pottery barn

Pottery Barn Throw Blanket…For Less!

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Pottery Barn Blanket

I recently went shopping, and died over Pottery Barn’s new holiday decor. Between their fall decor and the upcoming Christmas decor(found in their catalog), I could definitely spend hundreds of dollars there very quick. I especially loved their faux fur throw pillows and throw blankets. They look so delicious and perfect. Very cozy for those cold winter days. Unfortunately, the throw blanket I really wanted cost $129. That was a little too pricey for my taste. So I left the store empty handed. I then strolled into Target (my home away from home). I went straight to the home section (obvi) and what did I find?! A faux fur white blanket on sale for $13.99!!!! What a steal!! This is what I love. Finding things that I love at the more high end stores, and then scouting around to find them on the cheap! So now, I get the look I want, my boyfriend doesn’t think I’m crazy for spending $129 on a blanket, AND I have $100 more dollars to spend on something else! (Like the Pottery Barn fur pillows to match!). Target is the BEST! If you ever want the look of Pottery Barn but can’t spend that much money, always look at stores like Target, Home Goods, or Ikea. They have great deals, and when you mix high priced and low priced items, no one knows the difference! I like to spend more money on certain things, and then save money on other accessories. For example, I discovered that the cheapest pillow inserts are found at Ikea. They are like $3.00! And then you can buy the Pottery Barn or West Elm pillow covers for $30-$40 and not feel bad about it. Instead of spending $12-$18 on a pillow insert PLUS $30-$40 on a pillow cover at Pottery Barn, you just saved that extra $12-$18 and no one will ever know the difference! That’s almost enough for another pillow cover! It’s all about the mix and match. My tip is never buy things on a whim. Figure out what you want and then shop around to find the best price you can on that item. I always scout out the stores, write down what I want, and then go home and online shop to see if I can find similar things for a better price.

So here it is — the blanket I based my purchase at Target off of:  Faux Fur Throw from Pottery Barn    How luxe is that?!

Pottery Barn Blanket

I couldn’t find the Target throw blanket I bought online, but here is a picture of the info tag 🙂

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Doesn’t that look the same?! So flurry and furry!

So what do you think? Are you always searching for a sweet deal like I am?! Leave me a comment and let me know!

xoxo

Image courtesy of http://www.polyvore.com

 

 

DIY Flower Arrangements

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I’ve been scouting out fake flowers for a while. I have some brightly colored fake flowers from Ikea that sound cheesy but are actually super cute for a pop of color in the family room. But I’ve always pictured nice white bouquets in a few vases I have laying around. I wish I could buy fresh flowers every week like some people, but that can be super expensive. And the flowers at our local grocery store are usually dead by the time they get up here, so it’s really not worth it. The issue with fake flowers is that they can look super fake and lame (duh) if they aren’t good quality. Enter Pottery Barn. I became obsessed with Pottery Barn fakies about 4 months ago, and finally hit up a store to see if they really looked as good in person as they did online. They did. They were magical. I HAD to have them. So I bought 3 fakiez from Pottery Barn, and then 5 fakiez from Michaels (way cheaper). Mixing high and low costs leads to perfect arrangements. 🙂

Can you tell which is $12.50 and which is $4.99??

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Making fake flower arrangements is very simple. Grab your vases, and let’s get going!

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( It was a dreary day today, I needed a fun activity.)

For me, the fakiez I got were too long (see below pic), so I needed to cut them. Trimming fake flowers is a little obnoxious because the insides of them are wire and cardboard and plastic and all these weird things. You definitely have to cut, pry and work at it, but they will eventually break off. It just might take a little bit of strength and will power. 🙂

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And that’s all you have to do! Here is my finished product! Now, they are not completely finished because I need to buy more clear marbles or something to put in the bottoms of them – but you get the idea! Super fab right?! And they will look perfect every single day!

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To purchase these fake flowers – check out http://www.potterybarn.com or http://www.michaels.com. I just bought these flowers within this week, and both stores were having sales – so the time to buy is now!

The bouquet on the left is all Michaels flowers – $4.99 each, I bought 5 of them. They were on sale for $2.99 each that day – so total cost was $15. The bouquet on the right is all Pottery Barn flowers (gorg!) – $12.50 each, I bought 3 of them. They were on sale for $10 – so total cost was $30. I had a coupon as well, so my total cost ended up in the $20s ..I think it was about $24.

Some people might think spending $10 a pop on a fake flower is insane, but I just think the quality is SO legit that it’s worth it. And realistically if you average out the cost of fake flowers over the year or two that you will have them – it equals close to nothing.

So those are my new flower arrangements! What do you think?!

xoxo