ANN BAILEY: Starting out 2011 in the pink

During the summer when me and my family and have time off from work and school we often spend it doing chores, such as painting, building repairs and, of course, mowing and gardening.

In the winter, when we can’t do exterior painting and our lawns and garden are under several feet of snow, we work on indoor projects. Cleaning closets, sorting through old clothes and painting rooms are a few of the jobs we’ve undertaken over the years.

This year, we decided to give 7-year-old Ellen’s room a new look. She had been asking us if we could paint her room hot pink since last spring when she saw a friend’s room featuring that color. I told her that Christmas vacation would be a good time to tackle a painting project, so a few days after Christmas we went to a local home improvement store and checked out the paint colors.

After looking through some color cards, Ellen decided that a color called “Rose Dust” was the one she wanted. Although, Ellen’s dad, Brian, and I would have preferred a slightly more subtle shade, we honored Ellen’s choice and bought a gallon of Rose Dust.

Transformation

The next day we transformed her pale yellow room into a pink that is so bright that her brothers and cousin claimed it hurt their eyes. I was a bit dismayed at the intensity of the pink, which seemed to close in on me when I entered the room, but Ellen was delighted with the new look. Brian assured me that the room wouldn’t look quite so pink when we had put her furniture back in the room and hung her bulletin boards, calendar and shelves back on the walls.

He was right. The furniture and decor takes the focus off of the pink walls and her yellow bedspread with pink flowers and the yellow radiator in her room provide contrast.

It’s a perfect little girls’ room, complete with a pink vanity that Santa gave Ellen for Christmas. The vanity holds nail polish — in many shades of pink, of course — pretend make-up and perfume. I know Ellen will be spending many happy hours with her friends and Rosebud, her golden retriever, in her made-over room.

After completing the painting project on New Year’s Eve Day, our plan was to spend New Year’s Day relaxing and watching football games.

Snow removal

But the best-laid plans have to take a back seat to Mother Nature. When the New Year’s Eve storm dumped several inches of snow on us and blew it into big drifts, New Year’s Day called for snow removal, not rest.

While Brian plowed our yard and driveway, Thomas, Brendan and I shoveled off roofs, raked roofs and shoveled sidewalks. Ellen supervised and kept us company. When we finished at our house, we piled in the pickup-truck and drove to my mom’s and repeated the plowing, roof raking and shoveling.

By the time we finished it was late afternoon so my plans of resting and snacking never came to fruition.

However, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to get more exercise, so I’m not going to complain about the workout. I can definitely say that after Ellen’s project and the workout, our family started out 2011 in the pink.

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