Curtains

What do you get when you have 6, 8 foot high windows in the living room? Problems with the sun coming in. Also, when it gets dark outside, I like to have curtains closed so no one can see in. We have been living here full time since March and about 6 weeks ago Mike and I went shopping and found curtain material we could both agree on. Since we have so many large windows, we had to order the fabric, and that came in about a month ago. My parents have been traveling around in the motor home, and my mom had offered to help me make the curtains, so I waited for my mom to have time to help me. We decided on Roman Shades, with a valance, and mom has made several sets of these in the past, so the pattern was in her mind, just had to tweak it for the window size. Luckily, I had made some of these about 4 years ago, so I had a basic knowledge for the materials needed, and thank goodness, I didn't forget anything!! Mom came over Monday, and we made the pattern in our mind, then put it to the test on a cheap bed sheet. Wonder of wonders, it worked the first time around!! We were also doing one more shade, for the office, in a different fabric, so we decided to do that one first. We cut out all the others and sewed the side seams. All the machine sewing done, mom left for the day, and I did the stuff left, adding the wood "bones" of the shade, hand sewing in the rings to guide the strings, putting on the hardware, and Mike had to put the hooks into the top of the window opening. We hung the shade to make sure that it still worked, and it did. I made 2 valances so Mike and I could decide what style we liked best . Mom came back and we spent a half day finishing the shades and all the valances. Mom left and again I finished the shades. After dinner I finished haning them and then sat down and just about died.....I was so tired, and my back ached. But the shades look great, and all my boys are happy to be able to drop the shades and block the sun as it sets. Thank goodness for mom or this project would have taken me about 4 days instead of 2.