Announcing a new blog category: Projects I Do, Totally On My Own, That Make Me Feel Like A Proverbs 31 Woman

If I had known it felt this good to sew something with my own two hands I would've tried it days ago.

Truth be known (and it probably will be known...because my grown daughters occasionally read the Blog Of the Mother They Left Alone with All These Siblings), I only attempted to sew my own bathroom accoutrements (see, I'm already talking like Martha Stewart..) because I can never find ready-made stuff in fabric I like. And I also have no patience. If I decide I want something done, it gets done pronto. I have great vision - but unfortunately, very little skill.

Until now, that is. Cause I MADE THESE CURTAINS MYSELF. And those cute fabric cabinet "doors" below the sink. I made those, too!

(I posted two pictures because the first one makes the walls look too yellow - vs. gold, but the second one didn't include the shower curtain that was my inspiration.)

I've had this black and white shower curtain, just waiting for a time I could re-do the kid's bathroom upstairs. The walls were previously periwinkle blue, decorated with cute striped curtains and Shabby Chic white mirrors at different levels to accommodate the differing heights of the 11 children that shared that One Bathroom (and I wonder why my daughters moved out!).

In the hopes of causing my remaining children to act more mature, I figured I'd give them a grown-up looking bathroom. (Can't you just hear them now, walking into the non-juvenile bathroom and thinking, "Hey, with a bathroom like this - I just may quit acting foolish and start seeking after wisdom."

(Plus our house is for sale and I'm trying to downplay the fact that there are lots of kids living here.)

I painted the walls this lovely gold color (and when I say "I painted", I'm sure you know that "I " didn't actually hold a paintbrush, but my essential part was to take that all-important first step of picking out the paint color - and then handling the ensuing bribery of an older son to come paint it). Next, I bought these cool matching black mirrors - very mature looking mirrors.... and the "piece de resistance", the neato Wal-mart picture of the sunflower that perfectly picked up the black from the shower curtain and the gold from the walls.

If that bathroom doesn't sell our house, and cure my children of their frivolity, then my name isn't Susy Homemaker.

To make a long story short (and you know we aim for, and never hit, conciseness on this blog)- I went to 100 stores (at least) looking for curtains. I knew exactly what I wanted - and exactly how not-so-much I wanted to pay. I found Nothing. But then I had a flashback to what I used to do when I needed new curtains --or new pillows-- or upholstery --or shams-- or ottoman covers --or even quilts. I simply finagled my daughters into making them for me. After all, aren't I the one who arranged for and drove them to sewing lessons, wrote the checks, gave them time off from school, and encouraged them to experiment by making things for me the family?

But apparently marriage and living out from under their parent's benevolent roof has changed them. "Supposedly" they were unable to drop everything and rush to Florida to make new bathroom curtains for me (although my oldest daughter is, at this very moment, working long distance on a new yellow and red toile slipcover for my family room foot stool. And I plan on repaying her with endless hours of free babysitting of my grandchildren....Just as soon as they move a few states closer )

But it all worked out for the best. And now these verses have new meaning for me. They feel so personal now.

"She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle.....She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."

Stay tuned. I'm thinking of "considering a field and buying it" and with the "fruit of my hands" I might even plant a vineyard (unless I can get my kids to do it.)