A New Room

In preparation for the little guy who will be putting in an appearance fairly soon, we had to do some major rearranging of our house. We have three bedrooms upstairs: ours, Annalee's, and the Crap Room. The Crap Room is where we put things when we don't know what to do with them. To make it sound classier we usually refer to it as the "office".

At one time it held three 6' bookcases, two computers on massive desks, a futon for guests, Nathan's Star Wars toys he couldn't bear to be parted from, and all my sewing/craft/scrapbook stuff. And also everything else we had no place for.

Last year I wrote about how we had de-junked our house a lot, by getting rid of our entertainment center and tv, combining the computers into one and moving it into the living room, and packing up or getting rid of books, movies, and a whole lotta other stuff. This was supposed to make it easier to clean out the Cr-- uh, office, but there was still so much stuff in there that the task seemed nearly impossible. Finally, after devoting several weekends to the room, sending more things to the thrift store and homeless shelter, and throwing out or storing everything else, the room was cleared. I toyed with the idea of moving Annalee into that room, since it was much larger than her current one. Pro: room for a twin bed when the time comes. Con: having to paint two rooms instead of one. Finally, I decided to move her into that room because I couldn't see how the baby's stuff could fill the whole thing, which would invite the return of Crap Room.

So I marched out and bought the same color I'd used for Annalee's room, and my wonderful mother helped me paint it. (She had to finish the last coat by herself, because I was ready to fall over.) We moved all of Annalee's stuff in, and then I got to have a LOT OF FUN arranging things and incorporating decorations I had never had room for before.
Remember this? The fairy pictures are the same I decorated her nursery with--I bought them knowing they'd grow with her. The tulle was in Annalee's room when she was a newborn, draped around her crib. But I had to take it down when she started grabbing it. I thought I'd be able to drape it around her bed now, like a princess canopy, but she didn't like it and kept stuffing it behind her headboard. So I made it into a "cloud", which she adores.The "cloud" is centered over her bed. She likes her bed (except at bedtime) and her Pooh pillow and pink John Deere blanket (made by a friend.)She has a little corner by her closet for reading books. I used a Dora sheet someone gave me to replace the rickety, annoying closet doors. (All my former roommates know how I feel about closet track-doors.)One of the things that didn't fit in her old room was this scenery my sister found for me at a garage sale. It's made to look like a window seat in a castle, looking out on a fantasy land of fairies, unicorns, knights, etc. I love it!The wall by the door has her dresser, a tote for clothes she is outgrowing, her hamper, and a mirror. I will be putting more decorations on the wall above the dresser once the paint has had longer to set (I'm using the 3M wall stickies).An added bonus that I discovered later was that ALL of Annalee's toys now fit in her room, even her bumble bee car and play kitchen, so that my living room is free of toys! That makes me haPPEEEEEE!

Pictures of the baby room coming soon!