I managed to finish Ev's and Melissa's present on Christmas eve (after a quick drive to my dads to get some perspex off him for the cooker door). |
| The finished kitchen before we wrapped it on Christmas eve |
I was possibly cutting it a bit fine but my lack of indoor space to build things in made it difficult to put together (on the floor in the spare room) with cutting being done outside between rain showers. Luckily I did manage to borrow a workshop for half a day to get most of the main bits cut a week before.
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| With doors and cooker open |
The knobs all turn, the cooker is lined out with shinny foam and there's plenty of storage for all her kitchen bits and pieces.
The total cost of this little kitchen set was £30 (not including my time!). Just for a sheet of ply, a metal mixing bowl and some varnish, everything else was salvaged from work and I'm happy with the results.
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| Straight into some cooking! |
Christmas morning was lovely, she opened it and just started to play with it, not really noticing any of her other presents (except the one with all the toy food and pots and pans). She just started cooking straight away!
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| Melissa liked her presents as well! |
This is our first Christmas where we've just stayed at home instead of travelling to family. It was lovely and relaxing (well I didn't cook the lovely dinner - so it would be!) and just nice to watch Ev play with her toys and try to play with her little sister.
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| By the end of the day I was completely full up on toy food - I couldn't eat another bite! |
I know it won't be long until they start asking for things for Christmas that they see on the telly or that their friends have got, so it's nice to make things like this for them now and hopefully they'll get years of enjoyment out of it.
You should start your own wooden toy business Kev. What about some wooden tractors and trains to go with the cooker..?
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Christmas Indians in Australia.
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Kev. I'm impressed!
ReplyDeleteI love the cooker. It beats any plastic toy hands down I would have been very happy to receive such a wonderful present especially handmade.
ReplyDeleteIt's fantastic and will last so much longer than it's plastic counterpart, they are so lucky to have such a clever daddy.
ReplyDeleteA family heirloom!! It is just beautiful - your girls will get hours and hours of fun out of it!
ReplyDeleteUtterly fabulous, Kev!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Wonderful - I am so impressed!
ReplyDeleteWow - you did a REALLY good job! Those girls will get many years of play out of that kitchen. Nicely done :) Can't believe how big the baby looks - she's really growing!
ReplyDeleteWow! What a wonderful play kitchen! Great job!!! She'll play with it for years to come!
ReplyDeleteThat's a neat idea.... nice job on it... the problem is that when they start asking for an I-pad in a couple of years they will expect you to make one out of the scraps in the shop as well. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work & wonderful present!
ReplyDeleteWhat love you must have put into that present for your little girl, and I am sure that it will sit in her memory forever. Vx
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful much better than anything you can buy from the shops , i remember the desk my husband built our daughter years ago in the shape of an animal , she loved it for years , not so much look though with the wendy house he built her , she saw a spider in there once and never went in agian xx
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Such a wonderful gift and rather creative! I remember my mom making some from boxes for my dolls, and I loved those things. So much fun. I am sure she and her sister will have great memories!
ReplyDeleteYou did a fantastic job with the Toy Kitchen! I remember (vaguely) my Dad making presents for me for Christmas, they were very special and I wish I still had them all these years later. Making memories for your girls is a wonderful thing to give them :)
ReplyDeleteHow much better than just going out and buying something.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous. My dad made my sister and me a wooden caravan (dolls house size) when we were small and it was so well loved.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for their great comments about the cooker! Made me feel quite big headed! I love making things for my family and friends but it's always difficult to find the time, so I'm glad I got this done for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteOh WOW!! What lucky little girls. This is the sort of toy my Dad used to make for me and I loved them.
ReplyDeleteI see them playing all sorts of games with this in the future, not just home cooking but cafes and tv shows and hatching eggs in the oven for the farm. The list of games possible is only limited by their imagination and the best thing a parent can give a child is the ability to use their imagination.
That is an awesome play kitchen.
ReplyDeleteMy wife found one of those at a estate sale. My daughter and I used to play with it think about what grandfather/father put all the time and effort into building it. We passed it on to another family when my daughter out grew it.