The Story of the Three Bears

My kids love recycling. They've heard about it so many times in kindergarten, so now they won't let me throw away anything... Plastic bottles we throw to the recycling bins, of course, but this time we decided to give them new lives instead. Three bottles, in different sizes and shapes, turned happily into three bears that helped us tell the story of Goldilocks (who's not so goldi in our case, more like Brownilocks...) and the Three Bears.

Want to have them too? It's super easy (and fun!)

3 bottles, different sizes
newspaper
white glue
water
wallpaper paste
paint (acrylic, gouache)

Take three bottles, all in different sizes.

Cut away their top third

Now we'll make the glue that we'll use for the papier-mache:
Thoroughly mix 1 tbsp. wallpaper paste with 1 cup water. Add 1 tbsp. white glue, and let rest for 10-15 min.

Meanwhile cut newspaper strips...

Then start to glue the strips to the bottles, try to make it even (although when I work with the kids, I try to avoid helping them. I just explain what to do, and then let them try themselves).

Don't forget the ears!

Wait till it's completely dry (took us 24 hours or so on a hot sunny day), then paint and play!

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Meet me at these parties: The Shabby Creek Cottage , Simply Sweet Home , Nap Time Crafters, Someday Crafts , Sugar Bee Crafts , Sun Scholars , Be Different Act Normal , The Girl Creative , Ginger Snap Crafts , Suburbs Mama , Liz Marie , Seven Alive , DIY Show off , Sugar and Dots , Sumo's Sweet Stuff , Today's Creative Blog , Domestically Speaking , Mad in Crafts , The Naptime Review , Natasha in Oz , Lil' Luna , No Time for Flash Cards , Skip to My Lou , Easy Living Mom , My Fashion Forward , Essentially Eclectic , Nanny to Mommy , Thrifty Decor Chick

From Old IKEA Cupboard to Children Play Kitchen

I've been wanting a children play kitchen for a very long time. I think I wanted one even before I had kids. But not a lame, plastic one, but a nice wooden one. One that looks almost like the real thing.
When my mother in law says she dismantles the top part of her old wooden cupboard (that was bought, mind you, some 40 years ago, in a store you might have heard its name before - IKEA - when it was still something only known in Scandinavia), I knew I'm going to use it to finally build my kitchen.

This is the Before picture, Obviously...

I thought A LOT about how exactly to do it, drew a few sketches and even made a small ceramic model for inspiration.

And after I had the sketches and the model, and I knew what I wanted more or less, and decided on the colors (suitable for him and for her), it was time to start building it.

I found a piece of plywood on the street and used it for the back of the kitchen. I sawed the the original shelves and sides, to make the shape more convenient for play, I dismantled one door and sawed a window for the oven on the other and my husband helped saw a round hole for the sink, that is actually a metal bowl. Then I sanded and painted and got this...

The stove is made of old CDs covered with black tape...

To hide the mess, that I knew we're going to have, I sewed a cute little curtain for the lower shelves.

On the side I screwed together a cute knob, on which we hang the kids' aprons.

And of course, since I am me, after all, it's been over a year since I finished most of the work on this kitchen, and there are still some things to do:

The window of the oven is still open. It's time to buy Plexiglas...

The oven still needs a handle. Luckily I still didn't fix the Plexiglas, so the kids can open the oven at the opened window...

It still needs knobs for stove and oven.

And a tap...

A rod to hang above the stove / sink, for the kids to hang their kitchenware.

I already bought chalk paint, but still haven't painted the side of the kitchen, like I wanted to, for shopping list and messages.

In spite of all these unfinished parts, the kids love to play in this kitchen and even let mommy play along...

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Meet me at these parties: The Shabby Creek Cottage , Simply Sweet Home , Nap Time Crafters, Someday Crafts , Sugar Bee Crafts , Sun Scholars , Be Different Act Normal , The Girl Creative , Ginger Snap Crafts , Suburbs Mama , Liz Marie , Seven Alive , DIY Show off , Sugar and Dots , Sumo's Sweet Stuff , Today's Creative Blog , Domestically Speaking , Mad in Crafts , The Naptime Review , Natasha in Oz , Lil' Luna , No Time for Flash Cards , Skip to My Lou , Easy Living Mom , My Fashion Forward , Essentially Eclectic , Nanny to Mommy , Thrifty Decor Chick

Chicken Nuggets with Hidden Vegetables

Oh, I remember the days when the kids ate everything I put on their plates... They even used to eat Weetabix with yogurt, a meal we used to call affectionately "food for horses". Once upon a time rice cakes used to be called cookied in our house.

Unfortunately, as they grew up, the variety of foods they were willing to eat drastically decreased. In addition, My kids refuse to coordinate their love of food. So he will take his toast with ketchup, Emmental cheese and no olives, and she will only eat it without ketchup and with mozzarella cheese and olives. He loves spaghetti bolognese, she likes plain pasta. He loves honey, she likes maple sauce. I guess you get the point... One of the few things both eat is junk food, like McDonald's chicken nuggets. Since we really try to avoid junk food, I decided to make chicken nuggets at home, and even make them as healthy as possible. Surprisingly, it worked for us very well. Hopefully it'll work for you as well :)

You'll need:
1kg (2.205 pound) boneless chicken breast
1 onion
1 peeled and diced potato
1 peeled and diced sweet potato
1 peeled and diced carrot
1 peeled and diced zucchini
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 eggs
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
salt and pepper
bread crumbs
oil

 

Grind together chicken and onion.

 

 

Cook in water the rest of the vegetables, except for the garlic. Cook until soft enough to mash it with a fork, but not too soft.

 

 

Add garlic, eggs, flour, salt and pepper.
Mix until everything looks blended together.

Put the bread crumbs in a small bowl. Make flat nuggets from the chicken mixture and coat with bread crumbs.

Heat the oil and fry a few minutes on each side, until they look golden brown.

You can also freeze the nuggets after coating in the bread crumbs and before frying. When you take it out of the freezer, just let sit for about half an hour before frying.

One last tip - for babies you can make them the same way, just don't coat with bread crumbs, and instead of frying, just put it in the oven (180 celsius / 356 fahrenheit) for 15 min. then flip to the other side for another 15 min.

Now serve your kids, cross your fingers and hope for the best!

***** Last week I finally set up a Facebook page for The Crafeteria. If you enjoy my blog, go visit me on FB and like me:). On this page you'll be able to get updates from the blog, as well as inspirations, pictures and other stuff that don't get to the blog. ****

A story about a boy, a girl, nature and popcorn...

Going again back in time, to Purim 2013. Purim is kind of like the Jewish Halloween. We celebrate it around February-March every year, and like Halloween, it also involves costumes and candies... So two weeks before Purim, I realized the holiday is almost here, and we still haven't decided on costumes for the kids (and I have 3 kids this year!).

So I asked the kids what do they want to be this year and Big-Boy said "nature"...

Me: "Nature???"

Big-boy: "Yes!"

Me (trying to cooperate): "Wow, that's a great idea... But how exactly are we going to do it?..."

Big-Boy: "What's the problem? We'll just glue some leaves and flowers"

Me: "..."

So it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I used a hot glue gun to glue felt flowers and leaves to green clothes, then sewed lightly a few stuffed animals. Together with necklaces made of punched flowers and butterflies and floral head garland we created a look of a real nature son, although he still had to explain it to everyone (lead guesses - Jungle Boy, tree and forest).

 

The girl decided to be a half-boy-half-girl. Perfect for her unique character. It actually was a very simple costume. I didn't sew or glue anything, just used safety pins to attach her clothes with the Big-Boy's. Then we just needed some hair and make-up job, and she was ready to go.

 

 

 

To the baby I made a costume I found on Pinterest

 

I used my hot glue gun to glue red felt stripes and letters on a white piece of felt. For the hat I glues (real) popcorn on a simple baby hat (Just imagine walking around a whole day with this popcorn smell right under your nose...). This is my version:

 

 

 

Back to Life (and A Dry Erase Board Tutorial)

Here I go again... It is so much easier to start things all over again than to persist with the old stuff...
After more than a year of net-silence, I'm going back to life, full speed. During this year so many things have changed - we moved, our big boy started first grade and we have a new addition to the family - a baby boy (who doesn't like sleeping like his mom does...). So I thought to myself - why not do some useful and fun things during maternity leave - I could finally finish setting up my Etsy store, write more, sew a bit, knit a bit. Ha-Ha! As if... I hardly found the time to breathe...Just now, when he soon will celebrate his first birthday, and we unpacked (almost) all the boxes, I can manage to do a bit more than laundry/dishes/cooking and go back to do the things I love.

So I'm going to start with an old project, something I made for the kids' kindergarten teachers and assistants almost two years ago (talking about delay...). I made 4 dry earse boards, each is simply a piece of fabric in a frame with glass. When it's ready, just write your notes on the glass.

Find yourself a wooden frame (you can get super simple and cheap ones from IKEA or just use old frames. We're going to paint it to get a vintage look anyhow).

 

 

Paint your first layer in brown.

 

While we wait for the paint to dry, we'll prepare the backing. Using fabric adhesive attach a piece of fabric, slightly larger than the backing, to the frame backing. Try to choose a light color, otherwise it might be difficult to read what you write on the glass.

 

 

This is how it should look when you finish:

 

 

Now you can decorate with ribbons, lace or ricrac.

Now back to the frame. When the brown layer is dry, use a candle to rub all the corners and anywhere you want to expose the brown layer later.

Now paint 2-3 layers of white (or any other light color you choose) and let dry.

When it's dry, sand a bit on the spots where you want to expose the brown paint underneath.

This is how it should look:

When paint is completely dry, apply polyurethane to protect the frame. Now we finish with the small details - place the glass and covered backing into the frame and add a marker. I tied a ribbon around the marker and attached it to the frame using a small screw.

You can also add a small piece of sponge. Just glue a piece of Velcro onto the sponge and another one on the frame.

 

 

That's it, done!

 

 

These items from Amazon will help you get started...