Snow Day!

Yesterday school was canceled due to an impending snow storm.

Savannah and I spent the whole day waiting for the snow:

It finally arrived last night: 

School was closed today, too,

so this morning Savannah and I ran outside to play in the snow in our jammies:

We received less than two inches of snow overnight:

Swinging in the snow

Looking through the telescope

Tasting the snow

Sliding into the snow!

I'm enjoying my days off from school, but I'm NOT looking forward to going to school on Saturday, February 8 and 15. Since I teach at a year-round school, we have to make-up snow days on Saturdays. (And tomorrow is our third snow day in a row.) Ugh!

Kitchen/Living Room: Zippy Corn Yellow Chevron No-Sew Curtains

For the last four months, I've been making curtains for 

our kitchen and living room...and I finally finished them this weekend!

This was a big project because I made 7 panels that were extra long (118 inches each) for our 10-foot ceilings. For each panel, I used 3.5 yards of Premier Prints Zippy Corn Yellow fabric ($8.48 a yard) and one package of Heat 'n Bond ($2). I even have enough leftover fabric to make a couple throw pillows for our living room! 

To begin, I rolled out the fabric on our living room carpet.

I wanted my finished curtains to be 118-inches long, 

but I cut the fabric at 122 inches to allow for hemming: 

I used my iron to fold down the edges and then put Heat 'n Bond inside the folds to hem the top and both sides of each panel. I worked my way around the fabric...putting my iron on the edges for 3 seconds at a time in order to bond the fabric together and create a smooth edge. 

Then, I used a pack of curtain clips ($7) to hang each panel. 

Thanks to Tal who hung these curtain rods from JcPenney:

While the panels were hanging from the rod, I used Heat 'n Bond to hem the 

bottom of each panel, so they barely touched the floor:

My curtains cost $32 each, which is a bargain compared to similar curtains online. For example, I could've had custom curtains made by this seller on Etsy for $65 each. These Maize Zigzag curtains from West Elm are $59 for 108 inches:

Curtains are expensive, and I'm happy that I saved $200 by making these curtains myself (versus buying similar ones from Etsy or West Elm). I like how our yellow chevron curtains add some color and pattern to our kitchen and living room!

Backyardigans: Part 12 (Playset Border)

Tal and I worked on Savannah's play area for 2.5 hours today in 20-degree temps, 

and here's how it looks now:

Unfortunately, we were limited by the weather, 

so Tal and I didn't get as much done as we'd hoped:

Savannah and I got a truckload of mulch for $15 from the landscape landfill:

Tal raked the mulch into two wheelbarrows...

...and then I dumped them in the play area:  

Back and forth we went until we finished unloading the mulch an hour later:

Tal and I had planned to put down more landscape fabric, 

but the frozen ground made it impossible to drive the stakes into the ground properly. 

As a result, we weren't able to spread the truckload of mulch today either:

Instead, Tal and I laid out the 16 pieces of plastic playground border 

that we bought online for $25 each:

Then, Tal used a sledge hammer to drive the stakes 

into the ground and keep the border in place:

Unfortunately, however, the ground was so frozen that 

Tal was only able to nail the stakes into the ground a few inches:

It was very cold today with temps 20-25 degrees below normal, 

so Savannah stayed warm by acting silly on her playset:

Fingers crossed the weather is warmer next weekend, 

so we can finish the playset border, put down more landscape fabric, 

and dump another truckload of mulch!

First Snowfall of 2014

On Tuesday night, we got our first snowfall of 2014!

It was just a dusting of snow, 

but it was enough for a 2-hour school delay on Wednesday morning.

Whoop! Whoop!

Savannah and I slept in and then ran outside 

to play in the snow in our jammies before school:

For weeks, Savannah had been begging for snow, 

so I'm glad it finally happened! 

Backyardigans: Part 11 (Mulch Perimeter)

On Saturday, Tal and I started the mulch perimeter around Savannah's playset:

First, we put down landscape fabric for weed control:

Tal cut the fabric to size:

Then, we used stakes to keep the fabric in place:

We went to the landscape landfill and got a truckload of mulch for $15.

Tal scooped the mulch into two wheelbarrows...

...and I dumped them on the landscape fabric:

It took us an hour to dump the truckload of mulch: 

Then, Tal spread the mulch around the play area:

After two hours, we were done laying fabric and spreading mulch:

Weather permitting, next weekend we'll install the plastic playground border...

 ...lay more landscape fabric... 

 ...and spread 2-3 more truckloads of mulch: