Monday, November 15

Finding Joy - In Curtains

Despite living here for four years, I have never put curtains up on the ground level of our home. Well, that's not entirely true. Once, Dan hung up some sheers for me in the bay window. The twins pulled them down. It wasn't difficult for the girls to do this. Dan had hung up the curtains using ... wait for it, ladies... thumbtacks!

The lack of curtains never bothered me. I like sitting inside and having an unobstructed view of my gardens. The outside became a part of the inside. I found this to be very relaxing. It brought me joy. What I did not enjoy was when people would walk by our house and wave at me. While I was inside. Having dinner.

I decided that the time had come, and that we needed some curtains for the sliding doors in my kitchen.



 Mum, who was absolutely ecstatic that I was joining the World of Grown Ups, was eager to come along and offer input. Mum is very good at decorating. She has an eye for these things. She has taste, and class, and preference for the finer things in life. Better still, she loves going shopping. I hate shopping.

Mum and I went to about 15 stores over the course of 2 days. In each one, she showed me a million curtains, highlighting accent colours and types of material and other things that I don't really understand. It thrilled her (not really) when I would say things like, "That one looks like a dead fish" or "I'm not THAT old!". It became clear that Mum and I had drastically different ideas about what would look good.

I had given up hope of finding what I really wanted. I had already found a perfectly acceptable substitute. Something that I could live with. Something that would give us some privacy. Although the curtains were nice, they lacked ... joy.

In the last store, I found "joy". Mum was speechless (probably overcome by my excellent taste). We bought the curtains, took them home, and hung them up.

Ta da!



Joy.

And the children like the curtains, too. They like peeking through the curtains.



And "hiding" behind them.



Oh. That's the only fault. They aren't quite long enough! But they don't have to be perfect to be wonderful. And I love them.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for the kind description of my fashion abilities. But PLEASE make it known that I had nothing to do with this choice for dining room curtains! That it was NOT my idea to look in the children’s bedding department for drapes! That the reason that the curtains are too short is because Daniel hung the curtain rod at a purely arbitrary height! That the length can be addressed by Dan lowering the curtain rod two inches on the wall but he has refused the challenge. That I am happy to assist and offer suggestions, BUT none of my suggestions were taken and I am ABSOLVING MYSELF OF ALL RESPONSIBILITY!
Your loving and long suffering Mother

Gwen said...

Mum,

That's not true, we did take SOME of your advice. We ironed the curtains, or rather, we got the iron out so YOU could iron the curtains!

Your very happy and delighted daughter.

SarahK said...

I LOVE 'em! Totally gorgeous, and maybe it's better they don't touch the floor....easier to find the kids!

Gwen said...

I love them, too, Sarah! They really "pop". You should see them at night...from the outside!

Double the Giggles said...

Thumb tacks! Ha! Couuld have been worse...there's always duct tape. Your curtains look bright and cheery, (much brighter and cheerier than the faces of your neighbors at meal time!)

Bibliomama said...

I am TOTALLY in your target demographic -- I LOVE those. And my Mom would hate them. But she would have ironed them. Moms are great. Those curtains are freaking awesome.

Gwen said...

Double the Giggles: Dan reserves the use of duct tape to hang Christmas lights!

Bibliomama: Thanks! Not a lot of people appreciate my good taste (aside from the 5 year old crowd).