Nook, Lego, Carnivals

• In case you missed it, I got a Nook! And I made it a pretty little pouch. Then I made it a duct tape Nook cover, which I took a million pictures of and will post next week. A Nook wasn't on my birthday list, but I'm fairly excited about having one.
• The Lego table I built continues to be a success. The boys mostly use the lego table unless it becomes too crowded at which point they start spreading to other tables again. If I were to build another I'd make two changes- first I'd be sure the nails weren't too long and didn't poke out the bottom. I tried to angle them all, but I failed and sliced my thumb open on one this week. Second, I'd leave a small gap in some portion of the lip so that you could put your bin under the edge and sweep them all in instead of having to scoop them all up.
• There is a music and arts festival in town this weekend, complete with carnival rides. Mike has tomorrow off and we're going to take the kids up for the day. I can't wait.
• As part of the event, there are Strider races for 2-5 year olds. If you have a small child who doesn't have a bike yet I highly recommend Strider balance bikes. The Bug started on one and is a speed demon with perfect balance. In contrast, the Pirate can not ride a bike at all yet. Skip the tricycle, get one of these. Plus, there's pretty much nothing on them to break and the tires are solid so you never have to pump them up and they last forever.

What I Read This Week:

• Insurgent by Veronica Roth. I finally had to force myself to sit and read it. It was very good, but I don't deal well with constant tension of this sort. More about this one later this week.
• Key of Valorby Nora Roberts. The last in the trilogy. Love the hero, but the heroine is far too stubborn.
• The Witnessby Nora Roberts. About half in. The heroine reminds me very strongly of the main character on Bones.
• A Night Like Thisby Julia Quinn. This is the first book I bought for the Nook. I've barely started. (I feel obligated to read books with big hold lists first, as Insurgent and The Witness both are.)

Lego, sewing, water balloons

• Today is the last day of Armchair BEA. I'm enjoying the posts but finding I'm not passionate enough about the daily topics to blog myself.
• So instead I blogged about the Lego table we built yesterday.
• I just bought wire and beads for a little jewelry making experiment. I need more hobbies.
• I did a little sewing this week. I made myself a brand new summer bag. The inside is the same plaid as the letters. It's a knock off of this Old Navy one. I even have grommets, but I have decided not to put them on.
• Then I made the Princess a little bubble skirt. I wish I'd done the bottom layer slightly shorter. I also wish I had the patience to take her someplace clean and nice to take decent pictures. Also, she struggles with tank tops like this, takes her arms out all the time.
• And last, I made a banner. This one is really terrific, the dots made great lettering. I see now that I should have ironed that before taking pictures. The pink part would have looked so much better ironed. (ditto that bit about pictures.)
• I really miss sewing. I wish I had space to leave it all out full time. I'd love to finish the Princess's quilt before she turns two, plus the I-Spy I started years ago before they outgrow the idea.
• Yesterday I spent 30 minutes at the sink filling water balloons while the boys ran them outside one at a time. I see more of that in my future.

What I read this week:

• 
  The Standby Stephen King. I'm way behind in the Standalong, but I'm having a lot of fun taking the book on it's own private Instagram tour. I decided that add to Trish's fun by making it another summer project.
• 
  Key of Knowledgeby Nora Roberts. Book two in the trilogy. I like this one more than book one.
• 
  The Last Boyfriend (Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy, Book 2)by Nora Roberts. I read this one in one sitting last night, more or less. I have some things to say about it, so I might have to write an actual book review.

How to make a cheap Lego table

The boys are crazy about Lego. I am also crazy about Lego, but not quite in the same way. I am, like every other parent, sick of picking them up, of moving them off the table, of stepping on them! I have been coveting all the fancy Lego tables I see on Pinterest and Amazon, but it's just not in our budget these days. (Plus, they're all so small!) I've been dreaming up all kinds of solutions, none of which work. I bought a washing machine pan recently, but the boys didn't like the height of the lip and it was too awkward for them to move on their own (you can see the corner of it under the table. It's about 30x30). I've been obsessively checking the local Facebook yard sale group and the thrift store for a cheap table and today we finally scored this beauty:



Ok, so it wasn't a lot to look at, but it's big (31x40) and it was only $.50. That's half a dollar. We stopped by our favorite hardware store and picked up some trim pieces and a can of blue spray paint. (I might add, we get a terrific discount at the hardware store, so this was also very cheap.) This is what the trim looks like. Mike tells me this is called "cove" and is used for inside corners and along the ceiling.



I used a hacksaw to cut it to size. It could be done much better with some kind of electric saw, but I was in a hurry. If you cared, you could make pretty mitered corners. I didn't care. Then the Pirate and I nailed it down on all four sides to make a lip to help contain the Lego.



Next we spray painted it a bright blue color. Ideally, we'd put two coats on, but it was very windy and we used the entire can on our first coat. I decided I didn't really care, since it'll be covered in Lego anyway.



Finally, we ended up with a table that looks like this. The washing machine pan slides neatly underneath. We have two of the big base plates, but the table has room for 9 of them, so I'll be watching for a good deal on Ebay. I won't attach the ones we have until I can do all 9. I don't expect that this will actually completely contain the Lego, but I have hopes that it will at least help.



Our total cost? About $9 and we have most of a box of nails left over. Without the nails, about $5. Your cost would be slightly more, without the crazy hardware store discount, but still way less expensive than a real Lego table.