Thank you all for the recent comments. I haven't responded to anything in a while, but I have read them and appreciate them all.
Well, we're moved into our first house. Things are far from settled, but we're getting there. We took a weekend to paint the bedrooms. Another weekend with more painting and finishing floors. The third weekend we moved in. This weekend we're making a few trips from the apartment with odds and ends and then cleaning it. I've spent the last few days cleaning cabinets and drawers and lining shelves, trying to get organized. I finished painting the trim in my room, but still have to do the trim in the kids' rooms. It's a good thing we like the colors in the rest of the house and won't have to do those for a while. The kids are all thrilled with their own rooms. The baby not as much as the teenagers. She is likely to come into our room at night for a while. I put her to bed in her room, but she still wakes up at night and likes to cuddle. My darling husband has been busy installing curtain rods, coat hooks, new locks, baby safety latches, the washer and dryer, putting all the beds together, the internet. The internet isn't quite done yet. Now that everyone has their own room and the main computer (the one I use) is in the basement family room, they are not close enough to run cables. We have a wireless router, but had to get a new wireless card. It wouldn't work upstairs in my son's computer so we swapped it for mine. Still didn't work. Hubby played with it more and it works now, but the signal is erratic. So, for today I have kidnapped the router and modem from the teen and he is counting the minutes until I return them.
This is the current state of my January TIF color block. I still have a bit to do on it. I haven't added to the concept block since my last post, but it is on my short list. The red will go nicely in my bedroom. At this point, I think I will skip the February TIF and come back to it later. I have had a few thoughts, but I just have too much on the list to get to it right now.
This will be keeping me busy for quite a while. I looked at drapes at a few shops and didn't find a whole lot that appealed to me. I did get white lace panels for the baby's room and sheers for the teens' rooms. Joann's had a great presidents' day sale, half off all home decor fabric and a 10% off the total coupon. I went to town with that. There is a chocolate embroidered linen/rayon for the living room, taupe crinkle sheer for the living and dining rooms, and thermal lining for all the windows. The rest is all for the master bedroom. The stripe is a semi-sheer. There is an embroidered taffeta for drapes to go over the striped sheer. Same treatment for the closet. The roll on the bottom has three fabric cuts on it, same color, different textures. One is crinkly, one has diamond pin tucks, and the third is tufted. Those are for a comforter and decorative pillows. The bright red is silk and will be used for accents.
I couldn't find anything I liked for the kids' rooms. Once I get this lot made up, I'll poke around online. I've bought fabric online for quilting and doll clothes, but I like being able to feel the fabrics. So, we'll see how that goes. My son is doing his room in yellow, looks like eggnog. Finding a masculine print in that color is a challenge. My daughter's room is two shades of bright cheerful green. The house is a cape cod style so their rooms have the slanted parts between the walls and the ceiling. The green room looks a bit like a leprechaun cave. Darling daughter wants drapes in a shade between the two greens, but will accept a medium purple. Purple means many things to different people. My idea of medium purple is probably not even close to hers. Pink prints are not terribly hard to find, but I didn't find one that was right for a baby's room. The shade of pink doesn't need to match the walls. Everyone that has seen the room thinks the color reminds them of pepto bismal. The trim and chair rail are all crisp white. I envision drapes and other textiles in a variety of pinks and white in little girl prints.
Lately, most of my sewing time has been taken up with making curtains. I've had the fabrics sitting around for months and finally found the motivation to just sit down and work on them. I started with the sheers because they were simpler. I needed the quick accomplishment to keep the momentum going. Nothing fancy there, only a casing with an extra line of stitching to make the top ruffle. The selvages provided a nice edge to the sides, so I left them. I still have to do the hem. That requires sitting on the floor with mass quantities of pins, definitely a step to be done while the baby is napping. I may have to go shopping and make a couple more panels for the sides. With the location of the hooks to hold up the extra long rod, the gathered sections aren't even. Kirk likes it, and I'll live with it for now, but it will eventually bother me.
Originally, I bought insulated panels for the living room. The first one I opened had a huge flaw in it. I didn't bother with the rest. I just returned them and decided to make my own. The purchased panels were the same color, chocolate brown, but they were a plain fabric. The fabric I'm using is an embroidered linen with an insulated lining fabric. Again, I still have the hems to do, and also the ties. I was planning on doing all four panels the same, tying them up at the top during the day with ribbons and loops on the back. Kirk wants to tie the panel on the side window and those on either side of the picture window to the side and only tie the center panel on the picture window up. We'll have to experiment with it. The important thing is that the dark panels are easy to open during the day. They block almost all of the sunlight. I need sunlight, especially during the shorter days of winter.
