I need a little help picking out material for curtains. Sadly this is the story of my life, which is why all the curtains in my house are white. I can not commit to a fabric. Ridiculous. The kids’ room is too white for white curtains. And they go to bed before it’s dark out these days, so they need a little light blockage action if they are ever going to get to sleep. Here are the windows (sorry one is a before picture, the other is a during): window one, window two. The fabrics I’m thinking about are pictured above, they are:

1. nani iro painting muji canvas
2. joel dewberry herringbone
3. nani iro saaaa saaa (it looks like I randomly typed some letters, but that’s really what it’s called)
4. alexander henry pirate grid

I want something dark blue and something hand drawn-ish.  So vote away! Tell me what to do. My kids will never sleep if you don’t tell me which to get. Really. And if you have any other suggestions, I love to hear them.

This is all a part of me redoing my kids room and you helping. The posts about the process so far are Before and During.

Mollie from Wild Olive guest posted recently on Whip Up and shared a tutorial for a peanut butter jelly game. I’d never heard of the game before, but thought it was hilarious and immediately set to making it. My felt supply consists of forest green and hot pink for some reason, so I turned to prints instead. I grabbed whatever was cute and vaguely peanut butter jelly-y. Gingham bread? why not? Psychedelic jelly? shit yeah.

I used her patterns, but sewed two pieces right side facing instead, then topstitched all around because I will do anything to get out of hand sewing. It was more work then if I had used felt, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. And the kids like it! And they can play the game all by themselves, though they usually end up fighting.  But pretty much any activity ends in a fight these days, so it’s not the game’s fault.

If you make the peanut butter jelly game, keep in mind that you will never get the song out of your head. ever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Because you guys had such fantastic toy suggestions, maybe you know of good games too? Because candy land is killing me.

I made a curtain for my kids’ closet this weekend. Not a big deal, but I hate making curtains, no, haaaaaate making them, so it’s a big deal for me. It’s just so much hemming and I kind of suck at hemming, but the curtain isn’t as bad as it looks–though it is a little straighter on one side.  There are more curtains that need to be made and I’m trying to psych myself up for it. I finally after three years of living here have picked out fabric, but haven’t ordered it yet. I want to try this roller shade hack, which looks easy enough, and roman blinds, which look hard. Has anyone had any luck with them?

I also cranked out some fitted sheets for the kids’ beds. I simplified the process a bunch from last time I made sheets. The edges are serged not hemmed and the elastic is only around the corners.  I was able to get two fitted sheets (for my kids’ weird size beds) out of one full size flat sheet. That means the pattern is sideways, but they couldn’t care less. The flannel sheet has deer and bunnies and someone about to get pelted by a snowball right in the butt.

Oh and I have some of that ikea bunting fabric left, do you think it would be ridiculous to make my son pants out of it? Would dying it gray help? or should I just make pillows and call it a day?

I need some help. I dyed this piece of fabric to make a curtain for our bathroom window, but my husband vetoed it. It wasn’t the fabric that he didn’t like, he didn’t want a curtain at all.  We did put up frosted plastic (or whatever you call it) for privacy, but I am paranoid that my neighbors can see me. So now I have probably a little over a yard of this ombre-ish fabric and don’t know what to make. Do you have any good ideas? Or patterns that would work?

I picked up this fabric from the sale bin (5 bucks!) yesterday because I really like the pattern, but I’m not super crazy for the colors. I thought maybe I could bleach it or overdye it or both. Do you think that would work? What color dye would look good over it? It’s just so weirdly christmasy. What do you think?

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything thrift related, so here you go. I found this great matching game at the (smelly) thrift store in my home town. It was pretty much the only good thing in the entire store. I’m sure it’s handmade: just cut paper decoupaged onto little wooden tiles. The box is, I think, made from wood trim.  My super talented friend made a set like this a while ago only it was painted, but they stuck together and got all messed up. I’ve always wanted her to do more (hear that Lily?) because they were so, so beautiful, but I’ll have this little set until she does.  Or rather my kids will.

This is just an ikea lamp, but one I’ve actually wanted for a long time. It’s called Jonisk and shesh! it’s 50 bucks at Ikea (no wonder I never bought it). I got it for 5 at my mom’s thrift store. I didn’t think there was really room for it in my house–these days the word is purge, not hoard–but I made a place for it in the dining room and it works quite nicely, thankyouverymuch. It’s indirect, glowly light and on a dimmer to boot. perfect.

And this is just some awesome faux cross stitch fabric that will be a skirt when I have a waist again.