and go to the movies to see The Martian.  Has anyone seen that yet?

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Dian Mayasari ~