My Little DIY Play Kitchen

After being so addicted with Pinterest, I have been wanting so much to do almost anything! Being a self-proclaimed master crafter since birth, it was my utmost dream to learn carpentry.  Yes - my hands are really my  busy bees and I want to learn how to make and create things!

I am so excited to show you my latest DIY project I've been dreaming to have my twins play with. Meet little kitchen!


Just an update (February 6, 2013): I was able to have it painted with a light pink touch.  Loving this and the twins are extremely delighted seeing it remodeled. So, here is the new Tiny Pink Kitchen!

The Tiny Kitchen gets a makeover!

The little kitchen I designed for my sweet 2 year old twin girls (before I had it repainted). So dainty!

For those of you who would like to know how to do it, read along so you can grab hold of the ideas. To start with, all I wanted was to look for an old side table that I can just upcycle but since I wanted my own design and the right height, I made the design all by myself and passed by a sash carpentry near our area and explained to them my design.  The total height was around 37" and the width was approximately 27" (sink and cooking area). I measured my girls height and just added around 4" high as to the height of the actual working table. I gave much allowance so they can still play with it even when they get taller.

I bought the basin, knobs (stove), and hooks (covered with plastic), and some washer so that the stove switches are loose enough to be turned around. The girls' really loved them!

So, after 3 days... I hauled on my truck a bare little kitchen I designed... I was so excited to finish it up that I furnished everything in half a day!

The bare kitchen without the painting, faucet, sink, etc. I sanded and prepared it to be varnished

I had some problems with the faucet, since the hole was smaller when I brought it home. I needed to make it bigger with plain sand paper. I don't even have a drill with me, so it took quite a long time to get the faucet in. Not to self: Buy everything to get the exact fitting.  Estimates don't always work.

The faucet was the main thing! This is a plastic (lavatory) kind of faucet (P134.00 at a nearby hardware store). It works and it looks pretty - I'm happy.

After I painted it, here are the tid bits of the little kitchen...

Those hooks are good enough. It was easy to place them in.  The utensils were bought from the department store. The cute Ice cube tongs, 2 ladles, flat ladle and the wooden ladles was around P120.00 all in all. I got a neat bargain for those! 

Being a Pinoy, the usual gas stove is something that looks like this. I bought this at P29.00/pc.  It is supposed to be a  tabletop cooler rack.  I secured them with screws in the middle.

The stove knobs are plastic cabinet knobs that I bought for P29.00 each at Ace Hardware.

I got this pretty floral kitchen towel that I bought on sale at Finds Department Store at P39.00/pc. The girls also made it into a table cloth which looks pretty sweet looking.

The french window inspired look of the inkjet printed  zen garden poster added a bit of realistic feel of a kitchen. I added the kitchen curtain which I sew and secured them with 2 small hooks and a string.

This cute kitchen timer adds a bit of homey touch to the play kitchen (P89.00 at Finds Department Store)

I just added their food, cooking toys to complete the entire play kitchen.

So, there they are! They went absolutely ballistic with excitement when they saw it. With so much excitement, they even woke me up at 2am that morning just to play with this little dainty kitchen. After this project, I zonked out to bed. Whew! I am just so happy they love them!

Perfect for twins!

Cooking the onion!

They learned to share...thank God!

The sink was a big hit!

Wiping the dishes

Just an update, me and my industrial designer (a bit OC) sister plans to update the painting of our kitchen. I will upload the photo once we're done.

Well, you can do your very own kitchen too! If wood would be a challenge, big cardboard boxes would be another option. So, do share your DIY play kitchen too!

Bubble love and my secret bubble potion!

Hours of fun!

What is with bubbles that kids (even kids once) just seem to enjoy so much? It is quite addicting and you just seem to want to pop all the bubbles that you see.

Bubbles just seem to be one of the most favorite things my kids love! (I wonder why Maria of the Sound of Music didn't even have that as one of her Favorite Things?)

If I was Maria I'd sing it like this:
Girls in vintage white dresses or frilly cream tutus, Watching my sweet babies popping those tiny endless bubbles, Babies that smell sweeter with mommy's breastmilk, these are a few of my favorite things!

I am not quite good on rhyming, though.  Forgive me. :) But, those gigantic bubbles are really therapeutic, maybe because you get excited when you see giant ones.

Well, back to bubbles! Since one of my favorite things is watching my kids go gaga over bubbles. It has been my week long commitment to find the best bubble potion and to make gigantic bubbles that seem to last a bit and not just pop right away.

It is really a trial and error thing and will depend on the humidity, wind and the way you make your bubble potion. But my 2nd potion seem to last majorly giagantic bubbles that when it flew high it didn't pop right away but kept afloat for more than a minute!  Imagine, seeing a 6 feet high bubble floating in mid-air.  You would actually mistake it as an alien spaceship or something (exaggeration).

Sharing my best bubble potion ingredient:

10 parts mineral water (distilled, not deep well/tap water)
2 part Joy Ultra Dishwashing
1 part sugar

or my actual recipe is 20oz mineral water, 4 oz Joy, 3 Tablespoon Sugar

Stir till sugar dissolves.  You can use it right away but it is a lot better when you let it stand in a covered container for 3-4 hours (or overnight).

Now, for my giant bubble wand,

100 inch #6 yarn
70 inch #6 yarn
4 Washers as weight
2 round hooks
2 (24 inches) stick (I was so excited to make one, I simply used a branch of a Malunggay tree!)

To make it, simply drill/attach the hooks on each end of the sticks/branch.  Add the washers onto the 100inch yarn.  Place in the 2 yarns together onto each stick with the hook tips then knot on the then.

Place your bubble potion on a bucket then dip in your bubble wand.  Start making those giant bubbles by spreading in and out those sticks together.

This is extremely fun!

Just a little reminder to be extra careful when the bubbles pop.  The suds might accidentally go into your child's eyes.  My twins got some onto their eyes and we had to wash it off as it really gets ouchie when those get in their eyes. 

Well, it did hurt their eyes... but once they see those giant bubbles, it made them forget it.

Little one, loving those bubbles!

My DIY Baby Leg Warmers

I love to do things with my hands. I enjoy it even more when I get to see things done by them. So, I've recently had an impulsive craving to have my own sewing machine. I've done absolutely every bit of wonderful excuses to make my husband buy me one.

Well, while waiting for this simple obsession of getting into a sewing fantasy. I was still able to do some cute, fancy, hand-sewn leg warmers I've done for the kids! They also look and work great as arm warmers for my 5-year old who occasionally feel cold when we go out. I need not layer his clothes anymore with the hot weather we have.

What's great about these DIY warmers - they are reallyyy cheap! I saw one like this online but they are quite pricey for a money saving twin-mother like myself. Besides, I would need several of these should I decide to buy some. So, instead of spending a lot, I just got into my usual online research and find  a way on how to make one. To my not so usual surprise (for I almost, always get info on the net anyway) I came into this website by CraftyGemini. I love how she clearly explained how to easily do those warmers.

I need not go into details as to the steps on how to do it. You can just jump right into her site and watch her video tutorial.

When I personally and locally made this, it just cost me P60/pair! I just bought 3 pairs of Burlington teens' knee high socks at SM Department Store (P179/3 pairs!) and did them with my crafty lil' helper hands.  I love the designs of the teens' knee high socks, the prints are really cute. They have plain colored ones, stripes and even heart patterns (rock and roll style).

I simply love it and enjoy fashioning it up with my girls.  It is way too easy now to change the twins' nappy. Cuts the nappy change time by about 50% vs. the leggings-style pants!  Oh, keeps their legs off those nasty mosquitoes too.

My MamaMia Baby Legwarmers - See how it nicely fit my girls' cutesy legs!