How to Make a Crepe Paper Curtain for $1.94 and other things I learned this week

Seriously y’all, I only had ten minutes, a roll of clear shipping tape and two frothy coils of aqua and pink crepe paper that can be purchased at Walmart for 97 cents each. I’ll tell you about that in just a minute.

It was our daughter’s birthday and in spite of her school and band schedule and our work schedule, I was determined that no matter how late at night it was, she would know that her birthday was important.

Now after you read this tale of absolute amazingness, don’t go all crazy on me and get any fantastic ideas and call me “Super Cake Lady” or anything like that…

but I-

with a capital I…

after TWO YEARS of requesting a Cherry Chip cake for her birthday,

I actually managed to get it made…

homemade…

from a box!!!!

Hear me roar!!!!!

Or help me pick my humiliated self up from the floor. What mom waits two years to bake the requested cake flavor? Apparently, it is me!!

In full disclosure and honesty, she does always have a cake. It just hasn’t been her request of Cherry Chip.

But then there’s the crepe paper curtain for $1.94~

So I made and decorated the cake and set the table all festive and pretty.

Because when she walked in from band practice, tired and hungry, I wanted her to be met with a cheery birthday table.

As in, “Hello, I’m your cheery birthday table, because your birthday is important!”

But then I realized that I would like the door into the dining room to have something over it so there was a bit of mystery or mystique or suspense… maybe.

I mean, why not?

So I quickly stretched clear shipping tape across the door frame just below the top board.

This left sticky tape the width of the door exposed. I guess come to think of it, isn’t all tape sticky?

Then I cut floor length strips of crepe paper and stuck one end to the shipping tape at the top of the door frame and let the rest of the length hang down.

I made a crepe paper curtain for a whopping total of $1.94!!!

I worked quickly and didn’t worry whether or not the strips were all the same length. In about ten minutes flat the door-of-mystique-and-suspense was complete.

Y’aaaalll, it was sorta cuuuute!!

Again, hear me roar!

Birthdays are a pretty big deal around here.

I mean seriously y’all, who doesn’t love a good birthday?

The celebration of another year is a gift.

It’s priceless.

We have a sweet little grandbaby who celebrated a first birthday a couple weeks ago and then a wonderful mother-in-law who had a birthday and then our favorite daughter with a birthday and our favorite daughter-in-law has a birthday right around the corner.

No matter how old you get, just celebrate!!!

Celebrate you and the gift of every day.

Have you every wondered if you can feel absolutely broken and then so very close to wonderful, all mixed up in the same emotion? I was wondering that the other day. Is it possible to feel that way?

All broken and wonderful all at the same time.

And you know what? It is!!

I sat there thinking about all the things that maybe I should have done differently, like baking that cake sooner or…who knows? I’ve honestly tried to live my best life and make good choices and live out of a kind heart.

But those dastardly broken thoughts of: I wonder if I coulda, or if I shoulda, or what if I woulda, just snuck right up in there.

And I compared myself and thought about how wonderful everyone else is and how they get their cakes baked the YEAR they are requested and I labeled myself as broken and just not good enough. And I realized that I was letting ridiculous negative words play in my head. But I felt wonderful too because we had a daughter celebrating a birthday!

Have you ever done that? Felt all broken and wonderful all at the same time…

Well…

I had some choices to make.

I chose to change my thoughts and focus on all the goodness and all the wonderful people who surround me, like you and all my other friends and my wonderful family and realize how blessed I am to have all of you in my life, and my husband and my children and my daughter in law and my grandbaby, with all their beautiful and amazing qualities…

no matter how much I may have failed or faltered, I’m still surrounded by goodness…

…and life is wonderful.

And I learned this week that some of the things that will make you feel the most broken are attitudes and feelings about yourself…

…like when you compare yourself to others and think you aren’t good enough

…or feel frustrated about things over which you have no control

…or internalize words that may not be meant for you

And I learned that whatever you look for…

well…that is exactly what you are going to see…

Brokenness or goodness

But when you begin to focus on how fearfully and wonderfully you are made…

and how you and only you can think the things you think…

and say the things you say…

and be you that you are…

and that you can choose to be EXTRA…

and choose to be kind and amazing…

you get to CHOOSE!!!!

And you get to choose what to think and how to act

Well, let me tell you, that’s worth a high-five right there and a fist bump.

And I learned this week how wonderful it feels to choose to just walk away from negative thoughts and emotions.

Yeah, it really does come down to choices. And that’s a very good thing.

So, that’s how I made a crepe paper curtain for a $1.94, and other things I things I learned this week…

Now you know.

This was her cake several years ago. I made it the very year it was requested.

Again, hear me roar!!

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P.S. If you have read this post and are struggling with dark thoughts and emotions, that are deeper than just a shift in attitude or perspective, reach out for help. If you don’t know where to go for professional help, contact me and I will do my best to point you toward caring professionals. I realize that there are situations in life that bring a level of difficulty and darkness that require professional help. In this blog post I am speaking to a shift of negative attitudes or perspective that can become a habit and then choosing to find the good in life and pursuing it.

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