When I was younger, my fascination with the stars began.
It’s an interest that I keep to this day and I’m sure some of my family will be just bored to tears of me chatting on about the importance of space exploration.
I don’t know what it is about the whole thing, and I won’t pretend to understand the entirety of the physics when I read all about it on holiday (I have no time for mushy romance novels on holiday – there is far more magic in the reality of deep space in my eyes) although I give it a bloody good try.
But what I do remember as a child, when it all began, was reflecting this interest through my bedroom.
I was probably around 10 years old. We’d bought a lovely big family home and me and my sister were given brand new bedrooms with the freedom to decorate as we wished! The house needed a lot of work doing anyway – sounds familiar doesn’t it? Must have got the decorating bug from my parents.
I remember it really well when I got to choose. We wandered around a local Homebase, a store that remains in the same spot today, and I spotted a wallpaper border. It was navy blue and sun-kissed yellow, filled with stars and moons. I was sold.
I chose 2 more wallpapers to match – the co-coordinating stars wallpaper for the upper half of the room, which was mostly yellow if I remember rightly. And a plain vertical stripy blue wallpaper for below. The border joined the two in the middle of the room at about waist height. We added glow-in-the-dark stick-on stars to the ceiling, I was given a navy blue carpet which I still remember rolling around on when it was first fitted – sooo soft. And I added one more thing.
This mobile.
We went on an amazing family holiday to Mexico around this time, and my parents allowed us to pick one souvenir to bring home. I understand for a little girl just shy of her teenage years, this may sound like an odd thing to choose, and I suppose we live in a different era now, but it’s just what I wanted.
It’s a mobile which was carved out of local wood which we found at a market not far from Cancun. It is made of a double sided flat disc with hanging smaller ornaments. On one side of the upper disc is a moon face, and a sunny face on the reverse side. With pieces of string hanging underneath, there are miniature wooden-carved stars and moons.
I just loved it and it was hung above my bed as soon as we got home.
It hindsight it really did look like someone had thrown up a load of tacky stars into one small space. But I suppose as a kid, everything looks a little bit more magical doesn’t it?
What triggered this blog post is the fact that I have just re-discovered the mobile in the loft.
I don’t have any childhood items in the house really. It’s in all storage at another house my mum owns. But this one I kept. I packed it away years ago, with the view that should I ever have children – and that was the intention – that it would be just lovely to do a similar theme in their room, and they could have my mobile.
Sadly, upon unwrapping it I’m starting to realise, it’s actually a little bit scarier than I remember it being (ha!) and actually the paint on the wood hasn’t aged quite so well. That’s the difference between seeing something as an adult, and as a child I guess.
I probably won’t use it in our baby’s nursery. I could probably repaint it in some way or figure out a way to modernise the mobile. But I like it’s old charm and the memories that go along with it, so for now I’ll keep it all to myself.
Joe doesn’t think we should do stars and moons in the nursery – mostly to avoid me using this “hideous” mobile (which made me chuckle to no end) – and whilst I think the idea of another version of my childhood bedroom would be just too cute (how lovely would a twinkle twinkle little star theme be?) I am agreeing with Joe. I can’t wait to see what Baby Dino (the nickname we’ve given them to avoid the usual “bump” “peanut” “sprout” etc) will find interesting themselves, and not just what mummy and daddy try desperately to get them interested in.
It’s a bit of a long-winded post on just one decorative item, and I suppose that’s why I’ve always been a bit of a hoarder as I’m a soppy sentimental git sometimes. But doesn’t it just go to show how important and special it can be to decorate a room? Our nursery may be smaller than we’d like but I’m going to find a way to make it special.
Has anyone else clung to an item from their childhood? How did you find a way to keep it in your house?
