Horizontal stripe fabric NOW IN!

We got our horizontal stripe fabric in yesterday! I was so excited I immediately made a curtain out of it!

It was hard to get a good picture mostly because my house is full of vertical stripes :) The contrast is awkward. But hopefully this give you an idea of the look and how it lays in its different functions.

Fabric details:

•  Medium weight 54" wide drapery fabric.
• Cotton/linen blend
• Stripes are each eight inches wide.
• Colors currently available: Gray/White, Black/White, Navy/White. We can produce any color variety you would like. You can contact us for a special order.
• Fabric is currently $38/yard.

Click here to see the other color combinations we have ready to print.

Do you like it?! What color combos would you like to see? Currently all our options or paired with white, but it certainly doesn't have to be. I'd love to hear your input on color combos. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Pin it!!!

Treatments for Slanting Windows

 Okay, readers. I can't believe I am doing this and my roommates will very likely kill me. BUT, I am posting pictures from college. I promise it relates to slanting windows. But, I couldn't put my collge pictures up without taking a little stroll down memory lane. After all, the most significant parts of my life happened here.

I met my husband in college.

Me and my husband, BC=before children :)

The hubbins and I on homeymoon

And I had my first baby, Joshua. His due date was the week after final exams of my final semester of college. But the little stinker didn't want to be an afterthought. So he came two weeks early! I gave my senior presentation three days after a C-section in sweat pants and high on Percoset. Good times.

I went to Southern Virginia University for my undergraduate degree. The campus has the most beautiful buildings you'll ever see! Most built during the victorian era.

I lived in the turit room right in the center of the picture. As you can tell from the picture the room had two floors.

To give you an idea of the lay out, I took this picture
and the one to the left standing in the same place. So
the stair case is directly to the right of the left
picture.

 

This was our bedroom in the lower part of the round turrit
 that you see in the picture of the front of the building.



The picture above and below are the main part of the dorm room. To give you an idea of the lay out the picture of the stairas and the bedroom was taken from that doorway in the back of the room to the left of the mirror and dresser in the above photo. And both of these pictures were taken from the same place in the room, the front doorway.

Love the James Dean posters and calender. Oh, James Dean. . .

As we were on the top floor, our ceilings were slanted.

The building was very old and terribly drafty. The round room in the front was always so hot because it had windows all around it. We had two dormer windows in the room in the part with the slanted ceilings.

To provide privacy in a room with a dormer window, put a curtain rod both where you will hang the curtain and then another where the slanted ceiling meets the wall.

Obviously, I don't recommend a roman shade on this type of window, but these curtains look fabulous! You can see from the photos that they look like they slide back and forth easily and appear to be very functional. I got the idea of a window treatments book called Quick and Easy Window Treatments by Gail Abbott and Cate Burren.

 

Ikat ???

I first encountered Ikat fabric two years ago. I had never really worked with it much. I didn't know what Ikat even meant. I made these roman shades and pillow covers out of Duralee's Kalah in red and ivory.

When I first unrolled this fabric, I thought it was an accident. And by accident I mean someone hit someone with their car, got nervous and rolled the body in some bed sheets that happened to be in the back of the car, and when they went to destroy the evidence thought to themselves, "Hmmm. . . I could sell this print for $50/yard and make mmmmiiillliiiiooonnnsss. . . to buy my way out of prison."

This was two years ago. Also, I have been exposed to many other Ikat patterns and it has begun to grow on me. This one is my favorite that I have been eying the past few weeks from Lynn Chalk's website.

Until recently, I still didn't know much about "Ikat." So here is the jist for you, in case you were wondering.

•  Ikat is a dying technique similar to that of tie dying. "Binding" is applied to the fibers in the fabric before dying and resist the dye when it is applied causing it to spread. This binding is applied before the fabric is even woven.
• Ikat is the oldest form of fabric decorating.
• Ikat literally translated means "to tie" or "to knot."
• The Victoria and Albert Museum website has the cooloest pictures on the ikat process! Check them out here!  (P.S. I've been to this museum when I went to England in college. Everyone should go if they are in England).

Lynn Chalk carries tons of ikats. Check them out if you are considering an ikat style for your next project.

So, it took a while for Ikat to grow on me. I want to know what you think. Do you like ikat?

Metal Art

I am just coming up on my fourth year of home ownership. It has been a fun adventure in remodeling, designing and decorating. When decorating my home with trimmings I like to incorporate a lot of art. And not just framed art, but art in all forms. One of my favorites is metal art. My mother in law bought me a piece of metal art from Alexa Running. It's a metal dove and has a hanging hook in the back to display on the wall.

I loved it so much that I wanted to start collecting more metal art. So I had Alexa make this tree for me. Kind of a "tree of life" sort of a thing.

Alexa does a wide range of metal art. Here are some samples.

Being the HUGE fan of AMCs The Walking Dead, I was partial to this zombie :) I think it would make a perfect gift for my friend Trena over at Rainey Creek Home who is fully prepared for the zombie apocolypse.

Being from Arizona, I am having to adapt to southern ways of life. One thing I have fuly grasped in initials and monogramming! I got myself a letter "L," as my last name is Laymon. And that is just the beginning of all things letter "L." I bought this metal letter at Kirkland, but I am considering having a new one custom made from Alexa's dad, John Running, who does this sort of thing proffessionally. I'd like to have one custom made with embellishments of things that represent our family. Here are some samples I've seen on his website.

The thing I love most about metal art is the texture it adds to your room. It is a unique form of decoration and it brings such dimension to the room. With John Running's art you can also have custom made pieces that reflect your family or your own design tastes. It can be a perfect custom fit for your home!

Contact John to get your metal art!

Enjoy!

UPDATE Education: Blackout liner. Did you know. . . ?

**I wrote this blog post last year and I have yet another reason why I don't like blackout for roman shades.

Update at the end.

When I was a child and growing up in my parents home, I had to have all the lights off to sleep. Even lights outside my bedroom. If there was even the smallest amount of light to be seen from underneath the door, I just couldn't sleep. I'd go out in the hall and turn off the lights only to have my brother immediately turn them back on. He used to say, "Why don't you sleep with your eyes closed like the rest of the human race?" I am a huge fan of blackout lining.

We carry the ever popular blackout lining to line our curtains. First and foremost, let's clear up one misnomer. People think blackout lining is black. It is not. We carry both white and ivory/ecru blackout liner.

There are many great thing about blackout: It blocks light, it insulates, it is machine washable, it keeps the color from fading on your curtains as well as on other items in a room that may get a lot of direct sunlight. But, blackout may not be ideal for everyone. It has a few downsides too.

The following curtains are lined in regular drapery lining, not blackout.

The following sets of curtains are lined in blackout liner.

It is clear that blackout makes a tremendous difference. I definitely recommend on curtains! However, roman shades are a different story.

In constructiong a roman shade we must sew dowel rod cases through the front and back of the shade at about every ten inches down the shade. When the needle goes through the blackout it removes it from the lining and you can see each and every needle hole. And guess what else? We're human! Surprise! This means that sometimes we do not get the dowel rod casing line completely straight all the way across. We do notice this sometimes, but the alternative is to take out the stitching and make it straight. If it does not interfere with the over all quality of the shade we will usually leave an uneven line since removing the stitching makes it so you can see both the straight line and the mistake.

If using white fabric, the blackout material comes through the holes and makes little black marks on the shade around the outside of these holes.

Notice the needle pin holes and uneven lines. If you are one that is easily bothered by details, being able to see the light through these pin holes may become quite bothersome to you over time. If you are one of these people, I would recommend drapery lining.

Drapery lining will also block light and keep the furniture in your room from fading, however it will not block it out completely and it will not keep the fabric on the window treatment itself drom fading.

Over all, I recommend using blackout on curtains and not roman shades. But I do have babies and know the sun is their alarm clock. So if you don't think the pin holes will be a bother to you, then the blackout is great for the romans too.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about blackout or drapery lining.

UPDATE:

When sewing roman shades we have to sew the dowel rod cases, or ribbing, to the main fabric and the lining in order for the shade to roll up correctly. The shade is mounted on a mounting block with Velcro. We also have to sew that Velcro to the top of the shade. When we sew with blackout the blackout comes up with the sewing needle and completely damages the fabric. Long story short, blackout isn't all its cracked up to be.

Giveaway Winner: Laura!

Laura, you won our giveaway! Contact me at windowsbymelissa at gmail dot com to redeem your winnings!! Contact me within 24 hours.

Report on May (and June's) sponsor family and introducing July's sponsor family

We have had a few set backs recently. My grandmother passed away and set me back two weeks. I got back home from Arizona just in time for our basement to flood: four day set back. And just as I was getting in to a groove for making up for lost time, we had a massive storm and nearly our entire city is without power. I swear! If I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any at all! However, the sun shines a dog's rump too, so now it's my turn. I was very fortunate and my house is one of just a few with restored power. I am grateful for many reeasons, but one is that my children crumbles poptarts in the emergency candles to "make the house smell like poptarts." And I wasn't sure what I was going to do for light other than these ridiculous blinding LED flashlights.

So I am going to do a quick blog post then back to work so I can make up for lost time! Also, we are expecting another set of massive storms over the next three days. So I have to work work work before we lose power again. Looking forward to a strawberry poptart scented house this evening. . .  :/

May was kind of slow for us and didn't raise as much money as we had hoped for Brenna. So we continued to host her through June as well. And we raised $335 to help with Brenna's treatments! Thank you all!

Brenna's mom sent me this recent photo of her and an update. She recently spent some time in the hospital battling another staph infection, but is home now and recovered from that. She turned six months old in June and finally hit the eleven pound mark! Her mom reports that she is a good eater and doing well. She thanks you all for your help!

In July we are sponsoring ADAM!

This is Adam.

His sister is in the back on the left and my daughter is the one on the right.

Adam lives with his grandma. He is 9 years old. He struggles with several disabilities. Among them are blindness, multiple sclerosis and some mental handi-caps. After being born early his parents were told he would live about thirty minutes. His grandma made a deal with him. She told him if he would stick around that she would take care of him. So he stayed and now his grandma is taking care of him!

He loves his family and is so happy when his little sister comes over to grandma's. He loves music and school. He is outgrowing his wheel chair that he uses around the house and to go to school in so we hope to raise up some money to put toward a new one.

This month in our shop if you use coupon code ADAM1 you will receive free shipping on your next order throughout July.

Adam's grandma does day care in her home and watches my children. Adam is such a delightful boy and smiles everytime we walk in the door and he hears my children's voices.

I have more pictures to share, but my scanner got messed up when we had the power surge. I will share the pictures I have mid month when I do the reminder post.

Have a great month, everyone! Let's help Adam get a new wheel chair!