Our daughter Ava turns four next week and she has been developing a passion for horses. It all started with just an innocent little pony ride at the Issaquah Salmon Days festival a year and a half ago. While we thought maybe it was just a fad (since she's already had many of those), this one seems to have not only stuck, but continues to grow. Just two nights ago, while driving by some farms to go and look at yet another possible DIY piece - a TV armoire, she begged us to stop to look at, pet, and ride the horses. Of course we had to tell her that though we could look, we couldn't do anything else because they weren't ours. This was not an easy thing to try to explain to a strong headed, logic free 4yr old. After some discussion, which was really going nowhere fast, she simply stated, in her matter of fact tone, "Well, we'll just have to buy one then." This of course led to some more "tried" explanation that went in one ear and out the other. I have no idea where she gets it, ;-) wink wink, but when she sets her mind on something. she believes it's a done deal and stops at nothing to see that it is done. In this case, since we have no intention of buying a real horse, we've decided that perhaps it's time to get rid of her green baby safari bedroom decor (:-( can't believe my baby's not a baby anymore), and replace it with a horse theme, which we have been informed must be red - Ava's favorite color.
What I've discovered in my horse-themed inspiration pursuit, and yes it's been a pursuit because I'm just not into horses in the least, is that horses are actually a quite popular thing for both young boys and girls to be into, so there's certainly an abundance of inspiration out there to be found. Where the problem has arose is in the color. I don't know why this is, and I'd really love to have a discussion with childrens designers out there because this isn't the first time we've ran into this problem, but somehow they must believe that every little girl wants to be this frilly little princess who lives amongst the fluffy white clouds, dancing on rainbows because everything that's made for girls, and I do mean EVERYTHING, seems to only come in these puky pastel and bright pinks, purples etc. Turns out, it's no different even when it comes to horse themes for girls. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have yet to see a farm that is pink or purple (real one's anyway) and this just isn't what Ava seems to be into either, and though I've tried repeatedly, she is not budging on the red choice. Thankfully, after much searching and by removing the "girl" specification from my searches, I finally found a solution...I hope.
While we're still undecided if we're actually going to purchase any of these items, (we likely will get at least the bedding since I don't have a sewing machine), this is the inspiration and the look we're going for in her bedroom make-over. Though this was technically made for a boy, and Ava isn't understanding how this equates to horses, I love the red bandana western print and think it's going to be the perfect solution for achieving a horse themed room that's red. So now that the starting point is established, let me show you what's in the works...
