Sunday, January 06, 2008

Off to a good start..

The before

I think the best way to start a New Year is to start and finish something that you've been meaning to make forever. In my case, it was some new curtains for our bedroom. When we moved into our house almost a year ago, we painted everything, finished the floors, and installed new carpet. Apparently though, we never removed the nasty plastic venetian blinds from the previous owner. Nor had they been cleaned since we moved in, but that's another story. Anyway, I probably saw this tutorial over at Two Straight Lines about a year ago(or even longer) and knew these were exactly what I wanted to make. And let me tell you, these are sooo simple and quick.


The after. Don't mind the mess in my bedroom.Pretend you didn't see that!
The white fabric is from some IKEA curtains that I cut up and the patchwork fabric is made with Kona cotton and DS flea market fancy that I had intended on making a quilt for our bed with. Hopefully I'll get around to doing that this year too, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, right? Now I can't stop staring at them. I am in love with them. I just can't figure out why it took me so long to even start these! They totally change the look of our room for the better. Now I think Isaiah needs some curtains for his room, as he currently doesn't have any.




I also wanted to revisit the idea of hosting the Martha Good Things swap. I don't really have any projects or commitments right now, so I'm itching for something to do. I'll explain it here, and if you're interested, please leave me a comment. If there's enough interest, I'll post the sign up details this week. Basically, it would go something like this:

Head over to the Martha Stewart site and look at the list of "Good Things." If you're familiar with Martha, you know what they are. If not, then they are Martha's signature which either tends to be either tips for decorating, gardening, etc, or quick fun projects. Since this is a crafty blog, this swap would focus on the "Craft Good Things." To sign up, you would send me a list of at least 5 of your favorite good things that you would like have made for you. Your partner would get your list and vice versa. You would choose 3 things to make from their list. I think 3 is pretty doable since these projects are usually small and quick. In total, I'd ideally like to have 4 things sent. 3 from your partner's list, and the 4th item of your choice. It could be a bought Martha item (from Michael's, Kmart, etc.) or it could be a good thing made that you like. I hope this is clear, but if you have any questions, please let me know and I'll try to reply to them. Again, this isn't a sign-up, it's just to see how many people would be interested. We're probably looking at sign-ups ending next week and send out due either end of January or Feb. Hope there is some interest in this! I'd love to host this!!

11 comments:

Heidijayhawk said...

love the new curtain!!! way to go! i'm heading ove to check out some good things now!

Anina said...

Love the curtain.
I'll go check out Martha's site to see what "Good Things" are out there and get back to you on the swap.

Jenn Maruska said...

Great work on the curtain! Looks so good!

I would be interested in the swap IF it were to end in mid-late Feb. I've got some other things on my plate this month : )

Felicia said...

Your curtain turned out smashing :)

Breanna said...

I love the curtains! The bottoms look like stained glass in the sunlight. I would be interested in the Martha swap, if it ended a couple of weeks after deadlines for the Valentines swaps I am doing. It sounds like fun!

Geek+Nerd said...

That's a neat idea for a swap, I *might* be interested. Your curtains came out lovely as well, nice work!

Chara Michele said...

Love the new curtain!

Rebecca said...

Great job on the curtains! I've been thinking of taking down my closet door (one is broken and waiting to be fixed) and hanging curtains hmm . . .

I would be interested in this swap if it ended late in February. I have another swap going on plus vacation AND house guests coming up. LOL. Oh and a 1st wedding anniversary. ;)

keep me posted!

hugs

Mama Said Sew said...

The curtain looks great Katie!

Like a few others, I'd be interested in the Martha swap if the send date was nearer the end of February.

Raesha D said...

What a "good" idea! I would definitely be interested in a good things swap:)

Katie said...

The blinds tutorial is great. Thanks for the pointer...and your blind is great!!!