a lesson

in patience. i finally made a new curtain panel for the front door. david has been asking me to do this for more than six years. we actually had a serious discussion about it around christmas time. he was on a mission to fix the little things around the house that were making him crazy. we looked at fabric online. i had some favorites, but nothing that i loved. some more procrastination on my part. then last week i was browsing around on reprodepot and it just slapped me in the face. the fabric i couldnt live without in my house. i ordered it, it came on thursday and friday i got on it. slowly and carefully of course. because i figure after waiting six years for the perfect fabric, i needed to get it right people. and be neat about it. so i ironed, and i cut ever so slowly. and then i ironed some more. and then i got out my little slide ruler thing and measured my 1/4 inch hem ever so carefully. and then i measured some more, and ironed. and pinned and pinned and pinned... well you get the picture. i really took my time with it to make it look good. then i hung it. and honestly people, i wanted to cry. uh, not because it was so good, but because somewhere along the line it was two inches too long at the bottom. so my taught, clean, nice, neat panel was sagging at the bottom like a fat man in swishy pants. crap. i gathered my wits, said a little prayer for patience and took the whole thing down. ever so carefully (are you getting a sense of the lesson i am trying to teach myself yet?) i removed every stitch of the bottom hem, cut off the offending sag, ironed again, pressed my seams, ironed some more, pinned some more and then went back to the machine. dragged the chair over to the door, took down the bars, put the panel back up, screwed all the hardware back in and damn, it looks good. thats right. it is awesome. the loveliest little old rectangle i ever did sew. i cleaned up my mess, put away the machine, gave the kids a snack and then waited for david to get home. you know, for the test. would he notice? would he like it? and guess what!? i passed!!! he noticed right away! of course he did, what detail doesnt he notice? duh. but he loves it! i love it! the double gauze is perfect, we still get tons of sun coming in, uh, when there is sun. and yellow?? balloons?? birds??? seriously. its like a dream come true. it just makes the room look so much better. i catch myself just standing there with a dumb smile on my face. and i love it. yeah, sure, in a few months it will fade into the background, but i will still love it. so there. lesson learned.