The largest present she'll ever get: Emma's new room.

     Emma turned nine last month.  She is nine going on 15 and is turning into a teenager faster than I would like.  She wants to go to Taylor Swift concerts.  She is constantly asking us to turn the radio to 97.5.  Her friends tease her about her latest crush.  She wants to pierce her ears and get a cell phone.  Just thinking about all this gives me heart palpitations.

   But, there are wonderful things too.  I find that I can actually have an interesting conversation with her.  She is becoming more helpful with Taylor, giving her baths and reading her stories at night.  Emma will put herself to bed, take showers on her own and is now doing her own laundry.  She loves to read and is obsessed with Harry Potter since getting the books for her birthday.  Emma is very successful at school, is learning piano quickly (amidst much whining and complaining), and is great at keeping her room clean.  Ah, yes, her room.

     For her birthday, Emma got her own room.  Brent and I felt like it was time to give this tween some privacy and a place to call her own.  So, I have been busy painting, sewing, rummaging, organizing, painting, sanding, refinishing, shopping, etc.  It have enjoyed it so much and am quite pleased with how her room turned out.  Here is a look at Emma's new sanctuary:

All the furniture was bought/given to us used and I spent many hours sanding and painting.  (Then I got sick of it and my sweet mom helped finish them while she was in town).

The best find was this armoire!  I picked it up for free off someone's driveway. Yes, I am that person.  I couldn't believe they were getting rid of it. 

One drawer was missing and it was covered in some kind of glaze gone wrong.  All it took was a handy husband, hours of scraping, a little touch up painting and that baby was gorgeous. I wish we'd gotten a closer picture so you could see the detailed molding that gives it an upscale girly feel.  I might have to steal this back when Emma leaves for college.

To the left of the bed, is another refinished piece of furniture that was given to me by some friends.  I can take no credit for this one.  My mom did it all from start to finish.  Thanks mom!  Emma loves having a desk and a place to feel mature while styling her hair....or just making funny faces.  The stool is a photo prop I stole from  Brent.  I'm not in love with it, but it was free and it works. So, it's here for now.

Next, let's talk about the bed.  This was the biggest headache of the whole project.  I searched and searched for the perfect quilt and couldn't find one.  So, my mom talked me into making one ourselves (really, that means she does all the work and I tell her how amazing she is).  Although, I did make some pillows..more on those later.

My mom spent hours at the fabric store, hours sewing, hours flying it to Utah to have a friend quilt it in order to save money on the quilting, hours trying to teach me how to bind it without making it look like awful, and then she didn't even get to see the finished product.  Here you are mom, a nice photo or your handiwork being loved by your granddaughter.

The bed itself was a craigslist find that I repainted.  I wasn't in love with it when I bought it, but that's the great thing about craigslist...no returns.  So, I painted it and switched up some of the kid's mattresses because the headboard is so short.  I find that I am loving it more and more now.

 I had some fun with the details too, but won't bore you with the details of the details.  Just ooh and ahh at the pictures.

Here is the lamp shade I made.

And the corkboard I made from a salvaged frame.  It is huge (3ft. by 4 ft.) and I can see it filling up with posters and photos over the years.

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  And, the obvious subtle message and other things I put above her bed

 

I painted the closet turquoise to add a little splash of color.  I had to really restrain myself on several projects to not go crazy with the turquoise.  It is such a fun happy color.  In the end, I'm afraid I refrained a little too much and wish there was more color.  I'm thinking of adding a stripe on the walls or some decals or something to make it less gray.

 If you'll look under that corkboard, you'll see some large floor pillows.  I made those all by myself  (go me) using a picture I found on pinterest. Those have been well loved already in the weeks since Emma has moved in.  She sits there to read or hang out with her friends. Also, Emma's only request was a shelf to put all her things.  So, we put one by her bed.  This girl is a collecter!  She keeps everything and now she has a place to put all her treasures.  She also has some hooks to the right of the armoire to hang her hats and purses.

 Sure love that Emma and sure love this room.  It is a great feeling to finish a big project like this and have it turn out as you'd hoped.  The problem is, I am itching to get started on another project.  My room?  The backyard?  The garage?  The pantry?  Stay tuned to find out what is on the horizon.

I can do hard things

I'd like to take a break from our Italy posts (at this rate, we will be talking about it for years) and write about something closer to what my life really consists of: parenting.  Why does it have to be so hard?  Why can't these little spirits come with a how-to video that we can download and refer to when times get rough?  Anyway, two lessons that Brent and I have really been talking about teaching our children are: gratitude and accomplishing hard things.  For now, let's discuss the later.  Doing hard things.  We all know that some peole are naturally good at certain things (like eating  a whole bag of kettle baked lays chips in twenty minutes) and not so good at other things (like staying up on the latest fashion trends).  That's fine.  I can appreciate those differences.  The challenge is learning to work hard at the things that don't come naturally.  Trying and working and rising to the challenge. I want my kids to be able to do things that aren't easy.  I want them to come up against a mountain in life, see the overwhelming task ahead, take a deep breath and start climbing.  And, I don't even care if they reach the peak in record time (or at all in some cases).  As long as they did their very best.  While not always true, I kind of have a "all things can be accomplished with hard work" attitude.

Sounds like a great life lesson, right?  The problem is figuring out how to teach it.  Do we constantly give our children hard tasks?  Isn't that setting them up for constant failure?  Do we constantly give them easy tasks?  If so, how will they learn to overcome?  And if the answer is both, how do we know which mountains to make them climb and which ones to not bother with?

A certain child of mine is struggling with this lesson.  And...she is oh so stubborn.  Let me give an example.  In a few weeks, our family will be participating in a family triathlon.  Not a real triathlon, of course, a VERY simplified version.  But, it does require swimming, biking, and running.  Swimming is the thing I am most worried about.  Our kids swim for fun (alllll summer), but not for speed.  So, today while at the pool, I told the girls to swim the length of the pool and back so they can get an idea of how to do it.  It took a little persuasion with one, and A LOT of persuasion with the other.  Like full on crying and stomping of feet with an ultimatum that if she did not do it, she could never swim again (of course I would totally follow through with that threat).  "It's too hard, I can't do it, that's too far, I WILL NOT DO IT!!!".

I left her to her thoughts, and she finally did give a half-hearted attempt, then swam to me sobbing and saying that she didn't want to do the race and hated swimming and WOULD NOT participate with the family.

Now, this is a highly capable, smart little girl.  She can succeed at most anything she puts her mind to.  But, what if she doesn't want to put her mind to it?  I can't force her.  I can seldom motivate her.  How can I show her that a little hard work can go a long way? How can I teach her to just start hiking to that peak and see how far she gets?  She could climb all sorts of mountains in life.  I don't want her to miss out on all those metaphoric views.  More importantly, I want her to be able to turn around and see that steep path she just climbed and experience the sense of pride that comes from doing hard things.