done

the last of the great cardboard creations is completed. Part of why I have not been blogging in the evening the last few weeks is this big cardboard book display...Remember when Logan came over and helped me with a project in the driveway??? She and I froze our little tushies off sitting on the concrete paper-mache-ing this beast. It took me a few tries to get the 'shelves' exactly how I thought they should be... Last weekend I moved it inside so I could work on it in the evenings after the boys went to bed. Here is a picture of the boys on Wilson's Class Picture Day - of course he wanted to wear his tie! You can see the back of the bookshelf in this picture too. I used newspaper for the first layer of paper-mache and I used ripped-up picture book pages for the last layer - then sealed it with glossy mod-podge.

And here it is. I don't know how long it will last. I cut pieces of quarter round to use as 'rails' in front of each shelf. I asked a man at Lowe's about how to fasten the quarter round - that was an interesting conversation. Poor guy kept muttering, "I wish I could picture what you are talking about..." Finally, the night before last, I got an idea from "Ask This Old House" about how to hook the quarter round onto the sides. Its too hard to explain here, but as long as we are careful, it might make it a week or so...

To put my husband at ease, I took the rest of the cardboard scraps to the recycle center this week. Two trips worth of cardboard.

I think Brad was beginning to worry a bit about my sanity when I told him I was working on a cardboard bookshelf... And then when I told him a little about my conversation with the guy at Lowe's... I said, "No way would glue hold a 52 inch piece of molding up..." And Brad -a little shaken- asked, "That thing is 52 inches wide????" I know I told him I was using that flat panel TV box...

Anyway, I have wanted a bookshelf to display all the picture books for quite some time, this style bookshelf is SO stinking pricey... And knowing we will be moving, its hard to put that kind of money into something that may or may not work in the next place. So here is the solution - for now.

I got my sewing machine back out. I think I will enjoy those projects a little more. This was a little more effort than I intended... then it became a challenge to complete... you know, I HAD to finish it.

I will post pics of the boys, etc perhaps this evening. Now that I don't have to get my hands all dirty after they go to bed. Also, one of these days I will have to type up the "we're debt free" post. Wow. So much has happened while I was paper-mache-ing.