Eighty-something metres of curtain fabric

Yes, you read that right - adorning one end of our rumpus room, in rolls and folded up in bags, are 80-plus metres of 3-pass thermal lined curtain fabric (and 40 metres of gathering tape) to make curtains for the rumpus room, the living room and our bedroom, and a little bit of lining fabric to improve the blockout level of the curtain in the girls' room. That's four huge, three normal and one small-sized window, plus the one to line. And maybe if I can find the trimmings I can make a blind to match the curtains in the boy's room.

What brought this on, I hear you gasp?

The heating bill.

Which was mercifully followed by my tax return.

Then on Monday, the Big Red Spot had a 20% off everything sale. I went. I spent a short time realising that

1. the premade curtains were too short
2. the premade curtains would be too expensive
3. there was only one style of continous-curtaining even close to long enough for our big windows (2.5m drop, ceiling to floor), which still wouldn't be long enough to allow for hems, which was ok because I wasn't thrilled with the three colours available.

I spent over an hour finding 3 styles that would suit the three rooms, and 60% of that time would have been standing there scribbling in my notebook working out number of drops needed for each window and then that times drop+30cm for hems, plus a metre or so for leeway, and then gazed at curtain tracks trying to work out which to buy while queuing, then it took the amazingly helpful Owen about half an hour (or maybe more) to actually process my fabric purchases and find all the extras, not helped by each roll of fabric running short (I have to get tricky with the living room curtains, 'cos it is discontinued, so we will not be having amazingly full gathers, more like just a little bit gathered!), and even the gathering tape had a flaw in it and I had to guess what kind of width I needed, and then my card didn't work and I was ready to get very very sad but luckily the credit card was clear enough, and then he'd overcharged me $35 and had to refund it, and so I spent my entire tax return less $80 or so on what will be our curtains.

I related the saga to my Mum last night, and she has offered to send us some money towards our cutains - I think I should put a little plaque up in the rumpus and living rooms that says "My Mum's Memorial Curtains, 2007"!!! I have some other ideas on how to thank her, but she reads this sometimes so I think I should keep them a surprise, as a very small thank-you for a big dose of generosity.

PS
Almost the entire time I was curtain-fabric-hunting, Miss 1 was asleep in the pram, so while I hunted-and-gathered, she got her midday sleep. ***I put money in the parking meter twice (I found a park right in front of the doors of the furnishings section, and wasn't giving that away to anyone), and after all the money was spent, I rearranged the children's car seats, had the extremely patient and helpful Owen put fabric rolls in the boot and long tracks from front passenger footwell across the folded-down front seat and back to the back seat, threw bags on top, and went to grab some sushi.*** About to get in my car and drive home, I saw the wonderful Penni passing, admired the shoes for her daughter, and showed her my car-full of curtains. ***Miss 1 had some sushi on the way to pick up Mr 7 (I really need to wash that carseat cover), Mr 7 was inserted in the 30cm between carseat and curtains and taken home, dropped off with instructions to get ready for summer hockey, then Miss 1 and I went to pick up Miss 4 from daycare, inserted her between carseat and curtains (on a cushion, because her seat was in the boot), went home, put the kettle on, started unloading children and purchases, put tealeaves and hot water in the pot, finished unloading, and sat down to sushi and tea for a late lunch at a quarter to four. ***At ten past four I got all three kids in the car with necessary carseats, food, drinks and paraphernalia, and went in search of summer hockey. There was no peaceful sitting and watching. ***We got home again at about a quarter to six, the kids went out to harass their dad, I started defrosting kids' meals, got the shower procession organised, put food on the table, waved the MOMD goodbye as he set off for dance practice (Dads and Daughters Dance in the end-of-year concert), cleaned up the kitchen, got the bedtime procession organised, handed them off to the MOMD on his return, defrosted and reheated food for us, did kisscuddles, then collapsed in front of the teev at about 8pm.
I really earnt my wine that day.

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