You told me in the comments that I should try the clips.

So I bought the clips. They were on sale. And I had a coupon. So the clips ended up costing me cheap dollars and discounted cents.

Then I re-hung the curtains. I still need to add one more little clip thing to each panel, but that’s a minor detail.

And I am here to tell you: the clips have made all the difference.

I am forever grateful.

And maybe just a little bit obsessed with opening and closing the curtains VERY rapidly.

The end.

I’ve been meaning to hang curtains in my dining room for a sweet forever. I didn’t want anything elaborate or fancy or complicated – just simple panels – but I knew that they were probably going to have to be made by somebody else because, well, I don’t sew. Unless you count those six cloth napkins with gapped seams that I managed to put together back in 2001, of course. They were a real treasure.

This past spring I actually saw some curtains that I loved at World Market, but I didn’t buy them because, well, I just didn’t. I also looked at fabric a couple of times over the summer – even thought about the possibility of doing some mistreatments – but I couldn’t commit.

The draperies, they overwhelmed me.

A couple of weeks ago I was in World Market with Sister in Nashville, and I remembered the curtains I’d seen several months before. I walked over to the window treatments section, looked around for a second and then I saw them – just as cute as I remembered – ONLY NOW ON SALE. I was intrigued.

When I got home I kept thinking about those World Market curtains and how they might be just the thing to add some warmth to my dining room. After all, I’d discovered them a while ago, but the magic was still there. The thrill wasn’t gone. And since I’d set aside some money for house stuff and still had a little left over, I knew I could swing the curtains purchase without breaking the bank. Plus, curtain rods were also on sale, SO CLEARLY THE LORD WAS IN ALL OF IT.

Now normally my spiritual gift is to overthink things to the point of complete inaction, but since I’ve been shielding my eyes from the morning glare in the dining room for about four years, I figured that it was time to commit to either the curtains or some blinds or maybe even a big ole sheet. And that is why, after seven whole months of thinking about the various and sundry window treatment-related possibilities, I marched (okay. drove.) right over to the World Market and bought me some curtains.

I KNOW.

And guess what?

I love them.

(However, I should probably make the Martha-esque disclaimer that I don’t LOVE them LOVE them! I just really like them! Because you love God! You love people! But you don’t love things! Unless it’s a jacket from Steinmarts! I mean, it just stands to reason! Their jackets are perfectly beautiful! And so handy if you need a light sleeve!)

The curtains really do add so much color to the room, and they make me smile. So I’d call that a win.

The only drawback? The length on them isn’t exactly right because the molding around our windows interfered a little bit with the ideal height for the brackets, but I’m not nearly as interested in perfection as I am in the fact that I FINALLY GOT SOME CURTAINS. Eventually I may add a little piece of coordinating fabric or trim to the bottom, or I may not. There’s just not a bit of telling.

So there you have it. I can now check one more item off of my to-do list – which means that the DVR and I are about to have a marathon catch-up session. It’s time.

(I’ve missed you terribly, 30 Rock and Survivor.)

(The curtains and I will be there soon!)

So this morning we went to the pool about 10:30, hung out there until about 1:00, then went to the grocery store(s) and finally got home about 2:00.

This is all riveting information, right?

But my point is that I was away from the computer for a chunk of the day, so when I sat down to read all of your comments after I unpacked the groceries, my decorative wheels were a-turnin’. I just can’t thank y’all enough for all of the great suggestions. I read every single comment, looked at the links you left, gained a whole new understanding of the vast array of wall vinyls that are now available (I HAD NO IDEA) and learned what “quatrefoil” means.

The internet is just a wonder.

One of the first comments I read suggested a black and white print over the bed – maybe something with trees to mimic the leaves on the pillows. And since I am a person who is just a teensy bit obsessed with trees, that idea really resonated with me. So did the comments where people suggested that I add a third leaf pillow to the bed and maybe throw a little more brown in the mix. And I loved the idea of monogramming the smaller white pillows – I’d never even thought of that.

Well.

By the time I finished reading the comments, I was certain that a third leaf pillow was my destiny. So I grabbed my keys, told the young’un to hop in the car, and headed to Home Goods. Again. For, like, the 46th time in 10 days.

But do you know what? They had another leaf pillow. THEY DID. And they had a cute brown pillow that I thought would add some color and texture to the increasingly elaborate stunt pillow arrangement. (By the way, in the comments for the last post, Bailey’s Leaf asked me if stunt pillows were a Southern thing. I told her that, as a general rule, Southerners think that if you don’t have to WORK to get in your bed at night, you don’t have enough pillows on the bed.)

Anyway, after I got the (home) goods, I came home and introduced all the pillows to each other. They were fast friends. And see? It’s all very different now.

That third pillow was critical, y’all.

And here is my husband trying to figure out why in the sam hill a pillow would have sequins on it.

I’ve never seen him more perplexed than he was in that moment. He turned over the pillow a few times, then looked at me and said, “Really? REALLY?”

Yes. Really.

Finally, a few of y’all asked where I got the stuff for the bed. I got the comforter set at TJ Maxx (comforter, shams, three small pillows), and the leaf pillows are from Home Goods. If you look really closely you’ll see that the blues don’t match exactly – the leaf pillows have a little more green in them – but I loved everything together so much that I just couldn’t make myself care. It blends. I’m fine with that.

Hopefully I’ll get some more stuff on the walls this weekend, and I’m sure I’ll also spend some quality time obsessing over my black and white photograph options. The fun never stops!

Have a great weekend, y’all.

When we moved in this house we put our bed in front of the windows in our bedroom.

I liked the set-up for several reasons: 1) you were facing the foot of the bed when you walked in the room 2) the leaves or branches or whathaveyou looked really pretty as a backdrop when the blinds were open and 3) I didn’t have to worry with hanging anything above the headboard.

Because here’s the thing: I’m no good at hanging stuff. It stresses me out. I feel like I never know what to hang, and then when I finally figure it out, I have no idea if I’m hanging it too high or too low or if the thing is too big or too small. Are the colors too bright or too subdued? Do I need a grouping or is the one thing okay?

The choices, they overwhelm me. Which is why I typically just stare at the wall for 15 minutes, then fix myself a diet Coke and some Cheez-Its and settle in for an episode or four of House Hunters.

And yesterday, I spent a good portion of the afternoon walking in the bedroom, staring at this, and then walking away.

The bed is on a different wall now, mainly because we can use the space in the room so much better when the bed’s not hanging out by the windows. But oh, all that wall space – it intimidates me. I keep thinking that maybe a grouping of plates would look pretty there (all my favorite home decor bloggers are wizards with wall groupings of plates and platters), but I don’t really have a collection of plates and probably wouldn’t know the right way to hang them if I did.

I know that I could get a big canvas and let everybody pitch in and paint it and then hang it there, but we’ve sort of run that route to death in our house. I love the clean look of the new pillows and stuff, but because they’re not quite as overtly traditional as what we had, I can’t seem to figure out my decorative direction.

So.

Plates? Platters? A photograph? Sconces? A wagon wheel? An old chair?

I’m only sort of kidding about those last two things.

Because I’m very desperate.

The end.