Decorating Help, please!!!

Todd and I had our room painted last February right before we got our new, grown up bedroom furniture.  I still haven't put up curtains in the room.  I have bought a gazillion, but none of them looked right against the paint, so I've also returned a gazillion of them What I thought was a basic beige paint, is actually a little pinkish it turns out.  It looks great with the dark wood of the furniture, but I'm going to have to go with just white curtains.  I have the added difficulty that I have to do the two windows on one side of the wall and I also need curtains for the two closets on the opposite wall.

Do I do 4 of the same style curtain?  Or 2  for the windows, and 2 different for the closets?

And, I prefer silk curtains, but have had a difficult time finding white silk curtains that I like.  Here are a few ideas, I've found.  Please chime in!!!

http://www.pbteen.com/products/ruffle-rings-drape/popup/more-views.html?active=1

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/peyton-linen-cotton-drape/?pkey=climited-drape-sale

I did find these, which are the duponi silk that I love.  But now I'm not sure.  Do I need to switch my comforter to a more "like" material with the silk curtains being less than two feet from my bedspread?  arg!!!  I was going to switch the bedding anyway, but I wasn't planning on going silky.  Dry clean only bedding simply isn't an option in my house.  There are too many children with dirty fingers.

http://www.amazon.com/Dupioni-Silk-style-Insulated-Curtains-White/dp/B003YQ1G1O/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1314801142&sr=1-1

Thank you in advance for all of your ideas.

Sincerely,
Interior Decorating Challenged in Ohio

generosity

We are overrun with grain moths every spring. The nasty little buggers are gross, but an excellent excuse to clean out all the cabinets with exactness. I used to try to time the cleaning with Passover, so I could get all the chametz out of the house along with so many other people. It somehow made me feel more connected to a higher purpose than just doing it from a hatred of grain moths.

But this year we were in NJ for Passover, so that didn't happen. And we were so busy upon arriving home that I never got around to it. But the time has come. I realized today that the grain moths have become a little too much a part of our daily routine when Todd told me this story:

"Caleb had cereal first, and then decided to have some of the leftover French Toast from last night. He took a couple of bites and then said, 'I'll leave the French Toast for the grain moths.' and walked away from the table to go play."

I guess I know what priority number one for next week's project list will be.

It Sleeps With the Fishes

My clothes dryer. 9/01-2/09

So very sad. But not as sad as the ENORMOUS mountain of laundry which is accumulating.

Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Laundry

Oh, how I wish this was another post featuring a clever song sung at a laundromat. Sadly, it's far more mundane that that.

Tell me, oh wise ones, is it even possible that the fact that my dryer won't actually dry anything unless it's set all the way up to the "towel" setting (and I still have to run it two or three times at that) isn't going to be a Very Expensive Problem?

My dryer is 8 years old. Dryers can last longer than that, right?

Right?!

I'm a little afraid to call a repairman right now.  Give me courage.

Shameless Plugs

The last two weeks have been full of commerce in the Smith house. While I was in FL, Todd ordered a couple new T-shirts for me from Threadless.com

If you haven't checked out their website, I highly recommend it. You can submit T-shirt designs, users vote on the designs and then there is a limited number of T's made for sale. If they're out of one, you can vote to have it reprinted. It's literally voting with your dollars and helping out artists at the same time. Anyway, these were the T's he got me:

Other than having people stare at my chest and then follow it up by bursting into laughter, I'm loving my new tees.

My next consumer-ish purchase was this:

This little beauty has my kids excited about vacuuming!!! I repeat: MY KIDS ARE EXCITED TO VACUUM!!!! They have fights over who gets to vacuum the stairs! It's small enough that even my 4 year old can easily navigate the stick vacuum portion of it to quickly vacuum the hard surface floors or area rugs, and the dustbuster portion easily comes out for spot cleaning. It doesn't replace my real vacuum for the wall to wall carpet in the basement, but it's great for quick, small jobs that my kids can do. LOVE IT!

And my last consumer-ish thing is this:
These are sliced, freeze dried strawberries like you get in boxes of cereal these days. $20/number 10 can, which is the cheapest I've ever found them. They are yummy on cereal, or just for snacking, and they don't have any icky colors or preservatives which makes the Momma Bear very happy. I ordered a case of 6 cans from emergencyessentials.com They are great for food storage, but they will also be wonderful for camping and hiking oh, and did I mention just snacking by the handful right out of the can when my kids aren't looking?! mmmmm.

PBJ Love

I could be doing all the laundry and cleaning the house to get ready for our trip next week. Or I could be reconciling my accounts and paying all of my bills before we go out of town. Or I could be making dinner, or baking the cake that Benjamin needs for Scouts on Wednesday. Instead, I have watched this youtube video WAY too many times today. But it makes me smile. =)