When I was younger I used to write down every single thing I got for Christmas in my journal each year. And by “younger” I mean legit until I got married at the age of 23. And because I’m a hoarder, I still have all of those journals. I will spare you the blogger “what I got for Christmas” post but I really wanted to share the canopy my mother made for Scarlette!
Originally we had planned to make the entire thing but after going to a few fabric stores I realized a few things. Which was that A) buying enough fabric to go completely around the bed was expensive and B) I was being ridiculous. I was literally obsessing over tons of bolts of white fabrics in varying shades and textures because I wanted it to perfectly accent the decor in her room.
And then I remembered that Scarlette is three years old and does not care one bit about subtle shades of white and just wanted “a fort bed” for Christmas so I quit being neurotic. Then my mother found a pre-made hoop canopy on sale and we were all “HOLLA!” and we hot-glued some pink pom-pom trim to it. I mean, if Sandra Lee can run an empire by making things “semi-homemade” then pass me a glue stick, that’s what I’m saying. Then we hung it all up and brought Scarlette in to see it.
Scarlette loves it. We told her that the rule is she can not have it closed at naptime or bedtime. This is because she is a sleep acrobat and we worried that while she was doing her nighttime dream gymnastics, she might get tangled up in the fabric. So at nighttime I just tuck the front over the little ledge on the back of her bed on either side so it won’t move. Turns out, adding the pom-pom trim to the front openings was also helpful because even though it doesn’t shut fully, she can easily see the opening pieces to move it back and forth and it keeps it from sliding over the edges and falling shut when she wants it open.
We put an anchor in the ceiling to hold it and had a talk with her about being gentle and not pulling on it. So far, so good but honestly, Scarlette isn’t a rough and tumble/climbing sort of kid. She just sits on her bed and reads books or plays imaginary games with her Toy Story characters. She spends half the day running through my house screaming like a banshee but she sticks to the “bed is for quiet time” rule pretty well. Mostly.
I’m so glad that we decided to do this for her because it was so easy and she loves it so much. When people come over she takes them to her room and says “WOOK AT DIS FORT BED DAT MY JANIE MADE FOR ME!”
Also, apparently it is going to be Christmas all year long in Scarlette’s room because she cried and cried when I took the big tree down and so I just didn’t have the heart to take hers down too.
(I couldn’t find the exact canopy we ended up with but I am pretty sure it is this one on amazon– and that is an affiliate link, FTC 😉 Also, you can see her whole room here, and if I can ever find a comforter that she will touch I’ll share her big girl room updates)
