I knew my sister was making curtains for the tiny house but she was also planning a pretty monumental life event so i didn’t have any sort of timeline or expectation as to when they would be finished. Truthfully, after the plywood went in the windows i kind of forgot about it. I had always lived in apartments with blinds. I was pretty old school when it came to decorating and it had been a life-long dream of mine to have curtains. I really wanted something beige with flowers. I loved maroon, teal, olive green, and navy blue. I told my sister anything with those colors or one of those colors would be good. She sent me a picture of a fabric she found in a store in her state that she thought i might like. I fell in love with the first fabric she picked for me. She sent other options but i knew right away; the first fabric was the one! She told me she would make them so that i could tie them up or leave them down and i sent her the measurements of the windows. I wanted them short enough so that they wouldn’t hang on the ground, both because of all the dust that settled on the floor during the dry season and because of pet hair. My sister is good at everything i’m not. If you need your roof repaired, i can do that. If you need a railing built on your porch, i can help you with that too. If the tin has come away from the frame of your well house, i can fix that. If you need a tree chopped down, i’ll have it in the firewood pile in no time. However, i would be that person with a laundry line full of shirts with holes mended by crude stitches that resemble a kindergarteners handywork, and they’re all mended with thick black thread…cuz that’s what i had on hand at the time. I can knit in one direction; forwards. I can make a scarf…maybe once every 3 years. If i miss a stitch and need to go backwards a row, i literally mail the thing to my sister, she fixes the row and mails it back. I wouldn’t call myself domestic. My sister though, she used to sew the costumes for ballet austin. She’s a genius when it comes to the sewing machine, so i knew the curtains would be beautiful but i had no idea how exquisite they would turn out. One day i stopped at the post office to get my mail and the clerk told me, “You know you have a box here.” I looked in the mailbox and sure enough, there was a notification card telling me i had a box at the post office counter. I handed him the card and he handed me a medium sized white box with my sister’s handwriting on it. I knew immediately what it was. I was giddy with excitement! I couldn’t even wait until i got to the car. I set the box on the postal counter and cut into it with my box cutter. Inside was golden tissue paper. As i carefully pulled back the decorative paper the curtains were revealed. They were beautiful, and so delicate! I felt like i had ordered something from a sears catalogue back when that was a thing. My sister had kept something from me; a surprise. She had added a maroon ribbon across the top of each curtain to match the ties and she hadn’t said anything, knowing i loved maroon and would probably be thrilled by the extra touch. I was. The maroon ribbon across the top made it! They were so special! I was afraid to unfold them. They were packaged so neatly and folded in such a delicate manner. She had even ironed the fabric. I was speechless. My sister was definitely good at all things domestic. I couldn’t have bought nicer curtains if i had spent a thousand dollars. These i would cherish forever.
At the bottom of the box was a plate that my sister had picked up with me in mind on her last trip. Unlike me, my sister loved to travel. She was not afraid of planes or death or airport security. She learned new languages and jet setted to different countries all the time. She knew i used to collect pretty plates from thrift stores, especially with plants or vines painted or carved in them. So she thought of me when she saw this plate on one of her trips and into the box it went. I put it with my dishes in my extension shed. What a lovely package to receive!