Our Little Library

  We have this little alcove area, between the children's bedrooms, which we affectionately (read: optimistically, exaggeratedly) call The Children's Library.
   It, uh, needed a little help...

     Oddly enough, I found my inspiration for the project in the dollar section of Target, where purple dot items were 70% off (woohoo!). I bought three mousepads, and five or six cute reusable tote bags at 30 cents apiece, and set to work. 

  Ideally, I would have loved to paint both the wall and the shelves, but, being renters, neither are mine. So, I decided to take the advice of Theodore Roosevelt: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

  I stacked the two bookshelves to utilize the vertical space and free up more floor area, and the mousepads I hung with colorful thumb tacks (the middle one says "Inspiration grows in even the tiniest of places." Fitting, no?). Then the kids and I sat down to sort through the books. The mounds and mounds and piles and piles of books. A few (but very few) we decided we could do without. The remaining tomes were sorted by series, size, and paperback versus hardcover. The tote bags we used to create easy, themed grab-and-go-read book bags for bedtime reading, car trips, or whenever. For example: If Riley is in the mood for vehicular literature (when is he not?), he could grab the bag with all the train, truck, and airplane stories. If Laurelei were feeling particularly French, she might choose the bag with all the Madeline and Anatole books. We did one with all Curious George and Little Critter stories, and another with Magic School Bus and other science-centered tales. There's even a tote bag stuffed with Mamma's favorites, for special story times. 

  The best part of this little spruce up? Finding books we'd forgotten we had and getting lost in them. Completely, blissfully lost. 

  Even in our teeny, tiny make-do little library.

xo