{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{Pretty}

A few days after Christmas I got a catalog that had this pretty statuein it and I had to have it.  I loved the colors and the way it looked like it was carved from wood.  So after doing a little bit of price checking online, I found it at a good price and ordered it.  It's been prettying up my dining room table for the past week.

{Happy}

The dog is blurry, but it's still pretty clear that both he and Ellie are pretty happy in this one. After dinner we often make a game of tossing Oscar a few scraps from the table.  He flies through the air snatching peas, bits of chicken and bread as he twists, turns and sometimes even flips!  I think he'd make a good circus dog.  Think they'll take him?

{Funny}

This child always brings a smile to my face.  While I showered this morning Katie happily hummed her little happy theme music [Yes, this child hums her own theme music. It's the cutest thing.] so I figured she was occupying herself with some of her toys.  I stepped out of the shower and discover that Katie had transformed my tank top into a cape.  I've seen a lot of dress up configurations in my time as a mom, but this one was a first!  She looks like a little Hobbitto me with her cape.  It's pretty fitting considering this is the child who will eat a second breakfast or dinner from time to time.  Now we have further proof of her Hobbit-ness.

{Real}

It took me about four years of hemming and hawing over what kind of books shelves I wanted for the basement, but I finally made a decision and I'm happy with the way they look.  Bryan assembled them for me last week and I've been trying to organize them according to reading level and category ever since.  I still have a lot of books to take out of the girls' rooms, but this is a good start.  I am a little concerned that we might not have enough room for all of the children's books that we have.  If that's the case I think I'll have to sort through them and donate the books we don't like or want to free up shelf space for the books that we do want or have on wishlists.  I have my "vintage" Baby Sitters Club books as well as a few other childhood favorites on these shelves.  I'm hoping all of the American Girl books will fit on one shelf, but I'm not sure if that's possible or not.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why it looks like we don't have any carpet under the bookshelves, you're right, we don't.  When we brought he house there was a stainless steel bar in the basement.  We ripped that out and put up a wall to create Bryan's home office.  The previous owners had removed the carpet around the bar leaving us with exposed concrete (Awesome!).  So we were left with an area big enough for two bookshelves to sit on concrete when all was said and done.  Bryan and I had a good laugh as we cut out enough carpet to accommodate one more bookshelf as we wondered if people who saw it would think we cut the carpet out for all of the bookshelves on purpose. To make it look presentable (Can one make this ridiculous set up presentable?) we put planks of left over laminate flooring under the front of the bookshelves.  It also serves to give us a level floor since there was a chunk of concrete missing on the floor right where the leg of one of the bookshelves was to rest.  I'm really looking forward to the day when we finally replace the carpet in the basement.  We'll get there someday!

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.