And then a week goes by

Wow….when you’re a working mom time certainly does fly!!  I never realized how much you can get done in a day until I added more responsibility to my life!  Haha!  Heather and I have said that we actually get MORE done because if we don’t….it will NEVER happen.
So anyway…just like any dedicated DIY-er….I haven’t stopped thinking of the house.  Remember I told the hubs that I wouldn’t do anything (major) until I finished our bedroom to completion….so this was part of that promise.  Our room needs curtains and this was the perfect time to test the new limited amount of hours in the day.  I still wanted to make them myself, but wanted to make it as easy as possible.  I’ve been loving bold patterns in graphic black and white, and I kept coming back to these pics on Pinterest


Ooooo I just love it.  I have seen a couple of different tutorials around about how to go about making these, and it seemed easy enough.  I chose to go the “paint the black stripes on the white material” method, mainly because time is precious right now (I don’t think I can say that enough) and I didn’t want to get hung up on exact measurements and sewing panels and such. So the first chance I got, I went out to our local big box hardware store and picked this up.

That’s right people…painter's drop cloths.  Why you ask?  Because 1) I wanted to use canvas…and this was already hemmed for me. 2) It’s actually cheaper than buying canvas at my fabric store, even with a coupon.  This is 6x9, enough for one hearty curtain panel (no wimps allowed!) and cost only $9.99.  Then I sauntered over to the oops paint…and lo and behold there was a whole quart of black paint!  Whhhaaaattt?  My luck amazes me sometimes….mainly because I NEVER have it.  And trust me on this, you will need a quart.  The canvas really sucks up the paint.  So after a quick sew to get the length right, I taped off some lines (I hope no further explanation required…..tape….lines…..) I started slapping on some paint.

Ok I guess a little explanation might be in order.  So scratch that….reverse it (Name that movie!).  I first measured the length of the canvas, and I then determined how big I wanted my stripes, and how many I wanted, and fudged it until I found a number that came closest to both of those.  Sounds back-asswards?  Because it is. What can I say….I do things the hard way.  I knew I wanted an odd number and I knew I wanted thicker stripes.  Anyways….back to painting!  I thought I’d use a roller and it would go super easy and super fast….I was wrong.

It was taking FORRRREEEEEVVVVEEERRR.  So I turned to the handiest and cheapest tool I had at my disposal.  The sponge brush.

Surprisingly this little tool made the job go SO MUCH FASTER.  Oh and little tip.  BACK YOUR CANVAS.  I used plastic dropcloths to protect the carpet.  Everything seeped through, so back it up back it up back it up.
So now I have 2 of these babies….minus the tape of course!  I can’t wait to hang them up!! 

Oh, and I know that these canvases aren’t white white…and I was a little ehhhhhh about it at first, but I’m actually a little glad. I love the stark black and white look, but being that this is my first time experimenting with such graphic details, I like how the of whited-ness makes it a bit muted. But we’ll see when I hang them!