Curtains

Okay I am finally posting pictures of my new curtains. It has been an incredibly busy week so I've not had a chance to post them. And as it is 2:30 AM, I really should be in bed anyway. But it's hanging over my head.
Here's a before of the kitchen curtains. The color is a little off - they're really more yellow-y than they look here. They're called traverse curtains; I looked it up haha! They have the pulley-type thing that you pull the string to open and close them. They're ancient, filthy, ripped and even a bit chewed up by the dog. So we were due for an upgrade.

Here's my new ones. Can I just tell you I love them? Please ignore the holes in the wall from the old rod - hubby is asking me now to add painting the kitchen to my to-do list. Oh look you can see out to my pretty backyard. I love my yard :)

I forgot to take before pictures of the living room curtains. This was the best I could find - from Haddie's birthday! Can I tell you how much fun it is having a birthday 12 days before Christmas? Ugh! This is the just the sheers, it had a 2nd rod that had the same kind of curtains as the old kitchen ones.

And here's the new ones! I had a hard time deciding on curtains because I love my big window and didn't want to distract from it too much. These were just what I was hoping to achieve. Again, please ignore the old rod holes!

Oh I love my clock! And if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the gorgeous detail on the curtain rod. I fell in love with it!

They're nothing extravagant, but I love them. They cost me much more than I anticipated. (We're talking just over $150!!!! For the panels, rods, and hold backs) I could have made them cheaper, I know. But I doubted my sewing abilities and I was impatient. I suppose it's a good thing I love them :)

Easy Improvements

I've wanted to do a couple minor things in my upstairs hallway for awhile now. Why I put it off for so long is beyond me. Or perhaps I've just been lazy. No, that can't be it! :)
This lovely light fixture has driven me crazy since we bought our house last year.

$14 and 10 minutes later -Voila! Greatly improved.

Then these two eye-sores: An old air conditioner switch left behind after central air was installed and a cheapo thermostat installed with the central air. Leaving behind the pretty rectangle of different paint as well. Apparently the previous owners weren't worried about aesthetics.

But I am, dang it! So, a .30 cent cover and $25 for a programmable thermostat with about 20 minutes work and it's now more pleasing to my eyes.

Eventually I will repaint the hallway and when I do I will just patch up the hole but for now this makes me a lot happier. And my utility bill will be happier with the programmable thermostat as well!
And I installed a dimmer switch in the living room. I wanted to be able to control the lighting better in there. I did it myself! Are you so impressed? I was quite proud. I never do stuff like that :)

A Work In Progress

Here's my progress thus far with painting the paneling in the family room:

It is such a mess - I hardly have room to move around! But there's no way I'm moving all this furniture upstairs out of the way. This is a very long process. I'm still working on priming all the grooves in the paneling. By this evening I should be able to get the rollers out and prime over all of it. I don't think I'm doing too bad, considering this is a one-woman show and the room is huge.
Little one is down for a nap now, so it's time to hit the paintbrush again :)

Hurricane Jar

Remember this?

Here's one idea I had - I put some green moss in it with a red candle. Then decided that the whole bag of moss was too much.

But then I also thought of putting black rocks in the bottom with the same candle. Pardon the bad pictures, my camera sucks. But check out Momma's little helper :)

Haddie liked chocolate goldfish in it instead - here is her masterpiece!
So, which do you like better? The black rocks or the moss (if I take half of it out)? Or do you have any other ideas for this jar?

Pillows

I have to pat myself on the back. I pulled out my sewing machine and sewed for the first time last night since middle school. Which means I was fairly clueless as to what I was doing :) But I figured it out, plus pillows really aren't that tough.

Here's one side of them:

And here's the other:

Freaking awesome, right? I seriously made them in like, 2 hours. Which I didn't think was bad, considering my expertise (or the lack thereof), I stuffed the crap out of them (I didn't want wussy pillows), and I had some sewing machine problems in the middle of it that took me awhile to figure out and then fix. They're bigger than the pictures make them look - they're just shy of being the same size as a standard pillow. I have 2 square pillows, one red and one dark blue, that these will go great with on my family room couch.

Here's a tile I made for the family room a month or so ago. I used my Cricut and Design Studio to cut the vinyl. Unless I decide differently later, it is going above my fireplace on the mantle. Yes, the 'F' is backwards, but I promise it's the font that did it, not me!

And just because I'm thrilled with all my new Americana decorations, you must endure a picture of it all together:

This is just the new stuff - I have lots of other stuff I've acquired over the last year or so, but it's already in place in the family room. For now - until I get my primer and paint and paint those ugly panel walls. Then I get to redecorate it all over again! Yay!

Barn Stars

Okay so you remember these? YAY! They're ready for show and tell!

Tada! I'm so excited for them. The yellow just wasn't doing it for me, not to mention the fact that I'm decorating in Red, White (cream actually) and BLUE.

I love them :) At first, when I was distressing this one:

...I was not pleased with how it was looking. My sandpaper was leaving scratch marks all over the place, and some of the old yellow ended up poking through. So I distressed all of it that I wanted done, then I sprayed another very light coat of blue paint over top. It fixed the scratch marks AND the yellow. Plus I just think it looks cool!

Haddie's First Boo-Boo

Seriously! On Sunday, Haddie received her first skinned elbow believe it or not. She has yet to skin her knees too. I don't know how she's gotten so lucky, especially considering she's accident-prone. She fell off our porch - it's a short one, just a small step up from the ground. She was so excited to be let loose in the front yard that she went running off the porch. And crashed. I felt so bad!

Okay so call me a sentimental fool, but I had to take pictures. So sad! My poor little monkey.
Here is a picture from today, showing her elbow nicely healing. She won't keep a bandaid on, so I can't keep Neosporin on it for her :(
She pulled a towel out of the linen closet, carried it outside and laid down on it by the patio steps. Seriously, she's a weird kid. I'm embarrassed that she's still using that stupid bottle. In my defense, she will NOT drink milk out of any other container. So I give in. Go me!