Friday 29 October 2010

How to make a play kitchen for your kids!

Every time we go visit friends or our playgroup and there is a little play kitchen, Luke spends most of the time role playing. So I have been for the past month looking into buying a little play kitchen for him, one who won't break the bank. They can range from $130 to $400! I really loved the wooden kitchens but of course they were the most expensive of the range. Ikea has a really cute wooden kitchen on display at the moment but still our budget just doesn't allow us to buy it. After a lot of looking around I have decided to make one for Luke from an old empty packing box we had left from our move. After just one hour putting the kitchen together I was surprised by how great it looks. It was also a great activity to make together even if he is just 20months old, he was very excited by the process. So here is how you make a play kitchen for your kids for less than $10.

Supplies:
1 large empty packing box
4 roles of contact paper (any colour u like)
1 stainless steel bowl
2 felt sheets (black and red)
1 empty paper towel role tube
1 kitchen tap- optional
play food
play pots and pans
Stanley knife
ruler
pen


Instructions:
  1. Find a packing box that will be a good hight for your child. A tall box could be used for a refrigerator or laid on its side for a sink and counter. I decided to use mine on its side because I wanted to use it as a sink and stove top. Tape the box shut in all its sides. 
  2. Cover all the box with contact paper of your choice. 
  3. For the oven, on the front side of the box, cut across the top and ½ way down on both sides, to form the oven door. Place tin foil on this pull down door to represent the window to look through.
  4. Mark area beside the oven door to make a cupboard and cut so you have two doors so your child can put all their pans/pots and play food away when done playing.
  5. Cut three sections of the paper towel tube to make three handles. I made one wider for the oven handle. Glue these on the top oven door and cupboard doors with craft glue.
  6. Glue the black felt on the top counter area above the oven and make two red circles with your red felt. Glue the two red circles on top of the black felt to make the stove top. You can also glue some milk bottle covers on the side to make the stove top controls. 
  7. For the sink get your stainless steel bowl and cut a smaller circle to insert the sink. 
  8. I had an old kitchen tap which I used as a sink tap, this of course is optional.








Wednesday 13 October 2010

Home Made Pumpkin Bread & Strawberry Jam!!!

Here in Oz we are on a tight budget at the moment. This gave me a chance to look around the web and find ways to reduce my monthly food bill.  I already started a small veggie patch here in our garden and I am happy to say that my zucchini seeds are already little plants soaking the sun. The orange tree is blooming very happily and I already can see the fruits forming so we will have a great crop this year. The poor tree when we got the house was almost dead so I am very pleased by her happy recovery. We have mature almonds at the moment which the black cockatoo's are munching on, they are beautiful big birds and Luke is delighted to see them in the afternoon. Not bad for a city girl who didn't know anything about gardens!

Last week Luke and I went to the farmer's market near our home and  they had strawberries on special, so I bought 1,5 kg for less then 4 dollars. Too much for our house hold so I decided to make jam out of 1kg of strawberries. I used Jamie's Oliver's recipe and I am sad to say this but, it didn't work too well. I used the special jam sugar but it is still was runny even though I left it to boil much longer than in the recipe requested. It is still yummy, don't get me wrong you can still eat it but it is more like a strawberry sauce than jam. Well I guess next time I will make it with normal white sugar, I think it would set better and also be less acidic.

Grandma bought for me a huge pumpkin so I also had more than a kilo of pumpkin in the fridge which I didn't know what to do with, so I decided to make pumpkin bread. I used this great recipe from FRESH LOAF. It turned out perfect so I have two small loafs which I will bring one to grandma when Luke wakes up from his nap. She is has the flu so I can am sure she will enjoy the bread. I changed the recipe a bit I added more spices than the recipe and also used a little less flower (just 3 cups), also I added soaked raisins in orange liquor and walnuts. Like Luke says when he smells something nice hmmmmmmmmmmmm!! Enjoy the pictures of the garden and the loafs!

Wednesday 6 October 2010

I love this video!!! Enjoy

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