DIY Curtains...For a Friend...That I Want to Keep.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin A sweet friend of my recently came to me with a dilemma.  She was working on overhauling her office, and could not find curtains for the space.  Things were either too expensive, or just weren't the look she was going for.  I could totally relate...the same thing happened to me every time I looked.  So I told her there was an easy solution...just buy fabric and make them!

She said great!  Buuuuut she didn't have a sewing machine, and she didn't know how to sew.  Welp, that could be a problem...except for the fact that I have one and knew how to {well learned to from my Mama}.  So we planned a date to fabric shop at a discount store near work, and she picked out a gorgeous orangey ikat fabric.  It's amazing...as in so amazing, I might need to go back and get myself a yard or two.

Anywho, once the fabric was bought, it was time to get down to business.

My friend was not going to use these for function {no opening and closing of the curtains to hide the window}.  Like those in our house {here, here,  here and here}, she only needed them to dress up the space and add a pop of color.  This helps to keep the cost of fabric down, since you can usually just buy the yardage you need for one panel and cut it down the middle to make two.

So that's just what I did.  I sliced the fabric in two and lined things up making sure the fabric was running the same way. 

Then I started pinning... 

And sewing...

After some time, I was all done with both panels!

Well I use the word "done" loosely.  I didn't sew the bottom hem yet because I was waiting for her to hang her hardware so I knew how long to make the curtains.  Hopefully I can post a picture of them hanging in their new home soon! :)

Anyone else ever make a project for someone that you wanted to keep yourself?  Am I the only bad one? ;)

Holiday Prep.

I have been in full holiday-preparation mode for the past couple days.  After I put up our frames up, re-arranged our bedroom and stenciled our master bath, I moved on to more important holiday necessities...aka finally sending out our Christmas cards and making my Babo’s {my dad’s mom} homemade cream and coconut cream filled chocolates.  I used to look forward to getting my fair share of them every time we visited her for the holidays.  Eventually, they became too tough for her to make, and once she passed, I took over the reins of making them for my family.  I’m not sure if they taste as good as they did when she made them {I’m always my own worst critic when it comes to food}, but they sure are delicious!

It’s a two day process.  First you have to make the filling, roll them into balls and freeze it overnight...

Then, the next day, you melt semi-sweet morsels and dip them, one by one.

I.  Can’t.  Wait.  To.  Eat.  These.

After those were completed {phew}, next on top of my holiday to-do list was making some new, winter-ish curtains for the living/dining room windows. 

I’m sure this task is on the top of everyone’s list during the holidays.  You know, right before wrapping gifts and making side dishes and pies. ;)  Heck...you'd think I’d even put "getting our ensuite back together after everything I did to it this past weekend" higher on my list, but no…I dove into another project leaving others sorta, kinda finished.

I think it only makes sense that a sewing project would take priority over other things right now because my parents arrived Wednesday night.  That means I have my mom at my side to help with the curtains. :) Luckily, they were finished late last night.  And I'm in love.  I think they add a nice punch to the room.  Once things settle down after the holidays I’ll reveal them.

For now, I have to get my butt moving and wrap all of our presents {thank gosh we only have a few}, make a peanut butter pie and a veggie side dish for my sister’s house this weekend! :)

Happy Friday everyone!!!!!!

How Dare I!

I began to write a post to talk about the fun {and crazy cheap} art I made to hang in our master bedroom, when I realized I am WAY behind in sharing the developments that have taken place in there!  No, that was not supposed to be a dirty joke {whoops}, and for sure, that wasn’t a sly way of announcing I’m pregnant haha.  It just means that I’ve spruced some things up a bit since I last shared the space.  I send my sincerest apologies via the Internet as I hang my head in shame over my keyboard.

Okay, back to business…

Our master bedroom has come quite a long way since the beginning.  It started here with some old furniture and a color that just wasn’t right…then it underwent quite a few changes: color, layout, furniture…then I found the perfect mirror and revealed where our new furniture came from…and thennnnnnnnnnn, I stopped sharing.  Boom, just like that.  I wish I could tell you there was this grand plan behind why I stopped, but the fact is that it just never seemed the right time to share.   I kept having little tidbits I wanted to divulge, but then one small thing would lead to another and, well, you get the picture.  It just never seemed “finished” enough to put a post up.

But let’s be serious…we are trying to accomplish things on a tight budget {which can extend timelines}, and in the lovely world of home décor nothing is ever really “done”.  Things are constantly evolving and changing, so I finally took a step back and realized I needed to stop worrying about a finished product and just keep it real with our progress to date.  :) 

You see…it all started with that darn mirror.  I needed to find the perfect spot to hang it on the wall, but I wouldn’t know where that would be until I found two chairs that I envisioned under it.  So I started hunting down chairs.  They needed to:  1) have the look I was going for, 2) fit in our tight budget, 3) not take up a crazy amount of floor space and 4) be comfy.  All of this criteria meant I was searching without success for quite some time, but finally, good ‘ole Tar-jay came through for me and I took the plunge.

{Please excuse the junk on our bed...like I said, I'm trying to keep it real here. ;) }

Phew, that meant I could cross the chairs off the list, the mirror now had a place to be hung and I’m done…right?  Wrong.  Now I needed to find the right table to place between the chairs.  And so, the search was on, again.  The table had to:  1) be the right height to fit with the smaller-sized chairs, 2) not compete with the metallic mirror above it and 3) be inexpensive!!!  It didn’t take me very long to realize that I wanted a ceramic garden stool to act as my table.  They are the perfect height and can be moved to any area of our home and blend nicely.  I came across so many beautiful ones, but everything was out of my budget {yes, even the ones on Joss & Main, One Kings Lane and The Foundary for $89…I wasn’t joking when I said I was on a budget}.

This “table” eluded me for quite some time….until one of my favorites places came to the rescue...the one and only, Home Goods!!  My mom and I made a random trip there and found the perfect, zebra-ish patterned, off-white stool for just $39.  TOTALLY in my budget. 

Finally I was getting somewhere…chairs, check...mirror, check…”table”, check!  That left one last thing for me to take care of…curtains.  And what was going to be my biggest issue in finding those?!?!?!  Budget.  Anyone shocked?  Nope, didn’t think so.

Luckily, our curtains are purely decorative and we don’t need them to actually close {we have blinds for privacy}, so that enabled me to purchase panels from ZGallerie that stole my heart from the get-go.  These geo panels were out of my budget if I needed to purchase 4, but luckily {with some help from my mom}, I was able to buy 2 and turn them into 4.  I adore how they turned out, and I must say…the hubby and I are thrilled with how our room is coming together.

Now we just need to get some art up on the walls, finish a CL'ed ottoman makeover, mount our flat screen TV, add some more personal touches and we will be able to call this room complete!  Woohooooooo! :)

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y...A Reveal Post!

For a while now, you guys have heard me talk about all this "progress" that was happening at our house, but I never posted any reveal pictures to back up all my jibber-jabber.  Well I'm finally able to start showing off what my parents and I {mostly my parents :) haha} worked very hard on.

First...we started with the curtains.  We rolled all 18 yards of our fabric out and made our cuts. 

Then my Mom got down to pinning...of course, Perny wanted to help out.

And before I knew it, my Mom was able to crank out 4 panels.  Yup, that's right, I'm still scared of my sewing machine...and my Mom is a total pro, so I left these up to her.  I did not want to make any mistakes on my expensive-splurge fabric.  So I stuck around and consulted on hem lengths and the look I was going for.

A couple days later it was time for me and the hubby to hang our off-the-shelf Home Depot blinds and put up our curtain rods.  Instead of using the support brackets that came with our curtain rods, we chose to use Kwik-Hang brackets.  My Mom found these online and had me look into them.  They're great, and don't require any drilling into your walls.  That is a huge plus because we didn't want to do any unnecessary drilling into our plaster...although, there was one downside to these brackets for me.  I originally thought I'd hang our curtains from the very top of the wall, not the top of the windows.  This would help to add height to our room..but after thinking it over, I decided to forgo the extra foot of curtain and use this nifty little invention.  It comes out of it's mailing box looking like this....

And the brackets look like this....

You simply hammer the little teeth into the top of the window frame, and you're done!

So our windows have gone from dark black holes....

....to this!



And I'm sure you spotted two of my furniture projects in the room during those pictures.  Last night I finally got the doors and hardware back onto the buffet in the living room, which means I'll be sharing it soon!

So, what do you think?  Do you give the made-over windows a thumbs up or down?!?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Happy Friday! :)

One Decision Down, A Bagillion To Go

Well cross another thing off my list...I have finally selected a fabric to make our living/dining room curtains.  And the funny part is, I have come full circle in doing so.

About a week before Christmas, my Mom and I went shopping at Calico Corners to check out some fabric for various things around the house.  I needed something to re-cover the dining room chairs, to re-cover the bar stools, to make a shade for the kitchen window and to make curtains for the living/dining room area.

While at the store, we found all the perfect fabrics, but they weren't the most affordable options.  One of the most expensive fabrics was the one we loved for the curtains, and after calculating how many yards we'd need times the cost per yard, I almost started crying.  I realized that it just wasn't financially responsible to buy the fabric to make the curtains, so I skipped that project, and purchased the rest.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and I started getting antsy for curtains.  I wanted touches that would make our space feel warm and cozy...aka rugs and curtains.  And while that perfect/affordable rug still seems to escape me, I have finally decided on a curtain fabric!  And it's the exact same one I wanted in the store, all those weeks ago.

I had been searching online for a fabric to go with my gray and aqua color scheme, but also with a punch of yellow or grellow.  I was sending my Mom some fabric options I'd come across, and finally she brought up that the fabric in CC was exactly what I had been searching for this whole time.  She was definitely right!

The only problem was, the price was still higher than I wanted to pay.  I'm talking more than double what I was hoping to pay.  So to offset the cost, I shopped around until I found the lowest price, plus I got a 15% off coupon code and free shipping!  Then I decided to cut the width of the fabric in half, giving me two panels from the same length of fabric.  FYI, we never plan on covering our windows with the curtains.  For that purpose, we'll get the same light and airy, off-the-shelf blinds we purchased from Home Depot for our bathrooms and bedrooms.  The curtains are strictly a decorative touch!

So here is the fabric...{I'm sure you've all seen it before on Target's slipper chair}...Thomas Paul's Dahlia in Aegean!

And it'll be hung by satin nickel curtain clips on Martha Stewart Living's Crystal Ball Drapery Rod.  I got two of these from Home Decorators with a 10% off coupon and free shipping!

I can't wait to see how this project turns out.  I am hoping that the curtains look as good as I am picturing in my head! :)

Mailing Happiness

Not only did my Mom and Dad help like caaaarazyyyyy while they were visiting us in December, they also found a way to help us out while they are 13 hours away, in a completely different state.

Let me back track for a second.  Whenever I am out and about, I always keep an eye out for anything in the aqua/turquoise/teal family…especially if it’s something for the kitchen.  I knew our kitchen would be mostly white, with stainless steel appliances, so I wanted to bring in pops of color with all kinds of accessories.

Well, clearly my Mom was on a mad search for all things aqua as well, and she struck gold!  {Or should I say…turquoise haaaa!}

Last week, the hubby and I arrived home from work to see a couple boxes from UPS hanging out in front of our garage.  I brought them inside and eagerly unpacked them to find an abundance of sea blues and greens.

Now, thanks to my wonderful Mom {and Dad}, I have all sorts of accents in my kitchen that help tie everything together!

And that definitely includes the super cute curtain my Mom made for me that you saw in Monday’s post.  We both fell in love with that fabric the minute we saw it.

Seriously, parents are the best!