Window (Mis)treatments

I spent a couple of hours putting up my living room curtains last week. I've had the fabric for a year, and was planning on making couch pillows with it, but since we got the new furniture in the living room, pillows weren't really needed any more so I was able to use the fabric for curtains! I think it adds just the right touch to the windows. And in my favorite colors and patterns, too!

I have been reading The Nester's blog at www.thenestingplacenc.blogspot.com, and I am really trying to adopt her philosophy of "It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful"... well, these curtains certainly aren't perfect... I didn't sew them or finish the edges or measure... but they add much more beauty to our home than they would just sitting in a bag stuffed in a closet somewhere. How sad that I haven't made use of these bits of beauty before now... all because I was waiting for the perfect use for them. And I had a preconceived idea of what that perfect use was, so until now I hadn't been willing to change my idea.

I know, I know, they are just curtains. I am philosophizing about... curtains? Well, not really. I am working on this area of my life. "This area" meaning the whole reduce, reuse, recycle concept. I want to make sure I don't have things just to "have" them. Even books. I had been keeping ALL of my books, saving them for... what, I'm not really sure. Now, there are some of my books that I know I will be reading again, and those I will keep. But I just made a trip to our local Half Price Books with two boxes full of books and DVDs that we don't read or watch, and the space on the shelves and the money they gave us (although not as much as I would have liked, it was something) is totally worth it! Less clutter! More space! It is a wonderful thing.

I also joined the CSA (community supported agriculture) at our local grocery store. It is only $25 a week, and every week I -- and my parents, who joined too! -- am supporting local, mostly family-owned farms. Last week we got two big hothouse cucumbers, a basket of tomatoes, a bunch of chives, a loaf of Farm to Market bread, a chunk of cheddar cheese, and a pound of ground round. I also picked up some green onions, a pan of fresh apple crisp from the "jelly lady" (as Bonnie said, it's like having your grandma living down the street from you!), a painted rock for my "garden" in the front... I'll post a picture of it sometime soon... and a red onion and a yellow onion. Wow... that's a lot of oniony goodness I have to use this week. I wonder if i should attempt a fried onion. That might be good.