I have nothing against princesses, specifically. Or generally, for that matter. But I do have a bit of an aversion to the title.

See, I didn’t always hate the word “princess”. In fact, when I was a little girl I tried on the title myself and thought it fit me just fine. But, in the past decade I started to notice that there was an abundance of royalty visiting New England – everywhere I looked was another little girl with the word “princess” scrawled across her tiny chest, hat, arms…or…worse…backside. While I didn’t care for this trend back then, it didn’t evoke actual hatred until I had a daughter of my own.

Since we decided to have the sex of our baby be a surprise at birth, a lot of the outfits Anna wore in her first year of life were green or yellow. We certainly bought lots of pink, girly dresses too, but it wasn’t until after she had her first birthday and I had to shop for her in earnest that I realized that my choices were pretty limited. If I didn’t want my daughter to either look like a really short hooker or if I refused to let her wear something that had “Princess” then my options were slim. Every article of clothing, toy, blanket, hair accessory…every where I went I was

But perhaps the biggest challenge was when it came time to redecorate Anna’s room for a toddler girl. Whether it be quotes about being a princess (“We asked for a daughter. We were sent a princess.” GAG.) or pictures of pink sparkly crowns, I was hard pressed to find decorations for her new room which didn’t center around whether or not she wielded a scepter in her spare time. Now, I should mention that I don’t have any against princesses, per se. I’m fine with Anna adoring the Disney princesses, wearing princess dresses and playing pretend, all of that stuff. What I object to is the idea that being declared royalty is the ultimate, what every little girl should yearn for. How about an education? How about owning her own home? Financial independence? Why can’t we celebrate her wonderful imagination, not just how “pretty” she is?

Since Anna is too young to have any real hobbies or interests (unless you count having pretend picnics as a hobby), I was really stumped about how to decorate her new room. That is, until I found Curly Cue.

Curly Cue is a wall graphics company that has all kinds of quality, removable and unique designs. They have a fantastic selection of designs for everyone in the family at every stage of life – from the nursery, to the kids room, to the college student, to the home accents. They even have holiday graphics – check out the Halloween graphic (right). And at $14.99 and a choice of black or white, it affordable and fits into all decors!

I was thrilled to get the Giraffe Wall Decal as well as the Tree with Birdies (we chose green with pink, although there are other color options). Anna loves animals and I knew that the little birds and the giraffes would be a big hit. I love the whimsical design of the decals! My only concern was whether or not they would be as easy to put on the walls as they’re supposed to be. While it took me a minute to figure it out a get a rhythm going, the actual application of the decals was incredibly easy. But I took comfort in knowing that the decals can be removed pretty easily (although not so easily that they get torn off your wall) and if I placed them wrong or they weren’t lined up correctly the process to fix my error was very simple.

I also love the selection that Curly Cue has! While the tree with birdies and giraffes are super adorable right now, in a year or two Anna may want to do some updating. Unlike having a mural or designs painted on the wall, if she still likes the wall color there’s no need to paint over the outdated designs. Simply use a blow dryer for a minute and viola! You have your blank canvas back.

Kids a bit older? Curly Cue has such cool designs as the edgy street race car design and the tank coming out of the wall. Want some grown-up decorations for your walls? How about the beautiful Cherry Tree blossoming ,or maybe the fascinating World Map is more your style. There are so many different designs and options and I love that you can often choose different colors within the design that you love.

As you can see from this picture, I’m not the only one who is so excited to have a Curly Cue design on our walls! it’s the best of all worlds – Anna is simply delighted with her new friends in her room and Mommy is relieved and satisfied that the new wall art doesn’t have the word “princess” anywhere on it. She loves to take her little plastic animals and have them “play” with the giraffes under the tree, happily singing and talking to herself. You can’t get that from a princess sticker.

WIN IT! One lucky reader will win a $50 Gift Certificate to Curly Cue Wall Graphics! To enter, please tell me another design from Curly Cue that you’d like AND become a subscriber of this site (if you aren’t already) You MUST confirm your subscription for it to count! I check all entries and if you are not a subscriber, your comment will be deleted. That’s it!

Comments will close on October 17, 2009 at 10 PM EST. One comment per person, please (unless you do the extra credit). Open worldwide! Duplicates and comments not including the above information will be disqualified. Comments are moderated. If you don’t see your comment in a reasonable amount of time, send me an email. Bloggers and non-bloggers may enter. If you don’t want to leave your email address, please be sure to check back for my announcement of the winner. Please note that winners must respond within 48 hours of being announced/contacted or another winner will be drawn.

Extra Credit:

Become a fan of Curly Cue on Facebook – Leave your username for verification. One extra entry.

Enter any other giveaway on my site. One extra entry per giveaway.

Comment on any non-giveaway post. Leave link or name of post that you commented on. One extra entry.

Grab my button! Post it on your own blog and leave me the link to find it. Two extra entries!

Follow me on twitter AND tweet about the contest. – You may do this daily for an extra entry.

Follow me on google friend connect. One extra entry.

Blog about this giveaway. It doesn’t have to be a separate post. Just include a blurb about it when you blog about other giveaways. You may have 3 entries for this.

Click on one of the very cute buttons below and digg, stumble, fav, etc. Just let me know what you did in the comments! One extra entry each.