by It’s chillin outside to the extent of ground-covering sleet action all day! Amazing that just yesterday I was outside in shorts and a t-shirt, hanging my living room curtains on the line. It got to 60 degrees yesterday! I should have known those high winds were blowing in some winter weather!
I always get in a little frenzy when it’s time to deck the halls. This year, I want to put evergreen swags (artificial, can’t afford the real ones) across the window tops (I have five nice sized living room windows).
Of course, to prepare for the swags, down come the curtains and rods and along with them a bit of dust and invariably some cobwebs. Spiders like my old house.
My curtains aren’t drapes or anything, but I love them (floor length navy blue checked tab-tops from Penney’s) and want them to last! Washing them is ideal, except, it wears them out! So with the winds yesterday, I thought, I’ll just wind-blast them! It worked! (Hey, airing curtains instead of quilts!)
The girls dusted the living room while I washed the windows with Murphy’s Oil Soap–they’re still at an age that loves cleaning (unless it’s their room)! Thankfully, the blinds are still pretty clean from their last dunking in my tub.
Side note: An online friend told me she never bothers cleaning her blinds, she just buys new ones at the dollar store. She swears they’re super cheap. My problem: our dollar store doesn’t carry mini-blinds. I’d like to convert the whole house to Roman shades, but haven’t gotten that done yet. Okay, side note over.
Part of the process was cleaning out the stereo and going through all my audio cassettes. Which meant, playing some favorites. My Girl by the Temptations (dh and I went to that movie in our dating years), I Cross My Heart by George Strait (one of our wedding songs), I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas, Handel’s Messiah. To each one, my 6 year old said, “Was that song played at your wedding, Mommy?” Lol.
All in a fun day’s work. I tried not to overdo it, but lost my voice by evening (remember I’m fighting off a cold). However, today was a new day. I didn’t get my swags up, but we got the tree up and most of our other Christmas cheer spread around.
So, tell me, what do your living room curtains look like?
our livingroom curtains are awful, they are mismatched ones we brought on sale a while ago, hopefully we can start replacing them once the summer sales come on after xmas.
My curtains are one thing I believe I actually got right when purchasing some decor. They sound very similar to yours. They are solid blue tab-top panels in the school/play room (that is really supposed to be a formal sitting and dining room) and solid red tab-top panels in the den.
And what is it with little girls loving to clean everywhere but their own rooms?!
We don’t have any living room curtains. I have two generous floral swags above each window. I wonder if hanging them on the line on a windy day would work to dust them…?
You must live awfully close to me–we had the exact same weather. So far we’ve had 1.71 inches of rain according to my Dh’s new handy dandy digital rain gauge, and COLD rain at that.
Our living room curtains came with the house by our request. The previous owners went all out when they had one of their daughter’s wedding reception in the house– I think they must have spent like $7,000 on them. In any case, they fit perfectly with everything so we asked them to leave them and we upped our offer.
Oh how funny! I used to be the manager of the window coverings department at Penney’s! Those tab-tops were popular even then. Of course, I never did my own home–the whole cobbler’s kids theory. Window coverings can be SOO fun if you have the inclination.
BTW, the last–and only–time I took my valances down to clean them I got them so mixed up that I vowed to move before doing them again. I wondered how I ended up without a kitchen valance, and have an extra that seemed to have nowhere to go. As it turned out, the kitchen valance was hanging upside down in my daughter’s room. Seriously, moving is easier than blinds, drapes and valances…at least for me!
Oh wow, what great responses!
Georgiana, I can somewhat sympathize. For some reason, two of my LR panels are an inch shorter than the rest…so I’m holding these super long curtains out next to each other, to make sure that I keep the shorter ones together and on the one window that is separate enough from the rest to not be noticed! Argh! As for “the tab-tops being popular even then”..haha, mine are probably 6 years old…I bought them out of a sale catalog.
MInTheGap–please tell me you meant $7000 for the reception, not the curtains!?!
Jessica, glad to see you again! Isn’t this weather something!? I sent my girls out to turn the calves out and they stayed out a bit too long (sledding on ice) and came back in redder than Rudolph’s nose! They wanted to go back out to guess what? Roller skate on the ice! Yikes. Got them to settle for hot chocolate instead!
Leslie, glad my girls aren’t the only ones! My oldest is pretty neat, but my 6 yo drags her feet something terrible. Of course, their room is horrible right now, because with the tree up, they’re “making” Christmas presents. Craft supplies galore…I’m glad I can close the door on it for now!
Amy, summer sales after Christmas! I love your NZ input! So are your Christmas decorations snow-themed, or sun-themed?
My living-room curtains are pretty but they were meant to be put on a picture window, not two small windows separated.
My bedroom curtains, well, they are shreaded (thanks to our kitten RC) and ancient. My boys curtains, well, it is a thick blanket.
We live in a very very old house and it is very drafty and the windows allow a lot of air to pass through.
I just love the golden oldies. Not the country, but regular.
We finished redecorating our livingroom over a year ago, but I still don’t have any curtains up. I’ve never found any that I like.
Bethany, I did the same thing when we first painted/decorated…I put off getting curtains. For one thing, I loved all the light (we’d moved from a dark paneled trailer house and I was basking in all the windows of my new home) and for another, I didn’t want to jump into a curtain purchase that I’d regret later. Our living room has several windows. So I waited till the perfect ones went on sale. I was shocked at how it was the finishing touch to our living room. Now when they’re down to be washed, my LR looks so naked!
What colors did you use in your re-decorate?
I know this is an old post but I just had to comment…’I Cross My Heart’ by George Strait is also me and DH’s wedding song.
It is! Wow, another reason we are kindred spirits! I’m so glad you said something. It’s such a great song…