Bye Bye Beaches

It is with some confusion and a little embarrassment that I write this post, but I felt that you deserved an explanation after all of your support during the Bump's Real Nursery Contest. Many of you have contacted me to ask what happened to the contest results. Unfortunately the only account that I can give you involves a lot of speculation on my part, as I never received any explanation from the Bump or Sherwin Williams, but here goes:

We were flying high after "winning" the Bump's Real Nursery Contest. Humbled to have been chosen among so many amazing nurseries, we talked about how lucky we were and how blessed to have so much support from friends, family, and all of you as we checked out the Beaches website.

Later that day, a few friends emailed me to let me know that there were some pretty awful comments on the nursery's message board. I didn't often have time to check the comments section, as V keeps me pretty busy, but I was told these warranted a look. So off I went to check, and to be honest, I wish that I hadn't.

The messages were incredibly hateful accusing us of cheating, saying horrible things about Violet's nursery, and making attacks on our integrity. The commenter claimed that Violet's nursery looked like a, "dirty, old doctor's office" and said that she hoped Violet didn't grow up like her parents. Even worse, the comments were being made by a fellow contestant.

Apparently the commenter had taken issue with the phrasing on my blog, "You can vote once per computer per day." I can see where she was coming from, although I honestly had no grand cheating scheme in mind when I typed those words. If I had intended to cheat, I would definitely not have posted it on a public space on the internet. I was coming more from the idea that I voted on my computer each day and the Hubster voted on his, so we voted once per computer per day. I suppose if someone had a lab full of computers in their house, the "cheating" aspect of the phrasing would take on a lot more meaning, but it wasn't something that had crossed my mind.

I tried to respond in a respectful way - defending my integrity while not provoking the commenter. I believe in responding to hate by turning the other cheek, and I asked my supporters to refrain from commenting any further. This did give me some relief and I tried to enjoy our good fortune.

The next day, we woke to find that our nursery had been removed from the contest without explanation. The message boards had been removed as well:

A new winner had been chosen by Sherwin Williams - a beautiful nursery with a nautical theme. While this was my favorite of the other contestants, I found it odd as it had the second lowest number of views, and I assume as a result was not the second place nursery. In the rules Sherwin Williams did include a disclaimer that they could change any of the rules at any time, so it was their right to choose whichever nursery they pleased. We could only assume that they had agreed with the commenter and/or did not want our nursery to represent their company.

We may never know their reasoning, but we take comfort in the fact that we have a happy, healthy, beautiful baby girl and a cozy little nursery that we love. We know that our nursery is tiny, has hand-me-down furniture, and is not your traditional girl's nursery, so it may not have been what they were looking for. It was put together on a shoestring budget, but it was put together with a lot of love and hard work, and we are proud of it, contest or not.

It would have been exciting to go on our first resort vacation, but it didn't crush us to lose it. We are content with our lot and know that we are very blessed. My only regret is that I can't look back on the contest with anything but horrible feelings, and I dreaded giving an explanation to all of you. Now that I have given you what meager facts I have, I hope that I can put it out of my mind entirely. Thank you again for all of your support throughout the contest - you're the best!

~ Lauren