Dining in style!

Its finally time for a picture of a FINISHED room in my house! Remember when I showed you this fabric? Well, I finally used it to make curtains for my dining room. I lurrrve them. I wanted to do them entirely in the print but it was all OUT! Everywhere apparently. I tried to find something different but you know how it is, once your heart is set, there's no going back. Anyway. Here's a shot of my completed room:

I don't have a "before" pic because, well, because I'm lazy. Our old computer bit the dust and I have yet to break out the ol' external hard drive and move all our pics onto Mac Daddy. Imagine a plain, white box. The bar was there but that's it. We painted (love you Kilim Beige. kisses.), added the chair rail (love you Daddy. kisses), and I made the curtains, then hung them just yesterday (I smooch myself all the time, no need for you guys to go through it with me)! Our couch is a reddish color and this room is open to our living room so I thought it was important to bring the red over and tie the spaces together.

What I'm really proud of is the construction of the panels themselves. I was tempted to do a big rectangle and hang it with clips (nothing wrong with that, I've done it before and will do it again I'm sure) but I wanted a little bit more tailored look this time. So, I made a rod pocket at the top, as well as hidden tabs, in order to get it to hang slightly pleated. Go me!!! This was my first time sewing curtains and I think I did a bang up job.

And, if you ever need to lengthen store bought curtains, or like me, want to use a small amount of fabric for pop, just add it to the bottom. The key to this is finishing it with a ribbon or other fabric.


That hides any imperfections that might be present in the middle seam. Oh? You thought I meant that my seam wasn't perfect? No, no, no. It's perfectly straight.

I swear.

Don't come over and check, OK?

PS. Do you see how empty the little glass vases are on the table. Those purty little M&M decorations don't last long around here. Without the candy to hold them up the candles are a little wonky!

Valentine Wrap-up

We had a great Valentine's Day. The Hubs had to go to work SUPER early but that meant he was home early!!! He got G a love bug balloon and we tied it on her brand new pillow pet (I held off getting her one because who needs another stuffed animal, right? But she'd been asking since November so whats a momma to do?). Just wanted to show you the Valentine's we made to send out to friends and family (I missed the card boat for Christmas and New Year so we were due to send out some postal love).

G working hard with glitter glue (umm, she loves this messy stuff but I'll be buying another chair pad on my next Ikea trip)

I got inexpensive cards at Joanns (8 for $1) and printed out some pics at home. This one has yet to receive its obligatory decorations from the 3 year old. On a side note, I got square cards which meant 64 cents to mail each one. Doh.

And our inside message... "We love you a hole punch!" with a simple little punch out of each one. I think these would be super cute done with an old-fashioned type writer script and of course making a heart shape with the hole punches but we were pressed for time. I didn't mail them out until Saturday!!! Momma forgot to allow for overnight drying of a gallon of glitter glue. Oops. Live and learn. Hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet as mine!

PS. The Hubs got me The Pioneer Woman Cookbook (its been on my wishlist forever!) and I'm enjoying reading every word. Her writing style and ability to sound so much like a normal chick never ceases to amaze me. What a wonderful representative of the amazing women out there that choose to stay home and raise their babies! Oh, and the cinnamon roll pictures (among others) are making my mouth water...

My "Ta Done" list!

The talented Heather Bailey recently posted about keeping a list of weekly accomplishments, or moving things from the to-do list to the "angelic all-done list." I LOVE this idea! I have so many projects in the works right now and am in desperate need of some motivation to finish.

Hence, the "Ta done" list. I think it'll be my standard Friday post (or included at least if I have something I really want to share. By letting you guys know whats getting checked off, I'm accountable to someone other than myself. This is a good thing. I'm a pretty easy going boss and I let my "employees" (me. myself. and I) slide on a lot of stuff. I'm also pretty proud of me for giving it a clever name. Is that weird? And it's OK if something that wasn't on my actual get done list makes it to the Ta done (like shower) side of the page. Sometimes happy accidents occur and I knock out a project that I didn't even know needed my attention.

Another plan is to be more specific with my to do's. Instead of writing something generic like"paint," I'm going to write "edge master bedroom." I know most of you already do this but it's hard for me and I think it will really keep me from feeling overwhelmed and give me more of a sense of accomplishment when I check an item off my lovely yellow legal pad list.

What about you guys? Do you keep a Ta-done list? Any tips on managing/organizing your ever expanding project list?

A little V day love

Valentine's Day is always a bit hard for me in the decorating department. It always seems to early to buy a buy a bunch of stuff or set things out right after Christmas and then by the time I think to do it there are only a few days left until the big day. But I had a few ladies and their kiddos over for lunch today and wanted to spice up the house a bit with some V-day decor. One of my go to items (for any holiday) is super cheap and super simple. Oh, and super yummy!

I simply put holiday M&Ms in these cute little glass containers. They're part of a silverware caddy from Southern Living at Home (now called Willow House, I think). At our old hou

se I would put them on the mantel but now they're lined up on my dining room table. Its also fun, and a little more graphic, to separate the colors and do one jar of each: dark pink, light pink, and white. The regular M&Ms are even more cute but we prefer peanut or peanut butter here at my casa when it comes time to chow down. The best part is that I don't have to store them during the off-season. In fact, if I'm not careful, they don't make it to the actual holiday.

The only downside... you must be ready to replenish so the candles don't fall over. I told the ladies today that they were more than welcome to munch but to eat equally out of the three jars :-)

Don't you think its sweet!?

I have a new boyfriend...his name is Craig

I am officially in love with Craig!!! Well his list anyway. I had never used it before but Sunday night around 9 pm I posted a listing to sell our washer and dryer (they came with the house and we have a fancy schmancy front-loading washer and dryer set). At 8 am Monday morning I had an email from an interested buyer and by 11 am I had 300 crispy hundreds in my hand. What an awesome feeling! After making such easy money (I know it won't always be so quick) The Hubs says, and I quote, "Sell it! Sell it all!!!" Hmmm, the list is definitely growing.

What did I do with that set of dishes my mom gave me in college???