Well, I ended up not going along to MD--I decided at literally the last minute that I'd rather just stay here and not walk around in the frigid cold up there looking for stuff to do. I felt bad, but it seems like the right decision--Todd is working till pretty late each evening, so it's not like I would have seen much of him anyway.
I spent most of Monday and part of Tuesday sleeping, and that seems to have helped with the cold and exhaustion. (Thanks for the get well wishes!) I felt much more peppy today, and went back to the horrific mess in my study and almost got it all tamed. Tomorrow I need to do some painting and cleaning elsewhere in the house. I also have a little Valentine's Day project I really want to take some time and work on. I hate it when I buy stuff for a project and then never get it done. That's the source of half the mess in my study!
While I'm sitting here taking a breather, let me share some long-overdue photos from October, when my mother-in-law came down to visit and helped me get some curtains up. There's a very nice blog called Nesting Place whose author has come up with an idea she calls "window mistreatments." This idea really intrigued me, because I've never been fond of traditional window treatments. They're expensive and intimidating, and just not me.
When we moved into this house, the only curtains I put up were some long cream tab-tops from Target in our bedroom, and a rod-pocket valance with cherries on it in the kitchen, which Todd and I had made for our last house (remember, he's the seamstress, not me. I'm just the presser of hems.) Then my mother-in-law made me some simple panels for my study a year or two later. (You can see 'em here, just scroll down almost to the bottom of the month.)
So anyway, window mistreatments. Basically the idea is to grab a long piece of fabric, fold it over so you don't have to hem it, and then use upholstery tacks to stab it into the wall at appropriate intervals.
Viv and I are both a little more precise than that, so we did cut the fabric to the appropriate width and then hem it, rather than having bulky folds. Here's how it came out on the living room window:
The valance looked a little naked, so I went and got some $10 sheers at Wal-Mart and tacked 'em up under the valance. Voila!In the dining room, we have long vertical blinds on the sliding glass doors to the back deck. They run on a flat, covered rail about 3" wide. I was never able to figure out an easy way to cover that up, but Viv had a brainstorm and suggested clipping fabric directly to the rail with...drumroll...mini clothespins! And it worked great! This is a piece of fabric I'd originally intended for the living room--and we had hemmed it up back when we did the study curtains, but never got around to using it. It looks great in the dining room, I think.
Here's a close-up of how she did it:
Then I had Viv whip up two simple panels with ring-clips to cover the half-bath window off the kitchen, but I don't have a good picture of that.Now I just need some simple valances for Todd's study and some kind of nice curtain for our bathroom window, and then the house will be fully curtained. And we've only lived here three years and counting...!
Don't I have an awesome mom-in-law? My windows would all be naked but for her!
