Christmas is almost here, and I think I’m finally finished making felt food. Here is the current food collection:
I’ve already posted pictures and details about some of this stuff, but I’ve made quite a bit more since the last time I posted.
We now have a pizza that comes apart for lots of pizza-making fun. The crust has a piece of cardboard sewn into it to make it rigid, and then the sauce, cheese, and toppings are all separate pieces so they can be taken apart and put back together any way he likes. The pizza pan came from Goodwill.
There’s also a banana that comes out of its peel. I love this!
For my first attempt at the banana, I used four elongated ovals, but it ended up looking more like a football than a banana (so I stitched some laces onto it and gave it to my boys). For my second attempt (pictured – I’m very happy with how it turned out), I used just three pieces of white felt, and made them much longer and thinner than my original try. It worked much better. The peel is three pieces of yellow felt and three pieces of white felt (all the same size as the three pieces of white felt that make up the banana). This probably took nearly two hours to make, including both attempts. It’s one of the more complicated pieces I’ve made, but it turned out very cute.
In addition to the banana and the strawberries that I posted a while ago, I’ve made an assortment of other fruits and veggies. A watermelon slice, celery sticks (two of them are stuffed with peanut butter), a cucumber slice, carrots and carrot slices, banana slices, several varieties of berries, spinach leaves, tomato slices, apple slices, a lemon slice, a broccoli floret, and some asparagus. Some of these I came up with on my own, and a couple were inspired by other sites. (asparagus, carrots). I just found a tutorial for a broccoli floret that looks much easier than what I did, so I think I might have to add a few of those…
I was browsing around on etsy looking for inspiration, and I found these adorable ice cream cones with removable ice cream and multiple flavors. I had to make some. So now we have an ice cream cone with four flavors of ice cream: blueberry, spinach-mint (try it – it’s yummy!), vanilla, and raspberry.
I’ve made three eggs. There are still a lot of spaces in that egg carton, but not a lot of days before Christmas. So he’s probably going to get an egg carton with lots of empty spaces and three eggs in it.
I found this adorable little Melissa & Doug muffin pan and oven mitt at Goodwill last week ($1.49 for the set) and couldn’t resist. I made a banana muffin and a blueberry muffin to go with the cupcake that I made a while ago. I may or may not get another muffin made to go in the fourth hole. Our son has been using my muffin pans and filling the holes with blocks for about the last year (and then he sticks them in his “oven” which is the space under the coffee table). So I’m thinking he’ll figure something out for that fourth hole if I don’t get another muffin made.
A slice of bread and Swiss cheese were among the first things I made, but I’ve now finished the sandwich – it has a leaf (lettuce? Too dark? Let’s say it’s kale. That would be perfectly normal in our house), a tomato slice, and cheese.
And to round everything out, we have more felt dessert than we’d have in a whole year if it were real. But it’s felt, so we can have as much as we want In addition to the slices of pie I made when I first started this project, I’ve also made lots of cookies, a brownie, and a slice of mint chocolate cake.
Cookies are easy and fun to make, so I made a bunch of them as Christmas tree ornaments for our nieces and several of my friends’ kids.
I’m pretty excited for our son to see all of this on Sunday morning. And I’m proud of the fact that everything we’re giving him is secondhand or homemade. The kitchen was a Craigslist find, and all of the pots, pans, dishes and utensils came from thrift stores. And of course, I’ve made all of the food (and rescued some food containers from the recycle bin, like my husband’s half-n-half carton).
In addition to the kitchen, we’ve got two other presents for our son, both from Goodwill. I scored a large box of Lincoln Logs a few weeks ago, for three bucks. They were in a generic brown cardboard box, but I happened to look inside and was thrilled to find them. I had hours of fun playing with Lincoln Logs with my brother, and I think they’ll be perfect for our boys. I also found a large box of Flexiwheels building blocks for $2.50. They’re like Lego, but they can hook together lengthwise on hinges or be clicked together like Lego.
This is the first Christmas that we’ve given our son presents, as it’s the first year that he’s really old enough to understand what’s going on. We’re not giving our 8 month-old anything, although there are presents for him from Grandma and Grandpa. He will be more than thrilled with the boxes and wrapping paper from his brother’s presents, and will likely spend Christmas morning snuggled up with us, clapping his hands and watching his brother.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice! Remember to enjoy the simple things.
Leah says
You are a great inspiration! I absolutely adore the felt food. Furthermore, I love your viewpoint with the kids. My soon-to-be-husband and I talk a lot about raising our future kids, and I’ve mentioned several of your blog posts to him. We both really like the idea of not giving Christmas presents to kids until they’re older; we definitely see that our niece and nephew only get fleeting joy from most presents and don’t seem to remember who gave them what. Plus, we imagine the grandmas will have plenty of fun shopping for the kids.
Keep up the posting! I am sure your son will be totally thrilled by these amazing presents.
Kristia says
You did such a good job…maybe you should open up your own etsy shop??
Happy Holidays!
Carla says
SOO awesome! You did an awesome job! :) Your son will love it! Heck, I’d love it & I’m 37!! Hahaha!!
http://www.halfdozendaily.blog.com
Sarah says
Amazing and completely adorable! Please open an etsy store. Love the idea of homemade holiday gifts.
Frugal Vegan Mom says
So brilliant! This is exactly what I’d want to give Jane when she’s older. But like you, no presents from us this year for a 10 mo. old.
Sleigh says
The food is awesome!
Sunny says
These are fantastic.
Kay says
What a great gift for a child!!!
Paisleypenguin says
These are totally great and your son is going to be so excited on christmas morning!
Jane says
This whole project is awesome! My favorite veggie is the green pepper. The ice cream cones are pretty ingenious though. Have a wonderful time watching your sons enjoy the fruits and veggies of your labor! ;) (Couldn’t resist.) Merry Christmas!
Jennifer @ kidoing! says
This is amazing! You’ve done an incredible job with all that food. Love your posts!
Cate says
Oh my goodness, your son is going to have a fabulous Christmas morning! I really need to stock back up on felt so I can make some felt food for my daughter. I especially love the green pepper rings you made!
Brenda Nesbitt says
I agree with ‘Leah’. You are a great inspiration! For a Christmas Gift I made an assortment of faux food for my Grand Daughter this year and as I plan to make a few more pieces, appreciate the links. THANK YOU. Yours is adorable BTW. Hope your little one enjoyed it. -Brenda- google profile aka ‘mrsben’ -CANADA-
amy of while wearing heels says
That is an impressive amount of felt food. I know how much work goes into it, I filled an entire farmers markets with fruits and veggies. I think you did an outstanding job.
frugalbabe says
Thanks! It was a lot of work, but almost a year later that felt food still gets played with all the time. And I had a lot of fun making it!