New Mom Designs Fabric Store

We are proud to present to our readers a special find in the etsy world. We recently discovered Elvina from New Mom Designs. I came across her shop and was sucked in by all the unique fabrics. I sruck around for a while looking at all the bright colors and different patterns only to discover that SHE MAKES THE DESIGNS HERSELF!

I am absolutely in LOVE with the bold shades of orange and gray in her versions of the chevron stripe. You can either by them by the fat quarter OR by the yard.



And some of my personal favorites

Clover Flower, Blue Cotton

Art Deco Tulip

Magical Fruit


Any of New Mom Designs fabrics will add color and style to your home. Check out her shop and see what you can find!!

Almost everything from her shop is suitable for window treatments.

Enjoy!

Pick your own giveaway!

I loved the turn out we got for our "pick your own giveaway." So I'm doing it again!!

Giveaway is exclusively for blog followers!

Enter one comment for each entry. Three possible ways to enter.

1) In a comment, tell us what you would choose if you were the winner.
2) Refer a friend to our blog.
3) Share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter or other public media.

The Giveaways!

1) Free labor on ONE Flat Roman Shade with a max width of 36" and a max length of 45".

2) A set of unlined Rod Pocket Panels in yellow Zig Zag up to 84" in length.

3) 50% off an 24" KW Imperial Trellis Pouf!

4) An 18" envelope closure pillow cover in YOUR CHOICE of any of the designer fabrics available at Decorate23!!

Click here to view fabric options.


The giveaway will run until midnight ET July 3rd. Good luck! We look forward to hearing from all of you!

Window Treatments for a sliding glass door

Sliding glass doors can be awkward. The one size fits all drapes you find at the store come in 84" length or 96". One is usually too short and the other is too long. And with a standard 50" width you aren't left with much fullness.

The first thing to consider when deciding on treatments for a sliding glass door is their function: Do you want them for decoration or to block out light?

Next you will need to consider any potential damage that might be done by pets or children going in an out of the door. My first thought was my children coming in from the backyard after eating popsicles and grabbing the door frame where curtains might hang. Yikes!

If the latter is a concern for you then you may want to consider top traetments only: a valance or a cornice board. Here are some ideas:

Cornice Board

A penant valance above the door would add a niced finished touch.

A flat panel or clip ring valance would dress it up quite well.

If children grabbing at door frames and curtains with messy hands or dogs coming in from out of the rain and getting mud on curtain panels is not a concern for you then you can consider drapery panels. I have found two ideal situations for sliding glass doors in my few years experience. 90" seams to be the ideal length for a sliding glass door. But in some cases there isn't room between the window and the ceiling, or some sliding glass doors have a transom above the door that won't all you to hang a curtain rod. In these cases I have found that hanging a track panel from your ceiling works nicely to hang flat panels from.

Here are some ideas:

Mount the track on the ceiling and attach th curtain with ring clips.

And of course, if space allows, hang a curtain rod.

And if blocking light is your primary concern, add blackout to your panels.

If you want both privacy and light blocking but not necessarily at the same, consider hanging a first layer of sheers and a second of panels with blackout liner.

We can do any of the above! Just send us an email to windowsbymelissa@gmail.com to get your custom order started or contact us through our etsy shop.

As always, we look forward to hearing from you.

All work and no play. . .

makes Melissa's blog a dull read.















When my husband was in law school I noticed these pictures up in several people's carrel's to remind them not to study all the time. I'm going to put one up in my workspace. I am a self proclaimed work-a-holic. I get that from my dad. I spend all day with my children, now that school is out. Then I work all night creating beautiful window dressings. Sleep is for the birds.

In an effort to make up for the time I spent in Arizona with my family following my grandmother's death, I have been working round the clock. We even managed to decrease our turnaround time by two weeks! I was able to accomplish this great feat amidst a very busy few weeks. We've had a few additions to the Window Treatments by Melissa family.

This is baby Gwendalyn Rose.

She was born on June 13th and is the daughter of Neal and Krista Butler. Krista makes our ready to purchase/ship pillow covers in our shop.

This is Paul.

He was born on the 17th AT HOME! Way to go Becky! He is the son of Bryan and Becky Gentry. Becky makes some of our custom flat/classic roman shades. Bryan made our website.

And the newest addition to my family

Rainbow. (Yes, my five year old son named our black cat Rainbow). We went to Petsmart on Saturday just to see what all the comotion was about. The local SPCA had tons of cats there on sale because they ran out of room at the SPCA. The volunteer said that all the cats were going today. And I said, "Wow! You have adopters for all of them?!" And she said, "Let me put it this way. They aren't going back to the SPCA." My heart sank. So of course I had to adopt one. And she is a great addition to the family and is getting along marvelously with our other cat, Ruby.

THEN we had a huge rain storm that flooded the basement, which is where my work shop is.

We called this, "Operation: Save the fabric."

And thank goodness the sun shines a dog's rump every once in a while because my work space remained untouched. Every other part of the basement, on the other hand, experienced severe damage. This set me back about two days.

NOWNOWNOW If you have put up with my ranting thus far, I plan to reward you handsomely.

As we are now back in full swing, we are doing what we love best: Recreating what you want at a reasonable price.

A client asked me to recreate this beauty:

The Harper Roman Shade from Pottery Barn Kids.

Here is ours:

(I hope to have a better image soon. Our display block worked well with our old style shades, but it is not condusive to our new safety cord system and creates some funky puckering that normally isn't there. So bear with us. It's all in the name of safety)!

Depending on the size of the shade, our prices range from $130-$200. You have the option of doing a blackout liner upgrade as well.

All this weekend we are offering a coupong for 25% off these beauties!!! Get yours today by leaving a comment here telling us what ribbon color you would choose from The Ribbon Retreat.

AND if you get a friend to follow our blog we'll even throw in free shipping! We're practically giving them away!! Everyone needs one of these in their home.

Coupon code: TWENTYFIVE

What color ribbon would you choose? I'm partial to the greens, myself. Looking forward to hearing from you all!!!

Pin it, baby!!!

Picking colors that coordinate with your hardwood floors

Picking a color scheme to coordinate with your hardwood floors

Picking a color scheme can be overhwelming. There are many options and it can be hard to know which one is right. Start with the color of your floors. This will help to eliminate the wrong colors and focus on the right ones.

Begin by deciding what color your hardwood floors are. To do this correctly you need to look at your floors as another color in the room. Are they yellow, red or brown?

Yellow hardwood floors contain golden and tan tones and undertones. 

Red hardwood floors include orange and dark brown undertones.

Brown hardwood floors, like red, have dark brown undertones, but they also have grey.

Wood floors add a significant amount of color as they are. So selecting a coordinating paint or fabric color you should pick one that works in contrast with the wood floor. Avoid trying to make a color match the floor. This creates an overbearing feeling in the room.

Yellows and reds (with an orange base or undertones) work well with warm colors. Browns and reds with darker brown base and undertone work well with cool colors.

Recommendations:

Oak: light colors, pale colors, pastels, neutrals

Traditions in pink & chocolate brown

Stripes and Dots in Sunny Yellow

Suzani in WIsteria

    

Ebony: lighter shades of dark colors i.e, gray

Imperial Trellis II in Java

Annie Diamond in Gray

Snake Chain

Pine: bold warm colors: sage greens, a deep brown, lemon yellow, red

Imperial Trellis in Treillage

Large Chevron Stripe in Sunny Yellow

Towers Greek Key in Red

Cherry: light brown or neutral brown, blues, greens, or red (reds with a brown base as opposed to an orange base).

Imperial Trellis in Natural

Ching Mei Dragon in China Blue

Emerald Cut Mink and Ivory

Of course, all of these ideas apply to paint colors as well. But if you are renting and are not able to change wall color, consider the fabric options above as an alternative to adding complimenting colors to your space.

Sources: ehow.com, lowes.com, decorate23, lynnchalk.com

                           

Need some help with Monkey Toile Fabric

As some of you know, I am currently in Arizona with my extended family due to the passing of my grandmother. Whenever I lose someone I have myself what I call, "Denial Day." When you are so overcome with grief and sadness and overwhelmed by all the feelings that come with death that your body just can't handle anymore, you just need to take a day to pretend none of it ever happened. In this case, my denial day was a day spent at Home Fabrics, a discount home decor fabrics store near my mom's house in Mesa, Az. They carry so many designer prints at amazing deals. So every time I visit I go there and stock up.

I came across some most unusual fabric. I just HAD to have it. I needed it. (My husband just loves when I tell him I need things). So I needed this fabric because I have never seen anything like it in all of my many years of sewing. It is a Toile fabric. AND it is MONKEYS! Monkey Toile! I have no idea what to use it for or even if I like it! But I had to have it because I know I'll never see anything like it again!

So here is where you come in. First, would you use this fabric in your home? If so, what for? Pillows? Curtains? Pot holders/hot pads? Placemats? Seat coushion? Toilet paper? (<---I am open to all opinions ;)). They still have the entire bolt of it because obviously this is geared toward a very specific audience. I bought a few yards, but if there is anyone out there that might actually like this and make good use of it I will certainly go buy more and make it available in the shop.

Please share this, pin it, etc!

It's blue and white, but the blue leans more toward teal, but still in the shade of blue family.

Please leave a comment here and let me know your thoughts! I can't wait to hear! If you think you might use this fabric or know someone who could, mention this post in the shop and we'll give you a discount. I am just so excited about htis fabric find!!

Report on May's sponsor family and a coupon!

I apologize for being absent. My grandmother passed away on May 25th suddenly and unexpectedly.

First I want to update everyone on May's sponsor family. We sponsored sweet baby Brenna. Last month was a slower than average month. We raised $145 for Brenna! Since it is too late now to begin a new sponsor family for June and May was so slow for orders, we would like to continue sponsoring Brenna for one more month! So the coupon code BRENNA is still good in the etsy shop for free shipping thorugh June.

We are enjoying helping Brenna's family. Please read about her story here.

Now, about my grandmother. She was 83 years old and died in her home suddenly last Friday. She was a very spry and happy woman. She was the grandmother to myself, my assistant Shannon and Krista, who has made a few of our pillow covers and will again in the future after baby Gwen comes in the next few weeks.

While this is very sad to us, and we will miss her terribly, we were blessed to have her in our lives for such a long time.

We want to offer a generous coupon to our readers in the memory of our grandma Joyce. The coupon code JOYCE will get you 25% off your complete order before shipping in our etsy shop. The coupon code is only good until midnight PT JUNE 4, 2012. Here is a little blurb I posted on FB yesterday about the inspiration behind this generous coupon:

To the memory of my sweet Grandma Joyce. Every Sunday we would meet at Grandma Joyce's house. I have always had very busy hands and always brought a project with me. Grandma was always very supportive of my new porjects and would always hav...e something new for me to work on for my birthday or Christmas presents. ents. One time she stold me shje was inspired by me always having a project going and she decided to start cross stitching table runners.

For today only would like to offer a 25% off complete purchase before shipping coupon if you purchase before Midnight PT Sunday June 3rd with the coupon code JOYCE. With your savings we hope you will purchase something that you and your child or grandchild can do together. A jigsaw puzzle, baking, a latch hook, sewing, etc. Crafting builds strong relationships and wonderful memories. We hope to inspire you. Go. Create!

I know it says good until last night on Facebook, but I didn't post it until too late yesterday. So we will keep it going one more day.

Thank you all! Now that I am back in the swing of things we have lots of exciting posts coming up. Of course, we will be following through with our big giveaway. We have a post on accentuating your hardwood floors with certain accent colors, and much more! Keep reading! And tell your friends to follow!