HGTV's DesignStar... I won!

Well not really, but I feel vindicated all the same. Emily on the show called Design Star on HGTV won the other night. I don’t actually know what night, since I don’t watch anything in “real time” anymore. (Whoever invented the DVR really should receive some electronic equivalent of the Nobel Peace prize.)

Anyway Emily Henderson was cute and quirky and won, I believe, for her inspired idea of a show called Style to Lifestyle. I call this idea inspired because I honestly thought the idea was great a few weeks before I even heard of her show’s inspiration. Call it coincidental timing, whatever… I won’t say I came up with the idea first, because I’m sure I really didn’t. Also we might be distantly related, as I know there is a Henderson branch on my tree a few limbs back. Anyway, she takes a look at your wardrobe or Style and then turns that into her inspiration for your home or Lifestyle. Sounds perfect.

And to make it even better, she’s working on the co-creator of “Glee”, Ian Brennan, and his home next, airing Sunday, August 29 at 10 ET. I’ll definitely be watching. Not Sunday at 10pm, but you know, sometime when I have more than five minutes to spare… ok, at least by Thanksgiving.

http://www.hgtv.com/secrets-from-a-stylist/show/index.html

Duck!

Most days I realize parenting is a marathon rather than a sprint, but sometimes I believe I have become so immersed in my own head that I prevent myself from seeing the little gems of parenthood along the way. In retrospect, there have been many gems over the last two weeks.


For one, we spent last Friday in the doctor’s office getting those necessary yearly physicals and required inoculations. This is never my idea of a fun way to spend an afternoon, and I was feeling tense and distressed over the pain I knew was going to be inflicted on my babies. Now our Dr. R is a treasure and I never miss an opportunity to sing her praises, but what parent enjoys holding down their children while they wail inconsolably in pain? Personally I’ve yet to meet the first one. But even in our discomfort, I realize these doctor visits are important and enlightening.

Besides the basic physical, Dr. R asks the children a smattering of questions to gage their ability to answer her as well as discuss their responses further. I know the answers to these questions (or I should), but my responses are not the point to this exercise. Giving my children an opportunity to speak for themselves is sometimes difficult, but often I am rewarded for my efforts, like this last time when Dr. R asked my youngest, “What would you do if you saw a gun?” Not missing a beat, my child responded, “Duck!”

Now of course the conversation crisscrossed around gun safety for a minute or two following this response, but I love her instincts… Duck! This is my child at her best; uncensored, undiluted, purely instinctual and wonderful. Children don’t give PC answers and my youngest doesn’t mince words either. This is the girl who feels comfortable in a combination of frothy cotton candy pink ballerina tutu outfits and black Transformer flip flops (or my personal favorite is the tutu and purple rubber rain boots combo). Some parents might call her look peculiar, but I can’t think of any better attire for my tough princess.

You see, I often feel like I’m raising a flamingo in a world of ugly ducklings. All those ducklings are going to turn into beautiful swans someday, all looking very poised and beautiful, but still very similar. If my instincts turn out right, I believe my rocker princess isn’t going to be a swan though, because she’s already a blazing hot pink flamingo. At this rate, being a beautiful swan someday would be a step down for my independent princess. I blame my parents (of course) and the movie Shrek. My parents, because they raised me to be self-confident and now it’s spilling over into my parenting style and directly shaping my children, and Shrek, because Princess Fiona ends up being a belching, bath bubble blowing green ogre that rocks harder than any of the other less vibrant Happily Ever After princess options while still sporting a tiara the whole time. Poor Prince Charming never had a chance.

As a parent I’m certainly not alone in my resistance to mindless conformity and all it stands for, I just didn’t realize the gift this self-confidence was for my children until I was faced with a color wheel newbie the other weekend. Previously I hadn’t given much thought to how someone could get so twisted up over a couple of little old paint chips, but I can puzzle through the emotions behind it fairly easily. Change is scary, and I was pressing for what probably felt like candy colored euphoria instead of safe and comfortable monochromatic beige.

Flat beige on beige is my definition of neutrals gone bad. It’s one thing to intentionally go for a very monochromatic look, but always picking beige so you don’t have to ever make a choice, is just indecision gone amuck. The word neutral, by the way, is literally synonymous with drab, indistinct, indeterminate, and wishy-washy. I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone who’s said, “Yes, I was really going for an indistinct, wishy-washy look in this room,” but maybe those people are out there somewhere and my flagrant overuse of the color pink scares them off.

Anyway I was blessed to watch a color newbie usher in an era of cheerful color into their home recently, and in the span of a weekend I watched a little house with good bones turned into a welcoming home in front of my eyes. I saw smiles of excitement on faces that had been etched with worry lines, and it was all due to a few cans of paint and some elbow grease. Now granted the amount of elbow grease required had many of us moving a bit slower the next morning, but I’m still glad we made the effort to beat the color wheel back into submission. And I hope, just maybe, we encouraged the next generation of color wheel newbies to give color coordination a chance.

At least I know one child who needs no help in that department. Yes, she’s mine. I’m expecting to get the blame for this in about ten years, but for now I enjoy every day of our little flamingo’s fashion parade.