Cookbooks...

... are one of my favorite reading pleasures. Over the years, I've added quite a few to the several I had when we got married. There are some I've made many meals from, and others I've only read but never "used" in the sense of actually cooking a recipe from them. They're inspirations, I guess you could say. I often take a cookbook to bed to read before falling asleep. Anyone else do that?

Suffice it to say, over the years my collection has grown. When we were first married, I used part of a shelf over the daybed that was our sofa in our 8x35' trailer. In our next homes, they sat in a corner on the counter. Fast forward a few years and I had them on a small bookcase Dan made, which worked perfectly for a short time. All of a sudden, I had too many to fit, and I was forced to decide which stayed in the kitchen and which were shuffled to bookcases in the basement. Not a really good solution.

Last year, in the fall, I told Dan that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a new bookcase for my cookbooks. He agreed to make one and we measured and plotted. I had very specific instructions. He got a small start before Christmas, but then other things intervened. He was able to get back to it this summer, and today was its grand entrance!!

Note the red bow on the top!!

Here's how it looks inside:

Room to spare!! The little drawer at the top left? It's for bills! Now when they come in, we can just pop them in there, and find them. All in one place, mixed in with nothing else! Yay!

This blurry picture is what I used to have (I didn't realize it was blurry and of course it's empty now, and gone, so...):

I keep going in the kitchen and looking at my wonderful new bookcase. I love it so much! The door inserts are beadboard, the knobs and hinges are pewter, and the whole thing is painted the same color as the beadboard in the breakfast nook. The shelf heights are made to fit my books.

Here's the final look:

I'm pretty certain there are more cookbooks lurking in the basement and when I find them, they'll get to come up to join the others in their new home!