Painting for Emily
by Rebecca on 2009-12-23
Emilyʼs bedroom is pretty boring. The walls are plain white, her crib has a brown bumper and pink sheets that donʼt match anything, and she doesnʼt have any cute bookshelves or toy baskets. I just wasnʼt feeling inspired to decorate when I was pregnant with her, I guess.
But now Iʼve realized that she doesnʼt have anything that Iʼve made for her. No quilts or blankets, no knitted cap or booties, no hand-painted letters spelling out “Emily,” no cross-stitch panels to commemorate her full name and date of birth. Nothing. And of course, there are plenty of moms around me that do things like this, and so I felt a little guilty not being so excited about my daughterʼs birth that I made her a quilt. (In my defense, I wouldʼve had to (a) buy a sewing machine, (b) learn how to use it, and (c) come up with a cute quilt pattern and equally cute fabric. While pregnant. And working full-time. And buying a new house and moving into it. Eh.)
I started taking watercolor lessons from my friend Abbey a few months ago. She comes over twice a month and we paint together. She gives me good ideas for projects, including this one. Do a wash with several colors and let it dry. Sketch a shape onto the paper. Thin some white acrylic paint and go over everything except the outlined shape. I had so much fun doing this one that I thought I could make it work as paintings for Emilyʼs room. The shapes I chose were sun, moon, and stars, so maybe this is her first astronomy lesson.
I also wanted to have a way for Emily to keep the paintings later in case she didnʼt want to hang them on her wall forever. I didnʼt want to invest in fancy frames for display because that would be too bulky. I thought that ribbon would be cute and way less expensive. So, I punched holes in the corners of the paintings and looped ribbon through to make a simple hanging loop. Hereʼs what I ended up with.
(The cord hanging down the wall is from the baby monitor.)
Maybe thereʼs hope for her room yet. Next up, deciding what color to paint it.