dining room: the windows

i’ve started and deleted this post three times now. it keeps taking on this “i-think-i’m-a-decorating-magazine” tone that i don’t like, and somehow can’t seem to avoid. so we’ll just cut to the chase, k? just the facts, ma’am.

i’ll be the first to admit it: i’m cheap. there, i said it.
i’m always searching for the best bargain, the less-expensive knockoff, the DIY-to-save-dough way of doing it.

but, and this is a big BUT, i’ve learned through the years that there are two places where it just doesn’t pay.

ready? this is big time home dec wisdom i’m sharing here, so be sure and get yourself in the proper frame of mind for these nuggets of truth.

picture frames

and

curtains

today let’s talk about curtains.

yes, shannon, you can make curtains. but they’re big, and they’re going to take a LOT of fabric no matter how you slice it (haha. punny). and if you cheap out and don’t order enough fabric YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE HAPPY WITH THE END RESULT. you’re going to have rooms full of curtains that are too sheer, or too short, or unfinished because you got annoyed at yourself and didn’t finish.

like this:

EXHIBIT A: living room

too short, unlined, got annoyed, didn’t finish.

didn’t even bother clipping the threads.

EXHIBIT B: family room

thought i could go with the smaller size (and therefore cheaper) rods, now they sag in the middle. also unlined. also too short…not that that matters since there’s so many toys in front of them you can’t see the bottom hem anyway. ahem…

phew. that was tough. but sometimes i need tough love.

i’m trying, though. i’m trying to be a grown-up and do things the right way. to wit: the dining room curtains.

the curtains are 5 yards of fabric. that’s big time for me. and i lined them. and put in grommets.

now know that i lined them with $5 sheets from walmart, the grommets were from joann’s on sale + coupon, and the rod is one i bought at IKEA about 100 years ago. but they’re a far cry from those sad things in the above pictures, because i squashed my worst penny-pincher tendencies and BOUGHT ENOUGH FABRIC.

and i love them. LOVE THEM. look how pretty they are!

and look—just long enough for a nice amount of floor puddle!

the construction couldn’t have been simpler. i cut my 5 yards of fabric (purchased HERE from fabric.com with an additional 20% off code and free shipping) in half so i had two pieces 2 1/2 yards long. then i cut a white sheet the same size and sewed them right sides together most of the way around, leaving a small hole for turning. turn right side out and press, then sew up the hole.

for the grommets: first make sure your lining and curtain are lined up perfectly and pin pin pin so everything doesn’t shift on you!

i bought 2 packs of these from joann’s (found here. they’re normally $12.99 each, but i waited until they were on sale 50% off, plus i had an additional 20% off entire purchase coupon)

they are plastic, but once they’re up you can’t really tell. they simply snap together, and they come with a pattern so you know how big to make the holes.

i will say that i doubt they would work well on more than 2 layers of fabric. but for my application they’ve held up just fine.

mark the spaces for your grommets evenly on the WRONG side of your curtain, then center your guide and trace the circle.

cut out the fabric.

and snap your two halves of the grommet on.

easy enough, right?

they really add a professional, modern look. just what i needed in my quest to turn over a new decorating leaf, right?

;)

and here’s the biggest excitement of all…for anyone keeping score at home--
FABRIC $29
LINING $10
GROMMETS $10.50
--------------
TOTAL $49.50

that’s about $25 each, which isn’t too shabby for custom curtains that make such a big statement! plus i’m happy with them—for once!

so what’s your worst decorating misstep? let me know i’m not alone—please!?!?!?

for all the dining room progress posts click HERE

bulking up for winter: the weekend’s food in review

the end of last week into the weekend brought the breathe of fresh air i’ve been longing for. the snap in the air prompting the need for a sweatshirt on our morning outings prove that fall is just around the corner.
it’s coming.

i feel like i come alive with the change of summer into fall. i wake from a heat-induced coma and the first place i head is the kitchen.
a summer of stovetop, crockpot and cold meals has me yearning for the pop of my oven knob. 350 degrees beckoning and welcoming me like an old friend.

my first foray was a sorely missed family tradition: homemade bread. jeremy and i don’t go crazy with organics and natural foods. with seven mouths to feed on a single income quite honestly we can’t afford to. but we do, however, believe in homemade and simple. less is more—i.e., less preservatives, less chemicals, less –orbitals and –uctoses and –uloses. to that end we went a solid 2 years without really buying bread from the store. i made three loaves a week for our dinners and lunches. but with my last pregnancy and, well…all that…the homemade bread took a backseat to the business of simply surviving.

finding our new normal as a larger family required some things to be paused for a bit, and the two piping hot loaves i pulled from the oven on friday signified, for us, a return.

one loaf was gone in minutes—all 7 of us gathered around the counter dancing slices a bit too hot for the fingers back and forth while butter melted and dripped down our chins but it was so SO good we blew and chewed and breathed heavy to try and cool it even though it was already in our mouths.

saturday night brought mac and cheese enjoyed outdoors, followed by marshmallow roasting and the sounds of frank sinatra on pandora. then opa stopped by to sip a glass of wine and change the station to harry chapin…provoking laughter and stories of his youth and how he was thisclose to joining the marines during the vietnam war and how different would our lives have been then?

meanwhile i ran back and forth to the kitchen, checking the challah bread i had stuffed with cinnamon, raisins and brown sugar for sunday morning. strange how it didn’t quite look the same as smitten kitchen’s version…more like an unfortunate intestinal disorder.

thanks for that visual, dear.

but it was delicious all the same--another loaf gone this morning.

we round out the weekend with a pumpkin butter cake—hello. what more information do you need beyond those three words: pumpkin. butter. cake. yessssss. harrison’s request for a pumpkin dessert to take to mom-mom and pop’s house sunday night sends me on an internet search. a rewarding internet search.

it’s a curse and a gift: my talents lie in potatoes and mac and cheese and to a lesser extent with baking, but even there we have enough unqualified successes to encourage my continued experimentation.

and saturday night we sat around the fire and gigi made us all “sandwiches” of graham crackers and burnt marshmallows, smiling ear to ear as we raved and praised her skills. and i laughed to jeremy how did our children learn to equate showing love to someone=cooking for them?

but we know how.

because twice this week guinevere, done her cyber schooling for the week, has wandered into the kitchen and created chocolatey peanut-buttery deliciousness and texts me “we need more chocolate chips” when i’m out at the store.

and because so many mornings this summer my children as a group presented me with breakfast in bed—a rubbermaid bin lid serving as the tray for my microwaved eggs and toast with peanut butter and coffee with what tasted like 7 sugars.

because we teach by example.

because i have my parent’s example and my parent’s genes—the ones that love a full house and good food and laughter and noise and pots of sauce and pounds of spaghetti and that’s just how it’s done.

and because in turn we make giant vats of soup and deliver them to all our sick friends when a vicious cold takes them down by the dozen. and 8 months later they (my children) are still talking about it.

so yes, in our house cooking=love.

and jeremy and i say only half-jokingly that we were born in the wrong century. truly one where my rubinesque figure** and our prolific child creating abilities would have been more esteemed would have suited us much better.
but we are here in 2012, headed so soon into 2013 (how did that happen???) eating and feeding our way into a happy house full of memories—both those already made, and those to come.

come on fall. i’m ready for ya.

**(insert crudely photoshopped image of my head on an appropriate painting. which i briefly considered for laughs and quickly dismissed because i’ll spare you that mental image)

grand re-opening!

okay, it’s time to bite the bullet. i planned on shutting down my shop on etsy until last fall.
well, better late than never, right?

googiemomma shop on etsy.com is open again!
and you can find more than just name signs there…

plush owls, just like i made for the night owl sleepover party!

leather clutches—at a special bargain price!

and name signs—my bread and butter.
and what’s that? SPECIAL COUPON CODES???
now through october 15th, get 10% any name sign order with the code “INEEDASIGN” and get free shipping on any leather clutch or plush owl order with the code “REOPENING”.
hey now. get to shoppin’ peeps.