DIY kitchen curtains

No sew buffalo check curtains in the kitchen above the sink.

Coordinating painter's drop cloth curtains embellished with
buffalo check fabric on the door wall in the kitchen.

Close up view to see the detail on the fabric.


In a perfect world, I would quit my job and become a full time home decor/lifestyle blogger. I'd also be creative and talented enough to do so. Since I'm neither creative nor do I have the time it takes to commit to such an endeavor it will remain my pie in the sky dream. I am however, good at reinventing the wheel. Which is what I did in the above pictures.

I had read on many blogs that people were going to Lowes or Home Depot to purchase painter's drop cloths to use as drapes. I had previously spent 160 dollars on drapes from Pottery Barn that I felt were just okay. I returned those drapes and picked up my 20 dollars worth of painter's drop cloths. The beauty of the drop cloths is that they are a heavy and thick material that is already hemmed on all four sides. All you have to do is iron and hang with clips. They have been hanging for about 6 weeks, but this past week I worked on embellishing them to add more interest. I bought some buffalo check fabric from JoAnn's that was similar to what I saw in the Ballard Designs catalog for about 25 dollars. I also picked up some stitch witchery which is used as a bonding agent.

I used the buffalo check fabric to make curtains for the window above my sink by just measuring, cutting, ironing and creating the hems using the stitch witchery. I hung them with some drapery clips and tinkered around with them until they looked right. I did it in about an hour and a half after my little ones went to bed.

With the painter's drop cloth curtains on my door wall, I had to fold over the material from the top because they were too long. I used the flap of material that I folded down to embellish with the buffalo check fabric. Again I measured, cut, ironed and bonded one material to another using the stitch witchery. I then cut strips of fabric to gather the curtains in the middle to allow for more natural light. In total the project cost about 50 dollars for both windows, not including the window hardware. Much better than the 160 dollars I had previously spent on two window panels from PB.

Thanksgiving Week

Our Christmas card pic unedited

Love those hands in the pockets wearing their Grandpa sweaters

Visit with Santa

Awkward!

This Thanksgiving has been an eventful one for the boys. On Tuesday, the boys had a Thanksgiving feast at preschool. I was happy that my schedule allowed me to join them and help their teacher out. They had a nice lunch with their friends, it was pretty precious to listen to what three and four year olds talk about around the dinner table.

On Wednesday we went to see Tangled with the McBrides. The boys and I chowed on popcorn and m&m's till I felt sick. We all thought it was a pretty good movie and afterwards we came home and played dolls together. I guess the girly type movie brought out their feminine side.

Thanksgiving Day we had some of Kevin's family over for breakfast. The bagels and egg casserole were delish followed up by a visit from Grant and Claire. I love that they can just ride their bikes over whenever they want. Later in the afternoon we headed to the McBride's house for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we celebrated Claire's 10th birthday. I can't believe little Claire Bear is already in double digits.

Yesterday we stayed home for most of the day. We had no interest in fighting the black Friday crowds so we stayed far, far away from the chaos. The boys played while Kevin and I tried to get some work done around the house. We still have a large amount of shelves and pictures to hang and in the mean time I keep creating new projects for myself which isn't helping. I'll save that for another post.

Today my mom came by for a few hours to sit with the boys while Kevin and I had some time away. We went to Meadow Brook Hall for the Christmas walk. It was beautiful. I have been many times, but haven't been for at least 10 years. I was so excited when they told us that they had opened up the secret playrooms to the public. I have always wanted to see the playrooms and they did not disappoint. Everything about Meadow Brook Hall is so uniquely beautiful and being up in the fourth floor playrooms was the icing on the cake. Afterwards we hit up Pottery Barn and picked up some treasures and then headed to Rojo for a late lunch.

The boys had lots of hugs and kisses for us when we got home. I love that.

Yipee

We booked our trip last week to head back to Disney World with the boys at the end of March. It's been under discussion for quite some time. We've been tossing around the idea of driving...yikes! It's almost a 24 hour trip for us and I'm guessing that nearly 48 hours in the car over the course of 7-8 days would not be too enjoyable. So I've been watching the airfare and when the rates dropped, we jumped on it. We got the best airfare rates that I have ever seen to Florida, and we've been probably 10-12 times. That was until a few days after booking I noticed that I booked our flight home a day earlier than I was supposed to. 75 dollars PER TICKET to fix my mistake and our unbelievable airfare was no longer.

Because of the nature of my job, our travel dates are always limited to holidays and the summer. All of which are the highest crowd levels. This year my school district has changed our Spring Break and it is no longer the week of Easter, and according to the crowd levels for the week we are going, things shouldn't be too crazy busy. We are all very excited and looking forward to the memories.

On a whim

The boys got Chef Psghetti hats to wear

My loves

Little Jakey and Mom

Yesterday morning when we woke up, Kevin and I were deciding what to do for the day with the boys. We checked the local entertainment guide and saw that Curious George was playing at the Fox Theater this weekend. How did we miss that? The boys LOVE Curious George! It is hands down, Anderson's favorite show to watch. So we purchased some tickets on-line and headed to the D. We asked the boys if they wanted to know where we were going or if they wanted to be surprised. They chose to be surprised, I was impressed with their patience.

They were excited when we got to the theater and realized they were going to see George, Chef Psghetti, Noki, and the man with the yellow hat. They watched intently the whole time, never got antsy and enjoyed the entire show. I enjoyed holding them in my lap for nearly and hour and half and smelling their sweet hair.

After the show we headed to IKEA for shopping and lunch. It was a great family day!

Halloween 2010

Two witches, a monkey and an i-pod touch

Love those little faces

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and the boys have just taken it over the top for me. This was our first year trick or treating with Grant and Claire and it was a great time. We had the grandparents, aunts and uncles over for some appetizers, pizza and some yummy deserts beforehand. It was a little party for the halloweenies and they loved being with their family. After dinner the boys changed into their costumes and we had a group of probably 12-15 neighborhood kids that we walked the neighborhood with. This year was Grant's first year walking the neighborhood alone with his friends, so their was a lot of excitement in the air :).

The boys did a fantastic job keeping up with the big kids and needed no prompting by Kevin or myself to go to the door and ask for candy like in previous years. They occasionally looked over their shoulder to make sure I was there but most of the time they were so hocked up on excitement and adrenaline they were in their own world. They each took more spills than I can count but even that didn't slow them down. The boys were pretty bummed the next day when all the decorations came down and they realized it was over. So was I.