A few weeks ago we finally took delivery of the shelving we ordered from Ikea and had delivered by Bring It Home.  The lads from Bring It Home were awesome.  Kept us in the loop about delivery times, moved all of the packages into the house for us and were just really lovely lads.  When they delivered the shelving they laugh and said “That’ll keep you busy for the next few weeks.”  To which I cavalierly replied “Not likely, they’ll be up by the end of the day!”  It was 4:00pm.

I was true to my word though, by 9pm that night we had everything built, installed and stacked with our stuff bar the one Billy that wouldn’t fit.  (My measurements were out by 6cm.  Whoops!)

I’ve been waiting for a sunny day to take some pictures of the completed project for posting, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the lounge will never be flooded with sunshine so I’d best just take the photos and be done with it.  (Plus I was inspired by the topic post at Meet Me at Mikes) So today I took some happy snaps.  I apologise for the quality, I really need to invest in a tripod because the natural light would have been good enough but I’m too shaky.  So here they are.

This is the view from our front door.   This is the view that I love to come home to.  That brown blur is George.  If you’re wondering why we have the bottom couple of shelves empty, do you see that brown blur – that’s George, she likes to chew and she especially loves to chew books.  The side with the board games is non-fiction.  All the “boring” books.  The picture beside the court jester rabbit is the 100+ year old map of Cambridge that I purchased while I was in London last year.  If you look closely you can see the first soft toy I’ve ever made adorning the Lonely Planet and Dictionary shelf.

HUBBY’s massive television has pride of place.  I’m ashamed to say it but we only ordered four of the Benno DVD shelves and they’re completely full.  We could probably do with two more and then we could probably do with stopping buying DVDs.    The two framed prints above the television are from Yumi Yumi – they are this and this.  Both are stunning and they never fail to get noticed.  I also have two Zukzuk prints, this and this, off to the side of the games shelf.  They greet guests as they come in and bring a smile to my face every time I see them.   (And they’re made by an Aussie!!! Ok, she’s a Kiwi, but in the true spirit of ANZAC I shall claim her just like we did Russell Crowe and Crowded House!)

On the other side of the television is “fiction”.

These shelves hold some of my favourite treasures.  There’s my rubber duck collection.  One day the shall go all the way across the top.  There’s my little sock monkey from Maribel Made, Ali Star.  There’s the gnome my Mum gave me when I was in Mount Isa – he’s hand made and he’s a miner!  There’s my Andrea Joseph print which I adore.  There’s my gnome from Brooklyn Rehab.  All the books I love to read and have read as part of my yearly reading challenge.  There’s my collection of vintage purple bottles.  My Belle and Boo print which makes my heart swell.  The little Bambi figurine that I found on a trip to Braidwood.  My tie died piggy bank.  There’s a photo with HUBBY and his mother who passed away last year.  There’s a photo of us together from our wedding.  HEAPS of things.  It gives me so much pleasure to have them all out on display.  Just little bits and pieces of our lives together.

There’s also this….

IT’S A MOOSE!!! Miss Alivicwil brought him back from Canada for me.  I love him!  He makes me giggle on the inside every time I see him.  Did I mention, IT’S A MOOSE!!!

So that’s the shelving situation in our house.  One of these days I’ll take better photos of all the little collections of things that we have going on.  It’ll have to be once I get a tripod though…