Library overhaul ~ the reveal!!

You might recall my blog post back in November about myself & two other mums from my son's primary school doing up our school library.  Well after months of hard work, completely redecorating & designing the two rooms we were given to use & sifting through & cataloging over 3000 books, we finally had our grand opening a week ago!!

We were really nervous as we wanted the kids to love it but we had nothing to worry about as they all think it's amazing!!  We're really proud of what we achieved with very little money - and a lot of imagination! - so I thought I'd share some before & after photos (taken from roughly the same viewpoint) with you all!

I'm soooo happy with how my Gruffalo wall display turned out.  I said from the start that I wanted to do one as I just adore The Gruffalo book but I then worried that I wouldn't be able to do it as I'm really not an artistic person!  But I don't think I did too badly - and I even managed to get my real branch hanging into the room too although the photo doesn't show the twinkly fairy lights we hung from it!!

Hopefully we've given the kids a really inspiring & comfortable library & music room to use rather than 2 bookshelves in a corridor like they had before!  We now just have to train up the P6 & P7s to be Junior Librarians so they can run the library themselves (with the occasional supervision from us!)

So that's what's been taking up my time for the last 3 months as we've been in the school working pretty much every day since January!!  I feel a bit lost now though & need a new project to do as I've got the decorating & design bug again now.  Actually, there's a blank corridor in the school that's crying out for a huge mural........!

Library overhaul part 1

 

How bad have I been on the old blogging front lately?  I know, terrible but in my defence, I have a great excuse!!

 

About a month ago, myself & 2 other mums from my son's school were asked if we'd help to set up a new library in the school.  We were all really keen to do this as quite frankly, the existing 'library' was pretty shocking ie. a couple of bookcases in a hallway!

 

First of all, we took over what was the music room & special education needs room & realised they both needed blitzing as the décor was extremely bleurgh!  We along with the head teacher, spent a morning visiting some local school libraries to see what they'd done with them & came back bursting with ideas.  After much debating, we decided to keep the walls neutral & then add colour with posters, murals & displays.

 

So work began last week!  After 6 hours of de-stapling & filling the walls in the horrible school-toilet-blue SEN room, the first of many coats of magnolia went on the walls.  We just have to now paint the tiles & cupboard doors in here & we'll have a blank canvas to work from.  This will now become a reading area & the music room.

 

The room which used to be the music room will now become the library & again, the walls have been neutralised & are ready to go!  We've already sifted through a couple of thousand books & binned the old, ripped books & are selling the ones we no longer want/need.  Any left over will go to charity.

 

We've installed the Junior Librarian software on our pc & this'll get set up on our fab new reception desk that my lovely hubby is making for the school!

 

So after the painting is completed this week, we'll begin the huge task of updating the book catalogue & then making a list of the many, many new books we have to buy - this part I'm really looking forward to!

 

We organised a Pamper Night fundraiser which was held last Friday night & we raised over £700 to go towards books & resources for the library, which was fantastic!  So apologies for being MIA for a few weeks, but being at the school day long & then getting home & catching up on housework etc has left me short on time!

 

Here's what we've been doing so far......

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to put the final photos of the finished library up......watch this space!!

 

 

 

 

Bad blogger alert!

I've been seriously neglecting my blog for the last couple of weeks, my bad!! In my defence, I've had such a chock-full fortnight starting with a 5 day visit from the in-laws so we were out & about during the days. 

Then a couple of weeks back, myself & 2 other mums from my son's primary school were asked by the new headteacher if we would be up for the challenge of starting a new library for the school.  I have to admit, as a complete & utter bookworm, this really, really pleased me as I believe it's so important for ALL schools to encourage reading & provide a library of sorts, no matter what size.

So over the space of 4 days last week, we sifted through around 3000 old scabby books that the school had in storage & have got rid of three quarters of them.  We've now got to go on a Junior Librarian course to learn how to catalogue & arrange new books & to train up some of the Primary 7s to be Junior Librarians.  We've got a budget to decorate 2 new rooms for the new library & then buy a heap of new books & we've got to do some serious fundraising too!

We went on tours of some local schools to see what they've done with their libraries & have got some amazing ideas what to do now.  So it's going to be a really busy few months ahead of us but I'm so excited & I haven't been so riled up about a project for years!! 

But annoyingly yesterday, my phone completely died a death & guess who hadn't downloaded all my photos & blog drafts??? So I promise I'll get back on it soon but I need to re-take a LOT of blog photos & I'll be spending an awful lot of time at the school every day.........but I WILL get back on form soon!!

Toodles!

 

 

Recent reads #2

 

 

I've read quite a few books in the last 4 or 5 weeks & here's a little peek at some of them.  First up, The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri.

 

 

This is the 13th novel in the Inspector Montalbano series that I've previously talked about on another book review & after a shaky start with the first book, I've really grown to love this grumpy Italian character.  In this story,  he is called to a field of clay (hence The Potter's Field!) where the grisly remains of a dismembered body have been found.

 

On first inspection, it would seem that this has been an execution, the work of the local mafia but putting all the clues together just doesn't add up to Montalbano.  He also has to contend with his friend & colleague Mimi's odd behaviour....is he somehow mixed up in this latest gruesome discovery?

 

The book features the same characters as in the other novels & the author uses his favourite descriptions of mouth-watering Italian cuisine!  I really enjoyed this book & whenever I see others in the series in the library, I always get them out.  I'm looking forward to working my way through them, albeit out of order!

 

 

My next book is (deep breath!) Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson.  I must admit, this was a last minute grab in the library as I liked the look of the cover but it's actually quite a harrowing story.

 

It's the story of Janie Ryan, told in the first person & starting from the moment she was born.  It's details her childhood living with her family & how she is expected to become the next in a long line of brash Aberdeen fishwives but rebels against this to do her own thing.

 

It follows her throughout her life, sometimes happy but mostly a living hell after escaping one abusive relationship after another.  I have to admit, I found this a quite distressing read, not at all what I was expecting - that'll teach me not to read the blurb before I borrow a book again!!  You really can't judge a book by it's cover!!

 

My final book this time is the acclaimed psychological thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

 

 

I've had this book on my Kindle for months but was holding out on reading it because I was hoping the book club would cover it but they chose others instead.

 

This tells the tale of Nick & Amy Dunne's difficult marriage & her sudden disappearance on their 5th wedding anniversary.  Nick becomes prime suspect, not helped by the fact the police discover that he recently increased Amy's life insurance, borrowed the remains of her trust fund to buy a business & seems devoid of any emotions about his wife's disappearance.

 

It's hard to tell any more about this story without giving away what happens but all I'll say is that I was really looking forward to this book & although I did think it was great, I don't actually think it's lived up to it's hype.  But maybe if I'd read it before all the rave reviews everywhere, I'd have enjoyed it more!  I'll still be going to see the film when it's released though!

 

So that's all for today.  I need to clear more space on my bookshelves as I went a bit mad in the library book sale the other day......

 

 

.........this doesn't include the 18 books I have lined up on my Kindle either, whoops!!!

 

What books have you really enjoyed lately?