As promised, here is what we did with some of that fabric I bought last week. I am amazed by what that Nester can do with a hot glue gun and 5 uninterrupted minutes. Here is what our half bathroom looked like before we moved in.
Notice the custom made cornice board over this window. They were on nearly every window in the house.
And here it is today.
We haven’t changed the floor, the tiled wall or replaced the counter top and sink. I have begun to clean the grout on the floor in the far left corner, but I can only do it in small chunks. There is a lot of grout. We also haven’t gotten around to replacing the clam shell toilet seat, either. Though after seeing it in a photo, it has climbed several spaces on the priority list. But don’t you think it looks better already?
The fabric on the window was $5/yard and I had 4 yards of it. The ribbon was about $3 for the spool. The hot glue stick was about a penny. And The Nester, well…she works for 2 large pieces of chocolate cake. She did this window mistreatment in about the time it took me to walk upstairs, and take 1/2 a shower.
Here’s what I did with the leftover fabric. This one I actually did myself, though you and I both know where the idea came from.
See how hard that was? I already had that little tension rod and all I did was drape the fabric over it and fluff. Too bad our A/C vent is under that counter top. Who needs to be cool when you can be cute?

Thank you all for your encouragement on the baby steps I’ve been taking with the extras in my home. You will be glad to know my sister has arrived in town and she has been encouraging as well.
Here are the stems I talked about yesterday. This is what happened when Emily walked in the house from Hobby Lobby. I saw a vase, I put them in it. Done. I kind of knew it was not the right size, but I didn’t have anything smaller and wanted to get a feel. The Nester pointed out that they actually don’t look bad there, but the vase is a bit too tall for this space: tall lamp, tall vase, tall lamp. Too much tall.

So this is what happened when The Nester came over and saw what happened when Emily walked in the house from Hobby Lobby.
She got out the glue gun and went to work.
And she shot out all that hot glue all over my black hat box that had been on my bookshelf. I had also bought those green things when I went to Hobby Lobby. Again, didn’t know what to do with them, but thought they might come in handy with stems.
Turns out I was right.
The key to this project is to buy what you love. Buy what looks real. And buy a lot of it. I did all that right. You don’t have to know exactly what you are going to do with it all. If you love it, you will use it.
Or you will get your sister to use it for you. Either way, you win. Or in this case, I win. And I feel a lot more confident on what to do with stems.
So much better. Stay tuned for what we did with that $5/yard fabric. I will be using the term “we” very loosely from here on out, just so you know.

Thanks for all your ideas about the gas logs vs. real logs fireplace question on my last post. It helps me to hear from you who have had both, as well as you who have strong opinions on the matter. If you have any more ideas, I’d love to hear them.

As I said before, the man loves to make a real fire and I like to look at a real fire. But a wood burning fireplace is useless to me without a man. They should sell fire-making men along with the logs at the grocery store for when the man of the house is at work. I guess they kind of do. They’re called “gas logs”. I am an embarrassment to my gender.

In the meantime, I did a guest post over at Nesting Place today. Her computer is still on the blink, but she wanted to be sure people had a nest to read about even if it wasn’t hers. I showed some photos of the nursery, although I’m not sure I can still call it that since our baby is now two.

Oh well. I’m just glad I finally had a reason to use “on the blink”. It’s gonna be a good day.

Consider this a bird call for all you birds who love The Nester. In the middle of her Tour de Rental 2008, her computer came down with a chronic illness. She asked me to post a note to her readers on her blog, which of course I did…adding a little link of my own because I’m the little sister so what did you expect?

Since I am the keeper of all things Nester for at least another 24 hours, I decided to take one of her commenter’s advice and post a few updates of my house that maybe Chatty and Nester readers alike can enjoy. Besides, since she was posting house photos this week, I’m keeping with the theme.

Let me start by saying I’m the worst at remembering to do this. We’ve been at this house for 2 months and still, no finished fireplace wall to show. Some of you have reminded me, saying “HEY! We wanna see that fireplace wall!” Nicely, of course. Well, today is the day. After all, you helped me get there. This was our living room before we moved in. Remember all that brown paneling?I’ve posted about this room a few times. I asked for your help in knowing how to paint it here. You can see the progression if you follow that link. This is what it looks like now, complete with a cute little four year old girl coloring on the floor.

It is hard to get a feel for the wall color here, as I didn’t use my flash in this photo. It is Tobacco Road. Here’s a closer view to give a better idea.

This is the room where we do life, for the most part. The Nester came up a few weeks after we moved in and did the mantle, basically. I took the suggestion of many of you and removed the doors from the built-in shelves.

We haven’t decided what to do with the fireplace. It is wood burning now and that’s what we’ve always had. The man loves to build a fire and I really like having a real one. But we have a guy who has offered us a great deal to run a line for gas logs. It would be nice to flip a switch and have fake fire. Any thoughts? Real or fake?

As soon as I find the boxes containing all my favorite hardback books, I will put them on some of those shelves. For now, it’s fun to look at all the black and white photos of the family.

Speaking of photos, this is the wall opposite the fireplace wall. I love having a table in the family room, as our house was built in 1963 and the open floor plan was not yet invented. So our kitchen is at the other end of the house. But having a table helps it seem more hang-outy. I’ve started a photo wall of white frames here that I may add to as time goes by. I can’t get enough of the white frames.

Thanks for stopping by to peek into my world. I hope those of you who flew in from my sister’s place got your nesting fill for the day. Here’s to hoping she comes back soon.