I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
So the reason I haven't been posting as often lately is we're expecting baby #2! ...and those early pregnancy symptoms have been kicking my butt the last few months (morning sickness? I think you mean all-night-and-most-of-the-day sickness). But I'm finally starting to feel a little better and am excited to get back at the blog and Etsy shop more regularly again.
Please let me know if you have any favorite New England-made baby brands - I would love to check them out and shop local when I can :)
(Fun Fact - the duck pull toy in the photo was mine when I was a baby!)
In our daughter's small bedroom, space is at a premium. We try hard to make the most of the space and keep the floor as open as possible to help the room feel a little bigger and give her more area to play. On one wall of her room, there is a very shallow nook I wasn't sure what to do with but wanted to make it an efficient use of space. After some thought, I decided building some custom book storage would be the perfect solution.
Materials:
1x3 boards
1x2 boards
screws
wood glue
spackle
level
painters tape
How-To:
1. Cut the wood the desired length of the rail shelf. You will need two 1x3 boards and one 1x2 board for each rail.
2. Line up the boards as shown below (the wide ones on the bottom and back, and the narrow one at the front). Pre-drill, then glue the edges, and secure with wood screws.
3. Once it's dried and secure, spackle the screw holes, let dry, and then apply 3 coats of paint (I used semi-gloss trim paint).
4. Next mark the location of the studs and the approximate spacing of the book rails. I could have easily put three rails in this space but I didn't want our toddler trying to climb it like a ladder, so I decided to only do two.
5. Center the book rails in the space and use a level to hang the book rails, pre-drilling and screwing the book rails into the wall studs.
6. Decorate and add your books! While these are pretty sturdy, I would recommend being mindful of the weight put on the rails - don't put too many books or large, heavy books on them, especially since your little one will be reaching up to pull books off and you don't want anything heavy to topple off.
And finally I decided to build a simple, sturdy narrow crate to hold our daughter's bigger, heavier books.
Other posts you might enjoy from Birch Landing Home:
New Year means time for new Resolutions. Usually they boil down to a lot of the same things, and a big one for us is always saving more where we can. Every year everything gets more expensive - groceries, gas, clothes, healthcare, etc but our paychecks always seem to stay the same. I decided to compile some of my best blog posts on saving money and I hope it will help you jumpstart your savings too!
Just made good on our promise to donate a percentage of yearly profits to charity. In addition to the donation we made to Susan G. Komen, we also made donations to Amazima Ministries (who provides desperately needed medical care, food, and water alongside ministry work in Uganda) and Disabled American Veterans (which provides services and support for disabled and wounded veterans and their families).
Giving back more is something I want to continue and grow, and I'm looking forward to being able to do more in 2017.
Just a quick reminder that today is Giving Tuesday - a great day to remember to give back to charities and community, not only today but everyday. Earlier this year, I decided that I wanted to make the effort to give back more too - after all, every little bit helps and we want to be a part of it!
Starting this year, we will be donating a percentage of our profits at year-end to charity(ies) of our choice. The charities will be chosen at the end of each year. We all need to remember (myself included) to give back more when we can, and I hope we can inspire other businesses and individuals to do the same.
More information about how we plan to give back can be found here.
We're celebrating Plaid Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday all weekend long! Enjoy 20% off everything in our Etsy shop through midnight Monday with the coupon code "20PLAID".
Quantities are limited at the moment, so shop sooner than later. Thank you all again for your support and shopping small!
Look what came in the mail today! New Hampshire Magazine's December issue along with their 34-page Holiday Gift Guide (available to magazine subscribers only), packed with ideas of local places to shop, products to buy, and fun holiday events to do. And we're so excited to be included - you can find Birch Landing Home right on page 12 in their "Master the Yankee Swap" Gift Guide.
Make sure to check out all their great local selections in the Gift Guide, and if you're not a NH Magazine subscriber the guides can also be found online here.
And did you hear the news of our upcoming sale?
We'll be hosting a sale all this weekend for Black Friday/Plaid Saturday/Cyber Monday (whew). The sale code will be posted online Friday, but subscribers to our Newsletter will get the code Thursday night - if you don't want to miss out on the sale be sure to sign up now!
Correction: There is a misprint in NH Magazine's writeup. While I have in fact been featured in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, I haven't been featured in Yankee Magazine (yet anyways - hopefully someday soon though!) :)
