Almost Perfect Picture Hanging

Since moving into our new home in February, I haven't hung many pictures.  You may remember me repainting all my picture frames black here and now I'm finally putting them to use.  Instead of my usual "eyeballing" placement, I wanted to get it right the first time.  Here is how I placed them (almost) exactly where I wanted them...  For more tips on decorating interiors, you can enroll yourself in design classes here.

Cut & Tape pieces of paper to match your frame size.  Mark where the hanging wire or tab is on the paper.  Use masking tape to attach your paper "frames" to the wall and adjust until they are pleasing.  Nail through paper on marked spot for your hanger.  Tear off paper and hang your pictures.  This is the first time my kiddos school pictures hit the wall within days of coming home!

Sewing/Utility Room Preview

I haven't had much extra time for sewing the last few months, but the garden is finally done and I've made good progress on the new sewing/utility room.  When we started the addition I was picturing a  big utility or "Mud Room" like we had in our farm house but the hubby had other ideas.  It ended up being more of a "Domestic Heaven" with a second range top for canning, full set of free kitchen cabinets, big pantry, overhead storage around the whole room and a sewing station. 

I've been busy painting the room & cabinets, cleaning & lining the shelves and drawers and moving my canned foods to the pantry shelves. 

Last week I made and hung curtains and plan to hang panels over the pantry and valances along the ceiling storage shelves.  

We had some unexpected dental bills and auto repairs so our budget for the Mud Room has been spent.  Thankfully, we had found the range top and light fixtures at the Habitat ReStore for $25 total and the cabinets were free from a local home remodel.  It's just been paint and sweat recently!  I even repainted the handles with epoxy paint instead of spending $100+ on new hardware.  Someday I'll get new but for now, these work.

I still need to clean and epoxy paint the floors and counter top and hang the rest of the curtains.  Andy needs to install my big utility sink and move the freezer along this blank wall and finish wiring the stove plug.  The end is in sight!

Decorating My Home

Mallory's skin problem and infections are finally improving so I've been able to get some sewing done this week.

One of my major projects is to make the curtains for my new home.  I was planning to just wing it to make panels and valances, but came across the Sew 4 Home tutorial for lined tab-top panels last week and followed their instructions to make my living room curtains.  My large wooden rods are screwed into place, so I needed to make functioning buttonholes to be able to hang & wash my drapes.  I learned to use my one-step button hole feature and sew on buttons using my machine.  All this time I've been doing it by hand!  Rather than use two different fabrics, I just added fringe trim where their two fabrics meet. I had never thought to use header tape to help prevent sagging between the tabs...Since I'm 3 hours from a fabric store, I improvised and used some heavy interfacing. Worked like a charm!

The living room now feels warmer and I'm really happy with them.  One down, 6 rooms to go!

Here's a bad before picture:

 

And the after pics:

 

 

I also made these great tie-backs, but am contemplating what to use for the wall-anchors for the ties.  I'm thinking maybe something vintage, like the things on a boat that you wrap the rope around...