I have made quite a few different pairs of curtains for my living room.  They have all been pretty.  But they have all been a little plain.  I decided my living room needed a little more pattern so I dragged took my husband to the fabric store.  We both loved the Frenchy pattern on this fabric.

 We thought it fit in with the color scheme of the room and the subtle travel theme we have going on in here.

I usually buy five yards of fabric when I make curtains.  I didn’t do that this time though.  This fabric was a little pricey even with a 40% off sale.  So, since the curtains are only decorative, I decided to buy 2 1/2 yards and make dummy panels.   I’ve mentioned before that I don’t consider myself a talented seamstress.  That is why I am not giving a tutorial.  I will just say that since I have drapery clips, all I had to do is sew straight lines, easy peasy .  Thanks for stopping by!

One more day until my in-laws arrive for a visit.  They will be staying with us for four days.  The kids can hardly contain their excitement.  I am happy and excited too but a little stressed that I won’t have the house ship-shape before they get here.  Since I’ve been busy cleaning my buns off I haven’t done any of the projects on my list.  So, I wanted to share some pretty pictures of Pittock Mansion.

Here’s another view of this stunning window.  I would so love to have a big window like this in my home.  My mid-70′s era house has few windows and they are pretty small by today’s standards.  I CRAVE sunshine!

Pittock Mansion is in Portland Oregon.  I live in Utah.  I am always amazed, no stunned, every time we go to Portland (the home of my in-laws) because everything is so green.  That’s why this is one of my favorite photos from our summer vacation.   Next week is Spring Break.  I don’t have any major projects on the schedule but I do have a couple of fun little Spring/Easter projects planned. As usual, I have an idea in my head of what I want but have not seen on the internet.  I sure hope they work out so I will have something to share .

 My husband and kids got me this new light for Mother’s Day.

     I absolutely love it.  It looks so much better than the old one (below).  It has added so much character to our kitchen.  Thanks guys!

     You may notice that the blinds are gone too.  I never liked those blinds.  They were old, dated and grimy.  They hung crooked, which drove me nuts!  I had to fiddle with them all the time.  I knew I wanted to make curtains to replace the blinds so I made a pair of panels out of burlap and some of the material left over from my dining room curtains.  They were beautiful.  They pulled all the rooms on this level of the house together.  I loved them!  Until, I noticed that I made them wrong.  I made them too thin.  They didn’t cover the window completely when they were closed (below).  I could have just made some more panels with the correct dimensions but…the burlap was not very cooperative.  It was stubborn and had a mind of it’s own (much like my preteens).  It didn’t want to stay open.

     So, I decided to get cotton.  I went to Calico Corners and fell in love with some material.  It was perfect (pretty reasonably priced too).  The only problem was there wasn’t enough of it.  It was close though so I decided to buy it anyway.  I figured I could think of something to make it work, or if not, I could always make a pillow.  I got the material home.  I hung it up on the drapery clips, still too short.  I needed about 3-4 more inches.  I still had ribbon on my mind from the bathroom redo and thought that would be a good solution. No extra on hand though, darn, so I went down to Hobby Lobby and picked up the widest ribbon they had to sew along the top and bottom to cheat the length. 

     Ta Da!  The length is just right now and I like the extra detail of the shiny ribbon.  The panels cover the whole window when closed and stay open when open, Yay!

     True, they don’t tie all the rooms together as much as the first ones but at least I can live with these.

     My sewing skill are limited.  If I can sew straight lines and be done in a day, then I am happy.  I spotted these drapery clip on rings at Lowe’s.  They carry different sizes and colors. I’ve also see them in the Pottery Barn catalog.   Now all I have to do is hem all four sides of my panels and hang them up.

     I went to Ikea last Monday and bought some material for drapes for my son’s bedroom.  I love buying material there.  If you haven’t checked out their fabric section it’s worth a look, especially if you’re in the mood  for something funky.  I made and hung the first panel.  I’ll finish the other one tomorrow but I just love the material so much I couldn’t resist posting a photo.