"I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths."

~Proverbs 4:11

"Set up road signs;

put up guideposts.

Take note of the highway,

the road that you take ..."

~Jeremiah 31:21

I Love Hot Glue

I've got another little project to show you. One that was waiting for perfection and time I don't have, so it was not happening. I have a chandelier in my bathroom that I love, but have never been happy with the way I hung it. I really wanted to sew one of those cute cord covers and put that over a straight chain. So one day I thought, WWND? (what would Nester do?) Well the answer was easy:

I do know how to sew quite well, but why would I do that when I can spend my extra time with my precious kiddos?! And who is going to get up on a ladder and inspect my sewing anyway?!! I cut a very long piece of extra fabric I had sitting in my "to do" pile, and I glued that sucker right on.

Well, I didn't actually glue it to the chain, but I did fold a little hem and glued that. Then I slipped it right on the chain.
Can't even tell, can you? My one piece of advice if you try this is, try to go light on the hot glue. It's difficult to get the fabric to bunch up naturally if there is too much glue on it.

Sooooo much better.

And here is another lady who is helping me get over my perfectionism:

I have a HUMONGOUS pile of pictures to be scrapped, and it just stresses me out. I thought when I finally got a scrap room to work in, it would get better. But it didn't. So I picked up this book written by Stacy Julian about how she organizes her photos and gets them into books. It totally annihilates the old chronological scrapping method most of us cling to. I really, really, really love this book, and I'm photographing the transformation of my scrap room as I go through this process. I will share it with you once I get a little more work done on it (The "before" pictures are just too embarrassing).

Has anyone else read this book?

Helloooo, is anyone out there?

You are, I know it. Because that is why you guys are such great friends. I've been lame, not posting, not commenting, not visiting. But you people will show up again like you always do. I love ya. My excuses? I started working (earning and not spending -- it's a great feeling), sports x 3 kids, 3 kids period, Mr. Jones MIA at work, vacation, PTO over-commitment, etc., etc., blah blah blah, whine, whine, whine. But now that summer is here I will try to fit a little posting and commenting in here and there.

So I did a little project this morning ala The Nester and her window mistreatments inspiration. This is the window in my laundry room. It's so boring I could fall asleep right there on the spot. I was going to take the blinds down and tack some fabric on instead, but I didn't want to spend any money on upholstery tacks. So I used what I had. I was in Calico Corners Outlet (Oh yeah, I just happened to drive by this store when we were cruising through Amish country in PA and I made Mr. Jones stop) and I saw that their valances/blinds were all on little board frames that stuck out of the wall, so I had an idea.
My blinds stick right out of the door just like CC's valance frames, so I just broke out the glue gun and glued some fabric right on that bad boy.

I glued it across the top and then folded and glued again on the sides, like this:

I used a bigger piece of fabric that I folded in half, and I hot glued the seam so it wouldn't show. Then I hot glued some scrap trim I picked up at CC Outlet. Look at how crooked and imperfect it is.

Then, I just got some big safety pins and pinned the pleats in the back. All done. So easy. So fast. If you look up close you will find all kinds of things wrong with it, but who's going to be inspecting window coverings in my laundry room?!! My family will notice right away, of course, because you know they use this room to do laundry and get cleaning supplies all the time. Not really. I'm glad I didn't wait until I had time to sew perfect blinds. Cuz it would have stayed like the first picture for a few more years.

So the finished product is great because I still have the blinds and can actually close them if I care to. I probably won't though.

Here is something else from my laundry room. I stuck one of those tool peg boards from The Home Depot on the wall to hold my stuff. Apparently you are supposed to put two boards on the wall and mount it to that, but I didn't. I just stuck it right to the wall. I drive Mr. Jones nuts with all the horrible things I do to our walls.

Here's a closeup of the rooster hook that really doesn't hold anything. It just looks cute.

And here's a picture of what my laundry room floor looks like. Just keepin' it real. In case you thought I was clean or organized or something.

I took one more look at the final product, and thought my thrift store lamp might look great in there. A little ambiance while I'm working. I'm worth it.