Home Improvement: Pay no attention to the mess behind the curtain!

We have a walk-in closet.  Until tonight, walking in was an ordeal, though!  The closet is not a lot deeper than the door, so we had to open the door (which opens inwards, idk WHY...), slide in sideways, and close the door in order to reach 3/4 of the closet space.  Not.  Convenient. 

I saw an idea a few months ago on a blog (I'm so sorry I don't remember where--I was doing a LOT of searching when I was toying with the idea of starting my own.), and it kinda stuck with me.  I talked it over with my loving husband, who was about as annoyed with the closet door as I was, and we decided that it would be quite helpful.  We took the door off its hinges (!!!) and hung a curtain!

It was not easy to find a curtain that we thought was pretty, fit in with our current decor, and didn't cost a bit much.  Then... we decided to walk through this nifty store near the Dayton Mall called "The Christmas Tree Shop"--which has no Christmas trees this time of year.  I've never really seen a store like it, and I'll have to tell you all about it later.  Suffice it to say, I was SHOCKED to find a beautiful red curtain panel for $12.  We bought a cafe rod with hardware for about $3 at Walmart.  

Here is our fantastic, space-saving, sanity-saving $15 home improvement project:

And, I did do some rearranging (especially of my diabetes supplies--those things get out of control so easily!) and cleaning up.  It is so much easier to know where to put things for convenience, since the WHOLE closet is convenient now!  Here's a peek... the color is way more accurate in the above picture than in this one, and I have a lot more clothes than you can see.  Still in winter-to-spring transition!  :-)

Less than 10 hours into spring break, 1 project down!  

Always,

Katie

A bracelet, some disclosure, and a request.

I made this for myself in the waiting room while my sweet husband had his wisdom teeth taken out.  Grey is the awareness ribbon color for diabetes awareness, and I have had Type I diabetes since I was 12 years old.  My choice of grey pearls, however, has another, kind of tongue-in-cheek, meaning.  I also have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and ultrasounds of the ovaries of women with this problem often look like they are bordered by a string of pearls (actually, many small cysts).  So, with this one bracelet, I get the opportunity to bring awareness to two personal medical struggles.

Now for the disclosure and request: I have had a rough week.  Besides some things going on with my husband's job that are disheartening, one of my cysts went crazy.  It evidently grew to more than twice the size of my ovary--not nearly the largest I've heard of, but large enough--and started pressing on some stuff that caused a LOT of pain. I spent Friday in bed, crying, and we spent the evening in the emergency room (at Kettering hospital, and got AMAZING care... that's my plug).  Now, I'm on pretty high-powered pain medicine while I wait to get into a doctor for follow up.  

Please, would you pray for us?  For my pain and cysts and for my husband's job (he's a teacher in Ohio...)?  And... would you please remember this blog even if I don't post much for a while? ;-)  Thanks so much...

Always,

Katie