Oceandirt's Blog

Lookie what I did today! I've been wanting to do this for YEARS as a way to display some of Julia's beanie babies that were kept in boxes under beds. So I finally did. I had measured that the wall was 13 feet, but I carefully measured and decided 12 feet was the longest board I could fit in my van without something hanging open and so I went with a 12 foot board. I did the whole thing almost by myself. I painted the board and attached the brackets, but I needed help to hold it against the wall to mark where to drill my holes there! Then help again holding it up to screw in the screws. Anyway Julia hasn't even seen it yet because we have company and Julia isn't sleeping in her room while they are here! Maybe I'll carry her in there tomorrow to see. I have another 4-foot length of the shelf (the piece was 16 feet but I had them cut it at the wood place) and I may do one over her bed too. As you can see in the picture, there is a small shelf on the left side that holds a quilt and some beanies and there is one of those on the opposite wall too. This big wall was the only full length wall that didn't have a shelf at all. What gave me this idea years ago was a friend who is a cancer survivor. When she was sick, all her friends got her beanie babies. She had over a hundred of them, and her husband built her a shelf all the way around the guest room to display them.

Julia has well over a hundred actual beanie babies (I lost count way back) and many other kinds of stuffed animals. This shelf is only big enough for beanies though(it is only 5 inches wide)! I squished as many as I possibly could onto the shelf (I think there are 57 up there). Later I found a few more, darn it all. I may have to make two layers! They are all over the place all over the house.

Julia's grandfather is sleeping in her room while they are visiting and he came in when I was done and jokingly said "do I have to sleep in here with all of them looking at me?" LOL