All the Worlds a Stage and i've got the drapes to prove it.

Okay, so i got the drapes mostly done and hung up. Sometimes it pains me to be such a green fanatic, but we all have to be something.

The picture to the left, save for the kid shoes and my son's shot put, is of the Theatre Drape i made for our French doors. I wanted something heavy to help cut the cold from the door. It's not entirely finished, but this is pretty much what it's going to look like. You'll see in the last picture, i made the drape to cover the entire span of that wall. I'd rather have this big mysterious curtain than small strips of white wall on either side, especially given that they'd be narrower than the white space above the drape. It just made sense to me. I still need to get some weights and magnets to make it do as i wish, but i left pockets for those. If you look closely, it looks as though the ends are lower than the center. I assure you, this is an optical hallucination. The weights will lift the lip at the top and that will self correct. The one thing i didn't count on was the placement of the door. The door is actually four inches to the left of center. This means i'll have to move the center support for the rod to get the gathers to bunch right.

As i said in my previous post, i really didn't have enough material for what i wanted to do, but i did my best to use what i had. I couldn't exactly make this drape puddle, but i did make it drag the floor. Right now it looks as though i don't know how to hem, but once i add the weight and so on, this will also self correct.

I haven't decided whether i'm going to gather them in the middle or from the sides. So, for now, i can live with the way they look. Boy, i was really rationing material on this one, but i think it turned out alright.

You can see what i am talking about, when i said i don't know whether to gather them in the middle or from the side in the next picture. If you have an opinion on this, Please, do share.

I'm really leaning on gathering in the middle with a couple of ties that are looser than the piece i have tied on there. The tie will probably be a purple color which will make me gee-gaw up the rest of it with a splash of purple here and there. I say purple, probably a pastel or drabby lavender color. Just something different.

Here is the door. See, it's totally off to one side. Eh, well, we play the cards we are dealt.

On a brighter note, they fixed my oven. (woo hoo) or so i thought. It is either at 275 or 450. Some choice. I'm tired of dealing with the stove and i think i'm going to just buy one and tell them to come store theirs.

Well, i'm not too much into the writing mood right now, i have a movie to watch. So, if you have any ideas or comments, feel free to leave me any thought you like.

Until the next time i post, may peace and happiness be the order of the day,

Dave

P.S. Wouldn't an alphabet table look great in place of that cedar chest??

All the news that's new and improved

Okay, so our new apartment here in Amarillo is about 85% put away. It's the remainder that is going to take some time to get situated. I got the books put up this weekend and now i have to sort out hers from mine and get them all "put right" in the shelves. While doing this, i have been screaming at myself over our french doors and the two other windows off of our living room. In Garland we had three windows in the whole place, not counting the sliding glass door to the balcony. I have recycled the one in our living room there to go in the dining room and it's okay, until i find something i like better. Though that does leave the three windows downstairs and our bedroom upstairs to make drapes for.

I absolutely refuse to pay retail for fabric unless it's for something i can't do anything else about. To cover the French doors, i figured i needed about 9 yards in drapery material and the same in blackout panel. Well when you figure the cost of what i like, which was right at 29.00 a yard and then i'd need another 6 yards for the other two windows, the price was completely out of reason. I mean it isn't like i can run over to the apparel district here and go to the warehouses or anything. I have one lonely JoAnn's and that's it.

So, i'm cruising through JoAnn's and i see a fabric i really like and i'm thinking if i can get 10 yards of it i can make it work. See, i wanted the extra fabric so the drapes at the French Doors would puddle. I just thought it would look cool and help to keep the air out. However, at nearly thirty dollars a yard, no way. So i'm eyeing this fabric and i see a red tag that says 6 dollars a yard. I'm thinking woo hoo, just please have 10 yards on the cob. So off to the cut table. 6 5/8th yds. I wanted to scream like Charlie Brown!!! So, back i went to see if there were any other red tags and as fate would have it, why yes there was. It measured out at 5 1/8th yds. Boy, i just couldn't catch a break. Everything else be it regular price or on sale i just didn't groove on. So, i'm wandering the store and something clicked. I went back and bought both cobs of material and enough gimp to go crazy with.

After that, all that was left were the blackout panels. Between the rods and the material and some other stuff, i had pretty much exhausted my drapery budget. Even with the red tag fabric. Okay, for some guys it's Home Depot, for me it's a fabric store.

I was sitting here thinking i could just go ahead and make up the drapes and do the black out panels later, when it occurred to me i should check my fabric stash. My fabric stash is in six Rubbermaid tubs. When stacked, they are nearly eight feet tall. I checked them all and to no avail. I just didn't have enough. Then Zeke came in dragging a bundle of bolts of fabric i had cling wrapped together. In that was the prize!!! A bolt of pale blue/teal denim with nearly 20yds on the bolt. Woo Hoo!!! I started doing my happy dance. It's not traditionally what i'd use, but my silk is Sage green with spots of a pale blue in it. The denim will work fine for protecting my silk from the sun.

I'll post a pic as soon as i get them done. Now, don't get your hopes up, it's what i like which means it's going to be either weird or really weird.

Oh, and just for the Tally Sheet, when i got to the register i discovered the fabric and gimp i picked out were both on sale an additional 50%. I'm happy, but at that price everything in the house would have puddled.

Until next time, Peace be with you, Dave