Bird Watching

This little guy landed on the tree just outside the kitchen window and my camera just happened to be on the kitchen table. I love it when that happens!

The Mistreated Windows

We moved into this house a year and a half ago. We've scraped wallpaper, upheaved tile, replaced counter tops, painted everything, replaced carpets and much, much more. So I guess I've been a little too busy to even notice my naked kitchen windows, until my friend Duchess directed my attention to NESTING PLACE (be sure to click on the mistreatments box on the right hand side). Nester, of Nesting Place is a very creative, easy on the budget, no sewing needed decorator and window treatment guru extraordinaire. She inspired me to go find some fabric; I got mine at Hobby Lobby on sale for $3.29 a yard. Here's my process from start to finish.

I started out hanging my curtain rods. Let's just say, it was not a fun task. I made my measurements on the walls. Got out the drill. Pre-drilled holes where I wanted the brackets to hang. I put the screwdriver head on the drill and set off to work. The first hole I made - my screw only went in so far, so I started to hand tighten it in the rest of the way when "POP" the stupid screw broke off in the wall! I grabbed another screw, moved over a bit from the first hole, got out the drill, and "SNAP" again! Another screw head broke off in the wall! This wasn't starting out how I'd expected it to!




Okay, enough of curtain rods. I set them aside hoping the hubs would come home and do them for me. On to the making of the valances. My supplies: Fabric, hot glue gun and glue sticks, ring clips and trim.





You start with your fabric, straight off the bolt. Iron it if you want to, I only did if there was a crease. Keep the fabric folded in half lengthwise.



Nester would probably just fold over the tops, but Jodie is a little bit of a perfectionist, so she had to fold the top of the fabric over 4.5 inches and measure it.


Using one of your ring clips, just clip one on each end. Fold your fabric in half and clip on the halves so that your clips are equally distributed. (see my raw edge, thanks to Nester, I'm not so concerned with that anymore! Freedom!)




Now for the fun part. Fire up that hot glue gun and just glue your trim across the bottom edge of your fabric. I just covered up the white raw edge. Easy-Peasy!





And here they are all hung and purty!

Christmas World Tour 2008 . trip 4

The last stretch of our journey was to travel south to South Carolina. Our dear friends the Edwards are living down there now. Our husbands work for the same company. We met shortly after we were transferred to North Carolina and lived near them. Our families clicked and we spent a lot of time hanging out swimming and boating. Duchess and I spent a lot of Tuesday mornings at Panera and then shopping together in town. My youngest and their oldest became fast friends. My son has been asking since we moved when he could go and see his friend B. So while Dennis had some time off for the holidays we included them in our World Tour Trip. Of course I have pictures of all the fun!

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Duchess and I

Hanging out playing the Wii

Great Bowling Scores



"Say Cheese", "No you say Cheese"

This is Duchess' photo of me taking a picture of her
This is my middle son. He loves Mr Robert. Every time he's around Rob he hangs out with him and asks him tons of questions. Robert, thanks for being so patient with my kid!

More Wii fun

This girl can bowl!!!!

This kid bowled 9 strikes in a row!!! Way to go B!

Popsicles in January!

This is where Duchess and I would sit all summer, talk and drink sweet tea while watching our kids play football in the front yard....if I only lived in SC.

We've said our good-byes. We hope you'll come up and see us some time this summer. Here are the beautiful mountain ranges that are just north of the Edwards home.

Christmas World Tour 2008 . trip 3. NYE

Trip #3 takes us to West Virginia to visit Dennis' brother Mike and his family for New Years Eve. We spent the evening eating, playing the Wii and celebrating the New Year.

Here's the yummy food. Lots of finger foods to snack on all night long.

A quick prayer to bring in the new year

This is where we found the guys most of the evening

I was trying to get a good picture of my sister in law Joanne with her daughter. She was showing me the pose she came up with to hide her double chin. I loved the look on her daughters face so I snapped a quick picture.

Awww, much better. Aren't they pretty.

Games in the living room

My nephew

My Brother-in-law

Sparkling Cider to toast the new year

Counting down to the New Year
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Toast

My Family

Mike and Joanne's Family

Wii Bowling Tournaments

My Sister-in-Law being silly

Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas World Tour 2008 . trip 2

Trip #2

We left for Columbus Ohio on Monday Dec 28th. We planned to visit Dennis' mother, who was in town from Florida and Dennis' oldest brother and his family. Our friends from Cleveland just happened to be in Columbus Monday and Tuesday so we made plans to include them in our visit.

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Here we all are at the Mexican resturant.

Isaiah made a face with rice, french fries and the chocolate syrup left on his desert plate. Such a creative child.

Our friends Rich, Jodi and Joshua from the Cleveland area

The next leg of our journey was to drive down to West Virginia to see Dennis' brother Mike. Along the way we passed through Rio Grande OH - home of - if you didn't already know- the famous Bob Evan's orginal farm and homestead. I begged Dennis to take me by to see it. I always see pictures of it on the menu. I need a life!

That's all for Trip 2. Stay tuned tomorrow for Trip #3 and some New Years Eve fun!