Curtains--Decorative and Functional

Friday we had the day off from school since the kids had finished their school work on Thursday.
Kaila went to church to get the employment packet. While we were there Father H. told Kaila he heard she was coming aboard and they were glad to have her. :) After finishing there, Kaila went to the school to get the walk through and run down of her duties. She met her immediate supervisor, Mr. Greg, who we already know from church. They chatted quite a bit and the hours are even more flexible than what Kaila first thought~~~ so much the better! After working a prescribed number of hours, Kaila will even be eligible to participate in the diocesan retirement program. How awesome is that? God has truly blessed our daughter with this job opportunity.

While Kaila was busy taking care of pre employment things, I drove to a nearby town to pick up two HUGE garbage bags of insulated curtains from a freecycler. Then I went to the thrift store. I found two table skirts (to fit conference or convention sized tables) that had velcro on the back. The fabric had the right colors and I thought they would make a perfect valance the HUGE (11 and a half feet wide) window in the dining room.

There were enough from the freecycle curtains to do Emma and Dominique's room and for the little boys room too! The insulated curtains were even in colors that went with what was already in the children's rooms! With enough leftover to share with a friend. What a HUGE blessing! I'd recently been looking online to price curtains to put in their rooms. God provides in abundance!

In the afternoon, our caseworker came for the monthly visit. She thinks the children are adjusting well and has been amazed at the positive changes in them from when we first met them almost ten months ago.

This morning Wayne and I did the BIG window in the dining room with the table skirts I'd found yesterday at the thrift store.

Instead of using a curtain rod I decided to use velcro since there was already velcro attached to the back side of the table skirt. (made this window treatment MUCH cheaper too) Work with what you have!









Industrialized velcro from Lowe's was applied the entire length and wrapped around the side of the window trim.











It took two of us to hang the table skirt. It's lined so it has some weight to it. One table skirt wasn't long enough to cover the entire window and the two of them were too long if placed flat on the velcro. This called for pleats to be made by just bunching up the fabric. Wayne just used his hand as a guideline for spacing the pleats.









Doesn't it look better already?












Big difference, huh? And for the record, I did do more than just take photos. Honest. I helped! But doesn't Wayne do good work?











Now it was time to check the height, adjust spacing, etc.

These tassels were finds at a different thrift store. They go perfectly with the *valance.*

I cut them in half so I could use three (one on each end and one in the middle). Then I safety pinned them to the underside of the *valance.*

Didn't the window treatment turn out lovely? I am so pleased with it and especially the cost~~~the two tableskirts, industrial strength velcro, and two tassels cost $40.70 to cover an 11 1/2 foot wide window!

If you'd like to learn more about window *mistreatments* check out
The Nester for some inspiration and ideas.