Show and Tell

Here is my latest entry for Mel's Show and Tell:

This was my FAVORITE book growing up. If you look closely you can tell that the book cover is well-worn and held together at the top and bottom with clear packing tape. My mom used to read this book with an Irish accent and reeeaaaaaallly emphasize the phrase "Leprechauns never lie!," which is repeated often in the book.

**SPOILER ALERT** The following 2 paragraphs are a summary of the story. Skip if you don't want to know the story.

The book is about a VERY lazy girl, Ninny Nanny, who lives with her ailing Gram and the house is falling apart because never does her chores. The girl finds a leprechaun (who never lies) and tries to convince him to tell her where his pot of gold is. The leprechaun very cunningly tells her all the places his gold USED to be and in the process of her looking for the gold she ends up doing her chores (sorting the wood pile, filling the water barrel, thatching the roof with straw from the pile, digging up the potatoes in the potato patch). Finally Ninny Nanny is so tired from all the work and so frustrated with the leprechaun she decides to let him go.

The good news is that now she and Gram have a warm house and food in their belly. Unfortunately, Ninny Nanny was still too lazy because she left 1 potato plant in the garden. Late that night the leprechaun returned and dug up the remaining potato plant, picked up his pot of gold and rushed off to find a new hiding spot.

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As a soon-to-be parent I really like the message of the book. As a kid I thought the book was funny and I would yell at the girl about where the gold really was. I have many good memories of reading this book with my mom. I highly recommend this book for any parents who are looking for good books to read to their children. I looked at Bar.nes and Nobl.es' website and it looks like the book was re-released, with a new cover. If you decide to get the book, let me know what you think. =)

Show and Tell

This was the wallpaper mural in my room when I was between 3-12 years old.

I mentioned to my mom that, in thinking about how to decorate my baby's room I was thinking about that mural and wondered if I could find it or something similar. I was working off of my memory of the wall. I have many fond memories of looking at the wall and using my imagination. I thought it was the coolest room on the planet! I also had wonderful yellow walls that I loved. The only reason I moved out of that room is when I hit junior high I wanted to be farther away from my parents, so I moved into the biggest bedroom in the house, which happened to be in the basement. My childhood room remained yellow with the great wallpaper. In fact, even when my parents sold the house they just freshened up the paint and kept the wallpaper so that another kid could enjoy the room.

Anyway, when I mentioned to my mom that I was thinking about that mural, she said she had some ideas about where I might find it. Next thing I know, my dad has pulled out this box from the garage... The same box they received the original mural in! There are even some left over pieces of wall paper still in the box! Frankly, I was speechless... until I started laughing my butt off! I couldn't believe my mom kept it, even through a major move! She said that she hadn't planned on keeping it at the time (28 years ago!) but that I loved the wall paper so much as a kid she decided to hold onto it "just in case..." The picture up above is from the side of the box so I guess it came in handy... =)

So, now that we have the box we know the company that originally made the mural (although the artist's name isn't anywhere on the box). My mom contacted the company to see if they still carried this mural. They don't. However, my mom seems to have made a friend with one of the secretaries at the company (Wanda). Wanda, apparently, is trying to track down a copy of this for me (even if it is just a poster). Honestly, I never expected my innocent wondering about that mural to have had such a big reaction! If Wanda does manage to find a way to get this as a mural I basically have to buy it because she went above and beyond.

I do still like the mural, but not as much as I thought I would. I remembered it having more colors. I have looked through a lot of kid room murals lately (in the search for this particular one) so I have seen a lot of really great options. I like the idea of putting a solar system mural on the ceiling. Hubby suggested doing a kind of layered effect where we would have under the sea (at the bottom), above the water (in the middle), sky (on top) and solar system (on the ceiling). I do kind of like the idea of that. We have 10ft ceilings so we have some height on the wall to work with. This would all only be on one wall so hopefully it wouldn't be too overwhelming. Of course, we would need to find the right murals to work with so they would flow together somewhat. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. In any case, now you know what my childhood bedroom looked like.