For the Love of Pinterest….

If you haven’t joined Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for???  It’s an online forum where you can bookmark things you like from the world-wide-web.  I can’t tell you the times I’ve seen a cute gift idea or a recipe on a blog that I wanted to try later and then when I went looking for it… yep, you guessed it… I couldn’t find it.  That’s the most maddening thing ever!  Pinterest has solved my online dis-organization.  I feel so Martha-ish.  It’s amazing, I’m telling you… you will love it.

Here’s a DIY project for floating bookshelves I saw on Pinterest that I wanted to duplicate.  Click here for the original blog post to see how they did it.   Is that newspaper wallpaper?  Interesting….  Another place on Pinterest had these linked to an online store where you could purchase a “floating bookshelf” for $11 a piece.  I wanted 4 shelves for my project, so that would actually be kinda pricey… ouch!

So last week, I went to Home Depot to buy the supplies.  After confusing one employee there with my odd project plans, I came home with 4 sets of “L” brackets and a package of heavy duty wall anchors to hang them up with.  Total cost was $15. 

These are the baskets I bought at Ikea right after we moved here.  They have been where we have kept the kids books for years and I keep them right by the kids bedroom doors… except that look at how full they are… and I’ve cleaned them out recently, too!  I had stacks and stacks of YA books downstairs with no home, and no room in our book baskets. 

Here’s what you’ll need:   4” L-brackets, with wall anchors suitable to hold a heavy load.  I weighed my heaviest stack of books and it was 15 pounds.  The wall anchors I bought will hold 50 pounds, so I shouldn’t have any issues.  You’ll also want a drill, a measuring tape, a ruler, a pencil and a screwdriver. 

Here’s what I did.  I divided my books into 4 stacks.  Then I measured the tallest stack.  (It was almost exactly 12”)  Then I decided I wanted 7” in between the top of the book stack and the bottom of the next one, so I measured 19” in between each bracket extension.  Did that make sense?  It really doesn’t matter what your measurements are, as long as you level your brackets.  I was working with a skinny wall, so I wanted mine to be perfectly aligned vertically.  Although, if I could do this with more books and a wider wall, I might stagger them from side to side for more visual interest.   And I ended up making a bigger gap between the two middle stacks to accommodate the light switch, but I think it still looks good.

And voila!  One trip to Home Depot and one hour of labor later, this is what I had!  I couldn’t believe how easy this project was.  The kids noticed it right away when they got home from school and everyone loved it.  Now we have a special place to store all of our favorite books, and if they want to pop out of their room to grab a book, all their books will be in one area. 

More Cousins

The second half of our visit was spent with Eric’s family.  We spent the Saturday before the 4th of July at Stinson beach.  It was crowded, but the weather was PERFECT.  And when I say perfect, I mean it.  NorCal beaches have a nasty reputation for being foggy, having super cold water, and being plagued with frequent shark attacks.   The water was still cold (low 60’s I think)  but we didn’t have any shark problems that day.  It was also gorgeous.  We didn’t arrive till almost noon, but by that point, the fog had burned off and it was a perfect 70 degree day.  The perfect weather for sitting on the beach without getting hot and sweaty!  I did erase about half the pictures I originally uploaded to this post.  I didn’t want to overwhelm you with the millions of wave pictures I took.  But, the kids will never forget what a great time they had together that day!

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Cousins

 

We were excited to go home for a visit with the family.  Since Eric had already taken a week off for girls camp, we didn’t get to stay in California as long as we would have liked to.  There is never enough time to visit the family when we go.  While we were in Vacaville, we celebrated all the summer birthdays with my side of the family.

   

Ian got his first airsoft gun for his birthday.  He was pretty stoked about it.  Ben broke out his airsoft collection and the boys had a great time having target practice in grandma’s back yard.  Eric shooting that tiny gun was hilarious.  They nicknamed it the “cricket”.

   

Grandma may have ruined her grass setting up a slip-n-slide, but these pictures confirm that it was totally worth it.  Ian had so much fun that he ripped a huge hole in his brand new swim trunks!  The kids only got 2 days to spend with Ben, but they maximized every minute!

   

We were long overdue for a group photo, but it would be nice if Brayden could smile better in the pictures that are going to be hung on the wall…

Books I’ve Read

July 2011:

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

My sister in law recommended this series to me a couple of years ago.  I’ve had the sticky note I wrote the book title on floating around my kitchen for ages.  I finally got around to hunting it down at the library.  And then I saw the cover art… and I started to wonder if this book was going to be a little to smutty for my taste.   I’m glad I didn’t let the cover art scare me away.  This book was wonderful!  It’s a fantasy novel that reminds me of a cross between Twilight and Stephanie Plum.  If you didn’t understand that last sentence, it’s about a witch who is a bounty hunter and tracks down rogue vamps, weres, and warlocks.  It’s way cleaner than a Stephanie Plum novel, but just as entertaining. 

 

 

  Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I was so intrigued by Outliers that I had to listen to another Gladwell book.  It did NOT disappoint.  I don’t know how to explain it well, so here’s a clip from the summary on the Good Reads website:  In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple: the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; New Coke; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" - filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.

 

  The Spy by Clive Cussler

This is the 3rd book in the Isaac Bell series.  I really enjoyed it.  It was different from the 2nd book because it sends our Detectives into the world of international espionage.  We had everything from European spies to New York mobsters to a cameo appearance by Fred Astaire.  It also spent a chapter or two in my home-turf of Solano County which was kind of fun to read about.  Thankfully, Cussler does thorough research and even made sure the reader pronounced the names like Suisun and Vallejo correctly!  And our hero even subverted an attack on Mare Island.  I just checked on the next book in the series and it comes out in September… hopefully by then I will have cleared my ipod out and will be ready for the next one!

Long Valley, Part 2

Three stakes share this property in the mountains called Long Valley.  In June, we each take turns having our girls camp on the property.  Our stake goes first, and the other two follow us.  Since camp runs from Tuesday to Saturday, there are a couple days in between each camp where there is no one around.   Last year, there was a problem with vandals coming and defacing the communal property in between camps, so the stake decided to ask a family to stay after camp and babysit the property until the next group arrived.  We were the lucky winners of that contest! 

My parents came to stay with the boys while Eric, Megan and I were up at camp.  On Saturday morning, they left in their RV, and headed to Payson.  We met at Walmart after Eric, Megan and I went to Happy Jack and took a hot shower.  We had lunch and restocked on food and supplies (mostly Diet Coke.)  I should have bought a new air mattress.   

We came back up to Long Valley, set up our family tent in the best part of the camp and made dinner.  Nothing screams good camp food like my oven-baked lasagna.  It was awesome and didn’t require a single dish to be washed.  (I love using disposable everything when I am camping.)

Charlie was in 7th Heaven.  They staked him down on a 30 foot leash and let him roll and play in the dirt.  He was one happy dog.  (Until he had to have a bath… pictures to follow…)

On Sunday, we were so lazy, it was wonderful!  We slept in, went for walks, shot the potato gun, and watched a play the kids put on for us.  Once it was dark and cold, we cuddled up in the rig to watch a movie. 

   

   

We did give the dog a bath in a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with water that wasn’t exactly warm… I don’t think he wants to repeat that experience ever again.

   

A camping trip with my parents wouldn’t be complete without a picture taken with the self-timer… We have our ward campout at Long Valley at the end of the month, and I can’t wait to go back.  I love the peace and tranquility I feel when I am up in those beautiful mountains!