You are already doing the best thing you can to find the eggs, watching the momma monarch in action. I have seen some eggs on the top of the leaf, but not many. They mainly lay on the underside of the leaf and sometimes near the flowers of the milkweed. Wish we were neighbors, I would help you look for the eggs. Good luck! Mechelle

I don't think there's a better feeling than when you create something with your own hands and it turns out better than you imagined. It feels good to sit back and take it all in. I upgraded my setup yesterday. I added cross beams on the top and an additional shelf. I'm up to 3 lights now, and I doubt that will be enough. I have some peppers(under the towel) germinating on the bottom. Seedlings are under the lights, while cucumbers, tomatoes, and cantaloupes are on the top. Congrats on the successful DIY project. Hopefully your season will turn out just as good. Tim

Oh, no, you don't need extra panels or pleats or anything if you're not doing a return at the sides! I didn't mean to give you extra work! A single panel will be fine! If you want to get fancy you can even add a bit of piping to the edge. If you don't have a good fabric store where you can buy piping on a tape that you can just pin into your seam and sew when you sew on your lining, it's easy to make one. In case you need instructions: Find a cord that's just a little smaller around than you want the piping to be, Cut a strip of fabric that's wide enough to wrap around the cord plus about 2 inches, and about six inches longer than the valence. Fold the cord into the strip and pin closed (right side out). Use your zipper foot to sew close to the cord, leaving just a little wiggle room (approx. 1/8"). Trim the edge from the cord to the the raw, to the same width as your seam allowance for the valence, so that it's easy to make everything line up. When you put your lining back to back with the valence fabric, the piping goes in between, with the cord inside and the all the edges lining up. Use your zipper foot again to sew your seam right along where the piping is. Because you left a little room next to the cord, your first stitching to make the piping should be covered by the new seam, but it shouldn't matter since it'll be so far above eye level, if you use matching thread to the piping color to make the piping. When you stitch, don't go right to the ends, or unpick it back to where your side seams will be. That way you can tuck the end of the piping up in the seam, tack it in place to the lining fabric, and cut it off. You can trim out the end of the cord within the piping fabric at the end to keep it from making a lump. Then finish the corners and top/rod pocket, as usual. If you want the piping to go up the sides, make it the correct length (bottom plus 2 sides, plus an inch for turning plus 6" for sanity. As you turn the corner when you're basting/pinning, clip from the outer edge of the piping corner, in toward the stitching line, ending a tad before the stitching.

Thank you ljcrochet and a2gemini! I'm curious what everyone's low point was in their remodeling process. Before the remodel, we only had the main faucet.We have a whole house filtration system, but still, it's long ways for the water to reach the sink, not to mention there is a water softener in between. I always wondered how clean the tap water was for drinking. The old fridge did not have a water hookup. Well, last night, everything water related has been hooked up -- the new fridge that has filtered water and an ice maker, as well as an under sink filter and an instant hot that go to a hot/cold drinking water faucet (separate from the main faucet). DH took a glass, got some chilled water from the fridge door, dispensed an ice cube or two, then went to the drinking water faucet. Some room temp filtered water, and some near boiling instant hot water later, he took a couple sips of the mixture and uttered, "just perfect!" This post was edited by mudworm on Tue, Dec 18, 12 at 14:56