How To Double Your Money

.......now that I have your attention, I don't mean double it in earnings...I mean double it in spending.  If you read this blog, you may recall that not long ago I mentioned I wanted a new comforter.  I am fully aware that this is a "want" and not a "need."  But I thrive on having a project....and this is my latest.

 Before .....  July, 2009

I had a white quilted comforter that I bought about a year and a half ago....summer of 2009.  I loved it for the looks of it, Chuck loved it for the weight of it. (His words, not mine.)  But it has gotten very dingy. I have washed it a few times and each time it came out smelling fresh and clean and dingy.  And lumpier than ever.  I paid about $150.00 for this white comforter....so if you divide that by about 549 nights of sleeping under it...that works out to be about 27 cents per night.  I'd say I got my money's worth.

So I started looking for a new comforter. 

Long story, short......I found a Cindy Crawford for JC Penney comforter set on ebay that was $125.00 less than it was selling in the store, so I ordered it.  This comforter wasn't the comforter of my dreams, but it had the same floral pattern as our master bathroom wallpaper.....and the colors would work with our walls.  I won the bid, the comforter was delivered. 

And then.....the color that I thought was a bluish greenish muted color in the large floral print?  It was a very patriotic blue.  And the color in the comforter that I thought was more coral?  Barn red.  For most of you, that wouldn't be a big deal.  For Chuck it wasn't even noticable.  For me?  I was twitching every time I looked at it.

Basically, the comforter worked.  But now the ceiling color and the curtains didn't.  Of course they don't work....this is piece mill decorating.   So think, think, think.  I like the pattern.  I like the look.  Chuck liked the weight.  All sales final on the ebay site, so I had to make it work.

I decided to make the curtains work, I would need to make a topper to pull all the colors together.  I found some fabric that picked up that bluish greenish muted color of the ceiling and along with some scraps that I already had, I made toppers for the curtains, a couple of pillows and a throw...pulling in the barn red. Good enough. 

From a distance, there is a hint of that bluish greenish muted color,

 so I made a throw and some pillows to bring that out.

There's that dang patriotic blue flower staring at me. 

Honestly, it would have been so much easier to just live with the dingy comforter...but where's the recklessness in that kind of thinking?  And I could have left the curtains alone....but have you met me?

Now, I'm off to clean up the mess from the tornado that blew through the craft room.