More Than I Can Chew...

Right...I've abandoned the blog - it's been crazy around here! I'm back now, at least for a bit.

I spent some quality time with Freda (John's mom) this weekend - in my infinite wisdom, I'd decided to make our own curtains so we could save a little money. I hadn't really thought this through, though...I'd picked out and purchased fabric and lining, but I only had sort of a vague idea of what to DO with it. Yeah, I can sew dice bags and skirts and little stuff, but curtains are big and complicated and if you mess them up, everyone can see them.

We worked on them all day Saturday and Sunday and got to 6pm Sunday evening with one set of curtains, mostly done. I have to do the tab tops this week but we've done the lining and the hems (bloody complicated!) and the seams up the side. And the ironing. Ugh.

My mother-in-law is a saint...she looked at the carnage on Sunday evening and said, "Ok, you're not proud about these, right? Can I make the rest of the curtains? MY way?"

"Erm, yeah, that would be awesome."

I'm feeling a bit sheepish. I felt better when I talked to Mom, though...she reminded me that when she made Edward and my duvet covers and matching window valence thingys it took her WEEKS of wrestling with the fabric and the pattern repeats (I HATE pattern repeats) in order to get them right. Granted, the duvet cover she made is amazing and all the flowers DO match up. I guess I have nowhere to go but up...

Speaking of flowers and Freda, she presented us with some gardening stuff on Saturday evening (we cooked them dinner after all the curtaining). Two big plastic planters, gardening gloves for each of us, and two gardening books.

Their titles? The Low-Maintenance Garden and The Impatient Gardener. Hmm...do you think she's trying to tell us something?