Curtains I Love for Pink Saturday 8/28/2010

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This past saturday I visited with Ineke at Ineke Original so pay her a visit. Delightful blogger.
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There is a celebration of life going on over at Kelee's blog for Colette who has survived cancer. It's a wonderful story of faith and life. But I also have a personal story to tell you.
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Hubs and I were married and started our family immediately. We had a daughter within 11 months and our son came along 11 1/2 months after her. When I started in labor with him I went in to the doctor at the military hospital in Oceanside, Calif. twice and got sent home. The 3rd time they knew I was in trouble. There were about 9 doctors in that examining room poking everywhere they could. Finally, they could see I was in trouble. They looked at my fingernails and knew I was dehydrated and then found out I had uremic poisoning and my kidneys were hurting pretty badly. (Later we found out I have medullary sponge kidney, which means I have stones TNTC (too numerous to count) and have passed 14 so far in my life.)

Anyway, they admitted me and I was pretty much out of it but Keith has born within a day and they whisked him out of there before I could hold him. I was alone and in very bad shape for about a week. Then on the 8th day I saw this bright light in my room. So bright I couldn't figure out how I could look at it because it was brighter than the sun. It was a sort of tunnel of light beckoning to me but I knew I was "not going", that I needed to be here. I later learned the doctors all told hubby to come and say goodbye to me for the last time because I was so sick I wasn't going to make it. Hubby told me he just sat in our home and cried and cried with our 11 month old daughter. But that day I knew I was going to get better. I tried calling the nurse because I wanted a drink. I was thirsty beyond belief because I was just getting IVs for all the time. Finally at the 9th day they let me walk down to see my son. He was in an incubator with no diaper because of all the antibiotics he and I were given, his diaper area was a mass of sores. When we took him home on the 11th day we couldn't put a diaper on him. Just let him lay on top of the cloth diaper.

Now, I wasn't religious at all at that time but something like that spiritual experience got me to believe in my heart that I'd live a long time. I really was looking beyond the veil that day into the next life. I absolutely know that now without any equivocation. Our son was just fine after that except for an episode of convulsions at about 2 than ended after a couple of months. He's perfectly normal now and a good son.

When he was attacked in April of 2009 we were devastated but we KNEW he would survive the beatings and trauma. I just never wondered about it because I believe God gave me the peace to know he would be fine. Prayer does work and also the father's blessings my husband—his father—gave him. He's pretty much healed from the beating they inflicted on him for trying to rescue that girl from them at the gas station. I trust God to take care of my kids and grandkids and me and hubs. Yep, prayer does work. We're a religious Christian family who attend church every sunday and try to live a holy life.
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I have a short story to tell about this fabric, so bear with me.

For one thing, they are sheets—Fieldcrest called Cassandra. I spotted them over 20 years ago in our local Macy's store in California. I loved the fabric and bought several sheets that day simply because of the fabric. (This is probably my all-time favorite fabric. When something grabs at your heart like this, you never want to see it disappear.) I wanted more, but when I went back another day there were no more sheets. BUT standing in line was a woman with some of those sheets in her arms, and I found out she was returning them! Oh be still my heart. I told her I wanted them. So the saleswoman took them, gave her credit and turned right around and sold them to me. I thought I was in heaven for sure that day. One moment sadness and the next moment extreme joy! But I later thought about having even more of them for a stash of fabric in the most beautiful print I'd ever seen. So I called around to other Macy's in our local area but no one had any.

Then one day as Love Bunny and I were traveling over past Sacramento to someplace forgotten in my memory at this point in time, I decided to stop at Gottschalks north of Sacramento in Auburn. Just happened that they had more Cassandra sheets. I bought a couple of sheets there as I thought I'd probably have my "lifetime supply" at that point.

I made some pillows and curtains for our home in California. But when we got to Idaho I wanted some more curtains in our first Idaho home. We had 7 huge windows in our living room. They were about 6' high. That living room was about 20' x 26'. I loved it being so large. So I made 4 pairs to frame the banks of windows on each wall. One wall had 3 windows and the front wall had 4 windows with just a few inches in between the windows so I couldn't—and actually, didn't want to—frame each individual window. And because I had bought all those extra sheets I could do it.

So now how did these sheets look in the first Idaho house? Let me show you. But first be forewarned: these are NOT digital photos and I was absolutely the worst photographer there ever was with a regular old camera. This is not stated to get a 'oh, no, you weren't.' I take full responsibility for these pathetic photos, but they are all I have of this house. Betcha didn't know digital cameras didn't always exist, huh? And these are scans of bad photos to begin with so you see how horrid they are.

It was a wonderfully large room to decorate and as I look back I see how pathetic I was 20 years ago. I even covered a chair with the sheet I loved so much. The chair on the right by the window and the same one in the foreground is a Baker chair that has seen 3 different fabrics on its self. It is such an expensive and well made chair I've been able to do that. It pays to buy good furniture. Trust me on this.

I did these pillows in California and brought them with us to Idaho and just loved flopping them on this old sofa. That sofa today would be 38 years old. When we bought it, it was avocado striped green velvet. (See how we all make mistakes when we're young?!) It was then recovered in burgundy as seen here and everyone just loved it. I actually gave it away to a young couple and since I take excellent care of my stuff, it looked brand new when they got it. They were thrilled.

So why talk about them? Well, hubs was up in the attic again yesterday and found this box of 4 curtains left. I'm going to sell 2 of them, but I'm keeping one set of 2 for who-knows-where in the house. I just cannot see myself parting with this fabric. They are still as crisp as the day I bought them. I've never washed them, just threw them in the dryer to be dusted off when needed. They look and feel like new. I'm a bit sad selling even one pair but I know I'll never use 2 pairs in this house since it is our last house to occupy. You'll see them on eBay probably very soon. ;-)
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