Let there be...mud?

In Arizona, when you have more land than your typical track home, most times you irrigate your yard with flood irrigation.  Before visiting Arizona and then actually moving here 14 years ago (wow! where did the time go??) I had never heard of flood irrigation, let alone had I ever seen it.

No - we didn't have a flood, we irrigated.  And the picture above was only after about 25 minutes, we still had 35 minutes to go.

Our neighbor behind us irrigates his jungle yard for 3 hours at a time, the most out of anyone in our little community.  Needless to say, his water overflows into our yard with the help of the gopher highways in his yard.  So before we even opened our irrigation ports, we had water.

This is what our ports look like after we opened them - almost like a small geyser erupting from the ground.  We laid down grass seed last week and since most of our land is dirt, we only irrigated for an hour, which was just the right amount for our first time.

Kind of fun seeing the water flowing in from two sides in our back yard.  It didn't take too long for the water to spread all over our yard.

Kids 2 & 3 enjoyed watching the process.  However, I regret sending kid 3 out in her brand new white shirt...

"Hey mom, look!"  Sarah had the best time yesterday playing outside and in the water.

I just loved this shot of her boots and dirty bum.  It wasn't long after this picture the poor girl was stripped down to her diaper.  I'm sure my neighbors were just thrilled to have an almost 2 year old waddling around in a muddy diaper.

And, yes, we did get a dog!  I'll post more about her later, but even she was enjoying the day!

Enjoy the rest of these photos!

"Mom!!!  Help!!!"

The three kiddos.

Wait...Lakefront property?  No, just irrigation in the backyard!

Time for some curtains for the master bedroom

Last week I showed you the state of our master bedroom.  Remember our trendy paper blinds?  How could you forget?  Just in case you did forget, here's a little reminder:

It's not like it's horrible - it just still needs some love.  I'm a big fan, no, HUGE fan of sewing your own curtains.  For me, there are some benefits that outweigh purchasing drapery panels from a store.

1.  You get the EXACT fabric you want.  No more telling yourself what the store has will be just fine.  No more talking yourself into loving them.  When you find the RIGHT fabric, you just know and it's love.
2. You get the EXACT length you want.  Funny how not all windows are made the same size.  When you sew your own curtains, YOU decide how long the panels are.
3.  You get the SATISFACTION of knowing you've created something lovely for your home.
4.  You can COORDINATE other fabrics however you want.  You are no longer TIED to what's in stock at the store or online.
5.  You can LEARN a new skill.  Sewing curtain panels is not brain science.  Or is that rocket surgery?  Whatever.  It's pretty much stitching straight lines on a machine and then doing a little bit of ironing.

So, all that being said, I've been looking at fabric for curtains for the master bedroom, here are the fabric choices I've got pinned to my bedroom wall.

My plan, at the moment, is to do valances in the bedroom with some sort of natural fiber blinds that can be pulled up and hidden behind the valances during the day.  Remember I said I wanted natural light?  Well I'm sticking to that story.

Below are the fabric choices I'm currently considering.  I like them all for various reasons and when looking at the picture above, I think any of them would look good.

What's your favorite of the three fabrics?  I'm still on the fence about them and not leaning any particular way at this point.