Ah, so this has been on the brain lately. Wouldn’t a small loft above be a wonderful zone to read? For what we have here in the living – I would opt to do somewhat of a combo of the 1st and 2nd pics here. The walls would be lined with shelves of books. Our ceilings

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] Lofty Reading

Ah, so this has been on the brain lately. Wouldn’t a small loft above be a wonderful zone to read? For what we have here in the living – I would opt to do somewhat of a combo of the 1st and 2nd pics here. The walls would be lined with shelves of books. Our ceilings are tall, but not THAT tall – so it would be a small, cozy area. But then again, isn’t that all that you would need to kick back and read a good book? Me thinks so.  =-)

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] So…a Bed Swing Would Be Nice, Right? This is an inspiration post – chock full of pics sure to please your eye. Lately, I’ve been considering outdoor spaces because it’s that time of year, and I can not – for the life of me – get away from this idea: a bed. outdoors. that SWINGS. Great for reading on a lazy Saturday…or napping…or cuddling outdoors with your honey bunny…or kiddos…You might be thinking: why not just get a hammock? My deal is: I don’t do hammocks. Becoming unbalanced and flipping over is just not my style. It cramps it or something. I’d much rather chillax on a real bed – with a comfy mattress of some sort – but outside!

My personal preference would be something that looks natural yet exotic, mysterious yet enticing…and uber comfy! I think I’d love it most under a huge tree, sheltered naturally from the sun through it’s canopy of leaves. Some of these that are indoors are lovely, too!

Graciousness! Bed swing BUNKS? I would like to see how this works! I bet kids would love it, though!

Okay, totally kidding on this last one! It’s a lil’ TOO mysterious for my tastes. However, it would mesh perfectly with my recurring nightmare of falling off the side of a cliff while sleeping!

So do you have a bed swing? Did you make it or was it purchased? Where’s it located? Give us some ideas, people!

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] Why I’m in Love with iGoogle Have you ever wished that you could:

1. Subscribe to the niftiest ‘magazines’ – or all of your favorite blogs – FOR FREE?
2. See what the world was up to (by that, I mean CNN, of course! ?
3. Check the weather forecast without even having to click a button?
4. Check ALL of your email accounts in one place?
5. Twitter?
6. Do a Google search?
7. See the newest CraigsList freebies posted?
8. Calendar? Notes? Day and time?
9. Feed and pet your virtual hamster named PETIE?
10. Wanted to keep up with all your friends and family in one place?
11. Nearly anything else that you could possibly dream up?

K.

We can make that happen!

I have fallen hard for iGoogle and wanted to share it with you (because some of you have asked)!

Lemme show you a recent screen shot of mine in 2 segments. Click each shot to magnify:

In the numero uno spot on my page here, you’ll see my Google Reader. That’s what I’m talkin’ bout, y’all! It’s not technically a magazine subscription…but you CAN subscribe for free to nearly any blog out there (including magazine blogs!). You can subscribe to your friends’ blogs. You can subscribe to Martha Stewart’s dogs’ blog. Basically, anywhere that you see an RSS feed icon , then you can painlessly sign up for free. Then once you’ve subscribed in your reader, (I always use Google Reader to do this), it will all show up together – live as the author posts their newest blog posts – right there in that scrollable window. You can read and read and read until you’re cross-eyed!

You can also do live chats in the left hand side of your iGoogle screen…You can check your bookmarks from fav sites online…And to make matters even more fun, you can totally customize your graphics at the top of the page! You can switch your theme at any time. I like mine right now. It’s a charming winter scene – and it’s live! The sun goes up and down with the real sun…and at night time, the stars come out and the lights come on in the village. Yeah, I’m a sucker for cutesie stuff like this~!

Wanna subscribe to my blog here? Look at the right hand side of my blog here for the RSS link, and click it! It’s that easy peasy, folks!

When you click any blog’s RSS feed subscribe link (remember the orange button?), it will open a new window and give you options as to HOW you want this blog delivered to you. Since I always use Google Reader, then that’s the button I choose. This is what it looks like for me:

In that top right-hand corner, you will see where it’s asking if you definitely want to subscribe to this blog with Google (Reader)? Click it to confirm!

Then it will take you to a new page where you will be given 2 options: do you want to have that blog show up on your iGoogle homepage separately from the rest, or do you want to have it show up inside your Google Reader (you know, the Numero Uno window at the beginning of this blog post!). I always pick to have it show up in my Reader window, unless it’s someone I want to keep up with better. As of right now, I need to redo my iGoogle and have certain people’s blogs show up separately from my Google Reader window. But you get the general gist here, right? Any questions? Not that I could definitely answer them, but I will try! =)

Let’s quickly recap:

Life is short and your computer time is limited. Make life easier for yourself by signing up for iGoogle and have all of your stuff in one single window. Ready to take it for a drive? Click here to find out how to set up your own account!

I’m in love with iGoogle because it makes my time online more efficient and nifty!

P.S. Okay, so I don’t have a virtual pet hamster named Petie, but you could, if you wanted! Check iGoogle’s gadgets and see what all you can add to your own homepage!

P.P.S. Adding in…A new fav gadget of mine is my customizable To Do List. Simply do a gadget search for “To Do Lists” and see all the different results you will get. There are many options and they are fab!!

[...CLICK for more article goodness!---->] Floor-to-Ceiling – INSPIRATION! We are a family of readers. There are 6 of us right now in our happy clan, and every one down to the smallest lil’ person in our group enjoys spending much time in the middle of a book. I’ve even been wondering about working more with our 8 month old baby girl with reading after seeing this infomercial! When you have that many people in one space reading, then you probably have a lot of books. I know that we do, and we seem to acquire more all the time. We see that as a GREAT thing, though! There’s just not enough places to keep them! I figure that I would share some pictures of shelving that inspires me…and hope that hubby will see this and put it away in his mind for one day when we can take on this project.

I am just loving the rustic opulent feel to the above picture! I have always described wanting to design our whole home in a Rustic Opulence style. So if you were to see our living room, maybe you’d know what I mean when I say that. We have a HUGE solid oak mantle that weighs about 3 hundred pounds. It has that rough, hand-hewn look and is unstained…and it has the same wood going around it to the floor. I always meant for the construction dudes to beef up the bottom sides even more, but it never turned out quite the way I had envisioned because the money ran out. In that same room, though, there are 3 chandeliers that are antique repros and even have some crystal-action bling-bling going on. Our walls are a golden yellow color…the ceilings are a metallic bronze…and the floors in here (as they are all through the entire house) are dark, wide plank solid wood. So now do you see what I mean by rustic opulence?

So back to the picture above: look at the super basic built-in bookshelving…and then to the really awesomely ornate mirror stealing the show up front. I love both the combination and contrast this team of style produces!

The rest of these pictures aren’t as rusticly opulent, but each one speaks to me in its own way.

Love the blue!

And check THIS out! How is that for putting good forethought into the design of these bookshelves? It makes such a bold statement…and I love what it’s saying.

I am really loving the insides of these bookshelves painted a different color than the walls or the shelves themselves! And can you ever truly have enough pink?

That is a nice touch to have! Check out those pull out table top thingie-muhflops! I love that option.

This is a super smart idea: turn your closet into a mini walk-in library! And again – paint a different color behind the shelves for a bold backdrop.

So this is our crazy space that we will hopefully be working floor-to-ceiling bookshelves into someday.  That side of the living room has too much going on in it. Hubby is lost in Casablanca while I snapped some quick shots. You see the big TV? It’s for sale on CraigsList.  The huge window faces the front of the home…and as you can see, there’s a fairly good sized window similar to it just to the right. I’m curious about flanking wall-to-ceiling bookshelves in here on either side of the biggest window and into that right-hand corner.

And speaking of these shots: some photog expert please tell me why my new lens filter is creating green pixies in our living room? I see that it’s reflecting the chandelier light in a wonky fashion – and I’m wondering what I can do to change that (short of taking the filter off each time I get some shots in here at night).

Back to this project: it’s definitely going to be shelved for now. As I type this, we are fighting for our home and trying to do what we can do to keep away from foreclosure. I know that many people in our country are dealing with the same thing right now, so many of you reading this will know where I’m coming from. I just figure that a girl can dream, right? And hopefully soon we will be back to normal and I will be able to make changes to our home as we can afford it. It never hurts to have your ideas together and know what you want before you take that next step!

Speaking of foreclosures, I wanted to share a neat article that  a nice lady named Christi wrote as she and her family have actually gone through that already. She has a wonderful attitude about it, though! My heart goes out to anyone going through this right now or even being threatened by it. It creates an untold amount of stress in the family it overshadows, and I pray for grace and peace and wisdom for anyone carrying that load.

What types of bookshelves do you have in YOUR home? Do share!

Photo credits: Traditional Home, BH&G, DecorPad, Gianni Botsford, RemodelingCenter