Custodians of Beauty

Noticing that there was a lack of vegetable variety in our play food reserve, I thought it would be a good time to create a few more food items. Potatoes, chicken, and apple slices. Sounds like a good meal. The spuds were made from an old pair of stockings. There was also a lack of meat in our supply, ergo the felted chicken legs. They were super easy to make using the template on the blog, Art Threads.   From this day on, we can serve bacon AND chicken to Oma and Opa when they visit.  My little spud holding a big spud Those dimples - looks like a genuine russet potato!  Chicken legs are not a typical meal for us, so I had to explain to the girls what these were and how to pretend-eat them. Apple slices to accompany the other felted fruits And lastly, the felt apple slices. The girls routinely have apple slices for lunch (sometimes with peanut butter spread on top). It's a favorite in this household. I pred...

Teatime is a must for our household-- play tea, that is. The girls have been using the retro plastic tea set I found for them at a garage sale. They are far from sheepish when it comes to making sound effects for pouring and slurping their tea. It brings this mama, much joy to see them play contently together. You know the morning is going well when you can sit down, sip your coffee (while it's still warm) and watch your little ones play together in peace. I loved the idea of felted tea bags, and had it pinned for quite some time. This morning, I whipped out my sewing machine and cranked a few out, while the girls played at my feet jumping on pillows and tumbling onto piles of blankets (yes, I sew amidst this craziness. Sometimes it is the ONLY time I have to make fun stuff.)    First, I sewed around the outside of the teabag and left the top open to fill with rice. My three year old was baffled as to why I would be putting rice in a tea bag. "Mama, why you put ...

Added to my felt food collection are: snow peas and oranges! I wasn't able to get any in-progress photos of my felt foods, but here they are in finished form.  The orange slices took some thought. I had to figure out how to make them look realistic/recognizable yet keep the design simple. I traced a pattern on paper first to get the right proportions (that's the trick) then cut out the felt pieces.   Snow peas turned out so cute! I sewed dried kidney beans into the fabric to make a few bumps. I think next time I'll sew in pony beads for a more bumpy look/feel. It would be fun to sew more felt veggies and fruits so that my girls could play "farmers market". I could collect small woven baskets for them to "shop" with. They could use play money (from old monopoly game from Vinney's perhaps?) and dress ups. Gotta do that! They would have such fun!  Next up:  potatoes, french baguette, apples, carrots, apple pie...any oth...

During the last weeks of pregnancy, waiting for my second child to enter this world, I preoccupied myself with household tasks. Although I didn't admit it at the time, this was definitely my "nesting phase." The week before my due date I had baked a pie from scratch, put away all the ornaments and the nativity. Took down the Christmas tree and washed, folded and organized the newborn baby clothes. Then my due date came... and went... still no baby. I was running out of things to do (and energy to do them). Then came the itch to create something crafty. I decided to sew something for A to play with after the baby was born. The idea of hand sewn felt food piqued my interest. How cool would it be to have a miniature grocery store full of felt foods for the kiddos! My dream is to build a darling play kitchen using Vinny's furniture . Here are the breakfast foods I created. Didn't use a pattern just kinda eyeballed it using Pinterest as a reference. Assembly proce...