Happy weekend:

[photo]

Happy Friday, friends! How has your week been? Mine has been particularly rough and I'm glad we've reached the end. Not that the weekend will be that relaxing -- we have a lot of work to do around the house and in the yard. What are your plans? Anything fun? Whatever it is, it's probably better than what we've got lined up.

Here's a little of what's been going on in our world:

1. This week, we discovered that M is allergic to milk. We gave him some yogurt and he puffed right up. Scary but not life threatening. There's a good chance he will outgrow this allergy. So, fingers crossed.
2. He also started sleeping on his belly for the first time. I almost had a heart attack the first time I walked in there and saw him face down.
3. This time change has been especially hard on us. We have been walking around like zombies all week. Who would have thought just a one hour difference could have such a huge impact.
4. We (begrudgingly) got cable. Not happy about it at all. Damn you, Comcast, and your bundling. The only good side: we can watch Outlander when it airs in April.
5. We've been deciding on what to get M for Easter this week and have had such fun creating our first Easter basket. Can't wait to start some new traditions!

Have a great weekend, everyone! XO.

We love:

Just like every other kid growing up in America in the 90's, I was super into that show, Dinosaurs. Don't pretend like you weren't. It was hilarious. I find that it often comes up in my conversations as an adult.

And then, while running around on the internet, I stumbled upon this:

How amazing is this video? It brings me great joy. Watch it. You're welcome.

2015: the year of books:

I've mentioned here a few times the "26 Books to Read in 2015" book challenge that I'm doing. Were you wondering about it? Well, wonder no more.

It's a list of prompts designed to get you to read 26 books this year. I love it because you can choose whatever books you want and really make it your own. No one telling you what you should be reading. You decide.

I've been sharing my picks on Instagram (see here) and it has been really fun to see what everyone else is reading. I find myself getting lost down the rabbit hole of looking at complete strangers' reading material. But it's a total win because while looking other people's pictures, I've discovered so many new books. My "to read" list has grown exponentially in the last few weeks alone. It's getting dangerously out of proportion. 

I've only checked a few off this list so far. Here they are, if you'd like to see:

1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette

4. The Rosie Project

12. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

20. All The Light We Cannot See

It's not too late to get started on this challenge. Feel free to jump on in. You don't have to finish all 26, just get reading! And share what you're reading using the tag #26BOOKSwithbringingupburns.

Kid's clothes week:

I'm excited to announce that I am participating in Kid's Clothes Week this year! Have you heard about Kid's Clothes Week? It's a seasonal sewing challenge where four times a year, people from all across the globe pledge to devote one hour a day to creating something beautiful for their child(ren). And then they share their creations online at www.kidsclothesweek.com. 

It's a really fantastic idea and until now, I didn't really have the time or energy to get involved. I know, that's the whole point of the challenge -- to make the time -- but with the whole having a baby and being sleep-deprived thing, I just couldn't even let myself think about it. Now that I have a better handle on things and we're rocking a pretty consistent schedule, I'm ready and excited to get involved.

The dates are April 20-26 -- that's a solid week of knocking out projects, indulging my creative side, and having fun. 

The theme is wild things and already, my brain is on fire with possibilities. Can't wait to share what I come up with. Interested in participating? You can sign up here. 

Books:

If you know me even a little, then you know that I am a reader. Reading is my thing and books are my first love. They are my oldest friends (see here). I am a book nerd and proud of it. So, now that my darling friends are resting in their permanent home, I finally got to organize them. 

Over the past few weeks, I have spent time in front of our new built-ins, shelving and re-shelving them in an attempt to create the perfect arrangement. I think I may have found it. 

The far left section is reserved for nonfiction. Essays, short stories, memoirs on the top two shelves, reference/parenting in the middle, science and nature on the shelf below that, and design books on the bottom.

The middle two sections are for fiction. Classics are grouped together and everything is arranged by author. 

The right section is young adult/children's books. Picture books on the bottom shelf, small chapter books and poetry above that, and books for young adults and older readers are on the top three shelves. 

So far, this system is really working out for us. It lets me find things quickly and easily. It's not an alphabetical system or anything too strict -- things can kind of float around -- and I don't have to worry about messing it up. It's nice and stress-free. 

As I fill this space up over the next few years, I plan on editing my collection and weeding things out until I'm left with a carefully-curated collection of my very favorite books. It's something that has me very excited. Weird, I know, but that's a book nerd for you.

God help the girl:

God Help The Girl - Trailer from Amplify on Vimeo.

Winter weather has made its way back into central Arkansas and even though I think it's a little ridiculous to be experiencing snow and ice in March, I am grateful for the extra time to snuggle close to my little family.

I'm excited to watch this movie while we're holed up in the house. I've heard great things about it and from what I can tell, the music is pretty fantastic.

What are you doing during your snow day? Anything fun?

Stay warm and dry out there! I hope there are lots of blankets and cups of hot cocoa in your future.

Built-ins:

Our built-in bookshelves are finally done and I'm so excited to get to finally share them with you.

This past fall, we reached out to a local cabinet maker about some built-in bookshelves for our living room. After a few discussions, we reached a deal where we got our built-ins in exchange for Andrew building them a new website. 

So, around Christmas, our built-ins were installed and things went from looking like this:

to this:

Instead of hiring someone to paint them for us, we decided to do it ourselves. So we pocketed the $500 we would have shelled out to a painter and got to it. It took us a while to get things painted because we pretty much only got to work on them during the weekend evenings. So, on a typical Saturday night, you could find us looking like this (the headlamps really help painting in the dark, fyi):

We had a really great system going: put on the 90s jams, get into some gross painting clothes, and split up. Andrew tackled the doors and shelves on the ground while I got started on the actual cabinet. 

Pretty soon, things started looking like this:

And then, once the doors were finally finished, we put them on, loaded it up and officially declared the bookshelves done!

So good, right? I am beyond excited to finally have them finished. I can't stop looking at them. I creep into the living room at night and just stare at them in the dark. They have increased the amount of storage in our house by about 100%. There's plenty of room for all my books (and then some) and the cabinets are perfect for housing all the stuff that we want to keep out of the way. 

So, that's the story of of how we got our built-ins on the super cheap -- just a website and the cost of a few gallons of paint (which were on sale, coincidentally). I have a very special shelving system for my books that I'll explain later. It requires a whole separate post. Look for that later this week. And in the meantime, feel free to continue lusting over those beautiful built-ins.