Peek-a-boo!

The real reason I make curtains for my house: so my kids can play peek-a-boo. You always knew it, right?

Sophia, peeking out from my new curtains

These are the same curtains I was working on in December, right after Doug installed our new sliding door. Well, I was getting tired of them looking like this:

Using blind cords to hold my curtains back: not so great. And the bottoms of the curtains weren't hemmed...oh man, I could go on for a while on the drawbacks of this situation. So I got some new curtain rods from IKEA (super cheap, and I could get the curtains very close to the ceiling - important with this dropped ceiling here).

Then Doug sprouted a wild hair and just decided to put up the new hardware. What?!? I was excited and so I headed down to the sewing machine and just slammed out the curtains for the side windows, as well as finishing the ones already hanging.

Hemmed and everything. Ha! Doug was a little impressed, I must say. There are still a few things to do here:

• Finish trim around new door
• Replace flooring (the tile doesn't go all the way to the door...and I wanted to replace it anyway
• Paint the alcove
• Raise the curtains just a titch so they hang just above the door

No big whoop, right? Except that I have to wait for Doug to get excited about installing trim...that could be awhile. S'okay - not like I don't have anything else to do!

What's Bloomin' & Transplantin'

There are only a few crocuses blooming, but I have another color to share with you:

The weather has even been nice enough for us to spend many-a-day outside, weeding and planting. Yikes! Did I say planting? Yup. My online orders (made who knows how many months ago) came last week, forcing me to plant them immediately. My neighbor walked over, concerned: "Is it that time already?"

No, no it is not (she was visibly relieved). But these plants didn't look so good when I received them, so I had to make them at home right away. They look little better in the ground, but the stems are much more pliable.

These are going to be mock oranges. Since I can't grow real oranges here in Utah, a mock orange is the next-best thing...smells like an orange, even if it does not actually produce oranges.

Okay, so back to the crocuses. Remember last week when I was wondering if anyone had tried transplanting bulbs while they were in bloom? Well, no one responded, and I couldn't find anything in my full 10 minutes of research. So I decided to go ahead and try it.

I was veeery careful, moving a huge clump of dirt as well as the flowers themselves. A few days later, they still look very happy. The real test will be next year when they do - or do not - come back. I had to move these guys, though, because they are seriously intertwined with another plant that I'm also moving in a few weeks.

So, lots of movement on the planting front. Here's hoping we have another good/rainy week so I can get more done outside before the growing season officially starts...and I still have some motivation!

It's a Facade

Doug has (almost) finished the extra shelf in the kitchen. The computer center looks so nice...it's amazing what a little trim and organization will do. Here it is before:

And after:

I say "almost", though, because even though the exterior of the shelf looks beautiful, the actual shelf isn't finished. There isn't any veneer to cover the bottom or the top of the shelf. Notice that the bottom shelf wasn't ever finished, either...so we can do those both at the same time (yay.).

From the top, you can see that the shelf is just plywood.

The plywood on top and the veneer on the bottom shelf...at least no one is often on the ceiling looking down on this, right?

But for now, I'll take it. And we can go get some veneer to finish it up. Maybe it will be finished in the next year or two. Maybe the next time we decide to go on a spending diet, huh?