Write Tasty: The Pinterest Challenge: DIY Reading Tent

Thanks to Katie, Sherry, Kate and Michelle for kicking my butt into gear via The Pinterest Challenge. Awkwardly, Katie and I seemed to have had the same idea... and she's a far more experienced DIYer than me. I'm going to pretend that it means I'm awesome. :)

Some people might say that it isn't worth the effort to power through a non-mandatory project in the face of a 90 hour power outage. It may be slightly insane that I came home from work last night at 9:30pm, briefly relaxed to chat with the Mister and eat some dinner, and then poured myself a rather... generous... glass of wine and got to work. But I did. It was grand.

I should probably admit before I go further into this post that I'm a nerd. I had the plastic-rimmed glasses and frizz for days to prove it in elementary/ middle school too. Luckily things like ceramic hair straighteners and contact lenses have since helped my exterior, but at the end of the day I still choose activities like reading and crafting over anything "cool". And when I was little, I was obsessed with my little reading nooks that I created under my bed, in my (non-walk in) closet, and when it was summertime, under the trees in our backyard.

So naturally my interest was piqued when I opened Pinterest one day and saw these images:

pin from Brown Paper Packages

pin from Henry's House

So naturally I sought to recreate my own version. Officially, it's for N, but secretly-- I'm going to be spending just as much time in it as her. Here are some tips:

*DO make life easier by making your teepee out of one large piece of fabric.

*Even if you think that spray painted wooden dowels would be cute, forget about that option and instead buy some thin PVC pipe in your desired length. You can paint PVC, I'm sure.

*If you decide to use wooden dowels anyway, don't do what I initially did and think that you can brace two pieces together with a chaotic mix of duct tape, bamboo food skewers, and liquid nails. Just don't.

*Make your work pretty. Put the fun in functional.

And here's what I got: