Living in a fish bowl

So, moving into a brand new house means that there are absolutely no window coverings. I mean none. So for the most part, we lived in a fish bowl for the first few weeks after we moved in. In desperation to get some window coverings up, I went shopping. As I was shopping, I realized that I was cheap. I mean really cheap. Who would spend upwards of $100 or even more on curtains? I have to cover at least 8 windows for sure (and that's only about half of them). $800? No way Jose. So I went to my favorite place to find cheap long window coverings. Ikea! I got two panels for like $15 on sale and they are 98" long. Perfect right? Wrong. I got home and found out that the top of my window is exactly 98" and we all know (or should know) you do not hang curtains right at the top of the window. You at least want to give it a few inches, if not more, on the top. I'm the kind of person who likes to hang the curtain rod right below the ceiling. It makes the room look that much larger and raises the height of the ceiling (figuratively speaking). Here's what I was going for in our bedroom:

The 9' ceiling line is right above the curtain rod, so the store bought curtains wouldn't do as you can see. Therefore, I used my creative ingenuity (cough cough), trekked myself down to the ol' fabric store and found the same exact fabric as the curtains for $1 a yard. I like the quick fix, so I used the iron on hem tape stuff and voila! Added just a little brown ribbon to hide the seam, and it lengthened my curtains by 10" letting them go from ceiling to a puddle on the floor in just about 30 minutes. This idea works great if you are putting curtains that belonged in another room or house onto a new window and they just don't fit. Just my own little recommendation though, try not to put the ribbon directly in the middle, put it in a more eye pleasing area, such as in the bottom or top third.
Here's the window that I had to cover right away and didn't have the time to make them longer like I did in the bedroom (ugh, it bugs me every time I look at it)
See how its right above the window? Eww! And then I realized that the white curtains I had up were possibly see through at night. So, I put brown ones on top of the white, and whenever I feel like it, I change it to this:
It gives me a little variety. When I get a chance, I'll but something up above it so there isn't a huge empty spot.
Now, Ikea curtains can't work everywhere. So, I went to the fabric store (I spend a lot of time there as you will soon find out) and found perfect fabric for our dining room, on sale of course! It was discounted to like $7 a yard. I needed 7 yards, so it was like $50. As I said, I like the quick fix (although it took me like 2 months to get these up), so don't look at the seams because they aren't sewn but who could tell? No one so far :)
I put these up by folding back the top 5" of the fabric and connecting the middle folded over section with cafe curtain clasps then slid them onto the rod. (I saw that Sarah at thrifty decor chick did the same thing here) . I hate all french door window covering ideas that I have ever found. I don't like the idea up putting the curtains directly on windows in the hour-glass figure shape, I'm also not a fan of putting blinds on my door (although my husband may win on that one and get his way). So, for my solution, I put up normal curtains right under the ceiling and hung this iron piece. I think it looks great. It makes the door look so much more grand than it did before:

I'll post more curtain ideas soon :)