Plan into Action: Alex's Room, part 1

It's good to be home from vacation (yes, I know, post to come).  Actually, I feel empowered to have survived this past week and still say with a genuine smile, "my cup is half full! Sip sip!"  For one thing, massive deadlines were met, Alex caught up on her sleep, and we all survived yesterday's 105 temperatures.  I wonder if these tropical-like temps are causing little frogs to show up late at night on my sliders, sticking at strange angles 3 feet up from the ground. Impressive. He was only 2" but so cute and yellow, and I love how sticky his little digits felt in my palm. 

And speaking of Alex, she was recovering from vacation overload aka: no naps, too much fun, & late to bed.  Tuesday night, she turned around to me in the midst of a pre-bedtime whirl and screams, "Mommy, I have pants in my ants!"  Really.  2 words: uncontrollable laughter.  The girl is a hoot.

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I completely surprised Alex and Enzo this morning by setting up the playdough under the dining room table.  Enzo said, "really?" as if I just threw down thousands of M&M's on the ground and told him to go hog wild.  Yes really. 

 At some point, you have to introduce children to the concept of "under the table and dreaming," right? No space here for batteries. 

Now onto the meat of this post...

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Alex loves pink.  No, I’m sorry, she LOOOOVES the color pink.  She’s been begging me for 2 months to turn her bathroom pink and now she’s thrown her bedroom into the desired mix too.  I had a few thoughts in my head for her bedroom, but nothing organized or concrete.   And the older I get, the more I seem to need a restrictive deadline to get me going; but Alex was maturing and I knew it was time to move her room away from what was her nursery to something that will encompass her Uber feminine personality.

Now to back up this conversation a bit, you need to know that I’m not a pink girl.  Yes, I danced ballet for 10 years and wore plenty of pink, crinolyn and tutus, but I am naturally drawn to deep earth tones and to sea glass tones of blues, aquas, and greens.  The thought of combining the color pink with juvenile home textiles gripped me with fear; just walk through any Walmart and you will understand why I dread pink bedding covered with princesses, Dora, or goofy looking flowers/owls/animals. There had to be a happy medium even if that required me to sew everything. Oh, and I would.

On Thursday, I sent out a quick e-mail to two of my friends, Shannon and Cindy, asking them if they’ve seen any cool wall hooks in their online perusing.  And I mentioned that I really wanted to craft hooks out of a series of old door knobs; Cindy commented that she may find some at a cool store while visiting Michigan next week.  It was quick note to bounce a few thoughts off of friends as a means of jump-starting my brain.  But oh how it got the train rolling out of the station before I was ready (I was willing, just not ready).

From a design standpoint, I was caught between a love of both modern and vintage: my house is contemporary and screams for clean lines, but I had 2 thoughts in my head that drove me towards vintage touch. 

• Make a Soule Mama’s style word banner over her bed from old wool blanket pieces.
• Make unique wall hooks out of vintage door handles.  

I knew that design elements from Shabby Chic could encompass both my desires and the requested pink color, but I feared breaking out in hives from the excessive layers of lace and florals! I had to find a happy medium within my Vintage Chic look.  I started by Googling “Shabby Chic”, which directed me to a large selection of bedding at my favorite store...Target.  On line, I narrowed my favorites down to 2 comforters, which of course were on sale and out of stock on line; so off to local store with Alex in tow.  


I found the chenille patchwork comforter at the store, but was left ambivalent once I had it in hand.   However I discovered the Cherry Blossom collection that I never noticed on line (confirmation once again that Target’s pictures on line do NO justice to the actual items).  I loved it - clean lines, super attractive floral pink on white print, pink ribbon edging - but how would Alex feel?  I showed her an unwrapped pillow sham, and she immediately placed it on the floor along with a small pink cutwork pillow and tried to go to sleep in the Isle.  She did this bed making activity 3 times enthusiastically.  Check, she likes it, and check, that sham goes right into the wash.  Hmmm, some how that little pink pillow came for the ride and made it home too….

Over the next 24 hours, I drove to 3 Target stores, trying to acquire one of the remaining Queen sized quilts.  

I will admit that the last trip was simply icing to grab other details including new glass pulls for her dresser  
and new swiss dot drapes for her windows.

These few changes alone have transformed her room drastically, made her over-the-moon giddy, and motivated me today to design (on paper) the built-in bookshelf.  I’ll admit that at this moment, I’m feeling the need to Krylon a lot of objects pink and to finish redecorating the bath while I’m at it.  This could get interesting. For some reason, my project list keeps growing.

So for now I am waiting for a wool blanket from an Etsy seller, a shower curtain from Ebay, and (hopefully) knobs from Michigan *fingers crossed*.  I  am nowhere close to finished, but I feel good. I have my head wrapped around the project, a supply list for Home Depot, and a deep seeded desire to grab lots of pink paint chips for an accent wall.  More to come.
Happy Weekend!