A Dream Come True

 I have always loved the idea of a secret library. I also prefer smaller homes. These two felt mutually exclusive, until about 10 years ago. 

One of the first things that caught my eye when I began perusing Pinterest a decade ago was a walk-in-closet turned mini-library. It was amazing, and different variations of the closet-library scrolled by my feed for years as I daydreamed. Finances and other issues prevented the dream from becoming reality, but it couldn't keep the dreams from whispering, "I'm still here!"

In 2008, my son's closet was turned into one large dressing room. In 2018, the master closet was transformed into a cloffice - which is perfect for my daughter's writing and audio-recording needs. When I moved into the "spare" room last year, my closet became a storage space for my tiny wardrobe, and the crafting shelves. It wasn't beautiful, but it worked.

Last winter, knowing that I would soon be inheriting the family genealogy files, after actually seeing how much "stuff" there actually WAS, we began contemplating our options for storing everything. After a month or so of running about the house with a tape measure and scribbling countless options onto graph paper, it seemed as if the only viable option was to combine my dream of a closet-library and a family history space into one cohesive space. 

Pinch me... I NEED to build my dream closet? Pinch me again!!!

So this year, after dozens of careful measurements, impatiently awaiting tax refunds and then waiting for things to go on sale, my closet has been altered as well... and I am ever so happy! 

We began by rehoming the wardrobe into my bedroom, and the crafting shelves into the dining room. This created a rather lengthy rearranging of five different rooms, but in the end every room was better for the change. To make sure things didn't become too hot or cold in the closet, we removed the door... a truly cathartic moment, because that door was literally cracked from past trauma. Throwing it to the ground outside and turning my back on that door was truly a healing moment.

Then it time to assemble five bookcases within the closet. I had gone back and forth between these or taller/prettier shelves, but it came down to finances. We saved on the shelves, to be able to finish the project. I reasoned that once filled, it would not matter or show, that the shelves themselves were cheapies from IKEA.

From there it was a matter of filling the closet up.

 This is roughly HALF of the genealogy files I have added to the closet to date. Hence the need for so much space. All of this needed to be carefully sorted, and while I have completed an initial sort organizing things into 8 families, (the 8 branches of my "kids" great-grandparents lines) there is so much more to do. Some photos will need to be scanned to see if I can digitally restore them. With others, there are at least 20 copies of the same photo. And I want to create subcategories within each family box, to make things easier to find. It will take time. It is worth the effort. 

While the family files were being sorted, the books and tiny family heirlooms were all arranged on the shelves. Because I am a bibliophile who rereads books AND reads through 2-300 books each year, finding an organization system for our books was important to me. I eventually settled on the BISAC system, and after ordering a few spare shelves to take full advantage of the space, the closet is finally finished. 

It took three months, but here is the finished closet. You can see the 8 family bins atop the shelves, and the family albums, photo boxes, and random pieces of memorabilia tucked randomly throughout the shelves. 

To the right I have a storage bench (our gift wrap supplies are within the bench) to sit on - or lean on when reaching for those bottom shelves. On the wall behind the bench are the wall crosses from our living room, and there is room on NEARLY every shelf for more books/family memories as needed. 

This was a tiny project, but it is literally a dream come true. I may not be physically able to sweep through here on a rolling ladder, but I love every inch of my tiny little secret library.

Jurassic Park themed dinner

 Happy Valentine's Day! 

The three of us decided to celebrate with a themed dinner; something we've done many times in the past, and loved. My daughter and I had no specific movie ideas, so I asked my son what he would like to watch. He chose Jurassic Park. We had a good laugh, but decided to run with it. 

 After scrolling on Pinterest it was obvious that the only challenge would be making our dinner look appropriate for adults, rather than a 6-year-old's birthday party. I can't say how many bowls of yogurt-coated pretzels labeled "dinosaur bones" I saw... and while they're perfect for kids, I wanted something a little fancier than that.

Feeling as if I needed SOME dinosaurs on our table, I found each of our favorite dinosaurs at the dollar store, and painted them with pearly acrylics. I LOVE how they turned out! I pulled a leafy tray and aqua gravel from our Christmas in July bin, and added a pair of candles for a fun $3 centerpiece. Gold leaf-shaped placemats helped add to the sparkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For dinner, I made four-citrus marinated Quorn, (vegan "chicken") with gallo pinto; Costa Rican rice and beans. I had originally planned to make triple citrus, but at the last minute added grapefruit for even MORE flavor. A bed of greens was dressed simply, then topped with Chinese tea eggs nestled in Parmesan cups. There were glasses of mango margarita mocktails, and for dessert I made chocolate mousse dirt cups with almond-flour shortbread cookies, stamped with dinosaur footprints. 

We celebrated a day early, because my son works today. It was fun, low-key, and low-stress. 

In a word, perfect.