Curtains done, not sure what's next

Well, the curtains are done - check that off the list! This turned out to be a rather easy project. Maybe not too cost effective, because I used 11 yards of $10/yd fabric. Some money savings strategies I used to recover some of the thriftiness of the project:

• I ripped the thermal liner out of the old curtains and reused it. It was in good condition, and another $5/yd for the new stuff...
• Home made curtain rod. These things are expensive in the 120-inch category. Ours is a piece of 3/4" conduit, spraypainted black with the high temp paint left over from the fireplace insert project.
  
• Thrift store mounting hardware and finials. Though the ReStore didn't have any long curtains rods, they did have some really short ones. Our "finials" are just a couple of shorter curtain rods stuffed in the end of the conduit.
• Christmas decorations! I can't imagine what tree they would hang on, but those mysterious items from the last post are Hobby Lobby Christmas ornaments (half off!). I was originally going to make the finials out of these, but on second thought I just decided to hang them on the ends. This way i can change them out whenever I like...

The grommets posed one last problem for the budget on this project. I needed 4 packages of 8 and they cost $10/package. That's $40+tax - over a dollar a piece for a ring of plastic! I scoured the internet for some alternative but found none... Mom suggested that I go with rings instead, because there are many much cheaper options. Unfortunately I had my heart set on the grommets by this point. Hobby Lobby was running a 40%-off-one-full-priced-item coupon last week. So yes, I went to Hobby Lobby on four different days buying one package each time - that's $24 for some grommets - still over priced in my opinion! (They did work fabulously though.. sooo easy)

Curtains in the making

So Many Candles..

Happy Birthday to August!