Geekling's upcycled play kitchen

Firstly, apologies for the extended break.  I've got a mixture of excuses, most of which are pretty weak, and I won't bore you with them.

Those who follow me on Pinterest will see I've pinned a couple of TV-Cabinets turned into Play Kitchens, and I've been meaning to do it for Geekling for a while.  When I asked him what he'd like for his 3rd birthday he said "a green kitchen", so I knew it was time to get cracking!

Here's a before photo of the TV cabinet we picked up from Ebay for $10.  We've removed the glass cabinet door and cut the sink hole already.  Its less than glamourous surrounds is our storage/work area under the house.

We sanded, painted (with paint purchased from the tip recycling centre for $2), installed a new MDF 'fridge' door, installed an old metal bowl as a sink and old tap salvaged from my in laws shed, used paint and IKEA foam coasters for the hot plates.  We still need to put hotplate / oven knobs on but not sure how best to attach them.  We also plan to turn the cupboards below the sink into an oven and dishwasher down the track.

Here's the (mostly) finished product upstairs ready for use!

 

Geekling LOVES it.  His favourite thing to cook is "spicy chocolate balls" and cups of tea and coffee.  Its so sweet to watch him 'cooking'.  He stirs with a whisk or spoon then taps it on the side of the pot or bowl just like I tend to do and whispers to himself as he works.

More fun with pipe cleaners - animals, Christmas ornaments, leis and more

Other than cleaning a pipe, poking into play dough and coiling like a spring, what can you do with pipe cleaners?

Here's some awesome animal tutorials from Thoughts from the Beaver Pond.

Flower Leis at All Free Holiday Crafts - theirs are 4th July ones but they'd work well for spring celebrations, Hawaiian themed parties or fairy costumes.

Christmas tree star toppers from 2crafts.com which could be adapted into wands or incorporated into space themed activities.

4 Crazy Kings made pipe cleaner shamrocks for St Patrick's Day - will definitely give this a try next March.

Or try some beaded Christmas Tree ornaments like the ones at Make and Takes - they look even better with clear or faceted beads.

Let's explore outer space!

Geekling has been loving stars and the moon for a while now, so I put up some of those old style Glow-Zone glow in the dark star stickers and a set of planets in his room.  I bought them second hand (but in unopened packets) ages ago and had planned to wait til Geekling was older and we could plot out constellations together, but I just felt in my heart it was suddenly the right time - and I'm so glad I put them up!  Geekling is enthralled by them!  I made sure to put the solar system up in the right order and put up a few of my favourite constellations so we will hopefully have fun finding them a few years down the track.

Since the stickers went up he's requested "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a lullaby book of his talking about catching stars, so I think I'll nip down to the library in my lunch break tomorrow and borrow some kids books featuring stories about space and maybe a couple of simple reference books.

So the next question is - what other space-themed activities should I gather up to feed my son's new obsession?

Counting Coconuts did a whole month's theme on it and have some amazing ideas - matching planets, a space sensory box, practical life activities pouring star-shaped pasta and sweeping star sequins, counting with star stickers, punching stars with a small punch... a fantastic resource!

Fairy Dust Teaching has a gorgeous looking Galaxy Playdoh - I must hunt down some black food colouring to make some!

First Schools has some printables and activities in a space theme.

Now... is it too soon to introduce him to Star Wars & Star Trek?

Stay tuned for our space adventures!

Rainbow rice!

I had to pick Geekling up from daycare a couple of weeks ago as he wasn't well.  While he was napping, I made up a batch of rainbow rice for him to play with in the afternoon and he was positively thrilled with it!

I used 2 x 1kg bags of jasmine rice.  They were on special for $1 each.  I divided into the number of colours I wanted (5) and then put each portion in a ziplock bag with a couple of squirts of hand sanitising alcohol and quite a few drops of food colouring.  Then I shook until it was evenly coloured and lay it on baking paper to dry.  You can substitute hand sanitiser for white spirits like vodka but it will take longer to dry.

Here it is before Geekling got to it:

Its become a permanent addition to our sensory box fillers.  I initially gave him some different sized cups, scoops and spoons (including slotted ones that the rice slowly sifts through).  I've since used it with rainbow foam letters buried in it as an alphabet find-the-letter activity, and today with plastic easter eggs to fill and shake.  It still looks great even all mixed up and when we're done I tip it into a large ziplock bag and put away for next time.

After shot coming soon!

Glasses like Daddy

Geekling explored his craft box on the weekend, and is quite taken with pipe cleaners.  I offered to fashion him a pair of glasses from them, which were a big hit - "Glasses like Daddy!" and "Cool dude glasses!"

Geekling's bedroom - 2 years old

Now that Geekling is toilet trained, we've sold his nappy change table (for almost double what we'd bought it for! $45 second hand off ebay 2 years ago, sold for $80 on ebay recently).  We moved his chest of drawers to where his change table had been, moved his bookshelf to where his drawers had been and put up the play tent I made him for his birthday.  We've also now got an easel his Grandma gave him, and we blew up balloons for his birthday!

The playtent is just a hula hoop ($5), a queen bed sheet donated by Geekling's Grandma and a bunting donated by Lumpy's Mum.  The tutorial I followed is here.

Geekling LOVES the tent, loves his new Very Hungry Caterpillar bedsheets and pillow and his easel!

I love comparing photos and seeing how his bedroom has evolved.

Previous posts about Geekling's room:
Geekling's newborn nursery
Geekling's new bed

IKEA Finger Puppet Mobile

How cute is this idea??

It is a baby mobile made from IKEA fish finger puppets, a couple of sticks and some string/line.  IKEA also have a range of other animal finger puppets, or you can buy finger puppets very cheap on ebay.

I wish I'd thought of this when Geekling was tiny, I never got around to finishing the mobile I was making him - I was still sewing it up while in labour and it got forgotten in the haze of feeding, changing and new-parent narcolepsy.

Calendar Puzzles

These are some calendar puzzles that I have had for a while but haven't shared yet.  I am pretty sure I got this idea from Chasing Cheerios although I can't find the post to link.  I bought a couple of calendars in May when 2011 calendars were reduced to $1.  I got one of cats and one of dogs, took a picture from each and glued them back to back with spray adhesive.

Cat puzzles showing the different shaped pieces 

On the other side, dog puzzles showing the pieces connected

I covered one in clear contact film, but it wasn't as neat as I'd like and the ones I didn't cover have held up well enough to a toddler's rough hands.  I will probably make some more when Geekling tires of the same three or when I think he is ready to move on to four-piece puzzles.

Toddler activity bags

We're currently enjoying a well-deserved, long-awaited family holiday in tropical Far-North Queensland to attend a friend's wedding. It is only the second family trip away we've taken, and I'm still finding travel with a toddler to be challenging and hard work but absolutely amazing and I am sure we'll forge some wonderful family memories in this trip.

So, in order to entertain a 1.5 year old on a 2.5 hour plane trip (plus the waiting at airports and check in etc), I made up a number of activity bags inspired by this post from Chasing Cheerios, as well as packing a few things that didn't fit in the little zip lock bags:

Top row: Travel size Magna-doodle (almost bought the mini one, but they were the same price and the cheapskate in me could not allow me to buy a smaller product for the same cost), Geekling's Button Snake, a gold tiny gift box with a hole cut in the top and a pack of plastic coin-size counters to slot through it, a blank notepad (thank you Thynne & Macartney) and a couple of bingo markers.

Middle row: Finger puppets (mostly sea animals and some animals that are featured in Dear Zoo, one of Geekling's favourite books which we also packed), Mini pack of plasticine with cutters, 4 stackable storage containers filled with different coloured counters and a silly putty (makes faltulent noises when squashed).

Bottom row: Bob the Builder magnetic background and magnets, Animal funny face re-useable sticker book, magic colouring book and pen, Geekling's matchsticks and toothpick container.

Of course, since we were so prepared, we didn't actually need any of them! Geekling slept the entire flight! One of the families near us had a baby around Geekling's age who wasn't as happy to be flying so I offered them the magic colouring book which entertained him briefly (then his older sister much longer) - I don't think Geekling will mind if it is a little pre-used :)

Egg carton treasure hunt

One of my favourite ever blog posts from Chasing Cheerios (which inspired ) is one in which each cavity of an egg carton is painted a different colour, then a garden scavenger hunt takes place to find items to match those colours.

(Much like this picture from Family Fun)

I've come across so many more similar posts recently that I had to collate them:

Chasing Cheerios
Dream a Lil Dream
Preschool Lesson Plans
Mommy Press
I am Momma, Hear Me Roar

I just love this idea, and can't wait until Geekling is able to sort by colour.  He is able to match containers with lids, and shapes to solve the Shape-o so hoping to work in this soon, especially as Spring isn't far away :)

Homemade colourings

I came across this fantastic post on making homemade natural food colours.  They make great paints or can be added to playdoh or perhaps edible items that are complimentary in flavour to the items used to colour.

Update: Since this post I've found a couple more interesting and helpful articles on homemade natural colours:

Blue food colouring from red cabbage and baking soda

A fabulous selection of colours - red/purple, pink, yellow, brown

Purple from red cabbage, Red from dried hibiscus tea, Yellow from Tumeric and Green from japanese matcha green tea powder - a great link with photo instructions.

I once found an amazing post with all the colours of the rainbow and am desperately trying to find it again but not having much luck - I'll link it if I find it!

Button Snake

I made this button snake for Geekling last night after seeing it on Counting Coconuts, a fabulous Montessori blog I've recently found.  It was so quick to make!  I just cut up some felt squares and snipped slits in the middle of each, sewed a big button on the end of some thick ribbon, then sewed the other end of the ribbon into a loop to help keep the squares on and to make it easy to carry.

Geekling doesn't really get it yet, but not to worry.  I will reintroduce it in a week or so.

8 Terrific Toddler Activities

Somewhere in my Blog reading I came across a link to this fabulous post from Money Saving Mom (my sincerest apologies for not crediting the Blog I found it from).  It features 8 terrific toddler activities - my personal favourite is the peanut butter playdough (external link from the bottom idea)!  As the recipe is similar to the one I use for peanut butter cookies, I am thinking I might try to make a hybrid recipe that Geekling can play with, then we can bake!  Will let you know how it goes!

Touch tablets and toothpicks

I bought these Melissa & Doug touch tablets from The Toy Bug a while ago on sale, and recently got them out.  Geekling isn't at the matching stage yet, but he was still fascinated by them and loves feeling the different textures.

We have also progressed from paddle pop sticks in a travel mug to toothpicks in a toothpick container.  I then swapped the toothpicks for coloured matchsticks to be a bit safer (although I still wouldn't let him play with these unattended, obviously!).  He puts the sticks/toothpicks through the biggest hole but eventually he may move on to putting them through the smaller holes.  Its also a great small activity that I can carry about in my handbag for when Geekling needs an activity when out and about.

Paint Chip Bead Toy

I came across this gorgeous home made toy (via The Crafty Crow), where the beads have been made from paint chips (the colour matching slips you can pick up from the hardware store).

As a child I was enchanted by paint chips, so this idea really thrilled me.  I'd like to make one for Geekling starting with just 3 or 4 shades each of red, yellow and blue and work up to something like this.  Just gorgeous!

I've also seen other wonderful ideas at Chasing Cheerios - Using paint chips to practice cutting with scissors as the thick white lines separating the shades of colour are a great guide for toddlers, and this home-made peg colour-matching game.

Sponge bath toy

This idea came from one of the blogs I follow, but I can't recall (or find by Google) which one, so here is another link that details the how to as well.

I grabbed three new household sponges and sliced them up.  In hindsight, I would have sliced them up lengthways into thirds as the above link suggests.  I then cable tied them in the centre, which took a few attempts as the bundle was originally too fat.  Voila!  A nice bright spongy bath toy!

I am also thinking of some fabulous messy outdoor painting we could do with these when the weather warms up.

Edit: I found these on another couple of blogs since this post: Here

Paddlepop sticks & a travel mug

This idea came from one of my favourite blogs, Chasing Cheerios and was so cheap!  I pilfered six paddlepop sticks and bought a pack of two travel mugs from Big W for $2.97.

I was amazed that Geekling picked it up immediately and would happily sit on the floor picking up the sticks, inserting them into the travel mug one by one, occasionally knocking the mug over but happily righting it again before continuing.  When complete he would bring me the mug saying "ta, ta, ta" until I would open it, let him grab all the sticks out then put the lid back on and give it back to him to start again.

I'm really impressed with his growing ability to focus and work on a task from beginning to end with little if any assistance.

Dyeing Playsilks with Kool-Aid

I know, I know, every craft or parenting blog on the planet has a post about dying playsilks or yarn or other products with Kool-Aid.  But I did it recently, had a lot of fun doing it so am going to give you the run down :)

I ordered the 1m square silks from Dharma Trading Co, and the Kool-Aid on ebay because its not usually sold here in Australia (or if it is, its at expensive imported candy stores - although I have some other colours/flavours to collect from a Canadian online store that allows pickup from a French patisserie in the city).  I planned to dye pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and leave one white.

Clockwise from top left: Yellow silk dyed with 3 packs Lemonade and 1 pack Mango, Blue silk dyed with 4 backs Blue Berry, Pink silk dyed with 3 packs Pink Lemonade and the Orange silk was dyed with 4 packs of Orange.

 Step 1: Dump silks in hot water with a fairly good glug of vinegar.  I think there would be a cup or so in this pan with the hot water.  Soak for 15 - 30 minutes (although I am sure longer won't hurt) while you prepare the dye.

 Step 2: gather containers for the dye baths.  You can use glass or metal but not plastic as it will stain and absorb the smell and flavour a little.  Kool-aid and vinegar are foods and not toxic so you can use your every day cookware.

 Step 3: Empty the Kool-aid into the containers, then add hot water and a good splash of vinegar.  I think there is about a cup and a half of hot water in each container.

 Step 4: Add silks to the dye baths and move and squish around fast if you want the most even coverage.  Keep squishing and moving until the water left in the container looks milky or pretty clear - its actually really cool seeing how fast the dye attaches to the silk!

 Oh yeah, wear gloves if you have them.  This stuff stains!!!  If you don't have gloves and are itching to dye, washing your hands well with toothpaste afterwards will remove most the dye, except around the edges of your nails.  I hear shaving cream works too?

 My orange silk being dyed.

 Step 5: Rinse under COLD water until water is running clear.  Then hang out to dry!

 Step 6: PLAY!!!  Geekling loves kicking his legs around in them, throwing them over his head and loves to play peek-a-boo with us.

I just love how vibrant the colours turned out, I think because I was heavy handed with the vinegar?  Some I've seen online are a lot paler.  I'm looking forward to completing the set with Purple, Green and Red soon!

Easter presents - plastic eggs and finger puppets

Geekling is almost 14 months and has never had chocolate, and we weren't about to change that over Easter.  So I got a pack of plastic eggs and put some of his favourite treats inside - sultanas and dry nutrigrain cereal.  I also made a couple of felt bunny finger puppets and put them inside a couple of eggs.

Here and here are the puppets I based Geekling's on.

And here are the ones I made (still tail-less, as I haven't made it to a craft supplies store or made some pom poms yet):

Update: I am *almost* finished reading through one of my new favourite blogs from the start, and have under 12 months of posts left to read!  I just came across her post from last Easter where she'd made the same little finger puppets and thought I best link it since I copy so many other ideas from her.

Homemade Pat Mat

I made Geekling a pat mat once before following a bathroom clean out - Hubby had a jar of hair gel that he had only used once years ago.  Rather than throw it out, I tipped it into a zip-lock bag and watered it down to the perfect consistency and added some red food dye.  Sadly, the only zip-lock bags I had at the time that were large enough were vege steamer bags and had instructions and branding all over them.

Now that we have some nice big plain zip-lock again, last night I snipped a corner off the old one and squeezed the contents into a new plain zip-lock bag, added a little more water and dye, and some glitter.  I taped it to Geekling's highchair tray.

Then the agonising wait til morning to see if he liked it.

Success!  Geekling loved it.  He was fascinated by pressing it and having the thick liquid content move about to reveal the white of the high chair tray underneath.  When he is a bit older a homemade mat like this will be great Montessori style aid for teaching him letters as the large letter can be drawn on the underside of the mat in permanent marker or on a piece of paper under the mat for him to trace.

I think the same thing could be achieved using shampoo, conditioner or any number of bathroom lotions (the latter two of which would be more opaque).  You'd probably need little or no water added if you used these substitutes.