CREATE & STYLE: Row o' Books

This past September I finally got a digital camera. Years behind the curve on most technology trends, a digital camera was way more exciting to me than the idea of a Blackberry or some gizmo that you can plug your iPod into for surround-sound. Nah; I like pictures. And I haven't stopped playing with it. Different settings, angles, lighting...flash or no flash... grin. Unfortunately, there are some who quickly get pissed with me constantly experimenting on them, as Teen is so lovingly demonstrating here.

So, I've had to adapt and switch to subjects that for the most part are incapable of flipping me off. In doing so, I realize that what I'm mostly collecting now are images of the stuff that I love: the books that are stacked everywhere in my home, the jewelry that makes me smile, the things I create with my own two hands... stuff that represents my ever-changing style... physical pieces of, well, me.

A long time ago I decided that some day when I had my own home, I wanted there to be massive books shelves built right in and I wanted them to be full of books that I loved - books that I'd actually read - not just ones that were purchased to fill space. That's a lot of books. And the collection is well under way.

I moved into this apartment in August and my massive black bookshelf came with, making this the third apartment it has appeared in. At that time, the top of the bookshelf was empty and a little bit after that, I started putting just a few books up there as I was running out of space anywhere else. Now, as you can see, more than half the length of the case is studded with the multi-colored bindings of my lovely, lovely books. Not to be forgotten is a pretty little bud vase that I picked up at Anthropologie this fall...because pretty little bud vases just happen to be another thing that makes me swoon...but that is for another time and another picture.