So, I got crafty

As the summer was winding down and the ants in my pants got ultra jittery, I spent some time crafting. One of the projects I worked on required me to actually use some tools.  EEEeekk!  I haven't really used tools since shop class in 7th grade when I made a napkin holder.  For some reason, though, I had this desire to create something from scratch (and wasn't available to buy in a store, unfortunately) and I wanted to do it myself (most of it).
After rearranging my Kindergarten classroom, I realized I had no shelf to hold a big book when reading to my kiddos.  I added a dry erase magnetic white board to my story time carpet and remembered a bookshelf that attached to the whiteboard from a classroom that I previously worked in. My easel had no shelf whatsoever.  After searching online for this shelf that has no name, I found that I couldn't purchase this thing without buying a $250 easel.  Well, I thought, screw that.  I'll make it myself.

This is what I am talking about.

So, with my 'can do' attitude that I adopted for the day, I took my boyfriend over to Home Depot to pick up some pieces of wood, dowels, and magnetic strips.  I selected some light colored wood and  dowel and started sawing away in the store.  Well, OK, I didn't do the sawing.  I have to admit, this was the only part of the project I did not complete myself.  Since I sliced off a pretty big chunk of skin on a glass cup a few years ago, I am deathly afraid of anything that is sharp.  Thankfully, Mike was there to do the cutting for me.

At home, I began sanding down my cut wood and dowels so I, or my students, would not get splinters.  The next thing I needed to do was to drill two holes into the wood so I could place the dowels in.  Womp womp.  We didn't have a drill.  Thankfully, one of our friends allowed us to go into his home and use his.  I was very excited, and a little nervous, to use such an apparatus.  I didn't know how hard to pull the trigger or how hard to push the bit into the wood without breaking it.  Mind you, I was performing this task and asking all of these questions about drilling holes into wood, and how hard to push it, with two boys in their 20s.   You can imagine the perverted jokes that were flying through the garage during this time.

After drilling, I stuck the dowels in the holes, super glued the magnetic strips (and my fingers) to the back, and WALAH!  Bookshelf created!

So far, no problems to report with my new shelf.  Now we'll just have to see if it lasts the year!