Books

I love books. I love decorating books, cook books, autobiography books, fiction books, non-fiction books, books about organizing, books about homes, books about people, books about books, children's books, you name it. I love to have books displayed throughout my home. To me, it is comforting to be surrounded by books.

I also love to give books as gifts. I try to buy my nieces and nephews a few books every year. A great gift for a little one for their birthday is a cute set of pajamas and a few good bedtime books.

Above is a wooden basket on my desk where I keep books I am currently reading, refer to often, read daily or just want at my desk.

I also love bookends. I am always finding cute and unusual bookends at TJ Maxx and Home Goods. I should be getting paid for always mentioning those stores, huh?! At the top of my blog there's an adorable frog bookend, a lucky find at Home Goods one time. Then just above, I found these cute Mother Goose inspired bookends. They are metal, painted white and distressed.

I also have a cute cast iron Scotty dog door stop I use as a bookend for a few cook books I have out in my kitchen.


This week one of Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day ideas was to make handmade bookplates. I love the idea. I am going to make some up for my books and also make some up that I can put in books that I give as gifts.

If you don't want to make your own bookplates, but you love the idea, you can check out this Etsy shop >The Little Chickadee<>

I really love this one with the fox and crow. So sweet.

Be Inspired! -Karol :0)

500 Bungalows

Need a great Coffee Table Book? Do you like bungalow style homes? Then this is your book.

I was recently in the hospital for 3 days (viral spinal meningitis, terrible). During my stay my husband surprised me with this lovely book. My husband had actually seen the book in one of my Cottage Living magazines that he perused one day (which he normally doesn't do) and had remembered seeing this book and "filed away" the idea for a later gift. He went to the book store and picked up this book for me on his way to the hospital one of the days I was in. I didn't have to share all that to tell you about a great book, but it makes the book even more special to me because I was really, really sick and he was so worried about me. At the time my dr.'s weren't sure if I had the viral or bacterial meningitis. They did a spinal tap and started me on antibiotics and we had to wait several days for the results. Everyone that came in to see me had to wear masks. My kids could not even come up to see me for fear it was the bacterial kind and dangerously contagious. Thankfully, it was the viral kind. But, anyway, he went all the way to the book store, remembering how much I would like this book and got it for me. Of course, even feeling so badly, I was so happy to receive it. I still love to look through it.

I really love the craftsman bungalow style home. They just say "Home Sweet Home" from the front porch and all the way through.

The craftsman bungalow reminds me of the homes I grew up in and around as a child in Indiana and Illinois. There were tons of bungalows in town and farmhouses in the country, but they had the bungalow style.

This book, 500 Bungalows takes you t0 California, Washington, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Featuring the Prairie Style, Spanish Style, Craftsman, Craftsman Eclectic, and finally Bungalow Bazaar. Each page is a front front view of each bungalow and the city and state it is in.


Text and photographs by Douglas Keister, published by The Taunton Press. <--- (That link takes you right to the page for 500 Bungalows and 500 Cottages). Douglas Keister also offers 11 other books on Bungalows, as well as Cottages, Storybook-Style Homes (ooooh!), Spanish-Style Homes, and Cemeteries.

Here's the cover of 500 Cottages. Click on The Taunton Press link above to visit and purchase, if you wish.

This one's on my Christmas wish list!

They're also available at www.Amazon.com.



Be Inspired! -Karol :0)