a library in our foyer

I have trouble sleeping.  Most people can fall asleep in fifteen minutes or so after lying down.  If you're like Andrew, it's more like thirty seconds.  But me?  It's takes me a solid hour at the very least to fall asleep no matter how tired I am.  Most nights, I go to bed when Andrew does (around 11pm) but don't fall asleep until 2am.  So what do I do with those solitary hours?  I read.  A LOT.  So much so, in fact, that we're bursting at the seems in our closets right now with books.  It takes me on average a week or less to finish a novel.  Multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, 8 years of constant reading...yeah, that's a lot of books.

We'll be doing a built-in bookshelf in the foyer eventually.  Something along these lines...

I pulled these four images from Pinterest.  There are things I like about each of the inspiration pics - the arches, the bench seat, and yes even the hidden door.  We have a coat closet on the wall that we'd like to add the structure, so I'm thinking this might be the perfect solution!

This project is not going to be happening any time in the next year, unfortunately, but I thought I'd share anyway!  Until I have proper storage for all my finds, I'll keep them tucked in my master bedroom closet.  Can you imagine how many more shoes I'll be able to fit in there once they've been cleared out?!  Woohoo!

One more thing - would anyone be interested in reviews of some of my favorite reads?  If so, comment and I'll think about adding a book review column!

talent

I had to share this.  Not a huge fan of Britney, but this cover is bananas.

egyptian pinhole pendant

I was watching Sarah 101, one of my favorite shows on HGTV, when I saw what might be the prettiest pendant ever.  EVER!  Have you ever seen anything like this?!

They're handmade Egyptian pinhole pendant lamps and you can get them here.  I will be ordering one of the larger ones for our bedroom.  Oh yes I will.

PS There are only two more days to answer my poll on how you found out about Barker House Love.  It's on the right side of the screen - please take the time to click! :)

back from Portlandia

Andrew and I took a mini-vacation this past week to visit his brother on the west coast.  It has been lots of fun reconnecting with Aaron and his wife, Adrienne, but I'm glad to be back in the swing of things here.

A snapshot or two from the trip:

Aaron is an extremely talented shoe designer and Adrienne is a full-time artist.  Both of their artistic work is pretty amazing.  I may be highlighting their work sometime in the future, so don't touch that remote!

This one's for you...

Thank you!!!  I am so excited to say that this humble little blog is getting some not-so-humble traffic!  I don't pay all that much attention to blog stats and such - I just like writing and when I started Barker House Love I just hoped that at least one person would have a good time reading it.  So, I was jaw-on-the-floor blown away when I saw that last month I had around 2,000 hits on Barker House Love.  Of those 2,000 people, there were readers from all over the world.  I'm talking the United Kingdom, Cambodia, Australia, France, Japan, India...just to name a few.  Seriously?!

After doing a happy dance around my living room, I suddenly realized that this little project of mine has grown past what I envisioned it to be.  I've been thinking about how to make this blog something that you, the reader, would come back for again and again and have decided the easiest way to figure this out is a poll (or three).  I'll be doing one a week.  If you could take a few minutes to answer the poll on the right side of the blog, it would help me out so much!  I want to know what makes your heart go pitter patter.  What will make you come back again and again?  If you choose "other" or something that requires explanation, leave me a comment below and I promise I will read and consider what you've said.

Again, thank you so very much!!!  Sally Field gleamed as she said what I feel right now about your readership: