noodle bead curtain

Now that I am a mom and Lucy is getting older, I am SO enjoying incorporating kid friendly design into our house. While it may not be for everyone, I find so much joy in decorating and accessorizing with things that make Lucy happy and bring a little fun into each room- I've got the rest of my life to be serious about decorating! Recently I had the idea to make a colorful beaded curtain completely out of pasta noodles. I thought it would be a fun accessory for the hallway and the perfect project to work on as a family (hello sorting, colors, counting and stringing beads). 

You might remember in the past that I painted noodles but this time around I needed so many noodles so the easiest technique was to dye them.

I filled ziplock bags with noodles, dropped about a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring.

I zipped up the bag and shook everything up until all the noodles were soaked in color (the longer you leave them in the bag the more saturated color you will have).

I quickly got pretty bored with the 4 colors of food coloring so I pulled out my Dylusions Ink Sprays (I have tons of colors) and add a few drops and came up with all kinds of fun colors!

I let the noodles dry in the sun all day.

Once they were dry Lucy and I sorted them by color.

Then we got busy beading! It took a while but we worked on beaded strands here and there over a couple of days and finally made enough to make a simple curtain.

The last step was to create the curtain- I tied all the strands to a tension rod that we hung in the hallway. 

So far the curtain has been a big hit! Lucy's been playing all kinds of silly little games when she walks into the hallway. And even though they are just noodle beads, I am LOVING the color it adds to the hallway!