Getting crafty.

Crafty and thrifty! Two of my favorite things. It's like a little slice of heaven on earth for me. I made our very ugly front window a little bit prettier this weekend and all it cost me was $0.39 for the dowel (which was actually left over from an old project). So all in all practically FREE! The foam scraps were a "treasure" I found on dump day. The fabric is from my mom's never ending fabric stash. And well the duct tape was just lying around:)

My creation:

Voila! A valance!

Unimpressed? Distracted by our dirty stained carpet? Yeah, me too! Gross. Sorry, but not too sorry. I mean we live here with three small children:)

So not exactly the fanciest valance ever. But it definitely helped dress up (disguise?!) our ugly 1970s style rental home window treatment. 

My intentions were to wait until morning to take the 'AFTER' picture. Open the blinds and let the sunshine in. Really dress it up. Like a true and dramatic before & after. Instead I quickly snapped the picture tonight because I am not convinced that my valance will still be hanging in the morning. The reason? Welllllll...the construction of the valance is kind of a hot mess! A lot like it's maker:). Perfect example: I may or may not have accused my children of either a) eating or b) destroying + hiding a foam piece when the "missing" piece was SMACK DAB in front of me! Like I said, a hot mess. The valance is held together with duct tape and some very minimal hand stitching. It is attached to the original valance with small plastic clips and Velcro. 

And it just fell down!!!! So that lasted less than an hour...it was pretty while it lasted. 

Off to bed for me. I will try again tomorrow.