We bought this adorable little house with a gas fireplace and two recessed areas to either side of it—perfect places for bookshelves. It may or may not have been the deciding factor in buying said house. I will neither confirm, nor deny. The problem was, these spaces were huge compared to any shelf I could find for sale. Researching custom shelves nearly gave me a heart attack from sticker shock. Only one option remained: make our own. Plans commenced for a grand combination of copper piping and solid wood that would look decidedly steampunk, and totally awesome. If I could pull it off, that was.
We started with salvaged wood from a local mill that offers their cast off wood for free if you haul it away. Score! First came the measuring (twice, of course), then the cutting. Next, I took a torch to the wood to bring out the color of the knots and add a rustic character to it. Then I stained the wood to match the cabinets in our house. Next came lacquer, then sanding—which seemed counterproductive to me, but my other half insisted we needed to do it to make the lacquer smooth. Next we dusted it, then added more lacquer, let it dry, and repeated. By this time I started to get the sand/lacquer/sand process. It really does make it smooth. Who knew? Not this girl.
At last, the assembly came. We cut the copper piping to the proper lengths, inserted it into the holes we drilled in the wooden shelves, and soldered the joints together as we went. I mostly watched the soldering process because I can only be trusted so far with a torch. Finally, we moved them into the nooks and I stuffed them full of books. Despite the use of expensive copper piping, it still came out far cheaper than anything we could have had custom made by a furniture shop. And I love them! What do you think? I’d love to hear your own experiences in bookshelf creating.
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Giving in to desire could destroy them both.
One night was all it took to change everything. One moment of weakness, and now I’m becoming. Werewolves were supposed to be things only seen in movies, not things that exist in real life. Instead of med school and homework, my life is filled with a laundry list of things that were once impossibilities. Groups fighting over whom I belong to. The possibility of dying if I don’t learn everything before the next full moon. Figuring out how to survive in a world I never knew existed. But the biggest danger? Ty: history professor, super sexy Viking werewolf, and the man who’s been assigned by the Council to teach me how to survive becoming a werewolf.
Heather is an award-winning author of paranormal, steampunk, and historical. Becoming a published author has been a life-long goal that she has known she wanted since she was twelve. At that age, she wrote her first book and has been writing and working on her craft ever since. When she is not writing, she can be found on the slopes, the hiking trails, or paddle boarding. As a native Oregonian, she enjoys the outdoors nearly as much as the worlds she creates on the pages. No need to travel to the Great Northwest though, you can find her on her website and her many social networking sites. You can also find her the first Monday night of every month at 6:00 pm PT on the #WritersRoad chat on Twitter. Sheis the co-creator and moderator of the chat. Entertaining readers, protecting endangered species, and uncovering stories and points of view that haven’t been covered are her passions.
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