naked no more.

so remember way back to my list of things that i said i want to do in 2012? well here we are now, suddenly 1/4 of the way through the year, (seriously, March flew by SO FAST) and i havent really talked all that much about how i'm doing on my flexible list of not-very-specific goal-type-things cleverly disguised as non-resolutions.

my sister recently set up a separate page on her blog to keep track of the progress she is making on all of her non-goals for 2012. i like that idea. maybe one of these days i'll figure out how to do it. but until then, you'll have to keep reading all of my rambling words about relatively trivial things that you probably dont care too much about but they make me happy and this blog is all about me so just DEAL, OK?

anyway, so tucked somewhere in the middle of my rambling list of non-resolutions, somewhere after 'make a reasonable meal plan' but before 'organize the office' was this little gem:

make curtains for all my naked windows.

this little statement really says a lot. if you know what to listen for, you can hear it screaming that
 1) we have been living without anything covering the majority of the windows in our house; no blinds, no curtains, no nothing
 2) we have been living this way for a significant amount of time, and
 3) that for some reason i think that i possess the talents and skills to create these window coverings on my own. (i should probably note at this point that, much to my grandmother's dismay, i do not own a sewing machine and the last time i really used one was sometime in middle school)

dining room: curtainless.

this project has been in the works for more months than i would like to admit. i bought fabric for these curtains last fall. we hung curtain rods before Christmas. i enlisted a friend with a sewing machine to help me out since i realized how terrified i actually was about attempting this all on my own. and then we all got busy. and the busy-ness never really stopped. and my windows were still naked.

fireplace room: curtainless.

so then i turned my attention to the idea of blinds, just so that we could have the option of having a little bit of privacy, ya know? but there were just too many issues: our windows are old and not extremely blind-friendly, Mark and I could not agree on a style that we both liked, and blinds are kind of crazy expensive, especially for the quantity that we would need.

front room: curtainless.

our solution: shears. or more specifically, thin white curtains from IKEA. i used 3.5 sets of panels to cover 5 windows (the little windows each got one panel that i split up the middle to make two skinny panels) and i had one panel left over that i just put up over the sliding glass door. i used Abi's Little Brother (her sewing machine) that she brought with her on her visit to make Mark's quilt and then generously left him with me so that i could sew the shears, because as much as i understand that iron-on hem tape works, i just like the look of sewn hems better. even the crooked hems that i managed to produce.

dining room: curtained and dark.

they're not perfect by any means, (i might have to re-do the ones that still drag on the floor) but they're progress. and progress is exciting, no matter how slow or long the project winds up being.

fireplace room: curtained.

so i guess technically i could cross this non-resolution off my list, but that would only really satisfy the letter of it and not the intent. because i still have a bunch of pretty fabric just waiting to get turned into fancy-pants curtains, but even after this month of non-stop curtain-hemming, i still dont feel qualified for the job.

front room: curtained.

PS sorry about the darkness of the after photos. i snapped them real quick this morning because i had a few extra minutes before work and i didnt bother to turn on any lights because i didnt want to forget to turn them off again. the curtains dont really impede any of the light coming in through the windows, even though these pictures might suggest that. we really like them and the fact that they make the rooms feel more finished and less like a fishbowl.