Hooked On ... House Blessing, Open House, Crunch Time!

It's "Hooked On Friday" over at Julia's great eye candy blog for house junkies, Hooked On Houses. Click here to find more fun! Thank you, Julia, for hosting and for your amazing blog!

Meanwhile -- I am Hooked On Our House Blessing Party --
And Curtains and Fabrics, and TOO MUCH TO DO!

Tic-toc, tic-toc, tic-toc . . .

It's Friday, and I'm making up a "to-do" list for the weekend that is just a tad more ambitious than usual, because I am hopelessly hooked on getting ready for a House Blessing party.

The clock is ticking!

Our House Blessing and Open House are on Saturday, March 14th. And there's miles to go before we sleep.

That Old House won't be "all done" by then, as it will never be "all done," but there are things I really want to accomplish before our friends and family and neighbors come, and the clock is ticking faster and faster and faster!

It's a good thing I work best under pressure.
Lots of pressure.
Giles Corey pressure.

So this weekend... I plan to (deep breath here) . . .

Paint the vanity in this bathroom,

... replace the medicine chest with this big mirror:

And... curtains. Maybe. Can't promise.
But I can promise "After" shots on Monday!

To hang the mirror I need to lure my sister and her husband here with offers of good food and wine. When they arrive, and it's pizza and Ripple, they will be too well-mannered to leave without helping. That's my plan.

Then, so's I won't get bored... I plan to finish curtains in the following rooms, with the following fabrics:

In the yellow guest room, a Greeff cotton. . .

Can you see the sweet dotted background?

All the colors I want are in this print -- the pale yellow,
the coral pink, the touches of blue, the soft green. I love fabric.

In the master bedroom (click here for more), a G.P. & J. Baker toile. . .

Not what I think of as "toile" but that's what the manufacturer calls it,
so who am I to say it's not? It's neat, though.
Rather looks like something from long ago, don't you think?

Look closely -- see the little dude?
He cracks me up.

In the pink guest room, a rose-print cotton from Braemore, originally bought for the dining room where it just did not belong. (Note to self: from now on, listen to the house, not the daughter.)

Look at the detail in this fabric.

Look closely -- there are shadow stripes of ecru in the background.

And in our dining room, a gold faux silk, a half-price drapery fabric from Joanne's. . .

You might think it's already done, but no ... that's just lengths of fabric and lining clipped up onto rings. Not really draperies, you know? Sort of a desperation measure.
It looks like the windows are wearing clown pants.

(More on the dining room and draperies here.)

For the parlor, period-style half-swags in a red (same fabric as dining room, but in red to match dining room walls and tie the rooms together). . .

So, this fabric:

In this room:

I love the woodwork in this old room, so I am not going to cover it up with massive draperies;
just modest swags that behave themselves and stay within the sash.

And of course... the red powder room, and its $1.00 a yard toile.
"After" pictures of that on Monday, too.

To see the "Before" of this room, and it's a doozy, click here.
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Whew, that's a lot to do. I don't think I'll be much at the computer! I've got a pretty sweet "Honey-Do" list for Howard, and not surprisingly it involves drills and screwdrivers and drapery rods. Lucky man.

Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, down in the cellar are boxes of the old curtains from That Old House; they've been washed or cleaned, and are going to a secondhand charity shop, as is the medicine chest from the blue bathroom. We hope they will all have a second chance.

Have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. If you are interested in home dec fabrics, my go-to source is www.fabricguru.com -- and until mid-March they've got a 20-percent off promotion. Contact me for the coupon code! They don't pay me for mentioning them, I am just a very satisfied customer. They are inexpensive, ship fast, and you can get swatches in 2 or 3 days.