Minnie, none of their designs are covers. They're all the satin ornaments- you put beads on a pin, and stick the pin in the ornament. Click on the link (in blue, at the bottom of my post above). China- yeah, beads and beagles don't mix. Don't ever leave your bead boxes open!! The pictures (imbeded in the post) are all mine. And i did all of those on my own, after doing following the directions for a different one. I got tired of their design pretty quick, and changed counts and stuff to come up w/ my own designs. Glad you guys like them! If you have more q's you might have to email me, if i don't answer you back pretty quick, i don't hang around here too much (i'm a garden junk junkie!). The first one (Green Giant) was the easiest to do, but everyone loves it the most. It was easy cuz the ladders are not embellished. The 3rd one i hate- i used irregular beads, hoping for a more textured look, but i'll never do that again. Forget the irregular beads (if you can look closely, it's the white ones, called silk beads cuz of the color- DON"T buy them!). I cna't find the directions for theoriginal one online- i got it out of Bead and Button magazine. If you google for Beaded Ornament Covers you'll find all kinds of stuff- that's what i did when i started doing my own. If you're into beading at all, these are really simple. You need to know the ladder stitch, and be able count beads (don't laugh, it gets hard! And it sucks when you have to recount them! I've figured out a trick for that tho.). Oh, you have to have time too. But total cost on these is about $5-$10 depending on the type of beads you use. I'd be happy to send you directions and/or put together a kit if you would want. I dont' want to get sent to Disney here, so send me an email if you're interested. Angie

Spike sent me to Disney when I was very new to the forums, and it was traumatic, to say the least. I had mentioned another forum, and zoooooom, there I went. I begged, groveled and pleaded to be allowed back, and asked what I had done wrong. The reply was, "Who do you think pays the bills, the tooth fairy???" Well, after a couple of days, Spike allowed me to return to the KT.

I'm going through that right now. She's a neighbor which makes it worse. This woman calls me every day on the phone expecting to chat for an hour or two or three. My handset has a speaker so I just let her talk away while I clean the house. Nothing I hate more than a person who talks AT me instead of TO me. Have you met people like that? You start to appreciate there is an art to conversation when you meet people who don't understand that it should be TWO WAY! She talks, I listen. I have no sympathy for her problems because she's so self-serving. Has no interest in my life. Day after day she calls mostly to repeat what she said the day before. She lives alone. Talking on the phone is her favorite pasttime whereas when I'm bored I turn on the TV or get on the internet. When I tried to ween her off of me by not answering the phone she started calling at odd hours like 10pm or 9am in an effort to catch me. She would even show up at my door if I didn't answer the phone after a couple days. I can't not ever answer her calls or she'll think I've died or something so now I "return her phonecall" with an email. She hates email because she can't monopolize the conversation and you're in control. That's what I recommend you try. Don't answer her phone call, instead reply by email so you're still being polite. With a properly scripted email you can impart a message without being overtly rude. Doesn't require brutal honesty. The shorter the response the quicker she'll realize you aren't interested in her. If I'm not home when my neighbor calls she'll have a conversation with MY ANSWERING MACHINE! She doesn't just leave a message she will talk until the machine cuts her off. DH laughs that even the machine can't listen to her for very long. She's the only person who has ever run the time out on my machine. A couple of times she's run the battery down on my handset because she's talked so long. I thought we had been disconnected but a slow walk to the other end of my house to pick up another receiver revealed that we hadn't. I just wanted to call her back to explain I didn't hang up on her when I realized we hadn't been disconnected. She was still talking! Completely unaware that there was no one on the other end. Didn't matter a bit to her. LOL The problem comes when people are too dense to pick up on "social queues". Those are the ones we all loathe because they force you to act in a way you'd rather not ...rude, curt, or the bearer or the silent treatment. But when polite hints fail you do what you gotta do!

annie, measure twice, cut once! ditto! i love to sew and make all of my own window treatments (except for one pair of drapes I found at Ikea of all places). I second Annie's caution to check out if you like sewing first....but that said, there are a lot of different levels of sewing. you can make drapes without ever sewing these days. you can use fabric glue for seams (only with thicker material as it shows through on silks and other lightweights) and rings with clips for the tops. I like thick drapes out of silk taffeta, which is really expensive, I couldn't afford these drapes if I bought them pre-made! You can get fabric pretty cheaply online or super cheaply if you live in LA or NY (LA fabric district is an addiction). the measuring and cutting is the toughest part of sewing for me. you need to talk to someone about your project, make sure you are leaving room for seam allowances, etc. I use my dining room table or floors for cutting. It's tedious work sometimes if you have a ton of cutting to do (my living room drapes involved 14 yards of silk taffeta--so you can imagine what my back felt like-- LOL). I love making my own drapes and think if you are so inclined, you will have a lot of fun making them and get something custom made that suits you perfectly. However, if this all sounds like too much, there are plenty of places that offer affordable drapes-- you just have to be patient because you might need to do some looking. good luck!