What I did on my Memorial Day Weekend

Curtains. We sewed more curtains. We're designing with fabric! We (and this really is a Kent & Erin joint venture, not just a "we, a.k.a. Erin") were prompted in our actions by new neighbors.

Thelma lived in the house on the east side of ours, so for five (?) years we've been here and she's been spending 50% of her time at her place in Nags Head. Great gal, that Thelma, older than dirt, a little 5'0" crotchety thing but generous to those who were kind to her, very plain spoken, and drove a big 2002 F150. I'd seen her drive and it was a scary thing. Really incongruous to see her and that truck, though. Anyhow, Thelma passed away a few months ago. That was very sad for all of us on the block because we liked her. The family had an estate sale and I couldn't bear to go over there with all the other vultures and pick through her things for the best second-hand value. I don't have that problem with other estate sales, so it must be because we knew her.

The house sat on the market for six or seven months until Kelly & Al bought it at the beginning of May. They've been renovating like crazy, which frankly has us inspired. More than that, though, is that they stay home! And they use all their rooms! And some of those rooms on their second floor look into the bathrooms on our second floor! Eek! Except for our bedroom because there's even more exposure, none of the windows on the east side of our house has window coverings, and except the kitchen none of the windows on the west side of their house has window coverings either. We're pretty exposed to one another on both first and second floors.

We dug out our drapery plans. I picked up "frosted" window film for the bathrooms and then picked out sample fabrics for the windows in the living room. I'd been down this curtain-construction road before so I feel pretty comfortable nowadays. And, this is Memorial Day Weekend, which means EVERYTHING IS ON SALE, including decorator fabric. Seven one-yard swatches later, we decided on a lovely burgundy with embroidered-gold twining flowers in polyester that looks a lot like Dupioni silk, which I love but can't afford. This is for the living room and looks amazing with the gold-toned walls, especially if we use it unlined with shears behind. We had a 12-yd bolt of a great looking flower pattern on yellow damask that went well in the dining room. Back to the fabric store for drapery lining, a full twelve yards of the burgundy ("merlot"), thread, and weights. We found fabric for the shears, too, a pale gold with similar self-color twining flower pattern. Over to Lowes for rings and rods, then home to measure, cut, and sew. Saturday was all about acquiring the implements of destruction. Sunday I finished the first of four yellow panels for the dining room.

Sunday night was a bonfire/cookout in Chesapeake with the cast of the Durang one-acts that Kent is doing (Kent acting, opens June 9). Getting to this place in Chesapeake from Norfolk is like from Bremerton to Horseshoe Lake using half highway and half back roads. It doesn't look like much on the map but dang it's way out there, just a mile or so from the NC border. Terrific small get together, theatrically typical.