The Curtains

As I mentioned a week or two ago, I made new curtains for my dining room. I love them! I love the color, the material, the curtain rod, that I accomplished one thing in the month of March... yes, I love them. And though this probably isn't that interesting to most of you, here's a quick pictoral how to (for a certain friend out there who is also making curtains). I'm sure there's a more professional way of doing this... but this is how I did it... and it only took a couple hours. (Note that I did not line mine, so if you line yours, they will be slightly different. But the tabs part will be the same.)

1. Cut fabric for window sizes

2. Cut tabs (I made mine 10 x 4 inches)

3. Fold tab in half, longways and inside out, to form a tube. Sew right sides together.

4. Turn rightside out

5. Iron flat

6. Fold the end over slightly and iron flat

7. Hem all sides of main curtain panels, measure an even distance between tabs, pin in place, sew tabs to curtain panels.

8. Install curtain rods (hopefully your drill batteries don't decide to die like mine did).

9. Hang curtain on rods by tabs... (iron them first if you want to get the creases out... oops)

10. Voila!! New curtains!!

(and yes, they do close all the way, I just wasn't very careful before taking the picture.) And as a friend told me today "They look like a garden" which is good because with all those plants on the windowsill, I definitely think the room was lacking "garden"... haha.

One of those days...

You know it's going to be one of those days when:


1. You trip on your shoe on the way to the alarm clock... twice...

2. You hit "snooze" four times before dragging your sorry behind into the shower

3. There's hair in the shower drain and the outfit you were planning to wear needs to be ironed... so you change your plans...

4. Lake Suzie is gracing the kitchen floor when you make it downtairs and the good rags (as in the large absorbent ones) are down in the wash

5. You're running later than you should be (see #2 and 3 and 4) so you don't having time to dry your hair, resigning yourself to frizz and crazy hair for the duration of the day

6. You pour coffee into your travel mug and run out the door for work, battling prime rush hour traffic

7. As you sit at the light just a block from work (at exactly 8:01 am), you look down to see that you have coffee all over your chest... and your shirt is light pink... so there's no hiding it...

8. You thank God for those little Shout wipes you bought yesterday for just such an occasion, while cursing the stupid travel mug and it's leaking ways

9. You wipe furiously, hoping no one in front of you or behind you can see what's happening (and dreading that at least one of them works with you)

10. Your stains are still quite prominent, you button the jacket and head into work, carrying the accursed coffee mug and it's remaining contents

11. You turn on the computer and get things rolling for the day before heading for the bathroom to try again on the coffee stains

12. While you're in there, you figure you'll wash out your big water mug... and thanks to the automatic faucets and soap dispensers, rather than a nice rinse, you get handsoap all over the mug, which requires more washing... and causes more soap to dispense... you eventually give up in disgust.

13. Next you attack the coffee stains front and center on the chest of your light pink shirt, which you manage to get a bit better, still noticable, but hopefully with the jean jacket, no one notices...

14. Before leaving the bathroom, you just happen to notice your hair, half of which has flipped out, and the other half in... all of it with a nice overall frizz. Great.

15. At lunch, you manage to drop lettuce covered with dressing on your lap. More furious scrubbing with the Shout wipes.

16. You wonder what is next... or what you've already done and haven't noticed yet, but other people have...

17. And you realize it's only noon, with half the day still in front of you...

Equilibrium

I realized this week that I am just simply exhausted. Not tired, sleepy as much as just bone weary. I guess in liking my new job and being soooo relieved to have the new job, I sort of forgot how exhausting change is. It's hitting me pretty hard this week. It doesn't help that it's a busy time of the year and that I still haven't learned to say "no."

All in all, life is good. I am very blessed and happy and yet totally exhausted. I just feel like my equilibrium is off... which exhausts me further. I've had stuff going every night this week, really the last 2 weeks... much of which has been great, but still busy. Tonight is my night at home with just the dogs... it's good. Introverts like me should remember to schedule in more time like this. Especially since I'm not only home hanging with my bitches, but I'm also cleaning out and reorganizing the pantry- so at least one part of my life can be under control.

Stay tuned on those work stories... I've got a couple written, but I'm still trying to come up with good code names for my coworkers (lest my world get smaller and they somehow stumble across my blog).

So much to say, so little brains

I really do feel several blog posts welling up within me... mostly about my experiences and the people I'm now working with... not to mention already moving cubes from the Village to the Colliseum... not to mention one of my team members and his obsession with his new huge stapler... not to mention my new friend the crazy dog lady (whose dogs call her "mommy" apparently)... not to mention having real work now... and goals (I just got the goals today)... and trying to learn a lot of information... a lot of software... a lot of names and departments and everything... whew. It's all going really well, I really like it, but it's exhausting at the same time.

Sadly it's almost midnight and tomorrow is the work day for the Habitat project I somehow volunteered to coordinate (clearly I have yet to learn how to say no). Anyway, I've really got to go to bed... but stay tuned for said posts welling up within, I'm saving up lots of great material. One day soon I'm going to have at least 3 minutes to sit down and share some of my stories.

In other news, my friends over at Love Life just closed on their new house, HURRAY!!! Congrats!!!!

In more other news, no dead wabbits this week (fingers crossed).

In more exciting news, I bought material, made curtains, installed the curtain rod, and hung the curtains in the dining room... a project I've been meaning to do for 2 solid years. Sigh of contentment. So I got one thing done this week... kind of a symbol that someday I may accomplish some other things from the list... maybe...

Some pics from the last few weeks...

Co-ed shower for housemate and her fiance... I believe I can say a good time was had by all... and that's probably all I should say - it was a wild evening...

Visiting the Loves... Look at how cute they are!!

And I think perhaps Super "Rizzie" takes the cake on funny pics... or maybe just being a really funny girl. She's awesome!!

Spring has arrived...

Andrew is getting bigger... and looks like a Veen to be sure. Look at this cute little man...

Fiona turns 16!! Hurray!!

... and now you're caught up...

Another friday

1. One week at the new job finished. I am really liking it. There's a lot to learn but I can also see a lot of ways that I will be an asset to the team. It's all really good. I'm feeling more comfortable and "normal" there every day.

2. I need to find new shoes for work. Something that is dressy enough for the business casual dress code and comfortable enough for all the trekking back and forth across the building numerous times a day. For the record I hate the mall. and I hate that my feet are "wide" width, so it feels impossible to find good, cute, and comfortable shoes. Also, it is a bad idea to hit the mall looking for new shoes on a day your feet already hurt from your old shoes and standing/trekking for a good bit of the day. Not a good idea at all.

3. However, as much as I hate the mall and as much as I failed at finding new work shoes, I did find a couple cute blouses to supplement my sad work wardrobe. They are springy and colorful and they were on sale. Excellent!

4. Lenten fish fry, check!

5. The cold I got at the beginning of the week is finally mostly worked through. I'm coughing occasionally but the congestion, exhaustion, and runny nose have passed. It's nice to be mostly healthy again.

6. I'm ready for the weekend. The house needs to be cleaned badly. The car needs to be cleaned. The yard needs to be cleaned. The dogs need to be cleaned. I guess it's good to be needed.

7. My baby sister turns 16 on Sunday. Where does time go???? It really does astound me. As does the incredible young woman she has grown into, and the blessing she continues to be in my life. But I'm still having a hard time swallowing this 16 thing :D I love you Smooch. Happy sweet sixteen!!