They are the backdrop to way too many of my photos.

You are probably sick of looking at them.

If there’s anything you’d like to know about my striped drapes check out my post at Window Mistreatments today.  If you are tired of hearing about them, click away and we’ll both pretend this never happened.

Did you notice my dog? His personal life mission is to stand in every photo I take and then act all nonchalant about the whole thing.  I have to crop his brown self out of almost every photo I take.

PS, are these extra-large photos annoying?  Would you rather they be smaller?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I wanted to tell you about some up and coming things at Nesting Place.  For the past few months I’ve felt a bit scattered, maybe you noticed.  I’ve been hard at work bossing around the best graphic designer in the business. She’s so good that last year her que for the ENTIRE 2010 year filled up in six, yes 6 days.

Last year I was determined to write a Window Mistreatment ebook.  I gathered ideas from all of you, made a bunch of my own mistreatments and took way too many photos.  But, I hated the process of writing a tutorial based ebook. And it’s not fun to do things you hate.  So, after much thinking I came up with a solution.

I’m starting a Window Mistreatment blog.  We need it don’t we?  Nesting Place will still be the main place where I ramble on and on but, Wm will be a place where I only ramble about window news.  Not to mention feature of bunch of you with your amazing, mind boggling mistreatments.

And, while I was at it, I figured I should go ahead and start the blog for renters. I had first thought that would be an ebook as well.  No, I’m not renting out CONtent.  It’s a place for renters to come and find ideas and encouragement~a reminder to be conTENT with what we have.

You know, I’m kind of tired of gathering all the ideas that I find inspiring over at tumblr.  Wouldn’t it be easier if there were all here at a certain spot at Nesting Place?  Yeah, that’s better.

Since Darcy was busy whipping up some pretty new logos, I figured Nesting Place could use a little pick me up too.  We are a few weeks out still, but I couldn’t stand not telling you any longer.

I’ve been surprised at how much I enjoy writing blog posts.    I’m not promising these sites will be updated daily~actually, I can promise that they will not, but, they will have topic specific content {not conTENT} that will hopefully make it easier for everyone to find the inspiration they are looking for.

I’d love for you to read more about my thought process with starting these blogs over at Stephanie’s blog today. Stephanie is a dear friend with a great blog about social marketing that you should be reading.  She’s like Seth Godin only with a skirt and Anthropologie analogies.  She asked me to write about ebooks for her Content {CONtent not conTENT} Expression series.  So far, Tsh and Annie have shared their experince publishing books in very different ways.  I don’t know a lot about ebooks but I do know my own story and I had a long post about my own ebook endevor that left me wondering if it would help anyone.

me & dad

I mentioned to Stephanie that my dad knows a ton about the future of ebooks and that I’ve learned a lot from him and she asked him to write a follow up post tomorrow.  In my post at Steph’s I talked about four people who helped guide me {whether they know it or not} in my decision process.  Two people who put up with me the most went unmentioned: my husband {the ever encouraging, ever risk taker} and Dad {the thinker, question asker, encourager}.  Nesting Place and these other blogs would not exist if it weren’t for their encouragement and input.   I’ll remind you tomorrow to go read his post.  But, for today, if you want to hear a little bit more of my ebook story {and I get nervous about sharing stuff like that?} head on over to my friend Stephanie’s blog S. Bryant Social Marketing.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

There’s not gonna be a window mistreatment ebook.

Back in December I was trudging right along with working on the ebook.  It was really hard for me to get into writing this in ebook form but, I promised I would have it ready in January and that alone was motivation to kick my working into high gear.  Besides, I had already done the most demanding, creative part, I made some new adorable mistreatments that I can’t wait to show you, took zillions of photos of the steps and all I had left was to write about them, tweak the photos and create the ebook.  Plus, many of you sent in some inspiring photos of your own mistreatments, the ebook was going to have some great information!

Then one night my laptop fell off  a dresser and smashed onto our wood floor.  My hard drive was destroyed and 20,000+ photos instantly vanished, along with my half done ebook.  Nope, I didn’t back stuff up.  Then a few days later my friend lost her home in a fire and suddenly losing my ebook and photos didn’t even seem worth mentioning.

But, I still want to give you the life changing, awe inspiring, unmatched information on the window mistreatments.  So, I’ve been hard at work trying to figure out the best way to get you all of the window mistreatment information you could ever want and more.  And I think I’ve found it.  My goal is to have all the information in one place, online, easy to access, include video, and make it amazing. I’m hoping to have it ready by the end of March but I’m not making any promises.

There’s not gonna be a window mistreatment ebook, but, there will be something better.  Promise.  Thank you all so much for your patience, encouraging me to work on this project and for accepting me even if I don’t sew my drapes.  And for now you can find out everything I’ve written about no sew window mistreatments right here.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I’ve been slaving away at the Window Mistreatment ebook due out in January and I’d love to include some of you who have mistreated your windows. I get emails every week from people sharing their mistreatments and I really love seeing all of your ideas and creations, there are lots of you out there who have mistreated and lived to tell about it.

Here’s what I’m looking for::

FANTASTIC photos of inspiring window mistreatments.  You don’t need to have a blog but, if you do have a blog and have a post about your mistreatments and are chosen to be featured in the ebook, I will link to your post.

Send me an email by next Monday, December 6th and include FANTASTIC PHOTOS IN NATURAL LIGHT of your mistreatments.  I’ll be the first to admit that is is hard to get a good photo of a window.  One of my tricks is to back waaaaaay up in the room and focus the camera on the wall or the floor while still getting the mistreatment in the photo.  This will fool the camera into thinking that you aren’t taking a photo of a bright window and it will take a better photo. Then, go into whatever photo editing you have and crop out all the extra stuff.

See this photo?  It’s the original of the one above, I just cropped it to focus on the window in the top photo.

In order for me to link to a post about your mistreatments, your post needs to have a single topic {that being the mistreatment, and how you made it}.  No one wants a link to a post that shows my great aunt coming home from the hospital after wart surgery and then she shares her recipe for head cheese casserole that happens to mention the window mistreatment I put up.  SINGLE TOPIC POSTS.  This is also a great reminder on how to get linked to on other’s blogs, write about one thing per post and you will up your linkability worth.

So, if you want to submit your window mistreatment here’s what you do::

Email me: nestergirl{at}gmail{dot}com with the words “window mistreatment submission” in the subject line by Monday December 6th.

Include ONE or TWO FANTASTIC photos OR if you have a blog and have written a post about your mistreatments, you can include a link to your post.

Make sure to include any interesting information like the cost or how you used something creative or whatever.

I’ll contact you by December 13th if I can include your submission.

Thank you all so much for embracing my mistreating ways.  I remember being so nervous publishing the first window mistreatment post, wondering if everyone online would laugh at me.  I love that I have found a kindred spirit in you and that we can agree that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

PS Don’t forget the #MrsMeyers twitter party at 9pm EST tonight!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Inquiring minds need to know where I bought my drapes, who made my drapes and if I painted my drapes.  Well, I hate to let you all down but, round these parts, I make my own drapes.  They are called Window Mistreatments because I do it all wrong, I rarely sew, it takes 5 minutes and it ends up looking good enough.  You can read all you want to here at the Window Mistreatment Category.  And after reading how I’ve done it before, I’m sure you can figure out how I clipped up my fabric here. I have yet to be arrested for having unlined, unhemmed drapes.  If I ever do get arrested, I’ll have to come here and raise my bail money.

Every day I get 4 emails asking about the fabric.  I don’t know the name of it but, I purchased the fabric from Mary Jo’s in Gastonia, NC.  The white is a tiny bit off white and the brown has a hint of olive.  Perfect for this room.  I started the mistreatment ebook over a year ago.  I am the worlds biggest procrastinator.

Mary Jo’s like all fabric stores, has a TON of fabric, what I choose had the stripes running the opposite way than what I decided I wanted so, I did have to pull out my sewing machine to make it work.  You don’t have to sew to have horizontal striped drapes~the shortcut would be to simply buy fabric with the stripes going the other way, which is not hard to find.

Updated:  According to Mary Jo’s this fabric has been discontinued, I never found out the name, but check the comments for all sorts of ideas on how to get your hands on something similar.

In other news, yesterday’s comments were fantastic.  They conjured up memories of childhood plants. On the left, Emily and I are taking a backyard garden tour from our Great-Grandpa, I tried to act interested in the vegetables but, I really just wanted to make our way over to the thick row of peonies and pick them all.  On the right we are apparently trying out for the circus.  But see that stick with a few leafs at the end of it?  That was our rose.  I think it bloomed once a year and I was enamored with it.

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Wondering if your room needs a change?  Something I do from time to time is just take down my window treatments {or mistreatments}.  Take them down, live with it for two days–48 hours, this is key.  You will experience one of two emotions both starting with “Oh my word”:

1. Oh my word, this room looks so much bigger, better, lighter {insert any positive reaction} maybe I need to rethink how I’m dressing my windows.

2. Oh my word, this room desperately needs pattern, color {or whatever it was that your treatments were adding to the equation} I can’t wait to get those things back up.

You might even experience a third emotion.

3. Hmm, I kind of like it bright and empty but I still want something up there I don’t know what to do

If you find yourself saying the third sentence–like I was last week when I took mine down, then first put your old treatments back up and take note of your first reaction.  When I put mine up I was instantly happy and once again in love with my yellow and red buffalo checks.  I was surprised at how much I liked them when I put them back.  If you put your old stuff back up and love it, then yippie, keep them around for awhile.  If you put them back up and don’t love them, take them down and start looking for other options.

If you are new here, you need to know about window mistretments–if you are old here, you could teach about window mistretments.

There are many many ways to dress a window without spending thousands.  I call them window MIStreatments:

Mistreatment: (n). covering for a window that is quick, cheap and pretty. may or may not need hardware does not require sewing. a real designer’s worst nightmare.

Mistreating: (v). the act of treating a window with dignity and respect without use of the following: hundreds of dollars, sewing, time, crying, divorce, child neglect…

Here are a few I’ve done

5 Minute Topper: Window Mistreatment 101

Using a Premade Drape as a Topper {just hang it on a rod and hike it up with two ribbons.

Ultimate 3 fabric mistreatments–NO SEW!

Mistreatment Tricks

More secrets–please obey.  Even if you love your current window treatments, if your rod is right above the window casing and all your fabric is covering the window, you are missing out on so much light!  The fabric should not be covering light–let it cover the wall and end at the start of the window!!!!

Rodless panels

And of course the famous red check fold and poof no sew window treatment. {tomorrow it will be two years since I post this–and I’ve had these mistreatments for 5 years!}

Please tell me I’m not the only crazy person who takes down my window treatments from time to time to make sure they are still relevant, doing their job, and most importantly still something I love…you do it too, right?

Some of these posts are from two years ago meaning two houses ago, so don’t get too confused when you see all sorts of different rooms!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Fabric. If I were stranded on a desert {deserted?} island and could only have 5 tools to decorate my tree house, fabric would be one of the chosen tools.

We’ve talked about where to shop for fabric and many of you are asking how to know what fabric to buy for certain projects. An entire blog could be dedicated to this subject, there are so many things to do with fabric and so many seductive and utilitarian fabrics available. I’m sure if you started a blog like that you could write for years without running out of things to talk about.

I struggled with writing this post because part of me feels like people would like a list of rules and regulations for fabric buying. And I really don’t believe in many rules and regulations when it comes to decorating. Nesting and making your home beautiful combines something creative with something personal and who needs rules for that? For every rule there is an equal and opposite exception where someone not only broke the rule, but did so with style and gusto.

Balance the no rules philosophy with the fact that some things truly don’t look all that great together or work out all that well and we are stuck right in the center of decorating tension. Which isn’t all that bad of a place to be. All you need to do is balance some general guidelines with trial and error and personal opinion and you can come up with a stunning result.

Amy Butler

So if you supply the trial and error, creativity and personal opinion, I’ll supply some general, random thoughts and guidelines regarding fabric. The following are not rules.

What to Take When Fabric Shopping:

1. TAKE YOUR TIME! this is highly important. There is no rush. Southern Living is not showing up at your door tomorrow and if they are, girl, you had better hurry!

2. Take your fabric file, it will assist you in coordinating existing fabrics

3. Take a friend she can giggle with you and be moral support

4. Take away swatches. Don’t leave the fabric store without fabric samples to look at in the room where you want to use them. Label each swatch with masking tape {if the store doesn’t do this for you} and write the store name and cost per yard.

Our local store has remnants labeled, they are all 50% off the marked price, a great deal

What to look for

1. For window mistreatments, you want 54 inch wide decorator’s fabric. If you are doing long drapes you don’t want a heavy upholstery grade fabric that won’t hang well. Pull out the fabric on the bolt out a few feet and grab it in your fist and hold it up and see how it drapes. If it’s super stiff, it’s not going to look all that great on your windows. On the other hand if it’s extremely thin, it could look cheap if not lined. Look at premade drapes and take note of the kinds of fabrics used.

2. For recovering dining room chairs you want a thicker fabric. Stay away from silk it will get stained and worn fast. Look for a little thicker fabric and remember, solid colors will show dirt quicker than a pattern.

3. If you sew and want to line your drapes, consider using a twin sheet. For my duvet cover, I used a coordinating sheet for the back and fabric on the front. That saved me some money and time.

my bedskirt

4. My usual limit on fabric is $7 per yard. We have so many great fabric stores in our area that I have figured out it’s worth the wait for me to look around until I find something in my price range. Most of my mistreatments were $5-7 per yard, my duvet cover was $8 per yard, the bedskirt was a splurge at $30 per yard and I even temporarily lost my mind and spent $45 for 3/4 of a yard of french knotted silk. I’m sure if I would have been patient I could have found something comparable for less. But I admit, I adore the fabric. If there is a really expensive fabric that you are in love with, buy a small amount and use it on a pillow or table topper, runner or even a lampshade.

my expensive french knot worth every penny

Fresh Squeezed Fabric

If you are looking for small yardages of luscious coordinating fabric, try out Fresh Squeezed Fabrics and search their fabric bundles. This would be great for a fabric canvas, pillow, ragamuffin garland and various other projects that take small amounts of fabric.

Want to read more about fabric? Guide to Choosing Decorator Fabric.

Remember if you are making mistreatments, keep your yardage price low. If you end up spending $30 per yard and say you will need 3 yards per panel for one window you would spend $180. You would be better off buying from Half Price Drapes or Ballard Designs. Mistreatments are best done when you find super inexpensive fabric or fabric that you already have.

Want more guidelines to decorate by? Read The Best Decorating Advice Ever at The Inspired Room. And if you missed this weekend’s Bird Watching, be sure to scroll down, there are some great projects this week.

What are your fabric tips?

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

Fabric is a luxurious tool. Along with paint, it possesses power that is almost superhero like. Properly place some fabric on a bare window and you can instantly transform the feeling in a room. Mix patterns to fill and personalize a room. Use textures to add interest and depth. Keep to solid colors for a clean cozy feel without interrupting the overall feel of a room.

1. Finding Fabric in Your Town

Yes, Jo-Ann, Hancock, Hobby Lobby and other craft/sewing/hobby shops do sell a little fabric. I’ve purchased fabric from all three of those shops and you can find some nice things at good prices. But if you never step foot in any other kind of fabric store, you are really, really missing out.

You could start by simply googling your city and the words fabric store.

Here’s what came up for Charlotte. You’ve got your Hancock and Calico {if you are not familiar with Calico Corners stop right now and order their catalog: completely inspiring} Midas {large chain in the Carolina’s} and then Boone {no website but one of my favorite shops} Hobby Lobby, Robyn’s–what? I’ve never heard of that!, Front Door {local and small but good remnants} and other stuff. I usually lean toward the local shops.

Right now the best place for me to find fabric at a good price is a little strip mall place called Tony’s fabrics. It’s big, it’s bright and all the fabric is $6.99 a yard. How did I find it? I drove there even though it was a long drive from my house when we first moved here. It was worth it to scope out my new city and see what was kind of fabric cornucopia they offered. Why isn’t it on the list? Here’s the thing, the two best fabric stops in my city, aren’t actually in my city. Make sure you google surrounding towns as well.

Besides googling or pulling your phonebook out of 1986, another way to find the best stores is to ask your friends who sew. These days there are special stores for quilters, hobby fabric stores and more decorator friendly stores. Most likely, if you are mistreating a window, you want to visit decorator fabric stores.

2. Finding Fabric Online

What? Shopping for fabric online? Isn’t that harder than convincing your Mother in Law that you can actually paint brick. {No real mother in laws were hurt in this analogy, mine was totally supportive of our brick painting}. Here’s how I shop for fabric online. Start in the stores. Shop around, find what you like, get a swatch and a manufacturer name {sometimes found on the edge of the fabric, or on a tag on the bolt, or ask the fabriteer (my name for people who work in the fabric store)}. Each fabric design has it’s own name and if there are different colors in the same pattern, a color as well, try to get that too. Most fabriteers will amaze you with their ability to remember a fabric maker and name from even years back.

Once you have the fabric maker and name start looking online. For example. Say you want a P. Kaufmann Central Park Toile. First, just google it. There are lots of places you can find it, right? So, why not start with two online fabric stores and compare. Let’s look at, Fabric.com–which I’ve talked about before. They tend to have great sales and seem quite customer service oriented. Here’s what they have–you can click on the photo to enlarge it:

16.98 per yard plus shipping

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?

I wanted to share this with you so that you can be at the ready when going into some of these wonderful fabric stores! Kimberley just emailed this to me–it’s a play by play of her experience with a fabriteer as I like to call them. Read on, and enjoy…

I simply must share my conversation with the clerk at the snooty fabric store where I purchased my mistreatment supplies!

Clerk (middle-aged, attractive, though not pretty, uptight!!!!): How can I help you today?

Me: I need 4 yards of this fabric (a fabulous animal print that was only $13.95/yard, which is a miracle at this store!!!!!)

Clerk: This is a lovely fabric, what are you working on?

Me: (Here we go…) A decorator’s table skirt and two window treatments.

Clerk: Are you sure 4 yards is enough fabric?

Me: Yes, I believe so. I need 3 yards for the table, and whatever is left will be used for the windows.

Clerk: You don’t know how much fabric you need for your window treatments?

Me: Not exactly, but I’m sure a yard will do the trick.

Clerk: Are you working with a designer?

Me: Yes.

Clerk: Well, what kind of window treatments has she designed?

Me: Upholstery tack valances.

Clerk: Are you using one of our recommended designers?

Me: Nope.

Clerk: Who exactly is your designer?

Me: Nester.

Clerk: Who? I’ve never heard of Nester, and I know all the designers in town!

Me: She’s not in town. She’s online.

Clerk: She’s an online designer? How does she conduct her consultations online?

Me: She doesn’t.

Clerk: Then how do you know what you are doing?

Me: I don’t, I’m just looking at her pictures online and following her step-by-step instructions.

Clerk: I’ve just got to see this. Do you have her website? (She boots up her laptop.)

Me: Go to thenester.com. Yep, there she is. Click on the right hand side where it says window mistreatments. There you go!

Clerk: (After spending several minutes scrolling madly!) Well, these do look nice online, but I can guarantee you they don’t look all that great in person!!!

Me: I don’t know about that! My kitchen and family room look pretty fabulous–And all I needed were some upholstery tacks and unmeasured fabric with rough edges!!!

Clerk: (flustered) I’ll have your fabric ready for you in just a minute. Did you say you needed trim?

Me: Yes.

Clerk: How much?

Me: Oh, I don’t know, lets just eyeball it!

I sometimes feel like some of those women were just waiting to convince me that whatever it was I was doing couldn’t be done without the help of them and a $100 per hour designer. When they ask me what I am doing with what I am buying I’ve learned not to tell them! I’ll just say that my mom asked me to pick up a few yards of such and such for her or mumble something impossible to understand.

I’ll be the first to say that there are some wonderfully, brilliant, encouraging fabriteers/designers out there–let’s hear it for Jennipher {yes, that’s how she spells her name so funky!} at Printer’s Alley–this girl encouraged me to sell my tassels at a local shop! And I cannot forget Debbie out at 1502 she walked me through a purchase of 60 yards of fabric for a COM order! These girls really helped me make some great decisions!

Meaningful, fun and FUNctional {I am funny, no?} have you seen the new Urban Soul Travel Mugs ?