It's the little things.

3 months?! Has it been THREE months? Sorry, Mom. :)

I will make a concerted effort to keep my blog more current, not just for the entertainment of the few friends and family members who actually read it, but to better chronicle the evolution of Tara.

I am often tempted to think that doing little things around the house- small improvements here and there- don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. But they do. Making a house your very own is like watching a child grow up. Small things happen every day in the lives of our children that we are prone to overlook because they seem almost mundane or routine. But, with your kids, you blink and- bam- they're running across the room! And the memories of those first steps and countless falls you once thought tedious now seem priceless.

So, to better relish in the little victories in renovating Tara, enjoy the following fall improvements! Curtains, valances, and chalkboard paint (with a magentic layer underneath), oh my!

Well Dressed.

Although for the past 14 months I have been getting dressed either in maternity clothes or just to get spit-up on (I'm not bitter, though- I swear!), I do love fashion. I'm not a trendsetter, but I have to say that I really appreciate the details in a great piece of clothing. Maybe it was the years I spent working at Ann Taylor and Kate Spade, but I can certainly tell a good sweater from a cheap one by the stitching and fabric, and I'll always advise investing in the former. My closet is my temple, and I'm (again with the type-A personality) absolutely militant about going through it every 6 months. Let's suffice it to say that I can be difficult to please when it comes to dress.

With the rush that we had moving into the house this past summer, I didn't really get to take the time I wanted to when we picked out the paint colors (see previous post) or fabric choices. My friend Holly (and Sarah Richardson!) will tell you that when you're re-doing a room or decorating one for the first time you should choose a fabric first and work the room with that as a starter. An idea board is never a bad idea, and while I would have loved to do that I simply did not have the time.

So, I had to backpedal.

I told you before that my MIL (see prior post 'WPJE' for the use of this acronym) is an excellent cook. Really and truely. YUM. Did I mention that she's also an amazing seamstress? (No, Rhett does not have any single siblings and yes, our marriage is just fine.) She offered- get this- to make a shade for each of our bathrooms. All I had to do was pick out the fabric.

Yes, please!

For the main bathroom, I chose a "document" print fabric, and at about $9 a yard, it was perfect. The walls are a brownish-gray and the vanity in that bathroom (see 'You're so Vain' post from September 2010) is a scene stealer, so I needed something to coordinate but not overwhelm. Here's what we got:

The small bathroom between the nursery and the master bedroom was much trickier. How do you find something that pairs well with a soft yellow nursery and a master bedroom, full of greens and browns? Luckily, our youngest daughter's nursery has a bit of an outdoorsy theme, so this amazing fabric (less than $17 per yard) was a perfect match. The colors work well with the bathroom, and the print is a bit whimsical, but still grown-up enough to be used in a bathroom off of the master bedroom. I think it channels John Derian a little, you?

Thanks to my amazing mother-in-law for such goodies! The curtains in these bathrooms make the rooms feel more distinquished and put together, two things that my current wardrobe isn't usually. It's a good thing my bathroom windows are now well dressed, even if I can't be.

What's my line? I'm happy cleaning windows (thanks, Van Morrison).

All you know at this point of the woman who lived here before us was that she once made 4 loaves of banana bread for our neighbors because her oven was falling apart. Not only do I respect that she MADE four different loaves for them to be sure one was edible, but that she TOLD them she did this and presented them with ALL FOUR. I would have tasted each one and then cleverly arranged slices from the good loaf on a plate, never telling them of my baking trials and tribulations. Or I wouldn’t have baked them anything to begin with (flowers, a bottle of wine…there are other neighborly gifts). But what can I say, old Mrs. Hershey was apparently not ashamed of her baking.

Perhaps, rest her soul, she wasn’t ashamed of much as she aged. We can infer this from a number of things- from the smell that lingered in the house of her habitual chain smoking, the stains on the hardwoods in all the rooms from either plants or pets, and from the windows she had let get so dirty I was afraid to come within a foot of them.

Dead bugs, years and years of pollen, dirt and who knows what else had clouded the windows to such a point that I don’t think I noticed a difference after the painters removed the paper from the windows after they painted the trim. I couldn’t see out of them with the paper on or with it off.

I remember vividly sitting in my friend Margie’s living room one night after we bought Tara and staring at her windows, realizing that THIS is how windows should look. Yes, this was during a Bible study and no, I have no idea what was being talked about around me (Jesus?). All I remember is getting in the car with Rhett and saying, “We’ve GOT to do something about the windows at Tara!”

I got an estimate the next day from a small local window cleaner who said he’d do the whole house for a bargain. When he and another man came to clean the next day and left 9 hours later, I had a guilty feeling I should have tacked on another few hundred dollars to their fee. “Mam,” he said. “I’ve been in the business over 20 years and these are the dirtiest I’ve ever seen.”

Yep.

If Mrs. Hershey stopped by the house tomorrow, I have no doubt that she would be impressed with the new clarity of windows. I hope I’d have some banana bread to offer her as well.