People who live in glass houses... better not walk around naked?

Early Tuesday morning, clad in a nightgown and washing out my coffee pot at the kitchen sink, I found myself face to face with our (luckily not creepy) gardener working outside the window. Suddenly I realized that my curtains, made of thin white fabric and tied back with ribbons, didn't offer quite as much privacy as I would like.
Full of morning enthusiasm (I'm one of those people who thinks, at 8am, that I can do ANYTHING!) I decided that what I really needed was a roman shade. On a trip to JoAnn's before work I found some fabric that matches my dishes and the sort of 1972 vibe of my kitchen, and piled up my basket with $20 worth of black-out fabric and roman shade tape.

When I got home that evening I carefully read the wikihow on making a roman shade, and expressly ignored the directions convinced that I know much better than they do. I've walked enough people through the process from the other side of the cutting counter-- how hard could it be. I'm just going to throw it out there for anyone considering making a roman shade. It's hard. But, after about three failed attempts I finally have a shade I can be proud of, and now I know exactly how to go about the process if I ever want to try it again.
I would try to give directions, but I have a feeling it would do more harm than good. However, I do owe a special shout out to the nice people at Holt Lumber in Upland for trimming the dowels to length for me when I realized that my shade was going to be a mess without them.
Throughout this process I tried to hang the shade about three times. Each time having to wait until the yard was empty, then climbing into the sink in a most unladylike way to attach the shade to the window frame with a staple gun. I sincerely hope that the neighbors didn't see me--- if only I'd had a curtain.

In the end, though,  I am very pleased with the way my shade turned out. It probably cost more than buying one would have, and I did bleed a little it on the back of it, but really, who else has kitchen towels that match their custom roman shade?