I've been bitten....

.....by the decluttering bug again. With Jos being away, I have decided to take this week to clean and declutter my bookshelves in the living room. I have now dusted and cleared out each shelf. With time, it is too easy to just shove a book on the top of the other books thinking I will put it away later. I must stop buying books until I get to reading some of these.

This is the book carousel I mentioned before. I have some of my smaller blue books on it. The doll was handmade by my sister and she is holding a miniature version of a book from my childhood. We no longer have the book but I found this tiny version once and fell in love with it. There is a ball of wool holding two vintage wooden knitting needles which belonged to my favorite aunt before she passed away.

Here are more of my vintage and antique books. I really do strive to have my bookshelves full of only these kind of books one day.

"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books."
~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~~

Thank you all for the kind comments about the new door color. We are so pleased with it and as Dena said, we do 'smile with satisfaction'. Our next step is to place the wrought iron gate we have had made. I can't wait to share it with you! It is really beautiful.

Lynda ~ There is no ledge or anything. If we have to do anything at the back of the house, we have to place a VERY long ladder in the water. We do have the French doors on the living room side of the room which means we can reach out to everything from there.