A Boy In The Kitchen: The Great Debate

The Topic: Is it okay for a boy to have a play kitchen?

Well, in my opinion, definitely! Can you guess what my husband thinks? But that doesn’t come as surprise to a lot of you, I’d imagine. You see, it wasn’t that he was against him "cooking" per se. It was that it was going to be in a kitchen and not a BBQ grill. We had a similar debate about the vacuum cleaner versus lawn mower. What is it with dads and kitchens?  Geez.

Any who, I ended up winning this one after multiple rounds of random pics of Dylan with a grin from ear to ear playing with a play kitchen. It was really weird because we were constantly exposed to them. They just appeared! Everywhere we went!

Excited that I had gotten the green light, I started the search. Okay, well I continued the search…I was already looking. **smirk** I knew what I wanted. I just hadn’t found it yet! The search went on for weeks and I finally stumbled upon the perfect one!

It was done by a VERY talented mother of four (who were all under six at the time. Yikes!) in her free time. I know.  Is there “free time” when you’re a mother of four?! She was so sweet to share her amazing talent with the world and I was fortunate to stumble upon it. You can find her tutorial over at Crafting Chicks here.

And here is our version. (My sister helped me with the whole thing.  Luh her!)

We are very proud of it because we did it while there were zero men around. Just me, my sister, my grandma and lots of man tools! Yeah, we are big-headed like that…

I have put off putting in a rack for the oven...one day...maybe.

Oh yeah, and that felt food was fun to make too! Marina and I sat at the table for hours but it was well worth it.  My fave is the banana with the removable peel!

The original drawings I had included an ice maker and microwave, but those got nixed pretty quick once we got started. So it was all pretty simple but just took time. Lots of time.

Oh!! And can I just say to all you amateur do-it-yourselfers that a 1(by) IS NOT a 1(by)! It’s a ¾ (by)!! It’s actually only a 1(by) when it’s cut from the tree. The milling process shaves it down a bit. Not good news when your drawings are done on a 1x1 scale. Thanks to the Lowes guy for that explanation!!

Thankfully my sister and I are awesome and made it work (with a teeny help from Daddy of course) The fridge door was the only tragedy in it all. No matter what we did there was no making it work. So it took a trip to my Daddy’s garage. It came back perfect! With the exception of the hinges. I sent him the hinges I wanted (very simple and modern) and it came back with some schmancy ones (not ones that I would pick for sure) but Daddy was excited and thought I would be too because he “upgraded” them. Oh well. At least the fridge had doors
now!

This cute little microwave was purchased at Sears during Christmas. It beeps and lights up and even has a working turn table. I had a matching coffee maker that lit up and percolated water but it met its demise one day when I smelled a rotten odor coming from Dylan's room. I swore he had pooped in a corner somewhere. I finally found the rotting pasta that was now mush dripping onto my hands. YUCK!!! It quickly went into a bath of scorching soapy water in an attempt to sanitize. And while I was scraping off my skin I heard a sound coming from the bubbles…

Hmpf!

What was I thinking?! His battery-operated coffee maker was screaming at me from the kitchen sink. Mommy found the hammer before the screwdriver to remove the batteries and that was the end of that.

living. loving. crafting.

Chris

Laundry Room: Bleak to Chic

I am not sure about your house but at ours our "front door" may as well be the garage door.  And like many homes our laundry room is the passage way.  Finally after two years of passing through that room at least twice a day I had had enough!  It was so uninspiring and was definitely not a reflection of our family.  And to be honest I needed to get inspired to do the laundry again. 

**A little background about me.  I am 100% spoiled by my husband.  We have been together just over four years now and he has been doing my laundry for me for, well, just over four years!  I always seem to defend myself with the tragic memories of doing laundry for half my childhood and not being able to play until we found the "other" sock.  And let's face it...how many of us ever find it!**

So getting back to it.  Getting inspired again...right.  The room was just so white and drab.  So I told my husband that I would assign myself to a room and focus on it until it was done.  I tend to get distracted really easily so it was important to focus on one room at a time! 

It's not quite done yet.  What you will come to realize is that I lack patience.  I work on it everyday.  But when it comes to crafting I tend to try and find as many short cuts as I can because who doesn't love admiring your final product. 

I only had a chance to get a quick mobile shot of the before because I was so anxious to get started!

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

I purchased these wine crates at Twin Liquors for $2.50/piece.  Some scrapbook paper, my cricut and Modge Podge finished them up.

I am continuously inspired by items on Etsy.  And every time I find something I want to buy I always convince myself I can make it.  I am very much like a guy in that way!  Anyway, I came across some "lost socks" signs and I went crazy for the idea.  Here is my version...

Scrap board from our garage, matching scrapbook paper, Modge Podge, matching Jelly Roll fabric, yarn, twine, hot glue and a $.50 wire basket from Goodwill (one of my fave vintage shops) was all it took to get this on the wall.

The darling ironing board cover was done by CompelledToCraft on Etsy.  I wasn't even gonna take a stab at that one.  I am still quite a newby at the sewing machine.  On one of my daily trips to JoAnns I came across the matching Alexander Henry's Juicy Fabric and thought I would take a stab at a mini curtain.  Came out a little short but I fixed that real quick with some scrap ribbon.  You can see it went to my head a bit.  I went for a larger version with a tablecloth, sale fabric and a jelly roll for some faux piping.  I am still not done with it though.  It isn't quite "done" to me.  I bought some spray fabric paint and am going to paint a thick yellow stripe on the white.  I am pretty sure I am going to use my cricut to create a stencil that says "Laundry: Open 24 hours".

Oh!  And I found a spot for my bird mobile!  I had made this a few weeks before.  I guess the color combo is on the brain.  I have been attracted to yellow lately.  It makes me smile.  I'll leave the details from the mobile on my next post! 

living, loving, crafting

Chris