Privacy curtain with knife pleat detail

To me there is nothing worse than having to start the day by opening blinds and curtains to let the sunlight in.  That is why I love privacy curtains. Having the morning sunlight gives me that little jolt to get going in the morning, and I don't have to worry if anyone can see me or not. 

I know that opening the blinds does not take a huge effort, but it is a little quirk of mine, and I just embrace it instead of fighting it. 

In the past I had made some temporary privacy curtains for our living room windows.  I either wanted to replace them with shutters or nicer curtains.  Alas, shutters are priced out of my current budget, so privacy curtains they are.

I used an Ivory linen/cotton blend.  I wanted to keep them simple, as I will be adding some over drapes that will have a stronger pattern.  I did use a knife pleat hem, just for a little interest, and because I have been crushing on knife pleats for a little while.

Creating the knife pleats was easier than I thought. To make them I started out by determining the how long I wanted my hem to be.  I decided on 3".  I took a piece of fabric 8 inches long and folded it in half (it may not have needed to be that wide, but I like to make sure I have enough).  It is important to know you will need to have a strip of fabric that is 3x as wide as your finished piece.  

From there I decided how wide I wanted the pleats.  I decided, very cleverly, that they would be as wide as my ruler.

From here I pressed in the pleats.  Making sure the edge of the new pleat came right to the edge of the previous pleat, and making sure they didn't start to tilt.  After this I pinned and basted the top of the pleats.

For the header, I wanted something easy and casual.  I was inspired by some Arts and Crafts styled headers and came up with this, reversed box pleat-y thing.  I am not sure what its offical name is, but it has an easy, casual look.

 And there you have it.  My new privacy curtains.  These ran me around $30 dollars for the fabric.  I was able to recycle some old rings I already owned and reused my existing tension rod.

-Laurie

Spoonflower-Have you heard?

A few weekends ago I spent the day at the Summit of Awesome in DC, hosted by Hello Craft.  If you are unfamiliar with Hello Craft, they are a non-profit organization devoted to the handmade movement in crafts.  Kind of a neat organization, check them out.

They keynote speaker for the day was Stephen Fraser, the co-founder of Spoonflower.  

Have you heard of Spoonflower?  I had, but am ashamed to say I had not used the service myself, but I am feeling the need to do so.

Spoonflower is a place where everyday people can design personal prints on fabric.  And the best part is you can order a yard for as little as $16 per yard for fabrics you personally design.

It is pretty neat. They even host weekly themed contests for fabric designs. I am telling you if you haven not already checked them out do so, and let me know what you think.

-Laurie

Help!

I am getting ready to touch up my kitchen cabinets. 

As you know I try to be honest about what I do and how things wear.  My upper cabinets are holding up great, my bottom cabinets, not so much.  What I think happened is...When I went to add the darker color, I omited the step of sanding and/or priming the cabinets.  Meaning I went ahead and put color over poly.  Not a smart idea. 

So...I need to give a light sanding and prime the cabinets before I recoat them.  This time I will not omit a step.

But here is where I am stuck.  Do I keep the cabinets blue?  Or do I make a change?

I love the blue, and I have more of that color so it would be easy and less expensive to do.

But I could use a pretty gray.  Gray is so nice on cabinets and in the end would maybe be the way to go.  Gray being the new neutral and all.  Gray may have longer staying power.

Source- Decor Pad

Or I could go with classic white, but there I think I may have a problem with the counters and would need to refinish them, which is on the list, but not anytime soon.

What would you do?  Would you stay with a color you love, but may be a bit "out there" or go in a totally new, safer direction?

Oh, By the way, I haven't told the hubby that this is my plan.
-Laurie

Clearing up toys

I know if you have kids you are knee-deep in the same battle we are fighting.  For us it is the never ending stream of toys that are left out.  And personally, I am tired of nagging and they are tired of being nagged, so we have implemented the chore bin.

You may have seen this floating around.  I think I spotted it on Facebook, but I am sure it is on Pinterest as well. 

Here is my version.

The poem came from Just Another Day in Paradise. 

How it works.  If I come across a toy that is just laying around, I pick it up and put it in the bin.  At anytime they want it they must randomly pick a chore to earn it back.  We have them go through it every weekend to keep it clear.  If they don't earn it back it goes to the Goodwill.

Here are a sample of the chores I wrote up..

 Scrub all 3 toilets, pull weeds or outside work, parents Choice, wipe down base cabinets, wipe down base boards.  I tried to think of all those jobs that I rarely get to that need to get done.  But you can choose whatever works for you.

So far it is working great.  Now I need to conquer the attitude we are facing at dinner.  Any suggestions?

-Laurie

Summer hair- Dove Conditioner Spafinders giftcard giveaway

With such a hot summer, my family and I spent many hours soaking up the sun and water at our local pool.  Did you know that summer is hard on your hair?  I had forgotten this little fact.  The sun and chlorine left our hair dry, almost like straw, my daughters, in particular.

I think she has great hair (yep, proud momma).  Her hair has a great silky texture and yet has some thickness to it, not too thick, and definitely not too thin, like her mother's.  Taming her hair on a daily basis is usually not too much trouble, but after this summer the battles over hair started to escalate.  Below is a picture.  And this is after she brushed it.  It is stringy and really doesn't want to lay nicely.  It started to snarl easily and she wouldn't let me get near it.

Before starting Dove

So when the time came to review Dove's Daily Moisture Conditioner I was excited to see how it would work on my daughter's hair, and she was a willing guinea pig.

After one application I noticed a difference.  Her hair was smoother and easier to brush.  Gone was all the snarls and the straw-like feeling was replaced with healthy, silky hair.  She has even let me start brushing it.  I was amazed to see all of this after one use.

After using Dove Conditioner

 I have always loved Dove as a company, especially after their "real beauty campaign".  Personally, my hair is so fine and thin, I avoid using conditioners out side of the dry winter months, but did take to using Dove Conditioner to help repair my own summer sun damage.

On a side note, I have also been using Dove Daily Moisture Conditioner as a shaving lotion.  It leaves my legs smooth and silky, and it is on less item to have in my shower.

Along with my review of Dove Daily Moisture Conditioner, Dove is holding a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate giveaway.  All you need to do in is (follow their link) and answer this question....What is you favorite part of summer?

Follow all of the instructions below to enter the giveaway.

Enter to win a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/4/2012 - 9/30/2012

Be sure to visit Dove^®Hair.com to get a coupon for $1.50 off Dove Hair Therapy products.

-Laurie