Let me tell you a thing or nine about curtains.

Last night we had some issues with our AC unit.  We thought it was going kaput, but after discussing the situation with the AC man this morning, Thad thinks that it may just be low on freon.  The house stays pretty cool, so we turned the AC off last night.  Regardless, it was a bit on the warm side when I got up this morning, so I was not in the mood for warm oatmeal.

• 3/4 cup Uncle Sam's cereal
• 1/2 cup kefir
• 2 small tart plums

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I got a lot of my house put together this weekend.  I don't have any more boxes in my living room, kitchen, dining room, office or bedroom.  AND my closet is color coordinated again (that took forever) which means I won't have a mild panic attack anymore when I'm standing in my closet and looking for a blue shirt to wear with my brown pants.  I will post 'after' pictures soon.  I also ordered curtains which have been my #1 must have for the house.  You see, there are lots of windows in this house which makes me very happy.  I love ambient light.  My LC house was very dark from wood paneling and had small windows.  The new house has windows galore which I don't plan to cover up at all since they give sweet views of the lake.  However, there are two windows on either side of the front door (which faces the road, not the lake) that need to be covered.  Anyone can see in--and straight through--our house at night.  Kinda creepy.  Anyway, there is a traverse rod for curtains above the windows at the new house.  Here's a picture:

Multiply this x 2.

See the long white rod and the draw string to the right?  I have become very, very, very educated in the realm of curtains over the past three weeks.  Traverse rod curtains go on a track and you pull a drawstring to open/close the curtains. Pretty nifty.  I've been researching and reading about them since we decided to rent this house.  It took me forever to figure out the term 'traverse rod'.  I kept googling 'drawstring curtains'.  Just a note, that won't give you the results you're looking for...no matter how many times you google it.  Reminds me of this Eistein quote "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  That was me for a solid week.  I could not figure it out for the life of me what to call those dang curtains.  So I just kept googling the same description, thinking that Google would read my mind and understand what I was thinking.  Do you ever do that?  Please tell me you do that...

Once I finally learned the correct term for the types of curtains I was hunting for, it was time for the fun stuff: fabric!  I knew I wanted the print of the curtains to be something bold, something dramatic, and something to base the rest of the decor off of.  That is, until I couldn't find traverse rod curtains ANYWHERE on the internets.  You see, pull string curtains just aren't "in" anymore.  It's either rod pocket, tab tops or grommets.  Traverse rods were popular back in the 70s.  I even consulted with the ultimate source of all things crafty, my grandma, and she advised me to buy them.  She told she could make them, but she hadn't made this style before (traverse rod curtains have to be pinch pleat style--I'm sure that means nothing to you if you don't know much about curtains).  And yes, I could have taken that rod down and put a regular decorative rod up, however, I kinda like the drawstring function (read: Once I get the curtains up, I'll probably just stand in my house and pull the string to open & close them for hours on end).

Since I couldn't find curtains that I needed, in a size or fabric that I liked (or any fabric for that matter), I turned to Etsy.  This is what I wanted (in A, L or O): 

I'm currently obsessed with chevron (the name of this print).  Like really, really obsessed.  Like I want to plaster it everywhere in my house.  I wasn't crazy about it when I first saw it, but the more I thought about it, the more I envisioned living in a zig zag world.  So, I emailed a seller on etsy to get a quote for 4 custon made panels.  "I don't mind spending a little more if necessary.  Curtains look expensive no matter where I look, and I can't even find any that are the style I need," I thought to myself as I politely requested the price to have curtains made.  That was until I read her response.  Her quote?  $650.  Um, no.  Thad was actually very sweet about it and told me that he knew how badly I wanted chevron curtains, and how that's all I've been talking about lately, and how my birthday is coming up, so he didn't mind if I got them--that was, of course, after a very long pause on the phone and a definite change in the tone of his voice (kinda like when your mom says, "it's up to you" but in a very disapproving tone).  But, my cheap frugal genes would not allow me to make that purchase.  Maybe if it wasn't a rental.  Maybe if we were going to live there forever.  Maybe if inflation had made $650 worth $100 (the way the US is headed, I'm sure that will be the case soon enough!).  As much as I loved the thought of chevron curtains, I have decided to incorporate chevron in other ways in my house.  And I have LOTS of ideas. I. love. chevron (not the gas company).

Ultimately, I went by good ol' JCPenney on Friday where I talked to a very helpful girl named Dizzy at the curtain counter, and ordered pinch pleat traverse rod panels in english toffee (that's the name of the color).  Just to give you an idea, the JCPenney curtain catalog had well over 70 pages, and there were only 2 options for the kind of curtains that I need.   I told you they aren't in anymore.  Naturally, they're on backorder (story of my life--I refuse to pay for expensive ones, and the cheaper ones--although, still NOT cheap--are on BO), but hopefully whenever they come in, I will love them and put a picture up here for you.  If not, well, I'll send them back and chose a different color until I can feel the look of the whole room.  We had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night, and I kept explaining to everyone that I needed to ~feel~ the room.  They probably thought I was smoking rocks or something with all my comments about feeling decorations in a room.

Wow, I just ranted about curtains for far too long.  Can you tell what I've been up to lately?  I'd say if that's my biggest rant, then life is going just fine.  :)



Pinto beans with avocado, olives, tomato-on-the-vine and salsa & veg-et-a-bles with jalapeno hummus was my lunch.

I'm off to drink some coffff-fay!