Our Home Library

I love house hunting with my husband, Dan.  We get a list to go see, and once we're there, it doesn't seem to matter how crummy the circumstances might be ... we have vision.  We can look past the old carpet, the hideous wallpaper, the brass lighting fixtures (it's just not our style).  When we stepped into what is now our home in Elkhart almost a year and a half ago now, it felt like home.  Thankfully, it was newer and many aspects of it were quite neutral & refreshing (especially after some of the homes we had recently visited!).  Move in - ready is so much easier!  All that being said, there was still so much that could be done to it.  Especially if we wanted to make it ours.  16 months later, we still have to paint.  We still have to set up that awesome bar in the basement :).  But we can now start checking one thing off our list -- our home library! 

We have so many books.  It only makes sense to turn the extra room in the basement, with no windows, into a library.  We have such vision for that room.  We want ceiling to floor bookcases.  We want a faux fireplace.  We want a couple of lazyboy wing backed chairs.  We want it to be warm and inviting. 

Well, we bought the bookshelves!  We're almost done putting those together and anchoring them to the walls.  But today, I want to show you what I've been working on all afternoon/evening.  Our card catalog!

I decided it would be easiest to use the dewey decimal system and to look the call numbers up from the local library. 

I've completed one shelf :)  One down, many more to go!!

I used index cards to write the card catalog information on.  I used the font "traveling typewriter" from dafont.com.  I love the old school library feel it brings. 

Oh my gosh.  This is going to take forever to finish!

Abigail is getting to be such a wonderful child (rather than baby). I look at pictures from even just six months ago, and I'm startled at how long her hair is now, how thinned out her face looks, etc. They weren't kidding when they said time goes by so fast!

Fun at Home

I sometimes have to remind myself that toddlers LIKE repetitiveness and that it's OK to do the same routine every day. But Abi's getting to the age where we can really do some fun things together. This is our first real craft together!! We finger painted with "flour paint".

Here's how you make the paint:

2 Cups of flour
enough water to dilute it and make it runny
food coloring

and that was really it!

I put wax paper down on her high chair, and that's what we colored on.

It's a good thing we started with something that's technically edible - by the time we were done, it was all over her face and probably in her mouth!