Thursday, March 17, 2011

DIY: Sweet or Spooky Valance

As evidenced by my FB glue gun rant....I've been acrafting as of late.
And not just any craft....I've been decorating our bare window frames. 
 My greatest cheerleader is my sister with her Interior Designer ways.
When we first moved in she sent me home with two HUGE boxes of fabric 'scraps.'
Needless to say I've been trying to figure out how many pillows and valances I could make ever since!
The challenge is that I don't sew....or atleast don't WANT to sew....thus the glue gun.
The other weapon in my arsenal is my trusty staple gun.  
woo hoo!
And away we go......
Talia's room is taking on a Bohemian Chic theme.....filled with lots of patterns and tons of color.  
So we brought out this fabric and it works great in her room. 
First I stapled it around a 2x4 and my sweet hubby mounted it with L brackets to the wall.  
Then I stalled for 2 weeks while I collected opinions on its final length.
Yea, I'm indecisive like that.
In the meantime, Natalia grew accustomed to the flat flap of fabric over her window.
Finally my sister came over and gave me the idea to add the ribbon to make a dog-eared something or other....(ha, feel free to correct me in the comments Trish!)
I must digress here to breathe fear into this story.
That same day Trish came over, I picked up The Neverending Story for the kids to watch.  
It was one of my favorite movies growing up...and the kids were excited to watch it.
I was a little leery of that wolf-type creature, G'mork, scaring Natalia....but she is pretty good about letting me know if something is too intense for her.  She didn't even look nervous, and raved about the movie for the rest of the day.  That being said, she cried that night when it was time to go to bed.   
We had tucked her in peacefully, but the minute she was left alone she came running out hysterical.
Enter, the evil valance.
I admit, it was overly poofy, and unhemmed, but SCARY?  
Crooked maybe.  The pink ribbon didn't match well.
But it shouldn't have been frightening to a child!
Martha Stewart maybe, but a 4 year old?
However, 
she swore she saw the Rockbiter in her valance.
I shut off the lights and tried to see it her way.
I had to admit her nightlight cast an unfortunate set of shadows....
But I must say,.... if you haven't seen the movie..
The Rockbiter is a GOOD guy.
He's actually really endearing....and as sweet as a pile of rocks can be.
**sigh...
here I was worried about the length of the valance and instead I should have worried more about what my children were WATCHING while I was creating the valances!
Bad mommy of the year award goes to the creator of THIS: 
So tonight I cut off half the fabric, glued myself a little hem and changed the ribbon on the valance.
The lighting is a little off since I did all of this WHILE she was asleep tonight....
Hopefully the scary billows are now gone.
Looking at the pictures I need to straighten the ribbon, but overall, I'm done here. 
Her other window should come together quickly now that I know what I'm doing.
And to keep my sanity I'll have to ban The Neverending Story for another year or two.
Sorry buddy.  
I'm going to sneak back in here to ask for your opinion....
Painting in here is a low priority since we haven't even touched the boy's room yet.
But I love to get my wheels spinning.
What color do you think for the walls?  
Or a combination of two colors?

Thanks!

2 comments:

Stef said...

this made me laugh SO hard!! I don't think the valance is scary at all! Cracks me up and totally makes me think something my kids would say. I'm telling you...

Unknown said...

Hilarious! Even better that you posted pics of the rock guy so we can compare. :)
I think you are absolutely amazing and her room is beautiful. As for colors... I'm no help you know all our walls are still white. :/