Secret Agent Josephine

When I was a kid I was lucky if I got to paint my room a shade of white with a tinge of color. Sigh… Remember those days?

Actually, I was pretty spoiled because when I was twelve or so my Grandma completely redid my room in gray and pink AND she put up starched fabric on the wall as wallpaper three sides around my built-in bed with curtains so that my bed felt like a ship’s cabin. It was so cool. But I digress.

What I was trying to say is my kids are so spoiled they paint their rooms crazy colors and AND THEN two years later I let them paint it all over again: WHITE! Pffff….. kids these days, they don’t know a good thing if it looked them in the face. Just kidding. I know I spoil them but it’s really fun and you know how much I love a good re-do. I’m just kinda surprised Bug picked white of all colors. I mean if I had my way, I’d let her paint her walls dark ombre indigo…

So white it is.

I guess white is a trending color now. She worked so hard on this room and I kept scratching my head thinking it looks pretty plain, like an apartment that was just moved into. But I’m not going to complain because I do like it too. It’s very bright and happy.

I especially loved that it cost us next to nothing. I scrounged up the old sheer white curtains from my mobile home days, we hung some battery operated lights across the ceiling and it’s pretty much done! We did also order a pretty soft peach tapestry for the wall but it’s backordered until October.

The quilt was my grandma’s. I’m glad she loves it. That’s me lounging on her bed.

And that’s her gaming. Summer is almost over so they are getting in every minute they can before we enforce no-electronic rules again.

It’s cute right? I mean, it’s nothing crazy but I love that it’s all her. She took her time and cleaned out every item in her room that she didn’t think fit with her “theme”. I’m proud of her curating skills. I remember it wasn’t so long ago that she cried if I threw anything away. Not anymore. She is my purging queen.

Each item that she chose to keep is extra special. And now Joon is going through the same thing! Room re-do’s are contagious it seems. I will post her’s soon too. But in the meantime, look at this face:

This is the face of someone who is getting braces this week! Also, this is the face of someone who paints her nails ombre red and buys a jelly doughnut just because it matches her nails. That’s my Bug. It’s always about color.

This is how my kid makes her bed.

This is an improvement from last year where she didn’t even attempt to make it at all. This is technically “made” because the covers are pulled up generally towards the pillow instead of strewn all over the bed, half on and half off. This improvement can be credited to a chore chart and a steady allowance with the threat of docking that allowance if she misses a day. It works pretty well.

But seriously, this is how she makes the bed.

It drives me crazy. I can’t even really harp on her about it either because her bed is pushed up against the wall (to accommodate her incredibly small room) and it’s really a pain in the neck to pull the mattress away from the wall, re-tuck the bedspread and then push the bed back against the wall every day.

Often the Bed Fairy (aka me) does this for her (because the messiness drives me bananas). When she comes home and it’s all magically put back together we all exclaim over how amazing the Bed Fairy is. Everybody loves the Bed Fairy.

Well, the fed-up Bed Fairy came up with a plan. What if I sewed a sheet to the ever-escaping bedspread and then I inserted that sheet in between the box springs and the mattress like a bed sandwich. Then no matter how much she tossed and turned in the night it would be really tough for the bedspread pull away and untuck. Brilliant idea, right?!!

So I did! I found an old sheet and sewed it right onto the bedspread without a lick of guilt. Done and done! Man, I’m glad I learned how to sew when I was fourteen. That reminds me, I need to get on that and teach my girls how to sew. Such a useful skill.