Little Boy's Apron

My son loves to help me cook. He watches all my cooking shows with me and likes to pretend he has his own cooking show called "Aiden Makes Cooks". When he plays with his toy kitchen, he pretends to be The Next Food Network Star, or a contestant on Chopped. I bought him an apron from a farmers market, and I was going to buy another for my other son, but then I just decided to use up some fabric I had leftover and make my own. I traced the apron and added elastic to the neck strap, but left off the pockets.

Boy's P.j. Pants

This probably took less than an hour. They are so cute! I might make a pair for my toddler and maybe some for myself! Thanks Prudent Baby! You can find the tutorial here.

Play Kitchen: Before and After



Before




After



I've made some progress on the play kitchen. It is almost completed. After many coats of paint, and a few accessories, the boys can finally play with it. It still needs a knob for the faucet and a sink bowl, but I'm pretty happy with it. I love the wooden pizza set and the fruit and veggies I bought. Velcro holds the slices together, and they make a realistic cutting sound when you use the play knife. I made a utensil holder out of an old can and some scrapbook paper. The oven rack was cut to size by my husband. It came from one of my old cooking pans. I used duck tape to cover the edges to keep it safe for the kids. I sewed a little towel and potholder out of some scrap material. I am also working on some felt food that I will post later.








Mitten Tethers

I love toddler coats that have built-in mitten tethers. I think all kid's coats should come with these. And all mittens should have little loops attached. With my first son, I didn't have to worry about him taking off his mittens and losing them. He was pretty good about keeping them on. My second son (the little stinker) loves to take his off when I'm not looking, and drop them who knows where. I don't have time to backtrack across Walmart to find them. So I made these tethers from cotton tape and sew-on snaps. I sewed little loops to the store-bought mittens, and I knitted I-cords to the handmade ones. Another way to make loops for the knitted mittens, would be the crochet a small chain and attach it. You can use ribbon, or any narrow strip of material to make the tether. I could have just bought some trusty elastic mitten clips, but I already had these supplies around my house, and I needed them in time for this recent snowfall.

Cupcake Decorations

There are so many cute cupcake decorations out there, but all they are,  is paper glued to a toothpick. So why not make your own? Any scrapbook embellishment will work. I attached die-cut birds to a toothpick using yard sale stickers. You can also cut out little pennants and use a glue stick to hold them together.

Pinwheels

Pinwheels are really easy to do. They make a cute outdoor decoration for backyard parties, or a nice table decoration in a vase. And best of all, the kids get to play with them!
Here's how I do pinwheels:
Supplies
double-sided scrapbook paper
ruler
scissors
push pin
pinwheel kit, or a straw and a small brad

Step 1.  Cut a square (mine is about 6 x 6)

Step 2.   Lightly draw a line from corner to corner, across the square. Repeat from other corners.

Step 3.     Cut along lines, being careful to stop about 1/2 in. -3/4 in.  from the center.

Step 4.   Start at the top left corner and gently bend toward the center. Repeat with each left corner.

Step 5.    use the push pin to poke a hole in each corner (not too close to the edge) and through the back.

Step 6.  remove push pin and assemble your pinwheel using the kit, or use push pin to make a hole an inch from the top of a straw, and insert brad into to the center of the pinwheel, and then through the straw and secure. This method will not create a spinning pinwheel, but it still looks cute.

Asher's 1st Birthday

Asher's birthday party did not have a real theme to it, but I knew I wanted to do something with pinwheels. I thought they could double as decorations and favors for the younger kids. It worked out perfect cause it was super windy that day. I incorporated the birds because I had a ton of leftover die-cut birds from my wedding favors. I know...I'm a pack rat. I feel so guilty throwing certain things away, if I know I could use it for something else some day. I found lots of tutorials for pinwheels, but the ones I tried were really stiff and didn't spin freely, so I ended up ordering a pinwheel kit from Oriental Trading Company. I will post how to make simple pinwheels out of double-sided scrapbook paper later.

For the Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting go here. The fudge cupcakes are from a box, but I took vanilla frosting and stirred a little peanut butter in. It was very yummy.

Aiden's 5th Birthday



I got the idea for this guitar cake from Parents magazine. It was made from a 9 x 13 slab of cake. Cutting, piecing it together, and frosting it was a little stressful, but my son went nuts over it. The decorations are made from candy. I got the instructions from a recipe card that came in the magazine, but when I tried to look it up on the Parents website, I couldn't find it. I did find a really cool version on the Betty Crocker website. You can find the guitar cake here. I love these chinese take-out containers for favor boxes. You can buy these at Michael's craft store. My husband jokes that they look like favors for a vampire's birthday because of the colors. Inside the favor box, I included a candy maraca and a toy harmonica. Tied to the box, is a rock candy sucker. I really wanted custom birthday invitations, but they are so pricey. I usually make my own out of whatever scrapbook paper or card stock I have around the house.





Play Kitchen Revamp

A generous friend gave me play kitchen to fix up. I was so excited when I saw it because my son loves to play "chef". It needs a little paint and a few adjustments, but it has lots of potential. I already have tons of ideas. Here are some before pictures. As I start working on it, I will show the progress.