Our Christmas Tree + Another great vintage find!

Just wanted to share some pics of our tree and some of my favorite ornaments.  I actually did pretty well because most of these ornaments where bought before I ever even thought of having kids, but only 2 of our ornaments are breakable!  How's that for good luck, huh!

This is from Ian's first Christmas.

Here's our mantle.  Sorry my pics are blurry...I am not liking this new camera at all!  I love that my hubby surprised me with a new one after I broke my other one, but I seriously hate this thing!  (sorry hunny if your reading this...love you!  ; ) I guess I will just have to start saving up for a new one.  Anywho...

I've had this music box since I was a baby

Got a whole village of these little houses for 50 cents a piece at walgreens one year after Christmas!  They are all adorable but I only had room for a couple on the mantle.  I've got a better spot for them where I can put the whole village out, but my little honey badger can reach them, and that probably won't end well, so they will just have to wait till he's a bit older to be on display...

My parents brought each of the kids these snow globes from there trip to Colorado.

Now this is my 1928 ice cream maker!  I found this at an estate sale for $8...I feel in love with it.  I love the color, the rust, everything.  Then, when we got home, I looked it up...turns out this exact model, in this condition sells for $450!  

My hubby was like you sure you don't want to sell it???  I guess I could and use the $$$ to get a new camera, but it's not going anywhere!  I love it so much I literally sat and drank my coffee and looked at it every morning for like three days after we brought it home.  It just makes me smile every time I look at it.  Merry Christmas!

Vintage Bottles are the Cooool-est!

Lol!  Anyone else get a Billy Madison flashback?? No?  Just me?  Oh well...moving on...

Awhile back I mentioned on FB that I racked up at an estate sale.  I've been wanting to share pics of all my awesome finds, but there are just so many!  Plus, I've been super busy with the holidays and painting and all, but I've finally gotten around to photographing all the cool old bottles I got.  And you'll never believe how much I got them for...$1/bottle!!!  And my favorite one was only 50 cents!!!

I cleaned them up and mod podged over all the labels because they were all sort of messed up already and I wanted to be able to clean them in the future without damaging the labels further...especially since they are above my kitchen cabinets.  I am sure they will get greasy!

I really like this one.

At first, I considered removing all the labels since they were messed up, but I just thought that even with them being messed up, they gave the bottles more character.

This is my absolute favorite!  At first I didn't think much of it, but then the lady running the sale explained it to me that the man was a chemist.

The bottom of the bottle has a handle and you would hang it upside down...It's sort of like an IV.  Although, the label on this bottle specifically states that it's not for intravenous use. 

Excuse my mess...someday my kitchen will be nice and neat...but today is not the day!  lol

What do ya' think?  Not too bad for $12, huh???

My New Paint Color

I don't know how well you will be able to see the difference, but it is a HUGE one to me!

I have hated this yellow since the first day we painted the room this color.  Of course, it was a big improvement over this....

How ya like those mirrors in the fireplace???

Me & my sisters had a blast ripping up this carpet!...We left the wall paper removal to my mom...

So even though I hated the paint colors...ya' know it coulda been worse!  lol

See much better than before...even with that hideous yellow!

So here's my new color...it's Woodlawn Snow by Valspar.  FYI they say you only need one coat, but I had to do two anyway because I skipped so many places...Probably wouldn't be an issue with a darker color, but when this was wet it looked white and with the glare of the light on the walls, you just couldn't see when you were missing spots, but I would buy that Hi-Def one again because I really could tell that the color saturation was there. I think it's worth the extra $$, especially if you aren't planning on painting again anytime soon.  Oh, and just ignore the lack of trim work at the top...I didn't bother to do it because once I repaint the kitchen, I am going to add another molding to beef up the small one we have.

I also moved the dining room table into the kitchen.  I was worried it would be too big, but it's actually a perfect fit!  I want to take the chandelier from the dining room and move it in her too, but I haven't told the hubby yet...baby steps...lol.

I am going to recover the dining room table chairs, and that chair by the fireplace is going to be recovered too.  The fireplace is going to get  an overhaul because I despise painted brick, but I mean you saw the before...like I said...could be worse.

This blue fabric is what I want to use to make my curtains, but it's really expensive so I am still searching for something I love at least half as much, but still stashing money away.  I figure if I haven't found something else by the time I saved up the money for this, then it was meant to be.

And I am going to use a gold like that one all the way at the bottom to make my shades.  I may go with something shear...I haven't really decided yet.  I just think the gold will be pretty with the curtain fabric.

I think this is the fabric I will use to recover the chair by the fire place, but I am still searching.

The other side is going to be made into more of a seating area/family room.  My mom is going to give me a love seat that I'll recover.  We plan on getting a flat screen and putting it above the fireplace, so that entertainment center will go somewhere else...and likely get a paint job. I am thinking of using it for storage in the dining/sewing room...okay let's just call it the sewing room cause that's really what it's used for.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but I am so happy that after 3 years in this house I finally feel like I have a decorating plan.  I have always felt really overwhelmed by the whole process, but I don't know it's like suddenly it just all came together for me...mostly thanks to all the creative ladies out in blog land.  I've learned so much over the last couple yrs since I started reading blogs, and it's like all of a sudden, I just feel like I can do it!  Can't wait!  : )

Tutorial: How to make professional looking lined drapes

 

Okay, first off I know my pic is kinda funny, but my cousin needed to lower her curtain rod so when I took the pic the curtains where kinda high water, and she made me take it so that you couldn't see the bottom!  lol  That's why the chair is sort of blocking it, but you get the drift...right?  Second, I have been putting off writing this tutorial because lined drapes may sound easy enough...just four straight seams right?  But it took me four tries to get it right!  And so I took four sets of pics, so it has been a pain sorting through them trying to find the ones I needed (did I mention that's how I remember what I did when I write a tutorial...yeah, so it's a little confusing!  lol).  Anyway, here is the tutorial....hope this helps somebody because it sure was difficult to write!  But don't worry, the drapes are super easy to make, even if you are new to sewing, so don't be scared away by all my whining!!! hehe...

 First, you need to determine what size you want the finished drape to be.  I am no expert, so I turned to my Pottery Barn catalog to see what sizes their drapes where, and lucky for me they just happened to explain how to measure for drapes:

"Measure the length of your window, deciding whether you want the drape to fall above the sill, below the sill, or to the floor.  If you'd like longer drapes that pool on the floor in luxurious folds, add 6-8" to the height measurement.  To create the illusion of taller windows, install your drapery rod 6-8" above the window frame rather than the standard 4" ."

You can also check out this quick video on hanging drapes to help you.

For the width of the drape, I just chopped the selvedge off and used the width of the fabric to make it easy on myself.  (If your windows are wider than your fabric, email me or comment and I will write up a quick tutorial on how to piece it together, but this tute will be long enough already.) 
The front of the curtain is called the face, and the lining is, of course, the lining.  Now that you have determined the length and width you want the finished drape to be you need to determine what sizes to cut the face and lining fabrics.
For the FACE fabric, ADD 9" to the length you want the finished drape to be.
For the LINING, SUBTRACT 8" from the finished length, and for the width, SUBTRACT 16" from the width of your FACE fabric. (ex. if your FACE fabric is 54" wide once you cut the selvedge off, you want the lining to be 38" wide)
When cutting your fabric, you need to be sure that the grain of the fabric is straight.  You can tell if it is straight by holding the selvedges together, and holding the fabric up. The fold should look smooth and not have any wrinkles or creases.

This one is correct...see how the fold is nice and smooth in this pic.

And this one has little creases(marked by the x's).  You can also see them on the other side through the fabric.  This is because the grain is not straight.

Btw, you should always make sure your grain is straight before cutting or whatever you are making will not hang correctly.  This will be especially evident after washing, if you did not preshrink your fabric.

Anyway, now that you cut the fabric, fold the FACE fabric and lining both in half (sides of the drapes should be together) to find the center top of each.  Mark the center by finger pressing or with a pin.

With right sides together, match the top centers of the FACE and lining and pin together.  You will start stitching one half inch from the side and stop one half inch before the other end. This is to leave your seam allowance for the sides.  (Seam allowance is .5" btw)  I mark my starting and stopping points with a pin.  

You also want to leave an 8" opening in the center the you will use later to turn the drape right side out.

Measure 8.5" down from the top of the panels on each side of the FACE fabric.  Drop the lining down so that the top of the lining is even with this mark (this is going to form your pole pocket).  Pin the sides together, leaving .5" at the bottom for the bottom seam allowance.  

*There is an 8.5" difference on either side between the FACE and lining, make sure you match the raw edges.  Do NOT pin the the lining to the FACE where it lies...just want to be clear.  ; ) *

 I recommend pinning one side at a time, stitching, then pinning the other side and stitching it because it is likely that you will have to bunch up a lot of the fabric to keep it from falling off your sewing table  because if you don't already know that makes it hard to keep your stitch straight, and most likely a LOT of the pins from the side you aren't sewing will fall out and you will end up just having to repin anyway...and nobody likes to do that...well, unless we're on Pinterest, but that's a whole nother topic! lol

Make sure you start stitching the side seams even with the top seam...

This is what your top corners should look like when you are done.

For the bottom seam, you will do exactly like you did for the top seam only don't leave the 8" opening, and you will have this big wacky piece of FACE fabric sticking out the side...don't worry we're about to fix that! 

*This part is sort of hard to explain, so let me know if you have trouble and I will try to make a video when I do my sisters curtains.* 

 Lift from the point where the side and bottom seam meet.   Then, grab directly below it on the fold it creates and turn the fabric flat...sort of on it's side...

It should look like this, with the fold you created smooth....no creases or wrinkles just like when you cut the fabric.   Measure in 5" from the edge of the fold you created and mark it with a disappearing fabric marker.  Use a straight edge to make a line from the point where the seams meet and the mark you made.  Pin in place and stitch along that line.

Trim the excess fabric and cut the tip at an angle, as close to stitching as possible.  Repeat on the opposite bottom corner.  Then turn the drape right side out through the opening you left in the top.  Then, use something pointy...like a chopstick...to push the corners all the way out.

Here's what your bottom corners will look like.  Aren't they pretty?  ;)

The top corners will also look like that so you have to pull some fabric out to get it squared like this.

Pin it in place.  Also pin the lining down to be sure it doesn't shift as you are stitching.  You will start out edge stitching, then when you get to the lining you will need to sort of jump over just a teeny bit to the lining so that you can close up the opening you used to turn the drape.

You will be stitching through six layers of fabric when you start so most likely your sewing machine will not feed the fabric....ugh!  FRUSTRATING!!!  But here's why.....

Oops...sorry! This pic isn't actually relevant to the tutorial, but isn't it pretty...okay maybe I'm just weird...lol

Okay, so here's why...you want to start stitching at the very edge of the fabric, which leaves the presser foot  way not level, so it is basically blocking your fabric.  How can I fix this you ask?

EASY!  Fold up a piece of scrap fabric so that it is 6 layers thick and now your presser foot is level and you can start sewing!!!

Now, you've made your pole pocket and the opening is closed up.  No all that's left to do is press those babies (not the top of the pole pocket, but all the other edges), hang 'em, and you're done!!  

Now grab a strawberry margarita and sit back and enjoy your hard work!

Let me know if you have any questions!  I would love for you to share your pic if you use this tutorial!  I don't have the linky party anymore, but you can share to my FB page or Flickr!

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