the curtains that were!

I'm back with the second installment in my curtain saga...(catch up here if you missed the boat).

So we had our fancy butterfly screws (due to the crummy fibro sheeting the dining room is built out of and worrying normal screws would just pull the wall to shreds), then upon measuring, measuring and re-measuring we realised the screws for the brackets would just be going into studs anyway! Basically I couldn't hang them widey-wide like I wanted to because these curtains were only just going to meet in the middle if we put the brackets on the edge of the window frame (i.e. not about six inches out like I had originally planned). So good-bye fancy butterfly screws, we don't even need you after all.

Up go the brackets. Then we have to measure the rods and cut to size using a hack saw. Because the windows are so wide I had to get two rods per window plus this crazy joiner thing-o. Bobs-your-uncle and rod's are in place.

Up go the curtains. Now, I tried to explain to Mr M that it's 'on-trend' to have extra long curtains that 'pool' on the floor but he just thought it was super dumb. I had to admit they were a tad on the long side, there's 'on-trend' and then there's just plain annoying when you're vacuuming and mopping around them...

I must admit though, things were looking a whole lot better in the dining room, long curtains and all...

But to the sewing machine I must go - hem, hem, hemming! So. Much. Fabric. I ended up cutting 10 inches off the bottom and then putting a one inch hem on them. Let's face it, for some of them I cut too much off (!!!!) and they ended up not skimming the floor. Oops. By this point in the months-and-months-long curtain saga I was over it and just pretty excited to have some curtains hanging, let alone less than desirable length.

Moral of the story? Don't sweat the small stuff, the curtains turned out fine, even if according to my list at the start they don't match up, they are still looking mighty fine! Making our dining room much more homely and cosy like our lounge room.

Happy days :)

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

the curtains that weren't...

I started writing this post and realised this whole curtain saga was reeeeally lengthy. So, to cut a long story short here's part one, and I'll be back next week with part two!

The dining room is basically a big bare box with a table plonked in the middle of it. As described in the farmhouse floor plan it was a later addition to the original house, it used to be the back veranda but was walled in to create this sunroom type arrangement (seeing as though we have this big dining table we use it as a dining room, although our kitchen is big enough to fit a table and chairs in there for dining). The room has massive non-standard sized windows, which I was worried would cost a fortune to have curtains custom made for, mainly because I wanted them to hang really wide to make the whole wall seem like a window. Anyway, here's what I'm working with...

I wanted the curtains to be heavy backed also to keep the heat in, which would mean they would weigh a bit, which would mean I'd need some serious hardware to hold them up and the dining room extension is made out of crummy fibro sheeting type stuff. Boo. I wanted linen-like fabric to tie in with the lounge room (has white curtains with wheat coloured couches). The seagrass rug in the dining room is also a new addition, from Freedom. Basically the curtain saga went like this...

• Want loads of fabric to possibly make curtains. 
• Bought thermal curtain fabric backing at Spotlight for a small fortune in hope of finding perfect curtain fabric sometime in near future.
• Thought these looked pretty good and loved the linen look fabric in the light beige colour, hate tab top curtains though, were miles too long (could easily hem) and possibly not wide enough. Might have to forgo extra wide curtain look.
• Perhaps I could cut off the tabs, fold over the fabric, sew on some curtain tape from Spotlight and use their curtain tracks to create custom Ikea-hacked curtains? Yes yes. Excellent plan! Am genius.
• Sent Mum to Ikea to purchase curtains on next Melbourne trip.
• Got curtains. Realised that brackets that come with them will not be strong enough to hold hefty weight once I sewed on (expensive) backing fabric I had previously purchased. 
• Decide that the look of exposed curtain tracks is not the go anyway (one's in lounge and bedroom have pelmets hiding this). Perhaps a nice classy curtain rod would be the go? Yes. 
• Decide these are lovely in white. Then realise they aren't long enough for our widey-wide windows. Doh. 
• Discover that Ikea has this nifty jigger. Interesting prospect. Send Mum again on Ikea mission. None of the right curtain rod lengths in stock. Mum goes back and forth to Ikea/Melbourne over space of five weeks until they get the right combination in stock. Yes, she is awesome. 
• Finally get curtain rods and curtains together for a meeting. Decide I will have to get over my tab top phobia. At this point I am beyond caring. 
• Also decide that the backing might make us roast even more in our cosy lounge room. Scrap the backing idea. Can't find receipt to return expensive backing fabric. Consider selling it on ebay. Weighs a ton. Bugger it.
• Right, we're going to put the brackets up. But into this crummy fibro sheeting stuff not sure if it's going to fall apart/crumble so need to get fancy butterfly screws....(and chaos ensues on the dining room table as you can see).

Stay tuned for round 2 of Emma vs. Curtains...

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

a very brindabella christmas

To say that I was excited to finally have a Christmas tree in our home was an understatement. If you can remember in previous years I have had to make do with a few spraypainted gumtree branches in a vase for a Christmas tree of sorts, mainly due to a severe lack of space in the cottage where we used to live. But this year? Oh no this year we live in a full-blown, proper, adult size house!

I wanted our Christmas decorations to be homely and feel like they suited us, so burlap was definitely on the cards (come on, we're potato farmers!) as well as lots of natural linens to go with our new curtains and couches in the lounge, kraft paper and bakers twine for the gift wrapping and a few pops of traditional red.

The stockings are made from burlap with a little linen tag which reads 'love' and are stamped in red with our initials: Emma, Matt and of course Tessa! The bunting banner is made from natural and red linen with a cream crocheted edge and reads 'peace'. I re-purposed our traditional wreath (which you may remember from last years Christmas at the cottage) to hang above our highly attractive old oil heater which I affectionately call 'The Vulcan'. This blast from the past heater is hopefully going to be ripped out and we want to re-instate an open fire if possible. We will have to get the chimney checked, but fingers crossed by next Christmas we will have a much prettier scene once we come up with a solution for those hideous bricks and tiles in front.

Our Christmas tree I decided to put in the corner of the dining room, so we can see it from the couch at night with the twinkling lights on. I was a bit worried that it might dry out and die quickly from being in this room with the giant windows but with the crazy wintery weather we've been having this has hardly been a problem!

The tree itself we bought off the local soccer club which sell them as a fundraiser each year. Can't wait to get some new curtains for this room and give it a lick of paint!

The decorations were all mostly Etsy sourced - natural twine and red crochet stars which I would have loved to make myself (note to self: learn to crochet in 2011), I am in love with the burlap, white and linen ragged balls and there are also some clay tags in there somewhere reading 'ho ho ho' and 'sleigh bells'. The white baubles I bought locally and the very crooked angel is an Etsy find, which I love as it is made out of a corn husk. Clever and agricultural! Perfect for us. Now if only it would sit straight on the tree...



My three French hens were also vintage Etsy finds (and are actually quails but hey), after Christmas they are going to either stay on the mantle or fly away over to the built-in bookshelf on the opposite lounge room wall. I painted the backing board of a wooden picture frame that we already had with chalkboard paint, in the process covering my engagement ring with black goo! Add some candles, some whtie peonies in one of Mr M's Dad's old milk bottles and there is our very first Christmas here at Brindabella.

Merry Christmas!

{ Weekend wonderings, some roses and perhaps a tablecloth? }

This Saturday it is a drizzly, bleak day here on Ythanbrae. I feel winter slowly creeping closer. Luckily the house is still reasonably warm without having the fire lit yet. We are trying to delay lighting the fire as I know it will be on constantly until at least October (I feel the cold a lot.) 

After scrubbing this little cottage from back porch to bathroom to stove I was lying on the couch having a lazy Saturday afternoon moment, but something was bothering me. Out of the corner of my eye it is just teasing me - that is, the big blank wall space next to our dining table. We used to have this big print in that space. But after we painted last year we decided we were a bit tired of it. It used to hang in Mr M's city apartment when we lived in Melbourne so had been around for a good few years. We haven't really committed to nailing in another hole in our precious freshly painted surface. But perhaps now is the time? I know I want it to be something good though. If only I could think of what...

I would also like a pretty tablecloth for our dining table. It's black-brown seems to drag the space down a bit, I'd like it to be a light more 'fresh' area. Any tablecloth suggestions? I have been looking at the ones from Rhubarb. I found out in my investigating that my beloved Rhubarb is winding down it's homewares section to only stock children's homewares/clothing etc.

Oh and the roses. The roses. Well they are from my little garden, the last blooms I think before the hibernation of winter. And the Ken Duncan photograph of Craig's Hut in the Victorian High Country I gave to Mr M for his 18th birthday, not realising at the time that we would one day live together! I hate it but he loves it, it used to live above our mantlepiece but I have relegated it to this wall. Compromise.

Meanwhile, stop looking at me blank wall...

{ Images by Little Miss Emma }