Curtains for a Cause
/I’d like to believe that my last post about curtains was such a sad cry for help that my grandmother felt obliged to intervene. I think it was pretty pitiful, you know, begging for donations for emerald green taffeta and all. I think I’d make a good fundraising case - not Race for the Cure, but rather Curtains for a Cause.
I received an email a few weeks ago from Mimi telling me that she just so happened to be revamping her dining room curtains (lie) and would I like to have the existing ones that she wasn’t going to do anything with (also a lie). Now before you get all mad at me for calling my sweet grandmother a liar, you have to know this about Mimi - she and my grandfather would literally do anything for me and Parker. If that means suddenly deciding that their current dining room curtains would look better in my bedroom, or making a complete bedding collection from scratch - she’s gonna do it. So I have a hard time believing that this dining room redo was a coincidence. Also, Mimi doesn’t waste nice fabric. There is no way she was going to just take the existing curtains down and just put them in a closet somewhere. She’d probably make a dress out of them a la Sound of Music.
So Mimi took it upon herself to remove the beautiful, custom draperies from her dining room and mail it to her curtain-less granddaughter. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
She told me that she had mailed them in two packages - one for the curtains, and one for the pewter drapery rod she was also gifting me.
I should have known that there weren’t only going to be curtains in the box. I know my grandmother wouldn’t consider her handmade draperies enough of a gift. But I had a lapse of judgement. So needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box and was greeted by the following:
- A whole package of vitamins - with information on when to take them and why
- Napkins - paper and cloth
- A Bible - her personal one that she re-gifted me!
- Reading material on how to de-stress - how’d she know?
- Detailed written instructions on how to install said draperies
- And accordion-folded paper pumpkins for Halloween decorating
I think my first post about curtains really terrified Mimi. "You finished almost two years of an Interior Design degree and you just called curtains capri pants".
So I was not really surprised that she gave me such detailed, step-by-step guides for installation. My grandfather offered to ship Mimi down here along with the curtains, and I replied that she was probably small enough to do so without an extra charge. But apparently he needed her back home in Tyler more than I needed my 5’ grandmother to show me up in drapery installation in Houston. Maybe its a blessing in disguise for my ego.
Luckily my parents were in town last weekend and my equally handy father was able to help me set up the curtains. And by “help me”, I mean I sat and watched him work. It was a nice change for once, having someone else do the work in my house this time.
He got them up perfectly in about half the time and with half of the drill holes that I would have made. (I never really listened to the “measure twice, drill once” mantra).
Pretty great, huh? And just think, this all happened because I have a very talented grandmother that would rather make new curtains for her dining room than watch me buy and install curtains incorrectly. My next fundraiser should be for more living room furniture - Chaise for a Change. Or Hangers for Hope, so maybe I can get new clothes out of this somehow. What? I’m not above it.