DIY Craft Table

I finally did it!  I have been wanting to build my son a table that he can color and do crafts on for some time now.  At first, I was just going to buy one.  Except I was pretty particular about how I wanted the table to look and I wanted it to be built sturdy, so that it would last him a long time.  The one that I found was from Pottery Barn and it was going to cost me at least $220.  I was having a hard time with that price.  I did not pay that much for this table, however...I did have to buy a few tools in order to make this, and I learned that if you want good quality materials, you are going to have to pay a little to get it!  Throughout my journey of making this table I learned a lot and sweated a lot (I made it outside in the 32 degree Celsius heat!).  I love how the table looks and most importantly I know that this table will stand up to a lot of fun for years to come!

The actual process of building the table took me an hour and a half.  No joke.  I was shocked!  And I even learned how to use a pocket hole jig for the first time during that 90 minutes.  Here's how I did it:

I used the plans from Ana White's farmhouse play table and simply chose a different style for the legs.  For the top of the table I used a 4' x 2' birch board.  The aprons are 2x1 poplar boards cut to the same dimensions as outlined in Ana's plans.  Finally, for the legs I used 2x2 poplar boards cut to 18".

Here's the table before I added the paper roll:

We just couldn't wait to try it out!!

It took me a few trips to Lowes and some brainstorming to come up with how I was going to add on the paper roll holder that I wanted the table to have.  I finally came up with attaching a wooden closet rod holder (definitely the technical term), to two small pieces of wood that I screwed to the top of the table using my new pocket hole jig!  Then I trimmed a piece of a wooden dowel to size and plunked it into the rod holder.  By using the curtain rod holder I am able to easily change the paper roll when needed.  I get my paper rolls from IKEA because they're cheaper, but I think Melissa and Doug also carry replacement paper rolls for their easel, which could be used as well.

The last step was to put one coat of primer and three coats of white paint on the table.

The two chairs are from IKEA.  I think they look great with the table.  I may have some future plans to paint them, but for the space they are in right now, they're perfect!

Do-it-Yourself Indoor/Outdoor Pouf

Ok...I'm calling this a pouf because the concept is the same, however it is definitely a king size version of a traditional pouf.  This thing is huge!  When I thought this project up in my head, I was sitting in the backyard watching my son play on the lawn with his little plastic chairs and I was thinking "wouldn't it be great to have something he could use outside as a table where he could rest his snack on, but also something versatile enough so that he could lay and play on it too?".  And this is what I came up with!

It is perfect for lounging on in the backyard!

It wasn't very difficult to make.  I followed the guidelines here for making a smaller floor pouf, and just made mine larger.  My dimensions are: 48"x27" for the top and bottom pieces and all of the sides are 13" high.  I used indoor/outdoor fabric that I found for a good price online at Warehouse Fabrics Inc.  And I also used upholstery/canvas thread and a heavy duty needle for sewing jean material.  I basically sewed all the pieces together and sewed a 22" zipper on one edge.  I will admit that I was pretty nervous to start sewing this because I don't really know how to sew well...and when it came time to sew the corners, I got really nervous!  I had no idea how that was going to work.  But it just worked!  And when it came time to sew on the zipper I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do about that because I never sewed  a zipper before so...all I did was hem the edges and pin the zipper on each side (open the zipper up when doing this) and sewed it on.  There really was nothing fancy about this.  I'm sure it could have been accomplished with some fancy sewing maneuvers, but winging it worked just as well!

I used bean bag fill to fill mine up.  So far I have put 300 litres of fill in it and I feel that it could still use some more.  I sort of like the playful squishy-ness of the pouf as it is right now though, so it might stay like this for a while.

My son and his friends already love to jump all over it!

It is going to be a fun summer!

Strawberry Rhubarb Spring Muffins

Last weekend our family drove out to a local berry farm and picked what appeared to be the last strawberries of the season.  It was so much fun showing our son the berries growing on the plants and and letting him taste a few (don't tell anyone!) that I picked for him.  He had a great time!  With a tractor ride to the field, fresh juicy strawberries warm from the sun,  and this place even had goats to feed...who wouldn't enjoy themselves!

It took me a while to clean all these juicy morsels of sweet strawberry goodness, but once that was done I decided to make some yummy muffins with them.  I love the combo of rhubarb and strawberry...the tartness from the rhubarb mixed with the sweetness from the strawberries...it really is a perfect match!  I found this recipe on "Taste of Home" and tweaked it a little to make it perfect for me.  I used 1 1/4 white flour and 1 1/2 whole wheat flour, which resulted in me needing to add a splash more milk to make the batter come together nicely.  I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I squeezed half a lemon into regular milk instead.  Also...and I must admit this occurred completely by accident, as I forgot!  ...I didn't add the sugary nut topping on my muffins.  I'm always looking for healthy muffin recipes and although I didn't mess around with the oil or the sugar in this recipe, these muffins taste amazing!  And they're not that unhealthy.

The perfect spring time muffin.  Enjoy!