The Play Kitchen

We gave Henry this play kitchen for his birthday. He plays with it a bit once or twice a day. He sometimes needs some suggestions about what to do. And he mostly likes looking through the food and pretending to eat it.

There is a before picture of this cabinet that I made the kitchen from somewhere on the computer but since I started the project back in September I don't want to look through for it. But it was a TV cabinet that I turned on its side and changed up a bit. There was actually quite a bit of cutting and screwing - changing one big door into two, making that top shelf smaller to keep room for playing, adding shelves inside the oven and fridge, and cutting a hole for the sink. There was even some soldering as that was honestly the only way I could imagine to do the faucet affordably in a way that I liked - it is some elbows and short pieces of copper pipe soldered together. I stapled that fabric on the back to be the backsplash, that perfect fabric just happened to be in my stash of fabric.

And then searching for pots and pans and cutlery and crockery took awhile. We found most of it at thrift stores, I was especially pleased with the Sesame Street plates I found. And Kevin and I made some felt food as well (so fun when the husband wants to make crafts with me!). And I did buy some velcro cutting food. His favourites are the cutting food and the pasta.

And I managed to squeeze it into our kitchen. That was important for me because I had this image in my head of us cooking together each in our own kitchens which has actually happened a few times.

And now that huge project is over. It turned out to be a lot of work but all of it fun (except painting). It was just the perfect project, simple enough that I could just figure out how to do things on my own (with lots of insipration from google) but the culmination of all that work is a pretty big thing I think - a play kitchen with doors on hinges and knobs that turn and Henry knew just what it was as soon as he saw it. And after a week and a half of playing nothing is breaking yet!

The Christmas Season so far

We are well into the swing of the Christmas season at this point.

We put up our tree and decorations a few weeks ago. I usually wait for December 1 but I bought a new tree this year and wanted to try it out. Every year I end up reading some sort of article about having a "green" Christmas and I always read about how bad the artificial ones are - full of phthalates and lead that will come off on little Henry's hands when he touches it. And I just couldn't get it out of my head, I knew I wouldn't be able to relax every time I saw Henry near the tree. And I have never had any desire for a real tree, seems like a real nuissance and just isn't part of my own Christmas tradition.

So I bought a vintage aluminum tree off ebay and I am quite in love with it. It is also just a bit smaller than our previous tree which I like now that we want Henry to have lots of room to run around. I was a bit upset that you can't put lights on aluminum trees but it catches the light so beautifully I love it even without lights.

And of course we also have our streamers and nativity scene up.

Above is Henry helping to decorate and below is Henry very gently touching the tree. The official rule is no touching but he is always gentle so we often let it slide.

This weekend we added some handmade decorations. This blog post on Michele Made Me inspired Kevin and I to make paper snowflakes for the first time in forever.

And we got Henry in on the decorating action again by getting him to paint this Christmas tree that Kevin made for him.

And then came the most exciting part! We had Henry open his first Christmas present of the year. We wanted to give him the wooden farm animals that Kevin and I made years ago along with a plastic barn I found. And we thought they were a pretty special gift that we didn't want to get lost in the pile of presents he'll likely be receiving on Christmas Day. So we gave them to him on Sunday. It was also perfect timing because he's been into animals for awhile and is just recently into making his toys "eat". So a couple weeks ago I quickly made some accessories for the farm: some hay, a pile of carrots, a bucket, and a trough. So now the animals can eat.

On Sunday morning he opened the present. And it was perfect! He really liked it. He took each thing out of the barn one by one, saying what it was and making the corresponding sound to go with it as he went. And he plays with it. He's been playing with the set a lot. Making the animals eat (sometimes eating each other!), making them kiss each other, and playing out who knows what other scenarios he has in his head. Sometimes some very exciting sounds accompany the play. I just love to see him doing this sort of play and even more so when it is with toys I made myself.

So far Christmas 2011 is pretty great, I am going to make sure to savour every minute of the rest of it.

Bean Bin

I saw this idea somewhere months and months ago so of course I don't remember where it was now. But I was reminded of it when Henry was helping me make the granola that other day and he really liked putting the oats in the measuring cup and playing with them a bit.

The idea is simple - just dry beans in a big container to play in like an indoor sandbox. I'm sure it was recommended for slightly older kids but I know my Henry and feel confident that he's not going to choke on one or even put them in his mouth.

He has been having a ball playing in there the past few days. He asks to go in several times a day and sometimes he also just wants us to put a few beans on the floor for him to put them back in the bin. And so far he is very good at keeping them in the bin. What a great toy!

Big Boy Toys

All of a sudden last week it became obvious to me that Henry was ready for some big boy toys. He has been playing with my mum's set of old Fisher Price Little People for months but all of a sudden he's doing more than pushing the cars down the ramp, he's putting people in the cars and he's interested in the elevator. And he loves the wooden trains at Chapters. Here he is playing with other people's toys.


And here he is playing with his very own versions that his Mommy and Daddy who love to spoil him rushed out to buy this week. I got him some Fisher Price Little people which are just perfect for him right now. He is a little young for the train set but still enjoying it (when it's not frustrating him) and Kevin and I just love it too. Eventually the train set will be moved to the basement but we thought while it's still new and very exciting we will have it up here, taking over the entire living room.

3 Foot Giraffe

One of Henry's presents gets a special post because I am that proud of it. (So proud that yes I just had to include all 9 pictures of it in this post.) I made this awesome 3 foot tall stuffed giraffe. It is really a present for me because it is clearly decorative and will go in our living room which is of course now a living room/playroom.


I love how it turned out! The pattern is from Soft Toys A to Z but I made it twice as big as in the book for added awesomeness. I used this fabric that I had lying around and that I had previously used for stuffed-giraffe making as well as other things. I had just enough fabric left, had to employ some patchwork for the big pieces.

It's a really cool pattern. The creator seems to have gotten the slight bends in the leg and the look of the face and ears just right. It was simple to make other than the stuffing. The skinny legs have bamboo stakes in them and stuffing them was very very difficult. Getting the stuffing in there was hard enough but then came the endless task of maneuvering the stuffing till I got the whole thing just right. I could have kept fiddling forever, had to stop myself when the seams started showing wear.

The Dino Puppet Pattern and Tutorial

I have a pattern uploaded and a tutorial made for that dino puppet I created for Henry a few weeks ago. It is a simple hand puppet that you can make talk. It is sized for an adult hand.

Click here to download the pattern.   Sorry I have lost track of the pattern.

And here is a little tutorial to explain how to make it.

You need just around a quarter yard of material but you'll want at least a different colour for the teeth. I like to use felt because it's a nice stiffness. Part of what makes it look like a dinosaur is the poof of the head so you need something a bit stiff.

So step one download and print the pattern pieces. They are very simple and there is lots of room for error so you could definitely look at the pieces and just approximate them.


First pin the top of the head to the main head piece like so:


And sew:


Next pin the throat to the main head piece:


Try to make the bottom jaw approrimately the same size as the top jaw (have the same amount of orange between the brown on top and bottom like in the below picture).

Sew the throat piece to the main head piece and you should have something like this:

Now pin the mouth pieces into the open mouth area. Try to fill the space that is naturally created without stretching it out. If you have to cut away some excess mouth that is ok.


The mouth piece that you cut in half should be on top of the other mouth piece while it's in this inside out state.

Sew the mouth piece on. You'll turn at the corners of the mouth. This is a good time not to worry about little imperfections like bunching.

All sewed up:


And turn it inside out and you'll have something like this:


Now just hand sew on the teeth. Be sure to line up the two front teeth with the front of the mouth. And sew some buttons on for eyes. I like to use a thick thread like embroidery floss in a colour that contrasts the button to create pupils. And Voila! Loads of fun!