By Cori Rice Kaminsky - Winner of Ty Pennington's "Baby Nursery Makeover" contest
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| Before makeover Click here for larger view or here for another angle |
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After makeover |
Last November, I was perusing baby-friendly websites for a friend of mine, who was expecting her first baby. Having just had my second months earlier, I was in the confident glow of a mom-in-the-know, suggesting to Megan that she join this club and that club to receive coupons and advice once her little bundle arrived.
I happened upon the Similac website, and after emailing Megan the URL for their mom’s club, I noticed a “Baby Nursery Makeover” contest hosted by everybody’s favorite makeover hunk, Ty Pennington – 100 words or less on why your baby needs a new nursery.
100 words or less, I thought – I can do that! And my son definitely needed a nursery makeover – he had been on this earth for 6 months and was still living in his brother’s recycled nursery, complete with boxes of hand-me-downs in the corners and his brother’s name on the wall. So I penned a little baby rap in his honor:
My name is Jace; I’m six months old
A delightful little boy (or so I’m told)!
But my house is old – 1898
And my brother’s old nursery is MY fate!
A tiny room with clothes strewn about
His name’s on the wall – what’s THAT all about?
The floor stacked with boxes, the bookshelves bare
What’s with mom and dad…don’t they care?
I want a special room I can call my own
With baseballs and footballs to keep me in the zone.
So pick me, Similac, pick me, Ty!
I’d love a cool nursery ’cause I’m a special little guy!
I submitted it, and in the bustle of the upcoming holidays, promptly forgot about it.
Imagine my surprise when, four months later, I received a certified letter stating that I was a second prize winner – $1,000 to put into his nursery AND an autographed photo of Ty! Not only that, amongst the documents I received was a release for my signature, allowing Similac to use our nursery makeover in their national advertising!
Being the owner of a small advertising agency, that piqued my interest, and the wheels started turning. Surely, I thought, they expect to use the $10,000 grand prize nursery makeovers in their advertising…but with $1,000, could we do a nursery makeover cool enough for them to sit up and take notice? And in honor of Ty Pennington, could we do it in true Trading Spaces style and do it ALL for under $1000?
My first call was to our local newspaper, the Ozaukee News Graphic. The reporter loved that a local family won this national prize, as well as the idea of seeing if local businesses would donate their time, talents and materials to transform the room to catch the eye of Similac. She offered to do a “before & after” story on the makeover, and the ball started rolling…..
