Library Day!

I went to the library today.  You know, one of those buildings ~ real, not virtual ~ where stack after stack of glorious books can be found.  Real books, not ebooks.  Truth is, I go to the library most every day.  But the library I usually go to is my workplace.  I love my job.  I'm surrounded by amazing books, children and the staff and teachers of the best elementary school in the world!  I am an elementary school librarian ~ my library is full of children's books.  But, there are those days, when I long to go to the library just for me.  And, today, I did just that.

Here's a picture of the great book I checked out today.  After reading only two pages, I'm sure I'll be up late tonight scouring the pages looking for new ideas to give wonderfully old reclaimed materials new life!

Now that you know how much I love libraries, I have to tell you what one of my favorite rooms in my house is.  It's my library, or course.  As a Navy family, we move often.  With each new house, comes a new library.  In some houses it is its own special room, just like we have now.  But in other houses, sometimes it consists of a special corner in a room that serves multiple purposes ~ or a combination of shelves in several rooms spread throughout the house.  But, regardless of how we store our thousand + books, wherever they dwell is always one of my favorite spots in the house.

I took a picture tonight (as you can tell from the quality, I can't wait to get a new camera!) of one of our library walls.  We have so many shelves and so many books.  We're currently living in a rental so we're limited to white walls as backdrops for most of our favorite pieces.  This makes me want to add as much character to all our pieces as I can.  Most of the valuable real estate in this shelving unit is taken up by books, but you will be able to see I've chosen two sections to house some of our vintage family items.  They have a prominent home and we see them every day.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The pictures above show those special things I mentioned. (I edited one in Picasa 3 giving it a vintage look, just for fun:)  Under the dome I have placed small pocket bibles from my grandfathers and great-grandfathers.  I also have sermon notes from my step-father's many beautiful sermons he delivered from his pulpit.  There's also several old books of poetry from my great-grandfather and a pair of antique glasses. To add a bit of color to the shelves, I chose our hand blown glass vase from Australia.  I love the unexpected bit of color.  And, lastly, is the canvas transfer photo I made of my aunt's husband during WWII.  He never made it back from the war, but I still feel like we've known him forever because of all the wonderful stories and pictures my aunt shares with us.  You can read more about them in my blog post here.

I'd love to hear about your own libraries...or better yet, see pictures.  Please let me know your storage secrets and design ideas for that special room in your house.

Have a great day,

~ Alison

I Dream of Pallets

I love pallets!  They sure have taken the world by storm.  Sometimes I dream of them and of all the wonderful things I can build with the perfectly sized boards.  I mainly use them for small decorative accent pieces.  But sometimes I venture out into larger projects.  I love using pallets outdoors in the garden.  You can make planters, tables, storage racks (like the one I made above!), or anything your imagination comes up with.

The items below were all made from pallet boards.  I love taking the pallets apart.  I try to salvage every piece and remove the nails.  Sometimes, though, those doggone boards are nailed in with 738 old rusty nails;  those are the pallets that get the jigsaw treatment.  Anyway, the possibilities are endless! 

            


Do you love pallets?  Please leave me a comment and let me know what pallet creating you've been up to!

~ Alison

This post was linked up at:
Nifty-Thrifty Things

Two Weeks to Go ~ an Update

It seems that the past week has flown by.  I do believe I have had a very productive week, but when I look around at everything that needs to be done, I feel like I should have had an even more productive one.

Let me see....yes indeed ~ I did get a lot of things checked off my "to-do" list.  Hooray!  Here are a few pictures taken as the week rolled by.

My New Storage Haven

Here is the closet I transformed into my storage "haven" as I now call it.  Did you know that builders don't make all closets square?  I learned this when I tried to install my perfectly squared boards as shelves.  Oh well, a lesson learned in an inconspicuous spot.

Shelves installed and level!   Happy me:)

Childhood Dinner Table Becomes Point of Origin for Creations 

After the Storage Haven was complete, I moved onto my new workstation.  My parents were given a wonderful dining room table with six chairs when they were married in 1957.  Sadly, the veneered finish had been badly damaged and the table was really too far gone to refinish.  I promised myself years ago that I would never paint family heirlooms.  I love the patina the old, wonderful pieces have.  However, I did make an exception this time.  In order to get the pieces to be uniform and for the table to have a level, smooth surface, I had to paint it.  I used a recipe for a variation of a chalk-style paint I found online at Liz Marie Blog.  I loved it!  There was no need to prime the surfaces beforehand and the finished product allows you to distress some points of the items and then wax over them with a finishing wax.  I used Minwax Finishing Wax.  So, here's the before and after.  What do you think? Please let me know if you have any questions about the use of this recipe or if you have tried it yourself.

Now my workstation and storage haven are complete.  On to make more creations for the opening day of my Etsy shop.  Don't forget to stop by July 8th!  Keep an eye out here for a sneak preview.....coming soon.

Have a great day!