Pretty Pink

The very pink of perfection. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Did I say the Princess' bedroom was pink? It is so pink that it glows into the hallway!!!

I am not done with it, but done enough she will be sleeping in her own bed again. I finally found a new very light pink ruffled bed skirt, although I would have preferred a deeper tone; a skirt was a necessity to hide the trundle. The sheets have a nice tiny rose print and actually fit her mattress because they have deep pockets and we have a memory foam topper on her bed. They were a bit pricey, but I like having better sheets. I went to Ross and found a off-white cotton blanket for $10 and a plush blanket in a dusty rose for $13, saving about $25 on those, so those with the sheets were within my budget. We are using the summer quilt I found for her a few years ago. Although I like changing between winter and summer quilts usually, we have nothing that matches the new pink décor and nothing much left in the budget for it, so the summer one will have to do for now.

I am having more problems with the windows. I made the last drapes myself and I am trying to avoid that, but everything even close to what I have found ends up about $100 more than I planned so....for now she has just the mini blinds.

The mural will not be done until after Christmas. In fact, I am thinking of not painting it on the wall at all. My husband services machines that can print huge things on any kind of medium and they also have a machine to cut it out. Very Cool Stuff! So, I am thinking of doing the graphics on the computer and having the demo room techs do it. That way it will be removal without having to repaint the entire wall. I do like the Celtic knot design in every corner that was done in a gold stencil. It shines nicely in the light, although it looks nearly brown otherwise.

I also have decided that we need a pin up board of some sort so that she can put her artwork up on it, instead of scattered throughout the room. It will still not be enough since she draws, colors or paints every day.

I have repainted the bookshelves, which I did not want to do, but found necessary after removing everything from the shelves. For unknown reasons, the paint just did not stick to the furniture piece well even though I used a primer that makes paint stick to just about anything. Whenever something was set on the shelves and picked up it took some paint with it or the bottoms of the old canvas covered books stuck into it and left part of the book on the shelf. So...this time I waxed the shelves after I painted them and it seems to have worked on the test piece, at least.

Then, it was deciding on the books. Of course, that is not a small task as I am looking over some of the books too easy for her, which she probably does not want to give up, and she has sooooo many books. Her grandmother bought her boxes of Weekly Readers and I have been given boxes of freebies from a former homeschooling family nearby and I have bought a few out of print book sets on Ebay a few years ago.

Problem: I have as many (or more) emotional attachments to many of those early readers. First, I read many of them to her from the time she was still an infant and when she was four, she began reading some of them to me. All those hours of holding her in my lap and turning pages with expectation and giggles. Reading books over and over again until we both had them memorized. I would remind myself that when she had picked a book for me to read for the 536th time that one day she would be reading on her own and these precious moments would be memories that I would never recapture. Now I am there....Now the books that I would have briefly hidden away for relief are now the ones with which I cannot part. They are so dear to my heart.

Solution: I had to find a ruthless way to determine which books would be challenging for her to keep on her shelves, so I was happy to find the AR Book Finder so I could type in the name of the book and see its ATOS Readability Formula and Interest Level without even opening the book and getting all emotionally caught up in those pages. I am keeping all books having a ATOS level of 4.0 and up, with the exception of certain sets of books which are borderline. Then I have two of stacks at least two feet high each. One stack are ones I which to keep and the other those that can go. Yes, it was time consuming, but actually it took less time to do it that way than trying to make the decision on my own.

We have added a collection of horses over the last year, so I am trying to quietly remove some of the excess of things and stuffed animals, but it is really difficult with an only child who sees every one of them as her personal friend. She has different favorites being carried around with her every few days. When she was a toddler still in the crib, she would take an inventory of every one that we allowed in the bed with her and if one was missing she would begin to cry. We had to regulate who and how many because once they were in the bed for just one night, she wanted them there every night thereafter. We could not find one of her latest friends once and it took her three weeks before she could sleep without crying over that one; we finally found it when we changed over from the crib to a toddler bed.

Anyway, now I am in the process of moving the rest of the Princess' stuff from out of the guest room either to go into her room or in one of three bags/boxes for trash, charity, or a yard sale in preparation of a 3-day visit from my aunt and uncle. They are coming in on the Monday after Thanksgiving so we will be waiting to have Thanksgiving with them.

~ My Lord, You watch us grow and delight in giving us gifts along the way as our Loving Parent. How difficult it must be for You who fathered us having similar memories when we think put things away thinking we don't need you, when we begin to make decisions without asking for your permission or advice. It was not until I became a parent that I realized how heartbreaking it must be for You to be rejected in that way. I wish I could only be pleasing to You and give you fond memories of us being together. ~