What a week!

Our son has been in his home for two months and hosted his first party last night. This past week my husband and I spent quite a few evenings helping him finish up projects. Some only required another pair of hands. Some required Bill's tools and expertise (insert the Tim Allen grunt from Home Improvement here) and some were purely my own doing.

With budget in mind, and the fact that some things will change as money allows (such as new windows on either side of the fireplace with built in blinds for privacy) I spent the week sewing window treatments and embellishing existing ones. This photo shows the inexpensive microsuede panels hanging on tension rods that have served him since moving in.


The color is off a bit in this next photo, but it shows the batik fabric I used to make a pillow cover that he really liked.



That fabric was then used to make a curtain for a smaller window, lined with plain beige fabric. Not one single window in his house is a standard size for blinds, shades or curtains.

I added a 3" and 5" strip of the fabric to the microsuede drapes to tie the look together as this is all the same room.

This was done by Thursday night, along with a valance for his kitchen window (not photographed yet) and a window treatment for his half bath that is near his back door. He and his friends use the backyard quite a bit and while the window is high enough for privacy, it bothered him that a man's head is visible while standing at the toilet. While we were at Joann's picking out curtain rods, I found a white on white sheer that I thought would make a good panel between tension rods in his bathroom. The fabric was too pretty to densely shirr on the rod though. Here it is on my sewing room counter.

He'll be adding a frosted window covering to the glass and enjoying this as is. I used the leftover fabric to make a wall hanging. I bought an inexpensive 16x20 inch stretched canvas, stretched and stapled a bright blue fabric over it, then stretched this fabric on top. Until he paints that room, there is at least some color and a point of interest in there.

I thought I was done and could not concentrate on what appetizer I would fix for his Saturday night party. As I was leaving on Thursday, he asked if I could print the photos that are in the frame on the couch in the third picture. No problem....except the frame openings are all landscape orientation and many of the house photos I had were portrait. Well heck, why not make a little scrapbook for him as a surprise?

This shows the almost finished project. More embellishments were added along with some photos that I managed to crop and fit in. This "little" surprise took over 12 hours from start to finish and required fast food for dinner.


Finally...I was done and we could rest a bit on the day of the party, right?

Ha! After at least 24 hours of rain, our son had water coming up the drains in his basement. I'll spare you the long story. The good news is that it was fixable (almost $300 and many hours of mopping and drying) and we all had time to shower and change before his guests arrived and a good time was had by all.

Welcome to the world of home ownership, baby boy!