some new shades

When we moved into our house over a year and a half ago, these curtains came with the house.
As did ALL the curtains in the house.
To be honest, I can't stand them...but was too busy and then, too lazy to change them up.
Plus, do you know how expensive drapery is?
So, as the months came and went, I just left them as is...
Until now!

Here is our living room window.
With the nondescript panels that accompanied our house.
Notice the horribly cheapy curtain rods?
Yeah, more than the ugly curtains, I wanted to get rid of those horrid contraptions ASAP!

After my sister, Elika, made the suggestion of sewing some roman shades , I decided to do a little research online, and give it a go!
(Are you seeing a pattern here? She recommends something, then I jump on the idea!
Pretty soon, Mitch is going to ban me from speaking to my sister, I just know it!)

It took me a few weeks to find time to invest in the project, but 4 weeks, 20 or so finger pricks and just under $50 later, I have me some brand new, custom made roman shades!

Ta~Da~!!
So, they're not perfect...but I like them!
And you have to admit, they're definitely a pleasant sight compared to what we had before, right?!

And just so you know, originally, I was going to bolt them into the widow frame...but since we don't HAVE a decent window frame...plus, we didn't want them to be permanently bolted into our walls (in case we move...you never know!) we decided to simply hang them from a curtain rod.
A NEW curtain rod, thank you very much!

And for the heck of it, I made a small valance panel for our kitchen window as well.
Now...onto the other 2 windows downstairs...