velvet on the page: September 2011

I never would admit that I would want my college-age daughter Kelty to be just like me. Don't we want our children to be themselves? Of course. But secretly I pictured my daughter and I being artsy and craftsy together, blissfully sewing and painting and creating art. Uh, no. She was never very interested. I was okay with it.

Kelty is the third generation of women in my family to attend the University of Oregon. My mother attended in the late 1940's-early 1950's, I went in the 1970's, and my daughter is attending in the 2010's.

When my mother went to the U of O in the 1940's-50's sororities were very big on campus.

Back to college 1950's by The Caravan Collection on Etsy

My mother transferred there as a junior and pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma and lived in the beautiful mansion just off campus.

Juniors who live in the house get to decorate one of the rooms in the house in the style of their choice. My mother and her roommate decided it would be a cool idea to cover the walls of their room with real burlap. They forgot about the way real burlap smells.....kind of like rotten straw soaked in petroleum. But it looked great!

My mom thought my sister and I would of course pledge Kappa as she had. The only thing is, it was the 1970's.

Hippies Dancing by Clyde Keller Photo on Etsy

In the 1970's, did still exist, but they were hanging on by their bare teeth. Times had changed, and college kids who had grown up in the late 60's- early 70's wanted to be independent and free. To me, sororities seemed archaic and had too many rules.

In the 2010's, sororities are once again big on campus. My daughter pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma as her grandmother had, and even lives in the same mansion on the campus as she had 60 years ago (with twice as many girls). Her grandmother was thrilled!

This summer Kelty decided she wanted her room to be Shabby Chic inspired with natural linen color, white and pinks. And she got busy.

She covered the inside of an old frame with natural linen and criss-crossed it with pink ribbons to hold photos. Along the bottom she attached glass knobs to hold her necklaces.

She took an old wooden plaque and whitewashed it, then attached an old canning jar with wire and put a silk flower in it.

She bought a glass lamp from Target and painted the lampshade gold. She also bought this amazing mirrored bedside table with a drawer there- I always wanted one of those!

She even painted a painting of flowers by a lake in an Impressionist style and put it in an old Hollywood Regency style frame. She has an oval mirror in the same frame style.

She chose the paper lanterns tied with white tulle after we failed at making those cool doily globes on all the blogs- they are much harder to make than they seem!

Fail!

Success!

Her Shabby Chic room is fabulous!

As it turned out, artsy craftsy WAS passed down from my mother to me, and from me to Kelty. It's just the sorority-joining that skipped a generation.

Here are some fresh etsy shops featuring vintage college finds: