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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

DIY Kids Play Kitchen

G's first birthday is on Thursday; Jeff and I wanted to make her something extra special.  I found a picture of a play kitchen made out of an old TV stand on Giggleberry Creations; the blog and fell.in.love! I knew we could make one for G and it would be something that will grow with her for many, many years. And just days before the big day, we finished it!

Drum roll please..........


TADA!

I absolutely love how it turned out.  The fridge is magnetic and Jeff had to add the first magnet-a Iowa Hawkeye one, of course! The clock really works and this lucky little girl gets to look out her window to a beautiful golf course.  We even added a growth chart to the side (made with Vinyl Transfer Tape and my Cricut)


A lot of people have asked for a tutorial or 'how to' on this kitchen...most of the work was pretty self explanatory but I'll go over some of the things we did.

The total kitchen cost was between $80-$100 (I didn't keep a running total). However, you can make it as cheap or expensive as you want.  The first thing we did was look on Craigslist for a tv entertainment stand. I purchased the cheapest one on there ($30) and it turned out to be the biggest one too! G can't turn on the faucet and barely can reach into the sink. Right now she's really just into opening all the doors and turning the knobs.  We also purchased most of our items at our local Restore, which sells discounted construction supplies.

The fridge: I wanted to make her fridge magnetic just like a real fridge. I used 3 coats of magnetic paint and it worked really well. The paint is quite thick so try to do thin coats. We used a simple silver spray paint for the top coat of the fridge. The handles for the stove and fridge were just cheap ones from the Restore!

The countertops:  I wanted to use the leftover glass tile we had put into our master bath; we had just enough to do a small backsplash! The countertops are 24"x24" vinyl (peel and stick) tile.  We purchased an old faucet from the Restore and used a silver bowl for the sink.  The stove top is a piece of wood spray painted silver and then I painted black circles on it for the burners. We bought wooden knobs from the Restore and painted them black-for the stove knobs.

The window: Jeff had an old golf calendar and we used one of the pictures from that for the window.  The casing was just stuff we had left around our house.

The clock: This is my very favorite part of the kitchen and it was also the easiest! I used my Cricut  to cut out the numbers onto  Vinyl Transfer Tape from Joann's.  I love the vinyl transfer tape because it's basically a big sticker! After the Cricut cuts out the number, you just peal off the backing and stick it on the wall! It's fantastic! I purchased a simple wall clock from Wallie Mart for $3.97 and my husband took the hands and mechanical box out of the clock- the mechanical box will have a pole in the center. Then he drilled a whole into the center of the clock on the kitchen wall and stuck the pole through the hole while I attached the hands back to the pole. Then we inserted a battery and it was done! (I know...this makes no sense to you right now but once you get a clock it will all make sense!)

That's about it! It took us a good 6 weeks but we rarely worked on it. It was an easy and fun project to do. I'm so excited for G to get all her kitchen goodies for her birthday so we can start playing kitchen!!

Now go make one for your kiddos and post a pic for me to see!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Knot Shorts

My new favorite item for G's summer wardrobe...knot shorts!  I am in.love, plus the best part is they are super easy to make. I was a little overwhelmed at first because I had to make my own pattern. But that was incredibly easy, Meg does a great job explaining everything.

G already has two pairs! I whipped up for the first pair with some scrap fabric-just to make sure I had my pattern right. They turned out really cute but on my second pattern I made the ties longer (and they could still be longer on her second pair!)



G is wearing the second pair for her 1-year photo shoot tomorrow! I can't wait to see her little booty in these! 

By the way...don't forget to visit Grosgrain's Blog-30 free patterns for 30 days!!