It's curtain time

St Sidoine


As Jon is progressing in the loft, I decided that I must put in some effort into preparing the soon-to-be-extended sitting room.

I've been looking for some curtains but not been very successful until I asked the question on a local website of where I could go looking for reasonably-priced fabrics.

A few suggestions were forthcoming but sadly one of them, which we went in search of last week, seemed to have disappeared. This was the day we also intended to buy our Velux windows.

We thought we were doing the right thing by checking the supplier's website first . Yes, the did them in the style we wanted and yes, they had three in stock. When we arrived in the showroom we were told that, in fact, they only had one in stock but could order the other two for two weeks time.

Fine. We would take the three fittings though.

Nope. We stood in line for the collection point only to be told that the one window claimed to be in stock wasn't, and of the three fittings, they only had one in stock.

Next week a friend is taking us to Brive in their estate car to collect the three windows and the remaining fittings. Meanwhile we are hoping and praying that the following two weeks remain dry so that our builder can come and fit them.

So, the trip north was unsuccessful on all accounts.

Yesterday I met a friend in town and we 'did' lunch. She then directed me to a little treasure trove of a shop just out of town.

This, fairly small, shop was laden with fabrics of every shade, weight and composition. Wow. My eyes lit up. We edged our way between bales and rolls of furnishing fabrics. Madame asked if she could help.

'What I'm really looking for, Madame' said I, 'Is inspiration'.

What exactly is Madame looking for? Curtains? For the dining room or bedroom. No, the salon. Ah, and does Madame want something bright, dark, lightweight?

Madame said she was looking for something fairly plain but with a certain 'je ne sais quoi'.

'I'll know it as soon as I see it' I said, helpfully.

Madame directed my friend and I to a pile of creams, beiges and whites, where we spotted a few 'possibles'. Suddenly I saw a flash of aubergine colour at the bottom of the pile. My alcoves are painted aubergine. This was hopeful.

My friend insisted we took the roll of fabric to the door to look at it in daylight. Good idea, I hadn't thought of that.

Yes, even better, the colour is just exactly what I wanted (even if I didn't know it when I walked into the shop). Cream with a splash of aubergine.

I'm looking forward to getting out my super sewing machine, bought two years ago and very low mileage, to get going on making the curtains this weekend.