Our DIY IKEA RIBBA Picture Ledge Tree

I wanted to do something different with our Christmas tree this year and after a recent trip to IKEA, I knew just what to do. Using IKEA's Ribba Picture Ledges Jon and my brother Kenton (who was in town for Thanksgiving) helped to make my vision come to life.

I was hoping to post on this much earlier but with baby girl in the hospital all week last week (with RSV - she's doing much better) things got put on the back burner a bit. But let me tell you we've loved having this tree up (the boys too! I was afraid the wouldn't think it was as cool as a real tree but they tell everyone about it wherever we go!) and it was just the perfect thing to calm our hearts when coming home.

To make this tree we purchased three 45.25" RIBBA ledges, two 21.75" ledges and one of the small ones for the very top. Because of course this would be temporary, I decided to use Command Strips to put it up. Worked like a charm. We laid out all of our shelves to decide just how large we wanted this. In the end we came up with the following measurments:

top shelf: 9"
2nd shelf: 15.5"
3rd shelf: 23"
4th shelf: 30.5"
5th shelf: 38"
6th shelf: 45.25"

The cuts were simple and quick to make. To install, we took a look at our wall and determined that we wanted 12" between each shelf. Then using our Command Strips we put our tree up. We used a total of 6 large strips for the lowest shelf, 4 for the next one up and so on, adjusting according to the size of the shelf and what we wanted it to hold.

We then got out our holiday trimmings and decorated our new tree! The boys love it! We just have to advise them not to play with their toys on the shelves too much (yeah right! There's a good reason why the styling is off a bit on the bottom shelf ;).

I also recently tried another variation by adding all of our books from our advent to the shelves (something I actually had in mind from the get-go). I'm super happy with the results but I will advise that if you are trying to go this route, I might secure the shelves to the wall with screws as the Command Strips might not be quite strong enough.

This project was so much quicker than I had even originally imagined so you definitely could still do it this holiday season. There are so many different ways to go with this and the decorating options are endless. I already have an entirely new deco scheme planned for next year! (or maybe I'll do it this year...you never know what mom's going to rearrange around here).

Vote for June

Happy voting day America!

So I realize that I've promised more pics of baby girl and a birth story and such...and rest assured they are coming! But we are currently holed up with icky colds that just won't ever end. I was the last to get it and it's hit me hard. Just hoping that this doesn't turn into one of my brutal sinus infections that last a month. Baby girl is getting better but I'm so nervous she'll get a new strain and end up with RSV (both my boys got it when they were babies so I'm extra paranoid).

Anyway. I also have a slew of illustration work going on this week so I thought I'd share this pic of hard working all-American June with you. Fitting for today. She's actually a paper doll and this is one of her outfits. Way to go June! Thinking of you, my boys, my baby girl and all of America's future little ones today.

Vote well America.

Back-to-School Lacing Bookmarks

Back-to-school for us always means a lot of reading (yippee!!) so the boys and I came up with a lacing bookmark craft to make the daily read that much more enjoyable. To see how to make your own, head on over the Handmade Charlotte for the full tutorial!

We are now in the process of trying to rearrange the boys small room to fit this new little girl (who is due to come is just a couple of week! ah! :)). One thing that I've wanted for a long long time is a wall full of books! I'm not sure we have to room to do it but I'm trying my best to see what I can do to make it work in some form or another. Because books are just so important to us.

Being a book illustrator (for the past 10 yrs or so-you can find my work under Tuesday Mourning) I've been collecting children's picture books long before I ever had any kids of my own.
 
In fact, we have a couple of collections. The first includes books that the boys can pull out and look at and read on a whim and the other is a collection of some of mom's favorite books (many of them from a past trip to France where I shipped a HUGE box of beautifully illustrated books. Precious cargo I tell you.) These ones come down on occasion and are read and loved but they have to go back up so that they stay in pristine condition. Yeah, I'm sort of a nut that way. Someday I'll pass them down to the kids and I'm hoping they will love and treasure them as much as I do.


Right now one of our favorite books is Big Rabbit's Bad Mood, by Ramona Badescu and illustrated Delphine Durand (one of my favorite French Illustrators). We love following Big Rabbit's adventures with his big and hairy bad mood following him around everywhere. A well written and perfectly illustrated book about dealing with your emotions...completely genius (I find it as helpful as the boys do! To personify a "bad mood" is really rather therapeutic).

For a bit older readers (A is really getting into chapter books and both boys love listening to them) I'm also a big fan of the Maggie Brooklyn series right now, written by Leslie Margolis (OK perhaps just a little bit because I did illustrate their covers). I love a good super sleuth young adult novel and one that takes me back to my Brooklyn days...well it's nothing short of perfect.

What about you? What gets you and your kids motivated and in the mood to read? And what are some of your favorite books at the moment? I'd love to hear!