Carpet Gets a Haircut

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Sometimes trying to be a cool mom doesn't always pay off. Today I tried to be a cool mom. Maddie is into pink, princess, pink, lace, pink, ribbons, pink and other girly things like pink. I was cleaning up the clutter on my vanity when I ran across some pink fingernail polish. I knew she'd love to have her toenails painted, so I offered to do it for her. She was sitting on the rocking chair watching a show on tv and I figured it was the perfect time because she wouldn't be too wiggly. I sat on the footrest and painted her nails. Then she wanted mine to be a "match match" to her. I started painting my toenails, but she started kicking her wiggly (and wet paint) feet around. I lifted my weight from the rocking stool and tried to scoot it backward away so she didn't ruin the fabric with her wet toes getting paint on the footrest. I stumbled slightly in my effort to move the foot stool. I lost my grip on the OPEN bottle of bright pink fingernail polish and it tumbled to the floor. I had no idea what to do. I was in serious trouble. I should NEVER have painted over carpet. Ugh!!! I didn't want to smear the color and make it worse. I didn't want to spray it down with cleaner to make it all a diluted pink all over. I quickly grabbed the laptop and googled "fingernail polish spill" and found a site that said to go ahead and get it up ASAP. Don't ever let it dry or it would be set. It recommended hairspray to help remove it too. I grabbed all my supplies at lightening speed and got to work, constantly spraying it to keep it moist so nothing would be set in pink permanently.

For the size of mess I had, it was a reasonable success. The bottled had sprayed out a double line almost 4 feet long and at the base where the bottle had landed it was all over. I got the majority up with rags, water and hair spray. When I had to finally admit defeat for the remainder of the pink in our blue carpet, I was sad to see the line was still detectable. Then I commenced the hair cut. I spent over an hour with fingernail cutting scissors, lifting each individual fiber of carpet, cutting out the pink blobs that were left. I figure after the hour I spent working, I was nearing halfway of the carpet haircut project, but was out of time for the day. I hadn't exactly planned on spending two hours of my time painting nails, scrubbing carpet and giving a haircut. Now I have to find some time to finish up the other half. The worst part of the whole thing was that I figured if I just didn't bother Maddie and let her keep watching her show it was my best bet to keep things clean. When I ran downstairs for the laptop, she got off the chair and trampled through my pink mess. She made a few extra footprints for me to clean. I grabbed her and tossed her on the bed without thinking. We have a tiny bit of pink on the bedspread now. I've also found spots of pink on my shirt, the bathroom counter, the bathroom rugs and the soap dispenser. Cross contamination is a bummer.

Lesson learned: Only paint fingernails in the bathroom over tile.