My kingdom for a bookcase........

Okay, maybe not one bookcase, but quite a lot of them.  We searched for the perfect bookcase today.  Found a bunch of them, but none of them were exactly right.  My husband is now on a mission, searching the Internet for bookcases that are no higher than 44" and have three shelves.  The side walls of the third-floor library are slanted, which is why we have a height issue, but the walls are long (33 feet) so my newly-carpeted library will hold a lot of books on those low cases.

That's what I've been doing for the past couple of hours.... bringing stacks of books up the stairs (15 stairs straight up, no landings) and arranging them in alphabetical rows on the floor.  I knew it was time to quit when I put Jane Eyre into the E's instead of the B's.   My plan is to have non-fiction on one side, fiction on the other side, with the travel books and the biographies on the non-fiction side, and my collection of vintage children's books in a corner near the window on the fiction side. 

All of my Christmas books, the Mary Engelbreit books, and the books on the British Royals are already on their shelves (bookcases that we had in the house), and I even had a little shelf for my collection of cat books, with a little vintage 1950s cat-lamp for the top of that bookcase. (Details... it's all in the details.)

We carried the love seat up there, and the two rattan chairs from my grandmother's porch, and I had small tables and lamps, and pillows for the window seats.... they're all up there and arranged in their places, as well as all the decorative items that I've been collecting from the stores in town for the past few months.  I've got pictures for the walls, resting up against the wall where they will be hung up.... but for right now, I'm just looking at them and making sure they're in the right spot before I get the hammer out.

It already looks beautiful up there... very cozy even though the room is quite large (16 x 33' approximately)...... and it's very library-looking even without the bookcases, which I'm sure we'll find.

Captain January..... that little dog was brought to the shelter, just as we agreed. (As in "No more pets, no more pets, not one more pet.")  Even though he was very well-behaved, and very sweet, and he looked adorable in the little blue & white sweater that friends J&J gave him to keep warm.... to the shelter he went, where he was the only small dog, so that was a good thing since most people want to adopt smaller breeds.   We weren't in the market for a dog, no matter how cute.  We wouldn't have picked a dachshund, no matter how preppy and cute that sweater made him look. 

When my husband left that morning with Captain January, I held him and fixed the collar on his little sweater, I told him to smile at everyone he meets, and just be very good and very nice..... and I'm hoping that he has already found a new home (a good home).  I'm not calling the shelter to check up on him...... I'm wanting to believe that he will live happily ever after for many years with people who will realize that dachshunds have very thin hair and really need a little doggie-sweater to keep them warm on cold damp days.

It was nice to have that dog in the house, if only for a little while.... he slept right where I put him, that poor thing was so tired...... and staying up during the night with him when he cried reminded me of the days when Gracie was a puppy..... she would whimper and cry in the middle of the night, just wanting to see a familiar face when she woke up in the dark.  I hated those middle-of-the-morning wake-up puppy calls, and you forget about all of that when a little dog looks at you with those sad little eyes....   Jeez.  Enough already.  We are a three-cat household, and that's that. No more pets, no more pets, no more pets.