Book Room, Part II

Project Time! 
... AND PROJECT UPDATE!

So a couple weekends ago, we got the first part of the mini library completed: the large bookshelf. It wasn't necessarily a complicated process; I'd call it more time consuming that "difficult." Not a bad problem for a DIY project. 

Yesterday afternoon, between the morning & afternoon visits with my cousin, Rob and I made a trip to pick up the lumber needed for the reading bench. The original plan was to go ahead and get the second bookshelf materials as well, but well.. things happen and you decide that you don't really wanna do it just then and so you don't. And so we didn't. Meh. Another day. 

So today, we did church and then a much-needed and much-loved lunch outing with the Ricks and Costanzas, before coming back home to tackle the bench. Rob assisted me with some of the sawing [I could use that thing every day and still manage to cut off something that isn't lumber...], and then I hauled the cuts upstairs to build the bench.

First things first: baseboard removal. Somuchfun.

It's a box. I built a box. Not super complicated, but again - time consuming. Especially when you decide you're going to make pocket screws, sans kreg jig or any other foreseeable solution outside of winging it. I'm good at that, so it worked out :). 

Here's the before: 

freshly vacuumed :) 

a box & some suuuper pretty "pocket screws" [haha]

Rob has relentlessly teased me about my plans to make this thing sturdy enough to support half the house, and well, he's not wrong, and in the event that it does need to support half the house, well, WE'RE GOOD HERE. :D 

Anyway, fast forward a couple hours, a couple drill batteries and several stripped-out screws later... 

final touches: hinges and hatch opening!

And thennnnn: 

ta-da! 

because i'm not about wasting space... 

She's done! 

phase 2!
... of... 4, i think. 

So if you can picture a smaller white bookshelf (to match the existing one) situated in front of and of the same height as the bench, then you've seen the next step. I'll add a bunch of memory foam and cool pillows+blankets+comfy shtuff on top of that & it'll probably be my new favorite place in the entire house. 

Also, YAY for not having to paint ANY of this so far. While I don't like cutting corners, I also don't like creating unnecessary work for myself. Everybody wins. 

Oh, and if you had no reason to turn your clocks forward today - or if you're among the rare who don't have a cell phone that automatically updates, well.. make sure you do that before tomorrow morning :). 

Here's to another solid week! 

Cheers,

xo | cms

Songs & Shelves!

Happy Sunday! 

Today really was a beautiful day, both inside and outside. Nobody's really sure what the midwest wants to do when it comes to weather, but today provided some much needed sunshine and chirpy birds to make up for the mini blizzard that rolled through yesterday.  

Our day began with worship, which, if I'm being honest, I could use every day. I took some time specifically today to give thanks for the praise and worship team that "adopted" me with open arms and has welcomed me as now a core member in our growth as a team. As with any ministry that truly speaks to the individual, I am so overwhelmed by just how at home I feel with them, each week as we support each other and lead our growing church plant in worship. 

And it's fun, too ;) 

silly rehearsal times

( But serious, when we need to be....)

lost in worship with this incredible, incredible team
photo cred: my awesome husband ♥

 And after church, I was feeling happy, and sunshiney, and flowy [the latter based on the hair I so. desperately. need. to cut...]. Either way, today really was a day of mental and bodily rejuvenation, and I was happy to soak it in.

happy :)

"SUNDAY IS A DAY OF REST!" is what I swear I heard in my ear every hour as Rob and I dove into a project we've [I've] been talking about for weeks. I've been chronicling in recent posts the growing collection of pretty spines [aka books] and wimsy little Funkos that have begun piling atop the mantle in our living. For fear that I'd come home one day to find the shelf broken off the wall - which Rob has assured me is quite unlikely to happen, I decided that in addition to the book nook I've been scheming for the upstairs room, there would be a bookshelf to accompany it.

And that birthed today's project: #StokesShelfie.
I gave it a hashtag because I'm that person, who will forever reference this and all book-related projects in my home with hashtag vernacular. Or maybe worse. #WHOKNOWS.
Rest in peace, pound sign. 

ANYWAY:

before [& yes, those are 2 separate shots, 2 separate angles]

I'll skip the boring part where Rob and I marched back and forth across Home Depot for 45 minutes debating on the best and most cost-efficient material for this. We eventually settled on primered boards, which meant no pre-painting on our end. WOO!

frame!

From there, it was Rob and his table saw, and me with a drill and chair because I'm too short for just about everything.

sectioned :)

 And then the fun part:

....aaaaand ONE. 

 And two, and three, and four......

And then FINALLY:  

done! done done done. 

Rob went back to the garage to continue hounding away at the motor he's been working on, and I took to re-homing a portion of my new shelf's inhabitants. It's late and I'm tired, so the rest will have to wait for another day.

It's still pretty awesome - I couldn't have done this without my super awesome husband's help; I am in LOVE with this [and him, duh].

#shelfie!

Phewww.
Gooood night, blogbots!

xo | cms

Separate Sundays

Rob went to paint his car all day, and I... read this:

done & done!

^^ If you want an intense read, I would recommend this... but only if you're savvy to the English lifestyle and don't misinterpret slang terminology, like I did a few times. Woops ;)

Anyway, as an appetizer to my afternoon spent reading, I absorbed some love and light at SonRise before a quick grocery trip and return home to the couch, a blanket and that book.

I caught glimpses of Rob's progress throughout the day:

in the paintbooth! 

Different variations of the progress kept rolling in, until finally there was the finished product:

little lexi! 

Although I'm not the least bit surprised that Rob did all this work basically by himself [aside from the sanding job; that took professional assistance....from yours truly, of course... ;) haha], I am super excited for and proud of him for getting this done. It was clear that this project was eating at him, so now that it's done, I'm sure little Lexi will be fully welcomed to sit in the driveway. Hah.

Entralled yet?
I know, this is pretty menial stuff to an audience, but I write these e-memoirs more for my own recollection more often than not, so your patience and silent endurance are greatly appreciated ;)

Monday's here again tomorrow, despite my ongoing protest [to whom can I write a letter on this?!].
Time to close out for now. I hope you've had a wonderful weekend, too!

xo | cmd

5 More Important Things Than Miley Cyrus @ The VMA's

There will always be two sides to every argument; I know that I personally have some friends who are defending the VMA performance from last night [which I didn't watch last night... but unfortunately made the horrible decision to investigate the hype today via YouTube. Dumb call]. Call it what you want, whether you think she's being a boundary-pushing pioneer of the entertainment industry, or if you think, like me, that she's a renegade tween star, gone completely rogue and in need of some very simple, very real downhome reality. Whatever you call it, I call it absolutely insane that literally the only thing I could find for pages this morning when I checked in on FB [& apparently every other online outlet] was post after post about her performance.

+ 100 points for her pulling off a successful publicity stunt.
- 479324082 points for us caring as much as we do.

In lieu of all the MC hype, I thought I'd enlighten us on some things that are happening outside the world of MTV... ya know, things that may actually impact us in a way that's healthy for our brain cells.

Here we go.

unicef, for syrian relief

1. Syria. The country is facing political warfare that has produced a still-climbing death toll now of over 100k people. Many of these people are children, who have been caught defenseless in the midst of something they didn't understand, and lost their lives by simply existing in the wrong place. That breaks my heart. I realized today that if I were to name a family or friend for every one MC post I saw today, that I would soon run out of names but wouldn't even scratch the surface of what too many people in Syria have lost. This has been going on for more than two years now, with no tangible end in sight, still. Children and families continue to die daily for this.  Unicef, one of the world's leading relief agencies, is reaching their available limits and dangerously close to being forced to withdraw support. It reminds me how blessed we are not to face this kind of horror, but saddens me that others do. I'm not sorry that I believe this is more legitimate than dear Miley.

my kony2012 shirt

2. KONY. Many people thought that was just a publicity stunt, a big bandwagon on which the flavor-of-the-week philanthropists could ride for a little while. Welp, hate to burst that bubble, but it's real. As a parent, I don't want to sit in fear of something like this happening to my child, but I look at the faces of stolen youth, the victims of this, and my heart breaks for them. The bright side of it? Sevenly has partnered now with InvisibleChildren to counsel and provide support to child-soldiers and their families traumatized by the war. These types of things sadly are becoming a fad to follow and then drop when something else starts trending, but that's far from meaning it's gone. This is real, and there IS hope.

christopher lane

3. Christopher Lane is dead. Don't know who that is? He was an Australian baseball player living in Oklahoma, who was gunned down by 3 kids who had nothing better to do than wait around for someone to kill. This begs the question... REALLY?! What are we doing as a collective group of people to engage our youth in things that will enhance them? Where are sports, or volunteer opportunities... or a community entertainment event... something.. anything... that we could encourage our kids to do? That makes me sad. I typically don't involve myself on a public level in voicing my political stances, but it is in fact disappointing to me that our national leadership [we'll leave it at that] has been far less showy about making appearances over this young man... but when it was Trayvon Martin....... I'm just saying. A life is a life, regardless of who it is; I can't help but wonder where our motives really lie though, when things like this happen so similarly but the coverage is so very different.

love!

4. Good news? Okay. [For you anti-Walmart folks, you'll doubly enjoy this] An abandoned Wal-Mart in Texas was recently renovated with the help of a grant [read it HERE!], and transformed into a library. A LIBRARY! I love that. I hate to think that places like this are slowly becoming an obsolete pasttime for the world; I know I loved going to the library as a kid and will take my children there, so this warmed my heart a little bit knowing that when one monopoly falls, there is something beautiful that can grow in its place. [C'mon, who doesn't remember those awesome, old school library cards with all the stamps?!] (:

hannah taylor

5. Good news, take 2! There is plenty of negative headline reel to last us for the rest of our lives, with more and more popping up every day. What keeps me going is the reminder that humanity does still exist, along with chivalry, compassion and the general ability for us as a species to not only amicably coexist, but to extend ourselves to help someone we don't know. For me, it's even better to hear about it from the least of these, meaning the youngest hearts around the world. I think it's fabulous when movie stars and famous athletes give their resources to charitable causes, but the real magic for me is when it's an average, every day person like you and me, paving the way as a pioneer of another kind to leave a mark on this world bigger than themselves. Remember Hannah Taylor? Probably not.. but when I was in 6th grade, she was in 1st grade in Manitoba. I don't know her; I've never met her, but she is the founder of the Ladybug Foundation, an organization built to aid the homeless and provide networks to get them back on their feet. She saw a homeless man digging in the trash for food, and just couldn't accept that being okay. She was 5. Hannah is 17 now and has taken her mission across the world to the eyes of over thousands of people. She's written books, and continues to fight against homelessness and for those who fall victim to it. Could you imagine this world if every nubile spirit with a human conviction had this type of determination?? I'm amazed.

 So yeah. Sorry for the rants, but honestly, I've had such a hard time wrapping my head around the insane amount of hype over Miley.. freaking.. Cyrus since last night. I think this post was more for myself than for any of you [no offense]; I need sometimes to be reminded that this life I live can be so much more than just myself and those close to me. I can make a difference if I put my mind to it, and I can teach Sydni and any future children I have to do the same. I may be standing alone in my opinion on how ridiculous this is, but at the same time, I'm a firm believer that standing firm for your beliefs, even if you are standing alone, is always the best road to take anyway.

In other, less-important news, I donated blood today at the Queen City Blood drive, and was pleased to notice that Filipinos have officially made the checklist of available options on the paperwork. I proudly checked it. Haha.

yep! that's me! (:

Unfortunately, I apparently didn't eat enough today, because I had to stop at 333 [halfway] while I was in the chair. Becky was originally scheduled to go with me, but her iron levels were too low and so it'll be a few weeks before she can go again. All around, just an off day for both of us.. haha. The silver lining though? My friend Eric from Hoxworth expressed to me that he'd like to do a blood drive at Findlay Market, so I'm setting him up with Becky to coordinate that, and to celebrate our double failures, Becky & I headed straight to Eli's BBQ afterwards before heading our separate ways.

not mad at eli's ... nope, not mad (:

*Phew. I'm whooped.
Skype date with the boyfriend and then an early night for this critter.

Mission for Tomorrow: Love someone you don't know, even if it's with just a smile in passing. (:

xo | cmd