Various Updates

Because window treatments are not my area of expertise, my parents helped me put up new living room curtains this weekend! Up to this point I haven't had any full-length curtains, only valances. Mainly because I was afraid the cats would shred long ones. Time will tell, but so far they haven't even noticed them.

Here's an old picture of the living room with the old valance. My mom sewed it for me and it was very nice, but we both felt something bolder was needed to go with the new look of the room.

And here it is with the new curtains!

Day

Night

I bought the panels for $15 each at Garden Ridge. They were exactly what I wanted - basic and colorblocky, not too busy. The colors go perfectly with the rest of the room. The curtain rod is also from Garden Ridge, and I got the holdbacks for $8 at Target a while back. I was afraid all the brown would be too dark, but I think it looks great and frames the big window nicely. I'm very pleased! :)

In other news, I'm being smothered by my to-read stack:

(Taken with picplz, which I'm still figuring out)

I randomly selected Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty on my last trip to the library, and was hooked from page one. Of course, the library didn't have the rest of the trilogy, so I dashed to Target, bought the second book (second from the top of this stack), and blew through it in one day. Now I'm faced with my usual dilemma: do I buy the third book (which just came out), even though it's in hardcover and now my books won't match? I don't think I can wait much longer to find out how it ends! Sadly, this happens to me ALL THE TIME. I should start checking the library catalog for sequels before I start books.

Finally, here are the latest contenders in the flip-flop search:

These are Candie's, and I got them at Kohl's (which has tons of great sandals right now - it was hard to choose just one!). They're a little snug around the foot, but I think they'll stretch out. I'm enjoying them so far!