Katie's Room

I just realized that I've never posted any pictures of Katie's room. It's been pretty much done since September. Alex graduated to a twin bed last June and never looked back at the crib. He lovingly donated it to his baby sister (We just called Katie "baby sister" until we got her referral. Plenty of folks were trying to weasel her name out of Alex, so we knew telling him would end the surprise.). In September, we hired a local artist, Brent Alexander, to paint her room with a pink ladybug theme. Ladybugs are the symbol of little girls adopted from China and my grandmother Fleta used to collect ladybugs along with my Aunt Helen (her daughter). I have lots of fun ladybug-related memories from growing up, and I hope Katie will too, now! We had a few things in mind, particularly the design of the ladybugs, butterflies and dragonflies. Brent did an amazing job with relatively little direction. Starting about 4 feet from the floor (so that bookshelves, dressers, etc. usually will end under it) the room is surrounded in a wonderland of grass and flowers inhabited by lots of friendly little bugs. Since Katie's room is currently packing central and I'm too embarrassed to show the entire thing, here's a shot of one corner of the room. It's hard to get the full effect, but the ladybugs are my favorite. There are about 10 of them, all slightly bigger than a dinner plate. Each has a unique expression if their face is showing. One is stuck at the top of a blade of grass, some are snoozing, one is surprised, etc. I hope our little Katie-bug loves it.