there's always room to dream

Do you own this book? If not, it's a must.

During the earlier half of my years working for Verizon, there was a small book outlet open for business in the plaza next to my office and I was addicted to it. Sadly, they closed about five years ago and I still miss it. Mostly closeouts, and rarely anything new on the shelves, but the folks who ran the shop knew what Nabua and I liked to read/buy and we noticed that there were always new cookbooks, craft books and books on home decorating coming in while the rest of the departments collected dust. The owners would even hold the new books behind the counter for us from time to time, the books they thought we'd really like, so we could go through them before they sold them to the public. Yes, we bought THAT many books. God, I so miss having a disposable income.

The downside to frequently (read: constantly) buying so many hardcover, coffee table books was forgetting all about them when a new book would come along. Some that I've purchased have never been read. So many books made their way into my home and I'm still to this day finding treasures whose covers were never opened when I peruse my bookshelves. One of those books is "Seasonal Home" by Kristin Perers.

In one word...gorgeous.

I rediscovered this book as I was packing up our old apartment, right before we moved into our new house, about three years after I bought it. This was yet another book that was gobbled up in the bookstore, taken home, placed on the shelf and forgotten about because another fantastic book came into the picture before I could read this one. It's too bad. Before we bought our house, we rented a really, really old farmhouse and some of the ideas from this book would have been perfect for that house.

I open this book when I need inspiration. I open it when I'm in the mood to change something in my house and I'm unsure of what to do. This book completely covers my idea of the perfect home. I've tried some of these ideas already and use them in my home now, and others I have on hold for the day, ahhhh, someday, when Ben and I own our beach house. Some of these ideas are too precious to waste on a house far (too far) away from the ocean.

Buy this book. If you can't find it for sale (looks like Amazon has it used), check it out at the library. You'll thank me for it, I promise. And if anyone has this already, and especially if you study it as if it were your own personal bible, please, let's chat.

Next up:

I bought this at JoAnn a few days ago and I love it. I'm itching to whip up some aprons lately and there are a few in here that I'd love to make for myself. Have you made anything from this book yet?