Update on a project

Remember when I got all inspired and gave you a sneak peak at my hairbrained idea for curtains?
Well, I forgot to show you the nearly finished product. I couldn't wait any longer.  Having a plain white curtain hanging up just looked too blah for me.  So I took the few vintage hankies I had and attached them.  I'm thinking four more would be perfect but we'll see.  After I got it all done, I thought it needed more color so I tied some red grosgrain ribbon on top.  Voila!

I probably should have waited to take pictures until evening when the sun was not coming through the sliding glass door in order to get better shots, but I'm sure I'll have more to post later.  

I also realize I forgot to take a picture of the whole curtain opened up because we rarely have it pulled all the way across (whoops!!).  You'll have to take my word for it...they look great! :) It's a fun splash of color and adds to the vintage-y feel I was going for in the kitchen.  

I'm afraid it's contagious

Remember my disorder ICMTFL Syndrome?
Well apparently it's contagious.  Quite  a few folks have admitted that they too suffer from this disorder so I thought I should inform you that it spreads...or maybe it's genetic.  It seems to "morph" a bit though.  Instead of ICMTFL Syndrome, it's MMCMTFL aka: My Mom Could Make That For Less.  My girls have now started showing signs of the same disillusion that I live under.

I was looking through all the quilts from the Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy, and the girls were looking with me.  There are so many lovely quilts (that I could never possibly make) and the girls have decided that I can make one for them too.  Like this one.  Or this one (Take note that ONE square on this quilt is made up of 30 small squares!).  I personally love the look of this one and this one.

Of course, folks like my sweet friend Liz don't help matters much either.  She said she suffers from ICMTFL too but the only difference is that she really CAN make it for less.  Check this out.  It just so happens that my girls saw the same exact shirt in the mini Boden catalog and loved it too.

Of course I wasn't going to shell out 84 dollars for a t-shirt with a camper on the front.  But it never occurred to me that I could make it.  (Apparently Liz's disorder is far worse than mine in the best way possible).  Now my disorder has started to include appliqued clothing...who knew?? :D

Just be warned.  I believe this is an epidemic in the making.

Sneak a Peek

A couple weeks ago I was "inspired" for my kitchen and family room curtains.

Since then I have been on a mission to find the right "hankies" to applique onto my curtains. This is what I have thus far.



I have discovered that this process is going to take longer than I originally thought, but the search has been fun, so I don't mind!

Feeling Inspired

I love decorating our house! Some days I wish I had all the money in the world to just go buy what I want, put it up, and be done. But most days I get thrilled with the "mission" I get to go on in order to find exactly the right piece. I'm not a Pottery Barn catalog kind of decorator. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I prefer to have a look that can't be replicated by turning to page 18.

I've especially had a challenge in decorating because apparently the color blue, is out. Who knew? Not that I care. It's not going to make me love the color any less. But it does make finding things to decorate with, a bit harder. Even finding rugs for the kitchen proved to be a challenge. If I wanted brown or green or black, I would have had a rug after the first store. But since I wanted blue, it took 6 stores. Yes, six.

It also doesn't help that my style is a bit eclectic. My latest saga has been curtains. They are expensive! And we don't have your standard 84 inch windows in this house. They are 96. So, all the pretty curtains (even the ones that go on sale at the stores) are way too short. I've thought about adding fabric on the bottom, or top to make them the right size, but finding fabric has proved to be another challenge. Then I thought about just making my own curtains, but I need over 40 yards to do all the curtains downstairs. YIKES! So even my "bargain" 5 dollar a yard fabric would cost over 200 dollars for curtains.

SO, I found myself flipping through my favorite magazine, "Flea Market Style." It's put out by Better Homes and Gardens and has some fantastic ideas. I had looked through it a few dozen times, but this past weekend I saw this page again and was "inspired" for my curtains!




I LOVE LOVE LOVE the vintage hankies that make up this duvet! I started thinking....
If you can patchwork vintage hankies to make a duvet...why not curtains? My sweet husband thinks its a crazy idea, but today I found this.



I love all the colors in it and the vintage feel. I had seen this crib set before when I was looking for design inspiration for a friend and loved it, but now i know why! Unfortunately these curtains are 300 dollars for ONE SET! (and of course they are 84 inches so they wouldn't work anyway).

So now I am on a "mission" to find vintage handkerchiefs! I couldn't be more excited!!