I spent a good portion of the last couple of weeks looking for crib bedding so that I'll have a color palette to start painting the nursery. I wanted something cute and girly, but not over the top. And of course, just because nothing can be easy for me, I had a list of requirements. First of all, I'm really not a bunnies and bears kind of gal, so anything with cutesy animals was pretty much out from the get-go. I find most ruffles to be obnoxious, and too many bows get on my nerves. Pink is a lovely color when combined in moderation with other, dissimilar colors, but there seems to be a ton of bedding out there for girls with a pink/lavender combination that just looks like an Easter bunny threw up on it. Themes are okay, provided we avoid the above-mentioned fluffy bunnies, and I wanted to avoid princess/castle themes because 1) Anna's room is a princess theme, and we all know how I feel about the matchy-matchy thing, and 2) with my luck, I'd get a tomboy this time who will hate all things princessy.
I have now been to every single store that carries baby bedding in Houston. Okay, I take that back. I haven't been to the really upscale boutiques because I'm far to cheap to pay $800 for a bedding set that my baby will most likely urp on at some point. But I did scour all of the typical venues: J.C. Penney, Sears, Baby Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, Babies R Us, and the discounters like Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, etc.
The first bedding set I bought was from Baby Depot. Yes, you read that right. That was the FIRST set. It was stunning, with blocks of pink/green plaid interspersed with sagey green toile, pale yellow, and a gossamer cream colored overlay with pink and green flowers. Truly beautiful. And truly expensive -- about twice what I wanted to pay -- but I did love it so, so I just sucked it up and paid it.
Well, since my mom was visiting and was on a quest for a new vacuum cleaner that ended up spanning the globe from pole to pole, I decided to take one more look at the mall for bedding. Lo and behold, Sears had a really cute set that was less than 1/2 the price of the Baby Depot set. It had flowers and butterflies in pastel gingham, and while it wasn't nearly as elegant as the first set, I figured it was considerably more practical (see previous concern re: urping on bedding). So I bought it and returned the first set.
So the Sears set came home with me and spent the night in my house. The next day, while on an online quest for Mom's new vacuum cleaner (the 17 stores we visited the first day didn't have *quite* the thing!), I perused the Target web site. Well, Target.com has a link at the top of the page that says "Baby". How could I resist that? So I thought I'd just check to see if maybe they had different inventory online than they did in the store, and I found an adorable set. It said it was available in the stores, and I wanted to see it in person, so during the course of the 32 more vacuum stores we visited that day, we also managed to hit 3 Targets. The first didn't even have a spot on the shelf for the bedding I wanted. Bummer. The second had it but was sold out. The third store was the jackpot! This was definitely the set! And better yet, it cost another $10 less than the Sears set! Of course, I had to go online to buy a few matching accessories (window valance, diaper stacker, etc) that they didn't carry in-store, but it was still very reasonable.
The next day, the Sears set went back, and I feel fairly confident that this set is "the one". It's pink, but don't be too alarmed. The background is pink but there are large flowers in lots of other colors like yellow, orange, green, and turquoise. There are a couple of bands of brighter pink minkee fabric (if you don't know what minkee is, you're missing out -- it's the fabric of the gods, and I wish they made adult clothing out of it), and the sheets and bumper have coordinating floral and polka-dot fabrics. There is not a bit of lavender to be seen, and best of all, no ruffles or bunnies!
So I give to you the crib bedding. Try not to weep in the presence of its perfection.
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