Tuesday, March 19, 2013

My New Burlap Curtains

Since this week is Spring Break for me, I decided I wanted to complete a couple house projects...first up, Burlap Curtains!
In our kitchen we have a "double door" so to speak, that lets in a lot of light. I put it in quotes because it is actually only one door, but it has the look as though it could be two. I love that it lets in lots of sunlight, however, since our house faces east, we get the west sun through our back doors so when we eat dinner, it is a little uncomfortable. It gets pretty hot in the evening, even if it's cold out because of the sun, and we usually have to move our table slightly one way so we don't have sun shining in our eyes. Here is what it originally looked like.
I didn't really have anything in particular picked out, and that's one reason it took me so long to decide on what type of curtains I wanted. I didn't want to block the sun out, but we needed something. I saw an idea on pinterest (of course) that kind of sparked my interest. They used burlap and made their own curtains, now the ones on pinterest looked nothing like what I actually wanted, but it gave me a start. So that day I went to Lowes and bought a roll of burlap, which surprisingly ended up being the perfect amount, and was only $10.
I am not really the crafty one in my family, so I made my mom come over and help me with this project. WARNING: If you are a perfectionist, working with burlap is going to be quite a struggle!
First we laid it out and decided that we were going to use every inch because of the size of the windows, so we cut it in half since we were making two equal sized curtains.
 We folded the first piece in half and we sewed a seam about 1 1/2 in. from the fold and then did that same thing again about 1 1/2 in from the seam we just stitched. That way we could slide the curtain rod through the second hole and have a little ruffle on the top.

I know, it's a little hard to see because of the sunlight.
Now the tricky part, and the part that honestly took the most time was the bottom. Since the two ends of the burlap are located at the bottom and there isn't a nice fold, like at the top, we had to sew the two ends together before doing the same thing we did to the top. Another tricky part was making sure it was the exact length of the window. So my mom did her magic and made it happen. We did a lot of measuring and pinning, then some cutting. We then ironed it flat, so it would be easier to sew.
After about 2 hours we had the first one completed!!
Next up, the second one! - gosh it looks so easy when everything is complete and I'm just blogging about it...however, like I mentioned earlier...if you are a perfectionist, burlap might not be your favorite fabric to work with...there are absolutely no straight lines, it's also a little itchy and it has a distinct smell...I have been spraying it with smell good stuff since we got the curtains hung! Speaking of...are you ready to see the finished product?? I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!
Here is one during the day...I absolutely love that it still lets a lot of sun it, but it's not as direct!
Although it was a little time consuming because the burlap was not as cooperative as we had hoped, they turned out exactly what I was wanting and I only had to spend $10!!


About 7 months later I finally added the final touch to my burlap curtains! I found these cute burlap looking flowers at Hobby Lobby and knew instantly that I had to have them! I just hot glued them and pinned them for an extra hold. 
Here they are:
 

I absolutely love them!!!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Birthdays and Bruised Tailbones

This past weekend was my
Trevor's busy season ended last week, so as usual (well the past 2 years), we decided to take a trip for my birthday/busy season ending. Trevor planned this trip long ago with our neighbors Randy and Cassie because Cassie's birthday is a day before mine. He wanted to surprise me and he did really good at keeping it a secret, but someone eventually started talking about the trip and they forgot I didn't know where we were going. So I found out a few weeks before our trip that we were headed to Fort Worth, TX.

The day before we left on our trip my amazing team at work decided to surprise me with a mashed potato bar at lunch! -Now, some of you don't know, but this is what we served at our wedding, so I was really excited!

On Friday we headed down to Fort Worth and got in town just a little before dinner. We ate dinner at Cattleman's Steakhouse.



And then headed to Billy Bob's for the Whiskey Myers concert.
My amazing friend Katy came and met up with us!! So glad I got to hang out with you for a bit!!!


Our hotel was located right in the middle of the Stockyards, so the next morning we got up and went shopping around the Stockyards area. We even got to see the little Cattle drive they do...



We ended up going to lunch at Fred's in downtown Fort Worth and then did some shopping.

That evening, we went to Cooper's BBQ pit to listen to some live music and then jumped around from bar to bar in the Stockyards area.

Birthday Girls!


Thank you so much for a WONDERFUL birthday!!!


Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering where the bruised tailbone comes into play...well here it is! In college, Trevor and I would occasionally be out somewhere where we felt comfortable to dance a little and two-step, but by no means were we any good at it, nor did we really do any fancy tricks other than a spin or two. Well, our neighbors Randy and Cassie are pretty good at two-stepping, so when we go out with them we are definitely out of our element and trying new things. On Saturday night when we were out dancing we decided to try a dip or two and well...Trevor ended up dropping me. I swear I didn't fall very far, but I must have hit my tailbone just right because when I stood up tears flooded my eyes because it hurt so bad. We did dance a little after this incident, but we definitely took it slow and I am still really sore from it today! Everyone says your body just falls apart when you turn 25 and I'm walking proof right now! ;)\

When we returned from Fort Worth we wanted to celebrate with family and friends in Tulsa, so on Monday we had people over to our house and we grilled out for everyone. I had such a great time hanging out with close friends and family, thank you so much to those who came! I really appreciate it!



The Grill Master





HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!!
I had such a wonderful weekend and I'm so excited for what 25 has to offer!! ;)