Check off another project: DONE!

Ivan picked up the wood this morning, built the final bookshelf (to house the monitor/t.v. set-up) this afternoon and we installed it this evening next to the two bigger bookshelves in the living room. Also added the bookshelf from the study to create an L-shaped unit that fills one end of the room. How is this for organizational brilliance?!

My husband does good work!

I am so, SO, SO happy to have this project checked off our list! We not only have room for all our books now, between this unit and the one in the study, but there's also space for a few special momentos. This wooden "world" tree is from Argentina; we bought it back in 2003 -- way before we moved here. And the basket is one of many I brought back from Uganda.

I also tucked in several tiny watercolors we picked up on our first trip to Ireland in 1999. 

They're about 4" square and after our trip I found the white ceramic frames at Michael's (on sale!).

Each and every item has meaning for us...a story and memory attached to it. There's a pretty blue paperweight we picked up in County Kerry on a day we drove way out in the boonies trying to find the ancestral village of a lady in our group. We wandered up and down narrow roads and came across the home/studio of a glass artist out in the middle of nowhere who was kind enough to invite us in and demonstrate his craft. The scarf on top (beneath the African drum) is from Argentina and quite old. This wooden canoe with two men is a roughly carved piece from Uganda and the artist dressed them in bits of bark cloth.

Aside from the whole finally-getting-organized bit, there's also immense satisfaction in being able to display some of our favorite things.

[For those who are wondering about the study/sewing room project; it sort of got stalled last week when we ended up going to Sta. Rosa...but I have high hopes of finishing it this week!]