Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Girl(s) Room


This room makes me ooze happiness because it is finally real and it is finally filled with giggles and noises and cooing of the little girl I've dreamt about it for so long. I began to put this design board together as soon as the ultrasound tech shouted out the news, a flashback from my interior design days/futures to help Paul see why I needed to spend so much money visualize the space. 


We didn't give Clem her own room, our lives change so quickly in the State Department that one years room is the next years family's office. At this point a certain space labeled "my own" doesn't really matter, it is more about the things that are in it, the people.

This lifestyle also presents its own design challenges. Without being able to run out to the store and purchase just exactly the things you want for distance or cost or quality, you must improvise. Thankfully I was schooled in the art of interior design and let us not think that a whole ID degree go wasted on a photography career I use it on a daily basis.

We received the option of a "Layette" shipment to Brazil to the tune of 250lbs. We were able to purchase a few items and gathered them together at Paul's mom's house in Florida, where movers came to pack them up. With a strict list of approved items provided from the "GOV" and online shopping from afar we scaled it down to the bare minimum, a crib and a crib mattress. All the other things were recycled from our home, created or purchased online and shipped from the States.

After three months of sleeping in our room, in a bassinet, Paul evicted Clementine. I would have kept her in that bassinet until she was 16, no matter how awkward sleepovers might have been. 


I eventually gave in and let her move out. I helped her pack her pacifier and her blankie and waved and cried as she disappeared into the horizon as she moved ten feet away into the next room. I do still have the bassinet in our room, though, I don't quite know how to let it go just yet. A time will come soon enough, accompanied by a band of movers and they will force me to let go. I'm guessing they will be big and strong and I won't fight them. One can never tell, though.

I carved out a spot in my office, arguably one of my favorite rooms in our Brazilian home. It is my space for creating and dreaming, it has wonderful light that floods it in the afternoons and creates ripples on the ceiling from the reflections that bounce into it from our pool just outside. The sounds of early morning parrots chattering outside and late evening chittering of tiny monkeys flow throughout it and they all now mix beautifully with a tiny little girl cooing and singing as she falls asleep and when she wakes up.










If I could bottle the hormones and nesting instincts that come along with the eighth month of pregnancy, I would be like the next Sewing With Nancy. I boycott all baby bedding and have never found, in three kids, a set that I've adored. The boys only ever had a simple white bumper and white sheets, but when I knew I was having Clem, I knew she called for something couture.

I took a leap of faith: I purchased this book and the fabrics online and I set to work. Beneath the doubtful stares of Paul, I channeled my Grandmama and I sewed like I was on Project Runway and in just about four days worth of nap-times I'd completed the bumper and the crib skirt. I have never been more proud (of my sewing accomplishments) since the crazed laundry basket I sewed when I was eight months pregnant with Sam. I happen to think it is all perfect, no more so than when sweet Clementine is filling it all up.


4 comments:

Natalie said...

You did a great job! I love how it turned out!

Anonymous said...

How beautiful. Can I ask you where the bassinet is from? Interior design is one skill I really wished I possessed, but alas do not. What a dream room for Clementine.

Anonymous said...

Also very curious as to where your bassinet is from?

eliseandpaul said...

The bassinet is from Seed Organic!