Stormy Day

Dan and I (thankfully NOT James) were awakened early this morning by some serious rain, wind, thunder and lightning. About 30 minutes ago it started up again and it got me thinking how much I missed having a STORM in Washington. Rain was so commonplace that I didn't even give it a second thought, and it didn't bother me or make me depressed for which I am very grateful, but only once can I remember in the year we lived there having what I would call a storm (rain, wind, thunder, lightning, etc.) I'm rather enjoying it (it also might have something to do with the AWESOME nap James is having right now...going on two hours and it's only the first one of the day!) Another thing I'm really enjoying, and I mentioned this before, but I am SO EXCITED for the change in seasons! Here's some proof that Fall really is coming:

See the leaves at the very tippy top turning color? So beautiful!

Anyway, I've been trying to get going on some projects but the truth is I'm just not very good at managing my time. I hate to admit it, but there it is. So to make myself feel better I wanted to show what I've (we've) done recently.

I've had quite a time getting this done:

Okay, that's just a curtain rod, right? WRONG! It's a custom-home-made curtain rod! Before I go on I just have to say that Dan is a genius and a saint for helping me figure this out. See those (in my opinion) stupid vertical blinds? I hate them. I think they are ugly and functionally annoying so I wanted to hang curtains to cover them up/not have to use them. But these blinds and their accompanying hardware stick out from the wall 5 inches! There is not a curtain rod bracket in this world for a cheapskate like me that sticks out farther than that, so I improvised and got super lucky when I found these.

They are actually plant hanging brackets that I spray painted black. However lucky I was to find them, I soon realized they presented some problems of their own. There weren't any 6-7 foot ready-made curtain rods strong enough or (again) inexpensive enough for my taste that would fit in the hole. After fiddling around with several ideas and having a couple of failures Dan came up with this one. Wanna know what its actually made of? Half-inch conduit pipe with cork plugs in the end and craft finials screwed in (which I then spray painted black). Total cost for our homemade curtain hardware: about $20. I love it!

NOW I need to make the curtains! I'm excited to post how they turn out (hopefully by the end of next week). Here's the fabric:

And for your listening pleasure: I've had this song in my head most of the day.