ah, much better

The vast majority of my decorating choices are made primarily based on money.

I'm cheap.

To the very core of my being.

Wait. I don't like how that sounds

(and no, darling sister Kim, I'm not referring to being cheap but not easy....

and that is still better than being easy but not cheap!).

I'm frugal.

I just won't spend money on expensive stuff to make my house look a certain way.

But I really, really didn't like the rustish colored curtains that were in our family room/aquarium when we moved in.

The curtains themselves are fine, but they look really bad with the brown vomitish colored sofa. The two shades of yuck just really do nothing for each other.

It really looks quite bad.

And it is dark.

And it doesn't help that the room was quite messy when I took the pictures.

But that is a completely different issue altogether....

When I was in Maryland, we went to Ikea.

I love Ikea.

But not anymore.... because they have Ikeas in the Middle East, for pity sake, but they can't manage to bring one to South America!!

Okay, anyway, I do love Ikea, and it was very very difficult to restrain myself while there.

After all, I did only have room for two bags worth of stuff to take on the plane.

But they did have some fabric on clearance for $2/yard.

While it certainly was not what I had in mind for new curtains, it was light, cheery and cheap... so it "fit the bill", so to speak.

They do look mildly like tablecloths, but they lighten up the room considerably.

They make it much more cheery.

And they only cost $30 and about an hour and a bit of time to make.

Now that makes them even much more beautiful!

Soon I'll be painting the room, the side tables and hopefully making a nicer display for the kids' artwork.

And we'll just put up with the yucky brown couch for a few years.