Blanket Forts and a Cardboard Projector

One of my favorite stores to visit when I want to go kick around is the Home Goods store. I rarely buy anything, but I like to go look at the various knickknacks and window shop with Shelley. It's fun to imagine where we would put certain things in the modern A-frame cabin with the glass wall that we don't actually have but categorize as "someday".

On one of our trips there during Christmas time, I found this cardboard movie projector on one of those shelves of impulse stocking stuffer buys, and since it was only $12 I impulsively grabbed it. It's been sitting around waiting for a camping trip or another beach journey to be broken out, but now is the time.

Tonight we are going to have a movie night. We gathered a bunch of our pillows and blankets together and pushed the couch aside so that we could lay on the floor. I am going for a drive-in vibe, and of course added popcorn and a strand of twinkle lights. Our goal is to project it over the railing onto the wall.

Pillows, blankets, popcorn: ✔

If you want to create your own movie projector instead of buying one, it would be a fun way to stay entertained. Obviously, this is not a high-quality image here (Shelley was quick to point out we have a perfectly good television) but it's more for the nostalgic aspect and that it's something different. Plus, if you have kids, it could be a good activity with payoff-- a movie.

Of course we ate the popcorn already!

The first thing you'll need to do is cut a hole in the side of a shoebox, and then fit a lens in the hole (I saw people online using magnifying glass lenses without the handle, although mine came with a lens that I had to fit into this sort of toilet paper roll-looking thing). Then insert your phone, with the brightness and volume all the way up, and start projecting your movie of choice!

 It needs to be DARK in order for this to show up well, so I'm looking forward to something either black & white or spooky-- maybe a classic horror film?

Let me know if you try it out!