It’s Curtains for You!

Because the only thing more boring than reading about a slowly expanding pink and yellow circle is blogging about a slowly expanding pink and yellow circle…it’s time for curtains! Yesterday Greg had me take up the legs of his new uniform because he accidentally got longs in the excitement of buying them. Yeah. I said excitement. They just became available, and it was like some sort of military Harry Potter release. There were crowds, long lines, shortages, confusion, and now the cool kids who got all of their uniform items before Military Clothing sold out get to wear them to work and make their less fortunate friends say, “Dang it! I knew I should have gone over there as soon as I got off work…”

But anyway. I was up there with the sewing machine and I decided to finish the curtains for the dining room (that I started last November). Since they are no more and no less than hemmed rectangles with rod pockets, I’d like to present ‘Creative Ways to Make Your Rectangular Curtains Look Fancy.’ Incidentally, this helps keep the kids from ripping the curtain rods out of the wall, too.

There are actually tons of ways that you can tuck and twist your curtains to make them stay up and look different. Most of them look pretty silly. More could be done, I’m sure, if you were willing to use ribbons or ties or something, but I’m too lazy for that. I only found two ways to tuck the curtain up that looked cool and didn’t use anything but the curtain rod to keep them there. First up is the way that Greg likes better. To achieve this look, pick a point in the center of the panel, about eight inches above the windowsill. Grab it, pull it out towards you, and allow the rest of the curtain to fall from it. Tuck this peak over and behind the curtain rod, and enjoy your new look. (It always takes me a few tries to get this to look the way I like.)

This second way is the one I prefer. Hold one side (side a) of your curtain panel, level with the windowsill, and draw it across to the other side of the window (side b). Keeping your hold on side a, begin pulling it up towards the rod. Make sure you keep from dragging side b up with you – a few tugs to keep it going straight down usually suffice. Stop about six to eight inches below the curtain rod, and tuck your handful over and behind the rod to secure. Pretty, right?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of ‘Creative Ways to Make Your Rectangular Curtains Look Fancy.’ Maybe I’ll sew the valances sometime before we move out of this house. Haha.

Happy Birthday

My little Charlie is a big boy.

May he always be so happy. He knew exactly what to do with his cake, by the way. I remember on Max’s first birthday, he just sort of poked at it tentatively at first. Too funny. Siiiiigh. Babies. Always growing up.

P.S. – Mom, if you have Dad message me, I can send him lots and lots of pictures.

Plain and Simple

This baby afghan is going sooo much more smoothly than the last one (yes, this one is also my own design). The only problem I’ve had so far is that since it’s worked in double crochet and I’m so used to working with single crochet, my calculations for proportion were off a bit. No biggie. Anyway, as you can see, progress has been made.

In other news, I finished a project for Max – a helmet! We got him a little toy motorcycle for his birthday last month, and ever since he’s been making off with bits of Greg’s gear to go ‘riding’ with. (See, mom? Proper usage of safety equipment, instilled early.) He has his own little gloves, and any pair of shoes will do for boots as far as he’s concerned, but for a helmet we had nothing. We tried letting him play with one of Greg’s old ones, but as you might expect, they were too big and too hard and too heavy to be very safe toys. I decided that it would be pretty easy to crochet a helmet – at least helmet-like enough to satisfy a three-year-old.

I would have been right, too, but I ignored something that should have been posted on a sign with big red letters. Three year olds make terrible head models. Seriously. If you’ve ever tried to get a three year old to stand still while you try to fit something on them that covers their whole head (and not in a ‘sack’ kind of way, but in a ‘this needs to sit over certain places’ kind of way) you will understand when I tell you that after asking, then coaxing, then bribing, and then finally contemplating the use of some sort of sedative (perhaps delivered through a blowgun; I’ve always wanted one of those) to get my child to stand still enough for me to work on something that was supposed to be a treat for him to begin with…I gave up. The only reason it’s actually finished is that about three days after I put it away I was sitting in my usual crocheting spot, working on the baby blanket, and Max asked for his helmet. At this point all I had left to do was fashion some side inserts and sew them in (and weave in the ends), and his patience lasted that long. So finished it is! I’m not really that pleased with it, to be honest with you. (Max really likes it though, so it’s possible that I’ll make another attempt.) It fits strangely, and – no, that’s it. It fits strangely, because it’s not shaped right. It could have been much better if I had a blowgun.