making progress

The room is blue from top to bottom now. It was no easy task to finish off the last quarter of each wall - the top quarter. I started at the door and worked clockwise around the room. The first snag, literally as it turned out, was the feather boa wrapped around the miniature chandelier, oh about two feet from the door and one foot out from the unpainted top quarter of the wall. Paying more attention to the pan or paint I was balancing on the step ladder I failed to notice the feather boa reaching out for the ladder. A jingle of faux glass beads alerted me to the danger. I detangled the feather boa. It attempted to ensnare me next but a man who has triumphed over plastic painter's tarp is undaunted in the face of frail feathers. The boa was quickly dispatched and the rest of the room painted without incident.
The work part done I reviewed my inspirations and began the artistic portion of the project. I decided to start with the tree, a cherry tree yet to leaf out. Cherry tree branches are more difficult to paint than first appears. When you look at silhouettes of cherry tree branches you at first see nothing but hard angles. If you paint it that way however you will not get the desired result. There are just as many sweeping arcs as hard angles in a cherry tree branch. Opening the espresso brown paint I hung three branches on the walls. It's difficult to evaluate your work from six inches away so I moved to the opposite corner of the room. Nice job but the overall effect was more Halloween hanging tree than little girl's room tree.
I hoped the addition of whimsical pink cherry blossoms would soften the effect. I enjoyed creating differing sized five petaled blossoms. I tried different techniques but never settled on the perfect method but was pleased with the result overall. I stepped back to the door for the review. The blossoms helped but the branches still held a menacing aspect. Then it hit me - I needed to paint blossoms on the tips of the branches to eliminate the "reaching black fingers" feel that was bothering me. A few more strategically placed blossoms later and the scene was Bambi in spring instead of The Nightmare Before Christmas.