Wall decor courtesy of (teenaged!) Jana

If I could, I would probably change a lot of things about my adolescence... probably dial down the awkward a bit, maybe learn Spanish instead of French (darn it that my dad was right about one being more useful than the other!) and possibly give in occasionally to my mom's attempts to teach me how to cook.

One thing I would not alter, however, is my awesome bedroom. I thought finally getting my own bedroom when I was ten was as good as it got, but sometime around age thirteen I got a serious upgrade to one of the bigger (and newer) back bedrooms . . . and my mom let me choose the paint. I resisted the urge (or my mom talked me out of it) to use my favorite color ORANGE, and instead went with bright yellow and blue. My mom and I sponge painted the entire room - two walls yellow, one wall blue and one wall both. I absolutely LOVED it.

Sadly, I couldn't find a picture of my room in its heyday, so here's one from last summer. Ignore Chuck, Quinn, and my mom's old lady decor (she brutally turned MY room into a TV/playroom a while back. Something about me getting married and not needing it anymore. . . ).

After the awesome paint job, my favorite aspect of my room was my wall decor: magazine collage posters. I had a pretty serious addiction to People Magazine at that time in my life (I attribute this addiction to my dear Grandma Hunter, also the one who introduced me to soap operas). Luckily I was able to find old issues at the library for a quarter each. As I read through them, I ripped out anything and everything that I liked: actors, actresses, quotes, ads, headlines, etc. And then I tapped into my almost non-existent artistic side (notice the heavy use of Scotch tape) and made posters!

Which brings us to the occasion for this post; I recently dug around in a closet at my mom's house and found a couple of big totes with a TON of Jana memorabilia: old school papers, report cards, etc. Tucked right behind the totes were my awesomely handcrafted posters, which I dutifully dusted off and present to you now:

Awesome, right? This is probably my favorite of the bunch; I loved Denzel from an early age :).

Here's the next one:
I was pretty chagrined to see the emphasis I placed on TVs then (especially size!) since I give Chuck such a hard time about his love of our big screen TV.

Ahh, my 'hot guys' poster. . . doesn't every teenage girl have some version of this?
I do stand by my taste, though.

Ohh, here's my 'love/romance/marriage' poster.
I wouldn't go through and calculate how many of those couples are no longer together. I did, and it's pretty sad . . . slash hilarious :).

I loved examining the posters and gaining (regaining?) insights into my 16/17 year old self, as well as the fun and bright effect they had on the wall. Unfortunately, none of the posters really fit my current life. I contemplated creating a new one (and still might, even though people.com fills my entertainment news obsession, er, interest now). Then I realized I already had a slightly more grown-up version hanging above the computer in the playroom:

My bulletin board! Granted, it's a little lighter on the celebrity fare (although there is a little Glee picture on the right side) but the people pictured are way more important to me :).

Thanks again to my wonderful mama for helping me have such an awesome bedroom and encouraging me to express myself and make it my own.
(And I forgive you for not keeping it as a shrine . . . because, let's face it, that would be creepy . . . )