Kids - The Idea Room

The Handbuilt Home—Book contributor

I am soooo excited to be able to FINALLY spill the beans on a project that I have been involved in for almost a year now. It has been killing me not to share it, but now I can! Last fall I was contacted by Ana White from Ana White.com who asked if I would like to be involved in contributing to her new book…The Handbuilt Home.

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The Handbuilt Home

Ummm…hello! YES!

Ana White

I was able to pick from a few of her projects/building plans, which are being featured in the book, and I chose to build and photograph this Kids Table and Chair Set. The table and chair set is now being used almost daily by my kids and I need to make a couple more chairs so they have room for their friends.

I discovered Ana’s site, a few years ago, when she was first starting out and was blown away by the amazing things she was building. I wanted to grow up and be like her. Apparently, so did a LOT of other people and Ana’s site has become the go to site for anyone who loves afforable, easy to build, expensive looking and most importantly, high quality furniture. You know…people like me who want a designer house without the designer prices. Who wouldn’t want that?

But let me back up at bit…a couple of years ago…my daughter needed a new bed. We have three girls and only two beds which wasn’t a problem until our youngest outgrew her crib. Our search for beds was frustrating to say the least. It’s not that I couldn’t find any beds that I liked…it’s that I couldn’t stomach the ticket prices. So one day I got up the nerve to actually build Ana’s Farmhouse Bed which I had been long been obsessing over.

My husband worked in a cabinet shop building cabinets while he was in high school…I know…pretty handy right?! So we sized her plans down and made a twin sized bed and added a few of our own personal changes. Some of you may remember when I shared it here: DIY Headboard and Bed Frame.

Imagine my surprise when Ana White came over to MY SITE and commented on on it!! I was a little bit excited. Okay…a whole LOT excited. She was/is someone that I really looked up too.

Hehe! So I got to know Ana a bit because of that and we emailed back and forth here and there and one thing lead to another!

Anyways, I digress! The Handbuilt Home is scheduled for release on October 9, 2012! You can even pre-order The Handbuilt Home on Amazon if you are interested. I am waiting *patiently* for my copy to arrive any day now!

So what is The Handbuilt Home all about? Here is an excerpt from Amazon.

• Plans for 34 versatile furniture projects for every room in your house—from beginner-friendly home accessories to sturdy tables, a media center, kids’ items, and storage solutions
• Comprehensive information on using off-the-shelf lumber and basic equipment—almost every project can be made with a drill, a saw, and some hand tools
• Easy-to-follow instructions, costs, and time estimates to guide even the most amateur of carpenters through any project

You don’t need to be physically tough or superstrong to make your own furniture, and it’s okay if you don’t know that a 2×4 doesn’t actually measure 2 by 4 inches. All you need is the determination to create a better home for yourself or your family and the confidence to say, “I can build that.”

I am excited to have been a part of this. I am also excited to have collaborated with some of my favorite DIY bloggers as well and to see the projects they contributed! To see what Kirsten from The Crafting Chicks contributed to the book you can check out her post here. I will be sure to update you with any additional information as it comes along for those of you who may be interested.

August 30, 2012 · Filed under: Personal Tagged with build furniture, home decor, Kids, tutorials

Potato race cars

7 Comments

I just recently spent several hours with some of my very favorite people at a family reunion. I feel like I must mention how lucky I am to belong to such an amazing family. We grew up going on trips to Lake Powell and St. George together every summer. And we just generally have a great time hanging out together.

And even now, as we have all gotten older and had families of our own, we still really enjoy getting together at our annual family reunion. My husband and kids also really enjoy these reunions. I ran my half marathon the morning of the reunion this year and my kids made me promise that we wouldn’t miss the reunion.

We always have a BBQ or some yummy lunch. We also always have a big water fight with the younger kids, while the older folks compete in friendly basketball, horse shoe, and sometimes a volleyball tournament. Most of the time we are able to have the reunion at a great location by a lake which we later get to play in together.

And we always have some other fun activities for the kids to participate in. This year my cousin Angie showed us all how to make a race car out of a potato and arranged for the kids to make some fun Potato Race Cars. Then they raced them down a Pinewood Derby race track.

They are really easy to make.

You will need the following for each Potato Race Car:

Potato
4 Pinewood Derby Car Wheels (can be purchased online or at a local Scouting store)
4 large nails
4 small washers that fit onto your nails
potato/cheese grater
decorations for your cars

You may need to shave your potato so that the wheels fit on nicely and roll without rubbing on the potato. You can also shave some from the bottom of the potato so that it will roll down the track easily.

Stick the nails though the washers and wheels and then stick them into the sides of the potato. Be sure to place them so that the car rides evenly.

Then bling out your car with your favorite accessories. This can be difficult to get it just right…haha! I love how serious she is about getting her car just right. Isn’t she adorable?!

Then when you have all the cars made…line them up and let them go!

We had some great cars. But wouldn’t you know it…one of the youngest competitors won the whole race. And this was his winning Potato Racer!

And this is the grand prize!

Such a fun activity that got all the kids old and young involved. It is similar to a Pinewood Derby activity I shared with you in an older post…Banana Pinewood Derby Cars.

Do you have any fun ideas that your family does to make your family reunions special? I would love to hear your ideas!

August 22, 2012 · Filed under: Activities Tagged with boy scout ideas, girl scout ideas, Kids, kids activities, pinewood derby, race car ideas, Summer

Watermelon Pops

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Has it been as hot at your house as it has been here? We have been in the 90′s and actually hit 100 degrees today! Whew! We have been craving some cool treats…hence the numerous popsicle posts. But who doesn’t love a great popsicle? Especially watermelon popsicles.

The kids and I whipped up these yummy watermelon popsicles the other day. They were pretty easy. We found the recipe from Kraft Foods here.

We followed the recipe pretty closely but used sugar-free Jell-O for both the lime and the strawberry Jell-O. Therefore we didn’t need to add any sugar. We also just used half the amount of cream cheese and added a bit more Cool Whip. We also used our popsicle molds we had purchased at Target. When we tried to get the popsicles out we had to be VERY careful when pulling them out. Be sure to run under hot water to help the popsicles slid out without separating the different popsicle layers. Better yet, next time I make them I think we will make them in paper cups so that we can just tear the paper cup away from the popsicle. We did accidently pull some popsicles apart leaving the red top in the popsicle mold.

But all in all, the kids thoroughly enjoyed them. I actually did not taste one as I am not a big fan of Jell-O…not to mention FROZEN Jell-O. But just seeing the way my kids gobbled these up, they had to be fairly tasty! Happy Summer People!