Fall For Design

DIY Blackout Curtains

March 18, 2013

How was everyone’s weekend? Break any bones? I did! Well, I technically broke it on Thursday but I spent most of the day in urgent care on Friday. Looks like the next 6 weeks I won’t be doing much of anything that involves lots of walking or moving.

But, I have some more horrible quality photos to show you guys. Today I’m talking about how we did a little DIY and made some black out curtains.

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Chloe’s old room faced the east where the morning sun made it bright and cheery. I never showed you guys their old room.. so here are a few pictures to catch you guys up to speed. diy blackout light curtain

diy blackout light curtain

For a few months we lived with a black blanket nailed over the window. I wanted to hang curtains, but I wanted the curtains to be thick enough so the light wouldn’t come in. Unfortunately all the thick material I could find was in solid colors, but I didn’t want a solid fabric curtain. I wanted a curtain that matched her bird-themed nursery at the time. So I joined the two. A printed fabric and a dark dense back. I (or my mother who made Chloe’s curtains) sewed them together to get a DIY blackout curtain. 706_1615 706_1616

Amazing how dark it makes her room, yes? Her new room faces the north, but it can still be amazingly bright in there. Here’s a view of the fabric with a design, and a view of the thick threaded solid fabric on the back…. diy blackout light curtain

…and this is my mother’s beautiful seamless sewing technique. She sewed it like a blanket. When she was done, she turned it inside out to get that beautiful seamless line. diy blackout light curtain

I did the same to Emme’s room, but I didn’t have a sewing machine then. Instead I used fabric tape. Fabric tape works for others, but it didn’t work for me. I couldn’t get the straight edge I was aiming for. But here’s a view of Emme’s DIY blackout curtain with the blinds open. It’s still cool and relaxing in her room… diy blackout light curtain

…and here they are with the blinds closed… diy blackout light curtain

…and these are the blinds we have in her room. They are the exact blinds we talked about in this post here…. diy blackout light curtain

…and this is my technique of how I did a seamless fabric tape. As you can imagine, it was a lot of fabric tape which is now pealing apart in different areas.

diy blackout light curtain

So there you have it. That’s how we made some DIY blackout curtains.

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How I Manage to be a Business Woman & a SAHM

March 15, 2013

It’s here, finally. I rolled out phase 1 of my NEW business plan. Remember in this post how I talked about diving into different niches? Well, I’m diving straight in. Except with a bit of a twist.

For a while now I’ve been talking about my two loves, a hobby of making things pretty at home (or trying to with a limited budget) and my stationery business. I felt like my blog was going through an identity crisis. I was struggling with combining the two ventures together (the decor/homemaking and stationery designs). I wanted to combine the two, but I didn’t want to send mix signals. Before I dive in about how I’m combining and splitting at the same time, lets talk about the new logo.

The logo is actually an illustration of our new house. I have always loved the look of a craftsman home, but those homes are hard to find in my location. Either the neighborhood is scary or the homes are out of our price range. I’m not saying that our brick exterior is going to turn into vinyl siding, but I designed the logo with my personal taste. It took me a year to figure out how to brand this part of my business. I came so close to hiring someone else. I had contacted a professional graphic designer who helps businesses create an identity when inspiration struck. It’s amazing how that happens. Before you jump your guns, she had no examples of logo designs that involved homes or circle wreaths (that I was unaware of). I was actually googeling midwestern blogs who blog about homemaking when inspiration struck. And nope I couldn’t find any midwestern blogs that blog about homemaking. The wreath is actually from another design I created for a zazzle birth announcement which you can see here.

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I’ve also been trying to come up with a purpose of why I should talk about how I rearranged the living room furniture, or why I just told the whole wide world what color we painted the girls room. But all of you told me why you read the blog. You tell me because it gives you inspiration. You need to make some sort of income from home. You learn from my monthly income reports. I talk about how I make money online, but I don’t really talk about how I manage my household, be a business woman, a SAHM and a wife at the same time. I decided to dive in a little bit more to share with you all how I accomplish doing all my tasks while running a graphic design business from home. This isn’t your typical DIY blog where my blog is my business. It’s not a personal diary either.

Maybe your a teacher, a homeschooling mom, a single mom, a girlfriend who has a cat, a SAHM with a handful of children, or just someone looking for some extra income. Maybe you’re looking for a different way to do something else you love from home and make some extra cash for it. I’m hoping no matter what your situation, you may learn something new you can try. But here’s my disclaimer, by all means I’m not an expert. What may work for me may not work for you. And I’m always learning from my lovely readers and other resourceful people out there as well. Feel free to drop me a line and share with me how you do things too.

….back to a few more updates.

I also cleaned up the resources page and added some products that I use. Since I spill the beans on all my tips and tricks of how I make money online, I figured I should share all the tools as well.

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All updates about the latest stationery (and whatever is associated with the stationery) is now in its own category.

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You will no longer see the stationery updates on the home page of fallfordesign.com, but they will continue to show up in whatever you use to subscribe to our feed.

As for phase 2 of the business plan? Well.. *cracks knuckles* … you’ll just have to wait. I’m still working on it.

Have a great weekend. We’ll be back on Monday with some business about curtains (yes more curtains).

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Adding Curtains to the Girls Rooms

March 13, 2013

Last weekend we had family in town, so we didn’t get anything accomplished in our house. However, the weekend before we made some small progress in the girls room. We added curtains!

Oh, and just a warning. The picture quality bites. Thanks to super extra bright windows.

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We already had these curtains at our old house in Emme’s old room.

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As you can see, we’re going with the same concept and decor but a slightly lighter paint color. We need to add another panel of curtains to Emme’s new room. At our old house one curtain was enough, but this window at our new house is a bit larger.

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Chloe’s room also had curtains added. 706_1658

We added the same curtains that was in her old room… 706_0059

…I know this isn’t the look I was wanting for Chloe’s big girl room, but we’re trying to work with what we have for now.

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The brown furniture and the green curtains make Chloe’s room appear dark, and the color palate is completely opposite of the roomboard that we planned for her room. Eventually I would like to change out her curtains for a something that will better match the colors we Chloe picked out.