Frugal Babe

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Homemade (and secondhand) Christmas

November 23, 2011 By Frugal Babe

Several of our son’s friends have play kitchens, and for about the last year those have been the toys our little guy enjoys the most when we play at other kids’ houses.  In our own house, he uses all of my pots and pans and utensils and then pretends that his blocks are muffins, pancakes, salad, tea, smoothies, etc.  He loves to help me cook, and it’s a common theme when he’s playing too.

We’ve mostly skipped Christmas presents for the last several years.  My husband and I don’t care one way or the other, and even though this will be our fourth Christmas as parents, our son hasn’t been old enough to know what all the fuss is about.  We involved him last year in our trip to the grocery store to pick out food for the food bank, and he went with us when we took a food basket to a WWII veteran we’ve known for years.  But we’ve never gotten a Christmas gift for our son before.

This year, we decided that in addition to our food donations we’d also get our son a Christmas present.  And a play kitchen seemed the obvious choice, since he’s mentioned numerous times that he’d like one and he has so much fun playing with them when we visit his friends.

So I started searching on Craigslist.  I found several plastic kitchens, and a few really expensive wooden ones.  Then yesterday this charming little wooden kitchen was listed for $45:

IMG_3172

Other than the pretty shade of pink, it was perfect.  So I brought it home and went about making it a little less princess-like.  I will admit that the little girl in me – who spent the first half of the 80s shunning the 63 non-pink crayons in the box – sighed a bit when the first stroke of white primer went on over the pink oven door.  (Early 80s?  Who am I kidding?  I painted my bedroom furniture this exact shade of pink when I was in high school). 

Anyway.  This is what the kitchen looks like now:

IMG_3173

But wait, the fun is just beginning.  What do you need to go with a play kitchen?  Play food, of course.  I browsed around online and saw lots of cheap plastic versions, and lots of expensive wooden and fabric versions.  And then I figured I might as well try making my own.  I had lots of felt and embroidery floss in my craft supplies, and I sat down to experiment a bit last night after we got the boys to sleep.  I spent a little over an hour and this is what I have so far:

Cookies!

IMG_3168

and eggs!

IMG_3167

The baking dish and the little blue frying pan were thrift store finds.  After I picked up the kitchen, I spent $13 at the thrift store getting all sorts of kitchens stuff to go with it.  Couldn’t resist that cute little blue frying pan!

I’m so excited to make more felt food.  It’s all sorts of fun, and really doesn’t take much in the way of time or talent or money.  I have plans to make stuff to put together into a sandwich, veggies for a salad bowl, and a pizza.  The cookies and eggs only took about 15 minutes each to make, so I can sneak in at least one more little piece of food each night after our son’s in bed.  More pictures coming soon, I promise!

The only other Christmas present we’re doing this year (other than donations of food and money for charities) is my annual scrapbook for my mother in law, which is already finished.

Any of you going with second-hand and/or homemade Christmas presents this year?  I’d love to hear about your ideas.  And if any of you have experience with making stuff for a play kitchen, I’d especially love to hear from you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed Under: Debt 15 Comments

Comments

  1. Paisleypenguin says

    November 23, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    Awesome felt food! How creative and there are soooo many things you can make.

    Reply
  2. Cate says

    November 24, 2011 at 5:25 am

    What a great find! It’s a beautiful kitchen. I want to get my daughter a play kitchen very badly (she loves to “help” me in the kitchen, but often there isn’t really anything she can do), but I don’t want to get her one of the ubiquitous plastic ones. And great job on the felt food/thrift store kitchen stuff! Your son is going to be thrilled.

    Reply
  3. Carla says

    November 24, 2011 at 6:33 am

    Not gonna lie… Loved the pink too. ;) lol! But I do think white will go over better with your son… He’s going to love hs new kitchen set & toys I’m sure! Great finds!!! :) I am asking, and buying this year… Hoping to make more & more gifts every year!

    http://www.halfdozendaily.blog.com

    Reply
  4. Meg says

    November 24, 2011 at 7:57 am

    Absolute cuteness!  I love it!  So creative!!

    This Christmas, my goal was to do an all-homemade Christmas.  But instead, we are doing mainly homemade with one (inexpensive-practical) gift per person thrown in.  I have canned apple pie in a jar, applesauce, jams, spaghetti sauce, 63 bottles of wine, 13 large bottles of strawberry margarita, 52 bottles of microbrew beer, a couple of kids monogram picture frames and the like. 

    http://sparing-change.blogspot.com/search/label/Gift%20Series

    It is amazing how much we are saving on Christmas this year by giving the gift of our TIME with homemade gifts rather than running around trying to get “the perfect gift” for everyone.

    Well done! 

    Reply
  5. Jane says

    November 24, 2011 at 8:48 am

    Couple of free ideas. First off, I know you mostly shop in bulk, but start looking at your food wrappers. A small container of half & half (possibly for a Thanksgiving recipe) can be washed, stuffed with newspaper and glued back together again. Same with small boxes. Also, everywhere on the internet people are making baby socks into cupcakes for showers. Perhaps your wee one has outgrown a few pairs of baby socks. This sounds like such a fun project! We are a few years from the play kitchen phase, but I look forward to it!

    Reply
    • Frugal Babe says

      November 24, 2011 at 9:28 am

      Oh, I love this idea!  My husband uses half and half in his tea, so I’m definitely snagging his next empty carton.  And I’m sure I can find some baby socks… now I have to go check out some ideas for turning them into cupcakes.  Thanks!

      Reply
      • Tanya Lundberg says

        November 24, 2011 at 8:20 pm

        My son has tons of our real containers in his kitchen – he has a sour cream container, a ricotta cheese container, a small apple cider jug, a half & half container and a mini cereal box, and some empty spice jars. He loves the “real” stuff :)

        Reply
  6. Kay says

    November 24, 2011 at 5:27 pm

    Wow!! What a great present!!

    Reply
  7. Tanya Lundberg says

    November 24, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    We did a secondhand kitchen for our son’s 2nd birthday. We bought a high-quality four piece set from a daycare that was downsizing, and my FIL refinished it. My son and all of his friends LOVE it!!

    Reply
  8. Anonymous says

    November 25, 2011 at 8:22 am

    If you go to http://www.oneprettything.com you should be able to find a lot of felt food patterns and ideas. I’ve been saving a lot of the web links to make play food for my granddaughters. You can also turn thread spools into salt and pepper shakers, and save small containers and boxes and make colorful labels for them. 

    Reply
    • Frugal Babe says

      November 25, 2011 at 10:12 am

      Thanks!  Just checked out that site and I’m getting all sorts of ideas.  Love the little slices of pie!  I’m going to have to go get more felt soon :)

      Reply
  9. Heather says

    November 25, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    What a find! That is an awesome wood kitchen. I am making a dress up costume kit for my 3 year old. I just finished the firefighter costume, and now I have a construction costume, king costume and chef costume to complete. I am also making my way (slowly) through some felt food.

    Reply
  10. Liz Volk says

    November 29, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    Wow! Love the kitchen set find! I am so for finding stuff for really really cheap. Just picked up a captain’s kitchen chair at the dump (for absolutely nothing), it’s white and has the distressed look. It only needs a screw in the leg. I also just found a wet/dry Dustbuster at the thrift store for like $1.50. Those things retail for like $54.

    This year, I’m having a friend make my husband’s Christmas gift. For my friends and ladies at my church, I’m giving to an orphanage in India that has 10 boys, whose parents are lepers.

    Reply
  11. Anonymous says

    December 12, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    It is also fun to dress up babies with Christmas
    costumes, they are so cute and any Christmas costume will look beautiful on
    them. | Christmas fancy dress | Christmas costumes

    Reply
  12. wooden kitchen set says

    December 28, 2011 at 5:07 am

    Your blog is pretty good and impressed me a lot. This article along with the
    images is quite in-depth and gives a good overview of the topic.

    Reply

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