DIY Play Kitchen

OK, so I know this isn't crochet related, but I couldn't resist writing a post about this! :) My 4YO daughter, Genevieve, is obsessed with baking and cooking. She LOVES to watch Betty Crocker videos on YouTube, and every night before bed she likes to relax on the couch and watch Chopped on the Food Network. Normal behavior for a little girl, right? ;) 

She has a plastic play kitchen that we got her for Christmas when she was a toddler, but we had it outside at our old apartment and it was full of rain water that we couldn't get out. I was afraid it would be moldy so we didn't want it in our new house. After looking at Pinterest one day, I found so many DIY play kitchens. I started drawing out ideas & asked my husband if we could make one.

Now, the funny story. I had been searching on Craigslist for a used old entertainment center that we could turn into a play kitchen. I looked for about 2 weeks but didn't find anything that was appropriate, not too much work, or too far in location. Finally we decided to go to Menards and buy all the wood to make our own. The wood and a few other items for the kitchen only cost about $35. Later as we were leaving the house, we pull out of the driveway and see that my NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR had an old entertainment center by the road that said, "FREE." I couldn't believe that after all that searching, our neighbor has one a few hours after we bought all the wood. My husband had already started building it, so we were stuck. Oh well. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the before pictures. (They are on my husband's cell phone.) But here is the play kitchen after we painted it and assembled it:

We still have to find some stove knobs, but after that it should be pretty much finished. We painted it with leftover paint from the walls of our new house. I made the curtains for about $6, and the picture is what we see when we look out our kitchen window. I just printed it off and stuck it in a frame. For the sink, we made a big hole and put a metal mixing bowl in there. The sink knobs are dresser knobs from Hobby Lobby, and the sink spout is a piece of plastic toilet plumbing thingy (I think it's called a P trap?) that I painted silver. For the stove burners, I found rubber coasters at the dollar store and hot glued them on. The oven opens and closes with a magnet system, and we used cooling racks from the dollar store for the oven rack. We still have to find a way to hold them down. This was actually really easy to make. It ended up being much larger than I pictured, but that's okay. More room to play! My daughter loves it! 

Lazy Day Loafers

I usually don't follow patterns, but I love all of the patterns from TwoGirlsPatterns on Etsy! (available here.) 

Whenever I'm bored and project-less, I browse some patterns on Etsy or Ravelry and find cute things to make. It's always interesting to see the techniques that others use. I found these Lazy Day Loafers and thought they were adorable! It's hard to find cute boy items to crochet. These are definitely cute! 

I could also picture these in a girly Pink or Purple with a cute little flower attached to the front. They were actually easy to make and didn't take long at all! 

With permission from TwoGirlsPatterns of course, these Little Lazy Day Loafers are available for purchase in my Etsy Shop. (It would be the finished item, not the pattern.)

Beautiful Bow Mary Janes

Spring is almost here! Yayyyy!! This winter in Michigan has been unusually mild. We had barely any snow at all, and some days we were above average temperatures. It was AMAZING! I wish every winter was like this one. :) 

I am bursting at the seams with ideas for Spring items, but having time to make said items is the tricky part. I have had so many Etsy orders and I love it! The second I saw the pattern for the Beautiful Bow Mary Janes on Etsy, I knew that I had to make them as soon as possible. I purchased the pattern and here they are!

I love baby shoes, and decided to make these beautiful shoes Purple because that is my favorite color. I love the way they turned out! 

You can purchase the pattern here.  

You can purchase the shoes pictured from my Etsy shop, here.

Minnie Mouse Hat in RED!

I made some adorable Minnie hats for two little girls who are going on a trip to Disneyworld for a customer on Etsy. She wanted one hat to be Hot Pink, and one to be Red so they wouldn't be wearing the same exact hat. I love the way the hat looks in Red! 

The Minnie Mouse hat has been my most popular item recently, so I wanted to include a photo of the Red version on my blog.

This hat is available for sale in my Etsty Shop!

Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Dragon

A customer asked me to create a dragon hat for a baby girl based on the Chinese Zodiac. She is going to be born soon which makes her the year of the Dragon. This hat was fun to make but also very challenging. The smaller the hat, the harder it is to fit all the details on there. This was my second attempt at the dragon hat, but I am happy with the way it came out.

I love when I get a chance to create something out of the ordinary! This hat didn't photograph as well as I hoped. It is even cuter in person! 

The yarn I used is a tweed yarn called "Sagey Tweed." It has speckles of colors in it. This hat was made for a baby girl, so I wanted it to be cute and girly instead of scary. Let's hope my customer likes it! :) 

Minnie Mouse Inspired Hat

You can't have a Mickey Mouse hat without a Minnie Mouse hat! This hat is super cute and so much fun. It is made with Acrylic yarn in Black and Hot Pink with White polka-dots and a bow. It is available for sale in my Etsy Shop!

Be sure to check out all my other goodies. :) 

Cozy Bunny Slippers

I usually don't follow patterns, but I knew I wanted to buy this pattern for Bunny Slippers from Twogirlspatterns.etsy.com the moment I saw it! Adorable!! I purchased a two pack of patterns and got the pattern for the loafers as well. I can't wait to make those!

The weather in Michigan has been so weird lately. It has only snowed a couple of times and it has all melted. It has been in the 40's and 50's which is definitely not typical for a January in Michigan! I LOVE IT because snow is not my friend. But, I am afraid for when Old Man Winter gets revenge and dumps snow all over us. We'll be snowed in for weeks probably. :) All this nice weather has made me start thinking about Spring, and of course that means Easter. So I knew I had to make these adorable bunny slippers.

 

I made these with different yarn than I normally use. It is Bernat Satin in Sandstone. It is still Acrylic, but it is SO soft and kind of shiny. I love it! I bought a bunch of different colors when it was on sale at Michaels. I love the way these turned out! 

These little beauties can be purchased from my Etsy shop. If you'd like to make your own, be sure to purchase the pattern from Twogirlspatterns.etsy.com ! They email the PDF file very quickly and they are so easy to understand. They have pictures for additional reference. :)