Curtains and the Merry-Go-Round
Okay, once again I have been lax about posting. During these winter months it seems we should have more time. However, I don't feel like I am finding any free time. I must be daydreaming...a lot! This is a good way to procrastinate. Some of you know I have been trying to find new curtains for my living room. Now this is a project I detest. I don't want to shop. I don't like to shop and I have no idea what I want so I continue to put it off. Then every summer I have to tack sheets over our living and dining room windows to keep the suns heat out. Well, as you can imagine, it is not a pretty site. So each winter I vow to find some drapes that will do the trick for me, so that never again will I have to tack sheets up on the windows. This winter has been no exception.
First of all, you have to know what you want because the rods you purchase depend on the drapes you intend to hang. Secondly you then have to find curtains that will work with the rods. Third you have to find the curtain that will work in your room that has the appropriate finish on top to attach to your rod and it must be the correct length. After much deliberation over: Roman shades, cellular shades, distressed wood blinds, roller shades or a curtain on a traverse rod, I decided on the traverse rod and a valance. Now to use a traverse rod you have to have a pleated curtain/drape. So that meant I had to find pleated panels. I had a valance style in mind but to find that with the right panels would be a miracle. Well, I went to JC Penney's and found two different panels that I liked. I bought a package of each to bring home and experiment with. I didn't care for the valances that were designed to go with these panels (that would be too easy) so I figured I'd buy an extra panel or two and make my own. These panels also were not pleated so I would have to pleat them. Another dilemma is that since we have electric baseboard heat, I can not have 84 inch curtains because the heating units are right below the windows. So I would have to find 72" or 64" curtains. I didn't want 64" and 72" are rare so I knew I would have to hem them. Okay, so now I am pretty much making curtains because I need pleats, hem and a valance that I want. So I get these panels home, take them out of their packaging and hang them over the rods rearranging and trying to decide if I liked them. I have decided I can't decide with just the two so I return to Penney's with reinforcements because the number of packages I need to buy, I will not be able to carry by myself. So we head to the store, my sister Carol and my friend Mary Ann. As we enter the mall Carol says we have to ride the merry-go-round. Good Grief! I say okay come on. She says we will do it later....LATER!!!! with all the packages we will be carrying? This was just a fleeting thought, I didn't mention it out loud so we headed to Penney's. I can tell the girls aren't thrilled with my choices so we look around. After much confusion and deliberation I am discouraged and ready to leave with nothing. I decide at the last minute to make the purchases I intended to make before we arrived. So I do.
We drag these huge bags to the merry-go-round and pay our dollar to ride. Carol is first. She heads to the stairs, yeah you guessed it, it is a two story merry-go-round and she has to be on the upper level. We struggle to get the bags and ourselves up the narrow stairway. Now Carol is yelling down to the merry-go-round operator "hey do all of these horses go up and down?" The guy is not paying any attention to her. I tell her yes they do but what do I know. She yells down again and finally gets a response. Yes, he says they all go up and down. Why listen to me, there would be no scene if she did that. We ride. It is fun. He stops too soon. Carol wants to ride longer. She yells down to him that he should keep it going cuz we are not ready to get off. I say "come on, the ride is over." She yells down to the guy again and says that I am trying to sneak out the back way. Say what! Is there a back way cuz if there is I'd like to find it...how embarrassing. :) You'd think she was 5. However I have to say she is getting up there in years. She is no spring chicken if you get my drift but she sure was acting like one :). Okay, so we all come down the stairs laughing. It was a good time. We head home and I make them both dinner.
Life gets busy and it is several days before I can sit and stare or arrange these curtains to see if they will work for me. Now you must know that these things are not cheap. So my thoughts are going to all the work I will have to do with them and then I'm not even sure I like them, plus the cost involved. I become very depressed because once again, I have this monumental task and I have no idea what to do. I am serious, I so dislike doing this stuff I didn't want to get out of bed. I was almost in tears pondering this problem, ready to trash it all, throw in the towel, return all the stuff I bought at Penney's and go through another year with sheets, only to one day begin the process all over again. The next day I got up and decide to go to Walmart to see what they had. I came back with two different panels. One I really liked. It worked well with the wallpaper border that I had and I liked the valance so all I had to do was put pleats in the top which would hem them at the same time and I'd be done. HA! I cannot tell you how much better I felt. This huge weight was lifted. Having this situation resolved had an amazing affect on how I was feeling. I still can't believe it, I mean the difference was like night and day. I was lost and then found. Blind and now I see. Yes, I see... curtains that I can draw to shut out the sun on those hot muggy days during July and August. To finish up the story, I went back to Walmart and bought 3 additional packages of panels and 6 valances. I brought them home, ironed and put up the valances and am now in the process of putting in the pleats so I can hang the panels and be done. I still have to paint the room and put up the wallpaper border but that will have to wait until spring when I can open windows.
I returned one set of 8 panels plus 2 panels of the other set to Penney's, keeping 6 in the event I decide to use them in the dinning room. In which case I will only have to decide how to hang them. Matt wants a draw string so I'll need another traverse rod. I'm thinking of using those rings with clips on them so I won't have to do anything but install the rod. These won't need heming since they will be covering sliding glass doors.
The sewing I have to do is nothing and I praise God for lightening my burden :).
First of all, you have to know what you want because the rods you purchase depend on the drapes you intend to hang. Secondly you then have to find curtains that will work with the rods. Third you have to find the curtain that will work in your room that has the appropriate finish on top to attach to your rod and it must be the correct length. After much deliberation over: Roman shades, cellular shades, distressed wood blinds, roller shades or a curtain on a traverse rod, I decided on the traverse rod and a valance. Now to use a traverse rod you have to have a pleated curtain/drape. So that meant I had to find pleated panels. I had a valance style in mind but to find that with the right panels would be a miracle. Well, I went to JC Penney's and found two different panels that I liked. I bought a package of each to bring home and experiment with. I didn't care for the valances that were designed to go with these panels (that would be too easy) so I figured I'd buy an extra panel or two and make my own. These panels also were not pleated so I would have to pleat them. Another dilemma is that since we have electric baseboard heat, I can not have 84 inch curtains because the heating units are right below the windows. So I would have to find 72" or 64" curtains. I didn't want 64" and 72" are rare so I knew I would have to hem them. Okay, so now I am pretty much making curtains because I need pleats, hem and a valance that I want. So I get these panels home, take them out of their packaging and hang them over the rods rearranging and trying to decide if I liked them. I have decided I can't decide with just the two so I return to Penney's with reinforcements because the number of packages I need to buy, I will not be able to carry by myself. So we head to the store, my sister Carol and my friend Mary Ann. As we enter the mall Carol says we have to ride the merry-go-round. Good Grief! I say okay come on. She says we will do it later....LATER!!!! with all the packages we will be carrying? This was just a fleeting thought, I didn't mention it out loud so we headed to Penney's. I can tell the girls aren't thrilled with my choices so we look around. After much confusion and deliberation I am discouraged and ready to leave with nothing. I decide at the last minute to make the purchases I intended to make before we arrived. So I do.
We drag these huge bags to the merry-go-round and pay our dollar to ride. Carol is first. She heads to the stairs, yeah you guessed it, it is a two story merry-go-round and she has to be on the upper level. We struggle to get the bags and ourselves up the narrow stairway. Now Carol is yelling down to the merry-go-round operator "hey do all of these horses go up and down?" The guy is not paying any attention to her. I tell her yes they do but what do I know. She yells down again and finally gets a response. Yes, he says they all go up and down. Why listen to me, there would be no scene if she did that. We ride. It is fun. He stops too soon. Carol wants to ride longer. She yells down to him that he should keep it going cuz we are not ready to get off. I say "come on, the ride is over." She yells down to the guy again and says that I am trying to sneak out the back way. Say what! Is there a back way cuz if there is I'd like to find it...how embarrassing. :) You'd think she was 5. However I have to say she is getting up there in years. She is no spring chicken if you get my drift but she sure was acting like one :). Okay, so we all come down the stairs laughing. It was a good time. We head home and I make them both dinner.
Life gets busy and it is several days before I can sit and stare or arrange these curtains to see if they will work for me. Now you must know that these things are not cheap. So my thoughts are going to all the work I will have to do with them and then I'm not even sure I like them, plus the cost involved. I become very depressed because once again, I have this monumental task and I have no idea what to do. I am serious, I so dislike doing this stuff I didn't want to get out of bed. I was almost in tears pondering this problem, ready to trash it all, throw in the towel, return all the stuff I bought at Penney's and go through another year with sheets, only to one day begin the process all over again. The next day I got up and decide to go to Walmart to see what they had. I came back with two different panels. One I really liked. It worked well with the wallpaper border that I had and I liked the valance so all I had to do was put pleats in the top which would hem them at the same time and I'd be done. HA! I cannot tell you how much better I felt. This huge weight was lifted. Having this situation resolved had an amazing affect on how I was feeling. I still can't believe it, I mean the difference was like night and day. I was lost and then found. Blind and now I see. Yes, I see... curtains that I can draw to shut out the sun on those hot muggy days during July and August. To finish up the story, I went back to Walmart and bought 3 additional packages of panels and 6 valances. I brought them home, ironed and put up the valances and am now in the process of putting in the pleats so I can hang the panels and be done. I still have to paint the room and put up the wallpaper border but that will have to wait until spring when I can open windows.
I returned one set of 8 panels plus 2 panels of the other set to Penney's, keeping 6 in the event I decide to use them in the dinning room. In which case I will only have to decide how to hang them. Matt wants a draw string so I'll need another traverse rod. I'm thinking of using those rings with clips on them so I won't have to do anything but install the rod. These won't need heming since they will be covering sliding glass doors.
The sewing I have to do is nothing and I praise God for lightening my burden :).
posted by Pati | 1:15 PM
1 Comments:
Next time, check out Wally World first and just visit the mall for the merry-go-round ride :) (one MUST act like they are 5 on a merry-go-round)I may have an old traverse rod down in my basement if you want me to check.....
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