Collin is Eight!

Since Friday was Collin's birthday, I thought I'd treat you to a picture-fest of a small boy who is not so small anymore...

At the hospital in East Stroudsburg, PA

A one-year old Collin

Three and a half in Sumter, SC

Eight with attitude

Love this boy!

Moving Around: Boys' Edition

With new curtains up, it was time to move things around and see if we could get some furniture placement making sense in the boys' room.

First of all, I had to get the boys matching bedside tables. Eventually, they'll have matching beds, right? When Doug gets around to it...So it is only fitting that they also have matching bedside tables.

Malena and I went to IKEA on Friday night, and found some cute tables that were only $12.99. Wahoo. The kids were super-excited to help put them together.

Once together, the boys were very happy to have them in their room. Until I told Collin that I wanted to change his bed arrangement.

After promising that I would change it back if he didn't like it, we tried a few different things. Here is where we started...

Version 1: Long table (actually a coffee table from a yard sale) between bed and wall, with new tables between the two beds. The upside of this option: the curtains were not trapped behind the bed. The downside: the room looked strangely lopsided. At any rate, Collin nixed this one.

Version 2: Long table at the bottom of the bed, new tables in between the beds. Collin nixed this one, too.

Version 3: The coffee table and the new table lined up alongside Collin's bed. Collin said, "That's it, Mom." The control freak inside of me is saying, let it be, it's his room. I had to leave.

The version I wanted? Version 4: only the two new tables. Yup, this is the shot where Collin is thoroughly disgusted by my efforts.

Kids rooms are fun. Really, they are. But I am so glad this one is downstairs and I don't have to see those two tables lined up by the bed very often. How can he sleep like that? It's a mystery that will probably never be solved.

Whaddaya Think: Too Girly?

In an effort to get one step closer to making Malena's Halloween costume, I finally got the curtains for the boys' room finished. Whew!

Jack picked out the fabric a few weeks ago at JoAnn's. Since he was the one choosing, I got to set the parameters: blue and white, with perhaps some lime green thrown in. Blue and white won the day (along with a little candy to bribe the kids into being good while the fabric was being rung up).

A bit of a Moroccan feel, don't you think?

Then I cut it out - along with lining - and it sat on my washing machine for...well, the past few weeks. I wanted full-length curtains, so I got six yards - three yards for each panel. Luckily, there's only one window in their room. Why "luckily"? Because the fabric was expensive (even though it was 40% off!), for one. For another, it takes less time to make only two panels. Wa-hoo!

So this weekend, I pulled out the sewing machine, and went to work. It seems like it's been a long time since I just lined curtains from scratch without having to patch anything or "make it work". It was quite relaxing. I sewed up the sides of the curtains, folding over the edge twice to hide the selvage. Then I turned over the top to make a 4" ruffle, along with a rod pocket. Since the pattern is repetitive, I used it as a way to align my edges. The selvage also had a note that there was an "Up" direction to the pattern, but who actually cares? Just kidding - I decided it didn't matter very much.

The ruffle

Especially since I had already sewn sides up, determined my top, and didn't want to unpick everything once I realized it was upside-down. Besides, I really can't tell.

Can you tell it's upside down? Me neither.

Anyway, then I hung those suckers up. Or tried to. As I took out the curtain rod I purchased (again, a few weeks ago), I realized it was bent. Argh!!! So, after an agonizing return-the-rod trip, I then really hung up the curtains. And, sigh, decided I loved them.

But are they too girly? Hmmmm....

I thought about it as I pinned the hem, took them back down and sewed up the bottom hem. And continued thinking about it as I put them back up.

I think I have determined that I don't really care - I love them. What do you think?