Life at 818: Low and Behold

Well I'm so excited! First of all I'm excited that I am actually sitting down at my computer and writing a blog post! It is something I really enjoy doing, yet I don't do it nearly enough.

Secondly, I have done a couple of things to actually blog about! You know my sob story - work, work, work; housework, housework, housework; tired, tired, and more tired. But, hey, I'm getting better.

Okay, back to my thing that I'm so excited about... I hung curtains. YEE HAW, right?! Right! A plain, simple pair of curtains - oh, but I did some customizing - let's start from the boring beginning. Here is the window.

No kidding, this is my den. It's been this way forever and really, I had not even thought about hanging curtains in here. That was way further down the list of things I wanted to do. But I was in Kirkland's right after Christmas and they had a ton of great stuff on sale. I found this set of curtains on sale, and then got another 20% off. They ended up costing around $30. I couldn't pass them up! They were the perfect color and everything. Well, almost everything.

Since I wanted to hang the rod higher, half way between the top of the window and the 9 foot ceiling, they were going to be way too short.

(it is so hard to photograph a window when the sun is shining in it!)

I didn't let that deter me. I found what I needed at JoAnn Fabric. A solid, somewhat heavy material that matched perfectly, to sew to the bottom of each panel.

I am not the most accomplished seamstress, but I can sew some straight lines. It wasn't too difficult - I took the hem out of the curtain, cut the new fabric to the right width and sewed the sides so they would be nice and finished..

I sewed the new fabric to the curtain, using the original bottom fold of the curtain as my guide. Then I hung them back on the rod (forgot to photograph that part) to measure/pin the bottom of the curtain. I took them down, pinned the hem and hung them back up to make sure the hem was in the right place. Once that was done there was nothing left to do but sew that hem and they were finished! See the difference~~ and the weight of the solid fabric makes them hang better.

I am completely smitten with them. They add so much to the room I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. And I'm feeling all "accomplished" with myself, asking everyone who walks in the house "did you see the new curtains?" "uhm, yeah, mom, we've seen 'em. Like 10 times already."

I did have a little problem with my sewing machine while I was working on the second panel. The darn thing left me high and dry with only the hem to go! That's when I called my BFF and asked for her HELP! She just so happened to be working on her quilts and told me to get my butt over there ASAP. She finished the hem for me so fast and we even had time for another fun craft...

So here they are, in all their glory.. I love them! They add so much warmth to the room. And they tie into the other bits of red I have in the room. (Now if I could only get new furniture)

Getting back to my BFF, once she finished the hem on my curtain, she showed me a fun Pinterest project she'd worked on. I'll be sharing about that in a few days.. What's that? More crafty fun-ness? Yes! Low and behold, I'm on a roll!

What has been gettin' you excited lately?

Love, Kelli