Heighten your Ceiling and Lighten Your Space

Let's create tall ceilings and more light in your spaces but let's do it without all the noise and construction dust...

  

I moved into this house 10 years ago (I can't even believe it has been that long) and I hung my curtain rods and valences as I believe most people do... I lined them up with the top of the window trim.  The windows in our room are low in the first place and I have to bend down a bit to look out because of the curtains.  Here is a picture of a window...  

I remember hearing this trick on HGTV and I was reminded of it this weekend while talking with my Uncle Jeff.  They both suggested moving the curtain rods up so that the bottom of the valance is in line with the bottom of the trim at the top of the window.  It makes you think your windows are much taller and it allows more light in the room, which makes it feel less claustrophobic and therefore your ceilings are taller.  Here is the after picture...

The one thing this picture is missing is the amount of light that is bouncing around in our room.  Now, on each window there is an extra 10 inches of glass showing.  Try it at your house... I guarantee you will notice the difference!

Backyard Bowling

With the hot weather, our family has been guzzling down lots of bottled water.  I ran across this idea and thought it was a great way to reuse some of the bottles that have collected in our recycling.  We made bowling pins!

Collect 10 water bottles and take off their labels.  If there is some stickiness left from the label, Disolve-It works wonders when removing goo (someday I will have to do even more of a plug for that product and list some of the ways it has saved us.) 

Fill the bottles with water and add 5-10 drops of food coloring to each bottle.  If you plan on keeping this game around for a while, or would like to use it indoors, spread glue on the mouth of the bottle before putting the cap on.

Line up the pins and use any type of heavier ball such as a soccer ball.   Let the good times roll!

A Tribute to the Master of Crafting...

I know how proud I feel when I place the final stitches on my projects.  

Imagine how you would feel if you created these...

God, thanks for surrounding us with such beautiful things...

they are fun to photograph!