Working Through Creative Mama Frustrations

I know many of you are creative mamas like me. We create, in whatever form, and we try to instill that creative juice in our children. So what happens when those two worlds collide and you throw shoes?

My girls love to create art. I’m happy about that. We create art together all the time—at my art bench, at their art bench, on the side porch, on vacation—and they are developing a nice little talent. But after I checked my email this morning, I came downstairs to find that Sarah had broken one of our number one house rules, yet again: Art supplies do not come upstairs; they stay downstairs in the play room/art room/room that does not contain furniture that we actually care about and would like to keep looking presentable. Caught your interest yet? So what art supply did my darling curly red-headed child bring up stairs? Oh, only the most permanent of art supplies…that famous permanent marker we all call Sharpie. Yep, Sharpie….nice little Sharpie lines and squiggles drawn on my two-month-old, $3,000 Pottery Barn stone-colored sectional. When I made this particular furniture selection, I even talked with the sales person about which fabric would be most kid friendly and went with the canvas twill at her suggestion.

I’m trying to find the humor is this situation and am failing miserably. Sarah selected a hot pink Sharpie. There is no hot pink in the room. Perhaps if she had gone with the orange to match the orange floral rug or bring out the orange in the terra cotta walls…or the green to compliment the weathered green coffee table…or the aqua blue that shows up in my accent pillows…or heck! even black would have at least matched the piano! Nope, she chose hot pink. Now I will say this is not the first time she has demonstrated her Sharpie love. There’s been a wall and a kitchen cabinet, and most distressing up until this point, my mom’s antique needlepoint footstool, which now says “I like Ike”. I don’t know who Ike is unless Sarah’s been channeling Dwight D. Eisenhower in her sleep.

So back to the throwing shoes part of the program. Yep, I threw shoes…I slammed doors…I even uttered a few choice expletives. I don’t do that often—lose my temper—but I did this morning, and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. Granted there are worse things in life to deal with. No one here is battling cancer or suffering from a heart attack. It’s just a couch (though I will repeat it is a brand new $3,000 couch that I haven’t even finishing paying for yet since I took advantage of that one-year no-interest financing offer). So what do you do when this happens at your house? We’re having a garage sale tomorrow. In it, I had hoped to sell our ten-year-old couch that was replaced by our now Sharpie-decorated sectional; Sarah took the scissors to that couch. Maybe I just need to put it back upstairs.

13 comments:

circleinthesand said...

OH NO!!!!! oh, sarah, you better run for your life!!!!

Kelly, you aren't gonna believe this, but my Word Verification for this post is "nomarks", I kid you not!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh no not the Pottery Barn Sectional that we tested at the store....

I am taking a moment of silence right now.... ______________________

Okay...I will keep Sarah in my prayers....don't mess up any of your pretty shoes though.... :-)

Much Love - Whitney

cath c said...

you may not be ready to chuckle about it, but someday...

is it only one side? can you get an upolsterer to look at what he/she can do at minimal cost?

well, s has decorated the walls in his room and in mine. at first i was rather upset, but i must say the drawings are really full of character, even if they are aliens. i even enjoy walking up to the ones in my room now. hhhmmm...i think you've given me an idea for a blog...commiseration and celebration of our children's talents.

and yes, sharpies are his tool of preference.

although recently, he has taken a 3-d approach and started gouging holes in the walls of his room, too. that one, still not a chucklefest, esp since his was the only bedroom we did paint upon moving in.

cath c said...

oops, i wake up to his drawings, but i guess i enjoy walking up to them , too.

Unknown said...

OH NO!!! :(

What a little twerp. So sorry, Kelly!

I have the twerpiest of twerps in the form of my 2.5 year old... she does massive damage and and I really hoped she'd grow out of it. Fingers crossed, but I won't hold my breath!

cath c said...

i wasn't going to bring up the age of mine, but maybe i should...he's nearly 11, but he also has asperger's syndrome, so a wal to him is merely a larger canvas.

Karen Faulkner said...

I don't know what to say about this. If it were me and my daughter, I'd be overwhelmingly proud and appalled at the same time. Good thing she wants to be a chef, not a painter, and only trashes the kitchen.

Andi (RrlScrapGal) said...

Uh oh!!! I would have been pissed too! Your girls are pretty old, right? Almost 6? Not like a toddler, eh? And the rules are obviously set...

And, let me tell you.. My ADULT sister ruined my new couch when it was brand new! TWO holes! So I have patches on a couch that is now 11 years old...that my 35 year old sister 'ruined' by standing a vacuum on it.. when she was helping me clean!! The worse part? She did it once, and then did it again! Patches are not fun... ACK! OK.. did you notice that the couch is 11 years old? I'm not going down that path again! We'll just have to wait the fancy house stuff out while we are all still growing up!

And, ya gotta roll with it baby..after you've had a good cry.. Even if it is a $3,000 roll! It's throw blanket time...to hide that mark..

Sandy said...

Can you whip out the orange & neutral tones markers & make it into something fabulous?
I would probably paint over it (I'm the only one who colors on the walls around here). Not much consolation, i know.

Anonymous said...

Thought it went through the first time - our oldest also used the sofa to practice writing her name. Baby girl actually carved her name in to the wall in her room - yep, right into the sheet rock. She wanted us to put a frame around it.

Once she's 30 you should be able to finally laugh about it. What was DH's take on this?

$%&n' Nancy

Robin in Las Vegas said...

There's hope for Sarah yet! Try reading this article... and after reading it I can't help but wonder if the Tim Holtz alcohol ink solvent wouldn't work to get this out. Try it, nothing to lose! Good luck :)

Link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_remove_sharpie_ink_marks_from_fabric

Shari Sherman said...

Something similar happened to me today and I am so happy to see your post because now I don't feel like such a horrible monster of a mother for freaking out.

We have a separate studio at the back of the house. Our rule is no paint unless I am in the room. Well, my 6-year-old daughter, Leila, didn't actually have paint, so when she ran into the room, wide-eyed, frantically yelling, "Blue paint spilled, you have to come quick." I was alarmed but didn't quite get the brevity of the situation. Blue paint didn't "spill" it was splattered over half of the room like something out of Helter Skelter only with a purple blue tint. All over my big, comfy, newly acquired leather ottoman and it's mate, my wood mission bench, all the pillows on it and just everything! And I freaked out. Oh my goodness, FREAKED OUT. Oh, and it wasn't paint, it was INK. So she didn't technically break the rule. She just pried open an ink stamper and pop, it exploded all over everything. I screamed, I ran for paper towels, I furiously left the room and came back. Things had to be thrown away and now I have purple spots in places I didn't actually want purple spots. Thankfully, nothing in the realm of a $3000 sofa. Praise to you for holding it together and keeping your head on your shoulders, because mine surely would have flown off. After all was said and done, while tucking her in tonight, I apologized to her for flipping out.
And we actually shared a chuckle because I don't think either of us has seen our eyes go that wide in utter horror before. Again, thanks for the post, I needed it and I am so happy to have found it.

judipatootie said...

I was afraid you were offering Sara for sale!! My experience was blue ballpoint on white Nuagahyde.. brand new of course.. i cried.. and lived with it!!

cheers