Glad I have dogs...

...I'd hate to always be looking over my shoulder.

These suggestions came up in my Google search the other day. Apparently, this is an issue someone should look into.

xoxo

Cafe Curtain Inspiration

Our front door has a window in the top half. I need to sew new curtains for the window and sidelights. I'm trying to decide whether to duplicate the shirred curtain that's currently on the door, or something else. I have some wonderful soft tan/white striped sheer fabric to use.

I don't mind the shirred curtain, especially since I plan to install an actual rod on the door (instead of the ghetto-fabulous current method of screws and string left by the previous owners). But I really like the cafe curtains. Here's some examples I found around the interwebs:

Southern Living
This is what our door looks like, but a single door +
sidelights. And much uglier. NOTE TO SELF: need to
upgrade door hardware ...

Simply Seleta

Urban Grace

Martha Stewart

I do like the pleats ... ugh, but how to attach to the rod, it needs to look good from the outside too ... more research and maybe some trial-and-error is needed, I think.

xoxo

Purchased: New Blinds

Whew ... so last night I ordered new bamboo blinds for our living / dining room windows. Sounds simple, right? Well ...it has been stressful.

Let me start at the beginning. In our house, there is no formal dining room. The "dining room" used to be the screened in porch, closed in during an addition in the late 1980s. That addition produced some huge windows that look out into the backyard. When we bough the house, we saw the windows and thought, "wow, love all these great big windows! But eww, we need to replace those icky 30+ year-old vertical blinds, PRONTO."

Fast-forward to last week. Going on 6 months later. We still have those vertical blinds. They are totally gross. BUT - they function. And we need to have something covering the windows because the ones on the left face the street and we don't want people seeing into the house (there is a lot of foot traffic in our neighborhood - almost everyone has a dog). Why haven't we replaced them yet, you ask? Mostly because #1 - Target stopped carrying my favorite bamboo roman shade in their stores (why?!); and #2 - the windows are HUGE. Cost-prohibitive huge. We need 7 36"wx72"h shades for this side alone. Even at the off-the-shelf price of $35 each, that's still $250. And I would really prefer lined, so that means custom and even more money. Not happening, says the husband, when we need to pay the plumber, the gas company, the electrician, yadda yadda ... so, we I waited. And got some quotes.

And waited. And looked some more.

And then (uh-oh) saw a notice on my new favorite website, PRICE INCREASE EFFECTIVE JANUARY 5. Dagummit. Now I'm going to have to wait even LONGER! Oh, but wait ... (cue the chorus) ... 50% off blinds ... PLUS AN ADDITIONAL 20% OFF! Yes, I'll take 7 blinds, thank you. I was able to convince my more practical half that it would be better to buy now than after prices go up. He (reluctantly) agreed.

So ... I ordered samples, and so glad I did. They came. They were totally wrong, way too green. Dagummit. I ordered 10 more samples. They came, literally 15 minutes before we left to visit family for Christmas. All weekend I was thinking and looking and patiently waiting to try the new samples.

We got home Sunday, I made a decision on a color/material, and hit ADD TO CART. I paid, and saved more than $700!

Any time the "you saved" number is greater than the "total cost" number, I'm good.

Now I just hope they get here before our Super Bowl party in February ... cross your fingers!

xoxo

Deal Alert: Wooden Hangers

I hope everyone had a great Christmas weekend! I managed to squeeze in a quick shopping break today and found a great buy.

If you live near an Old Time Pottery, run yourself down there to stock up on wooden hangers. $0.50 each. They have shirt hangers (no bar -- like above) and suit hangers (with bar). The natural color was a couple cents cheaper, but they also had walnut ones for $0.56 each.

Now we can get rid of those wire hangers from the dry cleaners -- SCORE!

Compare:
Target 24-pack: $14.49 ($0.60 each) <----- best online deal
Amazon.com 100-pack: $70 ($0.70 each)
Container Store: $3.99 each

xoxo

Merry Christmas!

 

xoxo

Progress: December 24

Yessss! The plumber is done, the electrician came and finished yesterday, and the gas company has turned on the gas. We now have hot water in the cottage! And today we finished hanging drywall in the hall closet where the new washer/dryer will be. It's taped and mudded, we'll let it dry over Christmas weekend and come back next week to sand and finish coat before we can paint.

The rest of the cottage is painted. We worked on that last weekend and finished up yesterday.

The cottage walls are painted Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray (color matched with Sherwin-Williams paint).

It's much lighter in person and actually reads much warmer. I liked this color, it looks great with the white/pink/grey/green terrazzo we have out there. It's coming together!!


Finished/styled photos soon ... need to move the furniture out of the middle of the room :)

xoxo

Purchased: Travertine tile

24"x24" harlequin-pattern travertine

For cabana floor; inset with mosaic border (to be purchased later).