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If you love books, you'll need to see this mom's amazing DIY art project.

Bibliophiles, unite!

Picture this:

You're a kid and you just moved into a new house. Your mom is frantically trying to make the new house safe, and it's right around the time when you're learning how to read, too.

But here's the thing: You don't have just any mom. You have a crafty mom. A smart mom. A creative mom. Your mom is Pippa Branham.


She manages to create a safe, durable, nonslip staircase for you that doubles as classical bookshelf, effectively winning parent of the year.

All images via Imgur.

OK, that isn't a real award. But if it were, Branham would definitely be in the running for creating such a safe masterpiece for her daughter.

Branham and her husband, both residents of Liverpool, England, moved to their first home last year. With kids in the mix, they knew they had to create a childproof home. Her initial plan was solid — a simple carpeting project to keep her children from falling down the stairs — but a quick DIY search on Pinterest got the wheels turning in Branham's head.

Using a list of her favorite books, like Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Stephen King's "Wolves of the Calla," and Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," Brenham found original copies and painted the covers on her staircase.

The price tag for creating this beautiful literary staircase was also 180 pounds — about $238 — less than her original idea.

While we’re all dreaming of Abigail’s amazing, literature-filled home, we can also take a page or two from Branham's own book of life.

Reading is easily one of the best ways to learn about the world as a kid. Introducing children to some of our world’s best classics through a staircase is a pretty adorable and creative way to get your child into one of life’s most joyous activities.

New homeowners with and without kids, take note: You can add the joy of reading literally anywhere.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

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True compassion.

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Emily McDowell — a former ad agency creative director and the woman behind the Los Angeles-based greeting card and textile company Emily McDowell Studio — knew all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of uncomfortable sentiments.

At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma. She went into remission after nine months of chemo and has remained cancer-free since, but she received her fair share of misplaced, but well-meaning, wishes before that.

On her webpage introducing the awesome cards you're about to see, she shared,

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Her experience inspired Empathy Cards — not quite "get well soon" and not quite "sympathy," they were created so "the recipients of these cards [can] feel seen, understood, and loved."

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After persevering through numerous medical conditions and surgeries in her own life, Elman realized a few years ago that body positivity wasn't just about size or weight. Things like scars, birthmarks, and anything else that makes us feel different of self-conscious have to be a part of the conversation, and she tries to make the movement accessible to everyone.

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