Getting extra books on a bookshelf

At least in my family, we tend to have more books than we can fit on the bookshelves we have. When I inherited the 5 bookshelves to put in my room as I wrote about earlier, I thought I might be set and had escaped the overflowing bookshelves. But then as I gathered my books from around the house, I discovered that I still had too many books to fit in organized way to put on normally. So, I had to get creative as to how to fit more books on the shelf.

One way is always to stack books sideways when they aren’t as high as the shelves which I did use as you can see above that doubled for

The beauty of Hospitality

My blog posts are often about trying to make the world more beautiful for those around me, but this post is about the beauty I found on a recent trip. You see, got back from a trip to visit family in Ohio.  I personally think that the Ohio countryside is how to beat for beauty.  I also saw two unique and beautiful moths (including the one pictured here).  I saw amazing fireworks celebrating the beauty of freedom and our country.  I saw amazing and beautiful animals.  But what I’m especially thankful for is the beauty of family and hospitality.  What can really be said about the beauty of a loving family?  It is truly a gift from God.  I think there are few things as beautiful on this earth as the unconditional love and acceptance of a good family and when that includes an extended family that is especially great.  (Well, I’m a long time in getting to the hospitality part, aren’t I?)

Hospitality is something I haven’t really had a chance to practice that much the last few years

Bookshelf update

Well, the bookshelves are almost done.  I hoped to write a whole post about it, but if you read my mom’s blog you know about the storm and attendant problems we had a couple weekends ago, and now I’m headed out on vacation.  So, you’ll have to settle for a photo for now.

Progress…

As you can see, I’m making progress on filling the bookshelves (in time squeezed in around other responsibilities).  My sister is planning to help me over the weekend, so hopefully they’ll be done soon.  It may take a few tries, since I like my books organized, and I’m not sure exactly how many books I have of which types, so I’m not sure if I’ll need decorative fillers on the shelves, or need to put books on the top-I’m guessing the later, but we shall see.

Decorated Envelopes

When I send cards or letters, I like to think that receiving that piece of mail is brings a few moments of joy into the recipient’s life. If possible, I want those moments to start when the second their eye lands on the envelopes. Now, some will recognize my handwriting, and there is always the return address, but I like to have a little more than that. For instance, while the postal service offered them I used the Nature of America Series stamps (you can see a couple of them I used in this photo) kind of as a signature on the envelope. At least I like them to know that they received a personal piece of mail and not a bill or add. Sometimes this is easy as with the bright pink envelopes I recently sent cards in, other times, it’s a little harder. Recently I had to use

Bookshelves

Well, this is my newest project:

My sister decided that she didn’t want these bookshelves anymore, so I’ve “adopted” them.  Now it’s time to find all my books, get them together, and organize them (which I enjoy doing).

6 month review/update on house goals

Well, it’s been just over six months since I was inspired by (and linked up to) The Nester’s 2011 House goals post, so I thought I should see how I was doing.

I split my 2011 house goals into inside and outside, here’s how it’s going:

Inside:

• Decorate for more holidays-so far so good. I’ve decorated for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and the Patriotic/Summer Holidays.
• Fill my photo frames – after much planning, I have it all but done
• Start re-painting rooms – not yet

Outside:

• Paint trim – not yet
• Prepare flowerbeds – in progress
• Have a money saving vegetable garden – I haven’t got much produce yet, but it is growing well.

Freedom is not free…

Today in America we observe Memorial Day (a day to remember those who have died defending our country and freedoms). I know I have some international readers, so this may not interest you, if not, you can just skip this post. But if you are interested in my thoughts this Memorial Day, and my reflections on my family's sacrifice for freedom, please click:

Patriotic Summer Hutch

For summer, I’m decorating in a patriotic theme since 3 of the main patriotic holidays are in a just over a one month span from Memorial Day through Flag Day to July Forth. I want to decorate the whole kitchen, so this may change as I get more time to work on this. But this is what I have right now:

Please ignore the photos in the frame, I have to find and get in the right size

Address labels for cards

Recently for for a holiday I had some cards to mail. At the last minute, I realized that the envelopes were dark pink, and so the machines might not scan them right the first time, so I decided to use labels since I hadn’t left extra times for the address to be hand read. I didn’t want to make the envelopes to look funny/ruin their beauty, so I thought of the half-sheet labels, the kind you print mailing package labels on. So I got out a