Over here at the house of rad, we love Valentine's Day. It's our chance to let everyone know how much we care. And it's a killer vehicle to get CANDY (or other good stuff)!
The dudes are big fans of Valentine making because we always try to flex some creative muscles and make something fun and unique.
We decided to brainstorm "stuff we are into", to get some Valentine design ammo. Cooper immediately settled on Pokemon, being an active trainer himself these days. Charley was all over the place. Starting with superheroes, we thought we nailed it with Superman, but then he came out of the blue with MONKEYS. And at the last minute, wanted to throw the Aquabats in the mix.
So.... we took some quick head shots, then came up with some cupid-worthy slogans to click with the themes the dudes chose.
Of course, Charley ended up with three valentines, because they were actually pretty cool. Fortunately he's having two parties at school, so each fiesta will get a unique one! We taped some Fun-Dip packages on the back of them. That is all of them but Charley's monkey design. Those sweet little monkeys got taped to some fresh bananas!
Hug someone you love! Happy Valentine's day y'all!
It looks like we might have a future chef on our hands. Or maybe just a kid that's appreciative of using a microwave! Whenever we see a play kitchen, Charley seems to be glued to it. We decided that it would be a good birthday present for the dude turning 2, so we scoped the internet for what play kitchens were out there. After some research, we decided that the choices were either too plain & simple, or too plastic and oddly colored. With some (or maybe a lot of) urging from my wife, I decided to go for it and make my own! Carolyn found a few good lookin' ones on Pinterest, and we moved forward with creating one out of an old night stand. She luckily scored one at a garage sale for only $10! Based on the size of the piece, I sketched out a rough idea of what I was going for.
I took some quick measurements, so I knew what to buy. I needed:
-some wood for the shelving I was going to attach to the top
-a faucet
-a bowl for the sink
-a few towel bars
-something to use as burners
-some knobs for the oven / burners
I went down to Lowe's to score some goods.
I found a sweet deal on a little bathroom faucet w/ hot & cold knobs for $15. They also had a great deal on paint.. $3 for some mini samples of fun colors. I grabbed a couple of "sea foam green".
I found a nice stainless steel bowl for the sink, and some little wood cabinet pulls to use as knobs for the burners. I couldn't find anything to use for the burners, so I ventured over to Michael's, where I found a sheet of 1/4" black foam (to cut circles out of).
The only tool I had to pick up was a drill mounted circle cutter to create a hole for the sink and faucet. Below are a couple of pictures of the process. I started the hole with the circle cutter, and finished it with a jigsaw (on the left).
On the right shows you can see the painted version, and the shelves starting to mount. I removed the lower door, and taped off a square in the center to appear as a dark black oven window.
And, here is our finished kitchen! Our friends and family showered Char with pots, pans, utensils, playfood and a killer microwave (that fortunately came with PIZZA!) so our little dude is ready to cook!
