And now that it is October...

What can I say? Sometimes the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall go by in a blur and you are too busy having fun or trying to keep up to write it down, much less blog about it.

Since my last post, I was in a car wreck. Sitting at a red light, hit from behind. So scary. I hadn't been in any kind of accident in almost 30 years. Totaled my car. I cried for half an hour, and waited 2 1/2 hours for the Highway Patrol to show up. But it has turned out to be a blessing, believe it or not. And I was on my way home from a job interview. Like I wasn't stressed already, looking for work again.

We celebrated my grandmother's 94th birthday. She is so healthy, she may outlive us all. My aunt flew in from California to celebrate with us and we had a blast visiting Fairhope, AL and being girls. By ourselves. Its rare.

We made cookies from a recipe that came from my great grandmother. How many 4 year olds can say they made their great, great, great grandmother's Molasses cookie recipe with Nana and Great Gramma Lana? Tyler can! He had recently pulled open a drawer in the kitchen to rediscover my collection of large, shiny, copper cookie cutters, and said with big, hopeful eyes "Are these cookie cutters? Can we make cookies with these?"  Of course I said yes! These are old school cookies that are more like biscuits (lacking flavor) and were meant to be dunked in coffee, which I don't drink. The original recipe called for a certain number of cranks of flour - which refers to a Hoosier cabinet flour dispenser. Thankfully my late great aunt had figured out the ratio of flour in cups for us to use when we don't have a Hoosier cabinet around.

This is Tyler and my mom having a bit of fun with the flour.

I chopped off my long hair!  And I had highlights put back. If you have really long hair, but you always clip it up and are hot all the time, why do that to yourself? That's what I figured. And who knows, it might help me look more professional?  Look how big Lily is getting. She's trying to talk and sit up and teeth already! At 3 months. And Tyler just lights her up! He has that affect on everyone. But she is going to be his shadow, I can tell. And we all look forward to what a good, close relationship they will have all their lives.

Since cooler weather comes and goes, we've been back to the park, the beach, and sleeping with the windows open at night. That is a treat that most people take for granted. Not here. It is like Christmas! Every time I look at this picture of the Little Fish getting to be in the water again, I hear that gospel song "Oh Happy Day!" in my head. Ha!

He ran in with his clothes on. We were going to just walk and look for shells, but you know a fish can't stay out of water. And when the Gulf is still 80 degrees in October, well who wouldn't want to get wet? So we all got a bit soaked and later dried off over lunch at the local Cactus Flower restaurant. Best Mexican food in the county. Maybe in the whole state. And we have 3 to go to!

It was Lily's first time at the beach. She didn't scream or cry at the water touching her feet, so she is probably part fish too.

Lily and her Mama watching the waves.

I really have to tell you that I am letting myself enjoy this break in employment. The car accident has provided a little breathing room financially, so even though it is really tough to get an interview, I take advantage of the weather and the free schedule I have to make the most of my family and our proximity.

What else? I continue to work on my own quilt designs so that maybe I'll have enough for a book someday. Can't show you those, but I can show you a scrap buster that is from a Pinterest pin I found. All these tiny 1 3/4 inch HSTs are the trimmings from the Bali Sea Star quilt I made a few years ago. I started throwing all my corner trimmed HSTs into a bin, and when I see something they could be useful in, I take them out and play with the idea.

Tropical Surf

I have painted my tiny bathroom 3 times. I got it in my head that orange might counteract the ugly blue shower walls and toilet color. I tried 2 different shades, but after 2 weeks of looking at it, I hated it. So now it is a nice light blue called "Tropical Surf." I no longer feel like I am peeing in a cantina bathroom. The blue tape in the middle picture is a nice touch, isn't it? See what I mean about the hideous shower color? Ick. But I am not shy about using color in my house! You have to give me that! Right?

Orange #1

Orange #2

The End of Summer: Flowers and Bugs

Summer won't really be over here until about Halloween, but I have lived in the South long enough now to see the signs that it is wrapping up. Afternoons don't have the punch of heat like they used to. I can actually get out and walk without looking like I've been swimming. Ick. Sweat. Not my favorite thing. There is that afternoon breeze that whispers, "Fall is almost here! Yeah!"

Dragonflies start showing up in groups. I don't know if they are mating or just hanging out enjoying the fine weather, but you usually see them alone earlier in Summer. This is the Emperor Dragonfly. He's big and beautiful. About the length of my hand, going by the last one I found (who had expired in the pool.) We found a baby dragonfly (also expired) but have no idea which kind he might have grown up to be.

Also found this time of year is the appearance of what the locals call Carpet Weed. Not a nice name for such

a beautiful, delicate vine, but it grows fast and will soon be covering up fences and pastures, so I understand why a farmer might not like it so much. It is Cypress Vine. Similar to Cardinal Climber, but different leaves. The leaves on Cypress Vine are fern like and the flowers are about the size of dimes, and the deepest scarlet. Little star shapes. I adore them.

The Bleeding Heart vines are also putting out a big effort before Fall arrives. Deep pink and they drape down over trees and fences like miniature grape clusters. This is one I drive past every week on my way to and from church. I love it when there is color. Everything is usually green. Just green. Oak leaves and pine leaves and kudzu. Palm trees and out of bloom azaleas and magnolia trees and others. I bet you have never heard of a Popcorn Tree. Unless you've lived here. (It makes white clusters of flowers and in the fall the leaves change to beautiful gold and red shades before dropping.)

The Showy Rattlebox should be showing up soon along road sides and in culverts.

I had to look it up under Northwest Florida Wild Flowers. It gets very tall, like Hollyhocks, and the flowers remind me of Snapdragons. The flowers drop and they are replaced by pea pod-looking things. Seeds in a package, I suppose.

 Someday I am going to figure out how to get these pics to line up side by side.

Last of all, and most people dread them, the Love Bugs. Little black things with orange heads. Attached to each other at the rear, hence the name. Swarming harmlessly all over your car at red lights. Not getting out of the way when you are driving. A local saying is that the only natural enemy of the love bug is the grill of a vehicle. It can be frustrating. But it is great for business at the car washes!  I'll spare you the pictures of that.

I am working on quilting two Halloween quilts I have made for the grandbabies.

I will show pics of them as soon as they are quilted and bound. Hopefully before too long. Halloween candy and costumes are already in the stores. Another sign that Summer is almost over!!

So here it is - the magazine debut I've been waiting for

It's here! The magazine I have waited 2 years for. Quilts and More Fall 2013 with my quilt in it! I found my copies at JoAnn.

"Add It Up" is a jelly roll quilt of my own design. Beautifully quilted by Nancy Troyer, long arm quilter and former Pensacola resident. I am going to have to mail my quilts to Kansas from now on!!!

The magazine chose this name, which is fine. Its part of the process. I originally wanted to call it "Tesla" because of the positive and negative images the blocks create. (I may still call it Tesla when no one is around.) There is probably some copyright issue with that name, so I didn't suggest it to them.

Have you designed a quilt? You can submit your ideas and photos to magazines, you know. You could be published too. Don't be shy! Show the world how creative you are.

I have not decided what to do with this quilt yet. I give away quite a few of my creations, but I think I am definitely hanging on to this one. Who knows? I may be a quilt teacher someday. I'd like to be able to show this one in person.

Not the greatest quilt photography here, but this is another recent creation. It is the first quilt for my new granddaughter, Lily. Most of the fabrics are from the Full Moon Lagoon line, but they blended really well with some leftover Parisville pieces, and some others in my stash. The more, the merrier.

The blocks are based on ones I've seen by Kate Spain and Carrie Nelson. Again, quilted by Nancy Troyer. Who also has a new granddaughter, Grace. I'm waiting to see what she's made for the newest member of her family.

Quilts don't have to have tiny pieces, or complex design. They can be large blocks, one block, two colors only, whatever you want. Step up to your design wall and start making something that YOU like. You never know where it might take you!

399 days

I counted. That's how many days between yesterday's post and the previous one.

In that time I had 2 birthdays. I had foot surgery, I started a part time job.

We lost my grandfather. His ashes are being interred today, as a matter of fact. In California.

My grandmother became a widow and then became a great, great grandmother for the second time. Because my daughter gave me a new grandchild (a girl!)

A corrupted file took another computer, Lyme disease took our escape artist dog. R.I.P. Junior Nincompoop.

I made lots more quilts and pillow cases, and pajama pants (for Tyler.) I forced my husband into a semi-technological life with an Android phone. Begrudgingly. Now he doesn't put it down. Falls asleep with it in his hand.

We got a pool and a new roof. I started teaching quilt making to one student, watched my favorite long-arm quilter pack up and move to Kansas, got my first quilt submission published in a magazine, and joined a church. That sums it up pretty well, I think.

Do you recognize this face? He is getting so tall. He starts preschool next week! Tyler is off the charts for height, and smarts, of course. He may be the teacher's assistant after one day! This is the happiest, nicest, most loving little boy you will ever want to meet.

He wants to learn to play every musical instrument he sees, and is getting drum lessons after church. Next is the guitar. He has amazing rhythm and learns quickly. A natural.

Most importantly, my BooBoo is now a big brother! He has a new daddy. He has his own whole family.

Life is good.

This is Miss Lilyana. Lily Bell to me. Or Princess. Healthy, beautiful. Growing like a weed. She rolled over to her back at 2 weeks old! Tyler's voice is her favorite sound (and he does love an audience!)  I think she's in a hurry to catch up to him.

I love this picture. Such intense eyes. What does she want to say already? This little one is going to redefine the term "Daddy's Girl."

So, that pretty much sums up the past year's headlines for us. Pretty normal stuff. No hurricanes, no other types of disaster. Lots of rain, though. It is Pensacola, "the second rainiest city in America." We got about 25 inches in just this past month.

We are hoping for a really cool Winter. As in jackets required. It will be a nice change.

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More than a year later...

Hello, people! It has been a long while, hasn't it? Life gets so busy. Sometimes you just have to give up things for a time. Like blogging. And reading blogs. But I have not stopped making quilts and other sewing projects. And I sure have not stopped being a Nana.

I have lots of news, but first up is the announcement that I have a quilt being published in the next issue of Quilts and More magazine!!! The Fall/Winter issue!  I am SO excited.

This is the cover, so you know what to look for at the store. And below is my quilt, "Add It Up." I used a jelly roll of the Coquette fabric line by Chez Moi, and Bella solid in white. I made the original version of this quilt more than 2 years ago. And it is one of those happy accident stories. I made some Nine Patch and Rail Fence blocks, got distracted, and then a few weeks later I got back to making them again, but without looking at the completed blocks. I had reversed the color order! I played around with the layout of the 2 sets of two blocks and this is what I designed. Do you see a positive and negative image in the arrangement? Fun, huh?

 “Used with permission from Quilts and More® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

This design would be a great way to use up those 2 1/2" scrap strips that you have leftover. These colors are very feminine, but I could easily see this in Christmas fabrics, or manly colors - maybe with a dark solid instead. 

I hope you will check your quilt shop or book store for this issue. There are always so many fun projects in every issue of Quilts and More, you are sure to be inspired.

I'll be back soon to catch you up on my life this past year. 

My Sewing Space

Pink Chalk Fabrics blog is having a Where I Sew Month, and I thought, why not? You can see my unconventional space. Maybe you'll get some ideas, or give me some!

Once upon a time, I had an actual room with a door to sew in, but then we were blessed with a wonderful grandson (who lives with us) and I gave up my sewing room for him to have his own space. Now I sew in what you might call the front parlor. Just inside the front door to our home. It has very large door ways that lead thru to the dining room, and when I am working on a big project, I close off the access to the dining room with the design walls. The lighting is not the greatest, but I make do, and I get a lot done in here.

This giant table on the right is an old architect's desk. Technically it is an engineer's former desk, given to me by my boss when everything went electronic. I had been dreaming of an elevated surface to cut fabrics on without straining my neck, and can you believe he gave me this for free? I looked these up on Ebay and almost fainted. 1/3 of the top is butcher block - which my Janome sits on - and there are 2 huge drawers underneath. I am lucky to have it.

The gray floor mat under the chair? From Sam's Club. Super comfortable to stand on for hours. Easy to move around when you need to. I highly recommend these. We even used them for wall to wall flooring in Tyler's room. Believe me, Nana and Papa have a much easier time playing on the floor with Tyler now that these foam pads are installed!

You can see the design walls and my current project, the Great Granny Along, closing off access to the dining room. There is a great tutorial there  for this super easy and rewarding quilt along. Join in!


These design walls are easy and inexpensive to make. Insulating foam boards from your local home improvement store, spray on adhesive and some very inexpensive diaper flannel. And they weigh only ounces, so you can move them all around easily. 

There are 4 sets of white cubicle cubbies that hold my quilting magazine collection, patterns, fabrics, notebooks, printouts and some WIPs and UFOs as well. I have a homemade bulletin board behind my sewing machine for inspirations and plans and tips.

I'd like to tell you that this is all of my stash, but who are we kidding? This picture was taken over a year ago, so yes, this set of cubbies is overflowing. Packed to the gills. And not this neat. The rest of my stash still takes up one of the 2 closets in Tyler's room, 6 totes and several boxes that are crammed here and there and everywhere. Tyler recently asked me why my fabric lives in his closet? He didn't understand that his room was something else before he was here, but he accepted the explanation anyway.

If you are sewing at your dining room table, which I have done before, make it your special space. Even if it is only for an hour or two. And have fun!

July already

Summer time.

This is what we've seen almost every day since mid June. Good thing Florida soil is all sand, or we'd be boating everywhere. We had over 14 inches in one day, and 7,000 lightning strikes in less than 2 hours this past Monday.  A lot of Downtown Pensacola has flooded more than once. Florida ain't for sissies.

We have kept busy with crafts, reading the Magic Treehouse series, swimming on sunny days, and many other things so no complaints. Tyler has learned to swim with no floaties and with his face in the pool. In one day! His goal: to get a pair of flippers to wear in the pool to play scuba diver. He got over his fear of water in the ears and is even learning to swim to the bottom to retrieve toys. So proud. Our little fish.

• A friend directed me to another blog where the secret to clean grout was revealed. This may be very boring to some, but if you've lived with impossible, dirty grout for years and wanted to dynamite the floors out of frustration, you'll know what I feel when I say the grout looks NEW!

Before and After. See what I mean?

Its a miracle. Ammonia, vinegar, baking soda and water. Who knew?

Amazing Grout Cleaner Recipe: 7 c water, 1/2 c baking soda, 1/3 c ammonia, 1/4 c vinegar. Spray on, scrub, wipe off.  To be honest, I upped the amounts of everything but the water. I found that letting it sit for a few minutes meant no scrubbing. Just the scrubby part of my floor mop and it was clean! This discovery came after a day of major scrubbing and extra baking soda and lots of wiping up the pasty mess. Forget that! Up the ingredients and let them do the work!

• We haven't got much out of our pallet garden because of all the rain, but we did get one Lemon Boy tomato, one yellow squash and one cucumber. 
• We've planted 3 kinds of pumpkins out in the yard. 
• We added a Slip N Slide to our collection of water play toys. Tyler bought it with his own money.

the proud gardener

the pumpkin patch

the slip n slider

Tula and Friends quilt

You know how your fabrics can be calling you? My bundle of Parisville from Tula Pink, and several modern cuts I started collecting were talking to me. Demanding I make something with them. I love how this turned out. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared from the Film in the Fridge blog. That link will take you to her tutorial. Super easy. Lots of solid needed, and you have to figure it out based on what size quilt you're making, but this is very, very easy to put together.


What are you doing with your Summer? I hope whatever it is you are loving it!

and June is almost over

It seems like much longer since my last post. Really. I thought it had been more than a month. Close but not quite that long.

We went from dry mild weather to torrential rains (Father's Day weekend?) and now we are waiting to see what Tropical Storm Debby will do. She's just sitting there so far. Dumping rain in some places, and not a drop here yet.

I have been a busy sewist. More pajama pants for Tyler and more quilts for me. This is the one I am currently at work on . I got the tutorial from Film in the Fridge's blog. I was dying to make a modern quilt, and the fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Parisville was screaming for attention. When I saw the tutorial at FIF, I had to make it. And I love it! So easy, and so eye-catching!  It is called "Rectangle Squared" on her blog.

Because I have tons of stash and scraps, I have mixed in some Liberty of London, Kaffe Fassett, Just Wing It!, another Tula Pink print, and a few Art Gallery prints too. Even though the sashing is only 1 1/2" wide, I estimate that I'll be using over 3 yards of it before this top is pieced together! (There are no defined fabric amounts listed because you could make this as big as you have a mind to.) Mine will be a large lap size.

And I'm cutting the remaining pieces of the fat quarter bundle into Dresden Plate pieces. Jumbo size! Don't you love it when you get 2 quilts out of one great fabric group?

We took Tyler to his first baseball game. Our minor league Blue Wahoos. VERY hot weather. I much prefer hockey after sweltering there, but what can you do? The boy is a fanatic about baseball. He kept saying "Its my turn! They need me. I want to be the bender-down guy!" He did not know the term Catcher. Ha!

Tyler and I have played in the sprinklers, had a movie date to see Madagascar 3, gone to the pool dozens of times and pretty much enjoyed every minute of the end of Spring. The beach has not been a place to go lately because of strong surf, but we'll hopefully get back there soon. I love our beaches. And you can't boogey board in a pool.

One of these days we are going to make it downtown to visit the new Childrens' Museum and the MESS Hall for Kids (Math, Engineering, Science and Stuff.) How great does that sound? Afterward a trip to that splash pad to cool off. 3 year olds are great. They are up for any adventure, any time.

Whatever you have planned for Summer, make it fun! And stay cool!

Memorial Weekend Update

Hello, friends. It has been a while since I shared, hasn't it? Summer is already here and we are busy busy busy. I've been outside so much with Tyler that I have the full summer tan going and it is not yet June.

I'm going to cram a lot in here because we've done a lot and taken a fair amount of pictures too.

We've had unseasonably dry weather. Really hot and very dry. So weird! It is like being in So Cal in August!

Tyler is still very much into pirate play. He's so excited that there will be a Pirate Festival the second weekend of June! He is hooked on having the drawn on mustache and goatee. He'll draw it on himself if he can't get help!

Now that we are reading the Magic Treehouse series of books, he is starting to pretend to be a Ninja. He puts his foam sword down the back of his shirt and runs around the house pointing his golf clubs like guns.

We went back to De Luna Plaza yesterday and the fountains are working. What a great way for kids to get wet and it is free. The breeze coming off the water is a plus for the parents standing around. And now that Tyler's ears are healed up from the tube removal surgery we are all about swimming.

I got him his first boogie board. Who knew that when he got dunked by a wave, he'd pop up shouting "THAT WAS AWESOME!" And we saw a sea turtle close up, and a pod of dolphins going by. The weather and wave conditions have been so absolutely perfect for beach going.

We planted a little garden. A pallet garden. I got the idea from the Homesteading / Survivalism  facebook page. He is so proud. So am I. We can manage this size garden and learn a lot of science stuff while we provide some good vegetables for the table!

Other things we've done this month:

• rescued a baby bird that fell out of tree. He ran off though, so we are wishing him the best of luck. 
• Tyler picked out hockey gear fabric on our last trip to the fabric store, so after I cut the pattern out, he helped sew them together! First time at the sewing machine. 
• shopped at a local thrift store and scored a kiddie army helmet for $.99
• made up a lot of stories in the dark, which Tyler calls "the stories in your forehead"
• gone swimming in great-gramma's community pool almost every day
• played in our blow up pool a few times, mostly with squirt guns
• sprouted a little herb garden in the kitchen window
• cut up magazines for letter learning and scissors and glue practice.
• sung "Tonight We Are Young" about a hundred times together. He loves the chorus 
• discovered that the fuzzy baseball Easter basket is a pretty good marching band drummer's hat
• we took Tyler to the local dinner-and-a-movie venue called the Silver Screen to see "the Avengers" -and now he is hooked on them too!  And he can't wait to go to that theater again. Candy, popcorn, hot dogs and you can sit around a table? Awesome! A lot cheaper than the big theaters? Double awesome for us!

Here's a little photo montage to sum up our month. 

Tomorrow we are going to a local U-Pick Blueberry farm to see how much we can haul home and freeze. We have a single tree, but Tyler eats them as fast as I take them off the tree. It will be a group outing and hopefully not too hot if we go early. Anyone have freezing or canning tips on blueberries?

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! If you see someone in military uniform, or a veteran of a past war, please thank them for their service to our country. And their sacrifice. We are free because they protect and defend.

Is it May already?

First of all, BLOG MAKEOVER!!! What do you think? Aqua, such a great almost-Summer color.

No, I did not make a Schnibble in April. I did not even get Bibelot finished. I think the Another Year of Schnibbles is not going to happen again (for me) this year.I have quilty stuff in the works but sewing time is harder and harder to find.

In other news, we've been having a blast, Tyler and me. Science and books and music and art on rainy days, followed by puddle splashing when the rain lets up. And because we love adventure and water, we are already enjoying the long season of fun in the sun and all kinds of water!

Last weekend we headed downtown to De Luna Plaza on Palafox Pier to see what the sidewalk fountains would be like. Tyler was due to get the tube out of his right ear on Monday, so last chance to risk water near that ear for a while. Unfortunately the fountains never came on. About a dozen other moms and their kids were hanging around waiting, but there was standing water to be kicked up and other kids to play with, so Tyler ended up soaked and happy after all. And it was such a gorgeous, cloudless, warm day, who could complain?



Here is the explorer, De Luna, who was looking for Mobile Bay, but somehow is attributed to Pensacola. Like most Spanish explorers, he seemed to have a lot of trouble with the weather and finding food and getting lost. Florida ain't for sissies. If you lived here before air conditioning was invented, I think you must have gone crazy. De Luna was "delirious with fever" at one point, but I think it was just our fine summer weather.

Not to deter any tourists, let me just say it is HOT here and humid. From May til October. If you visit, be prepared.

Back to my story. There is a traditional fountain full of water also on the pier. Tyler asked where all the money went that was in it last time we looked. Maybe they're going to use it to fix the sidewalk fountains?

You want to just jump right in these fountains come July!

I don't know if you can see it too well, but just behind the yacht on the left side of this picture is a peek at our brand new baseball stadium! The Blue Wahoos are our minor league team and this is their first season here. You can catch a game while looking out at Pensacola Bay.

The next day we went to the beach, which is really never disappointing here. White sands, emerald waters. Water temps already in the 70s. This is the beach on NAS Pensacola. It is so nice.

Are you jealous yet? There is nothing like it without a passport. Or so I hear.

Here's another beach pic, just to make you really want to come on down South. Opal Beach. Just east of Pensacola's main beach. Very private. Very quiet. And look how far out the shallows go! I love wading far out and not being too deep.

If you are wondering: the ear surgery went pretty well. Hopefully the hole in the drum heals quickly and well so we can commence swimming lessons and really have some fun!

This Saturday is time again for Home Depot Kids Clinic. I'm sure it will be a Mother's Day project. Are you going? It is free, it is crafty and it is the priceless time together that makes it a great morning out. Maybe followed by pancakes somewhere? And then more beach time, of course! With ear plugs.

Play Foods

It all started with Tyler pretending to cook in the bathtub. It makes me think of Kramer cooking in the shower on Seinfeld! 

Tyler wants to be a chef someday - his phrasing - and so we would pretend to make some kind of soup in his various bath toys while he took a bath. Sometimes we'd pretend to plant a garden first, to have our own vegetables. You should always try to include a little learning in every game, right?

Eventually he wanted to make pizza in his bathtub kitchen. I helped out by bringing a few spring-form pan bottoms to the tub for pizza pans. We talked about how real pizza restaurants toss the dough in the air to stretch it out before they add toppings. His bath toy storage fish became the oven.

As you can imagine, we ended up with imaginary phone calls for pizza orders and Tyler wanting to play restaurant all the time. Here he is at our first out-of-tub kitchen set up.

Now we play in the bedroom, and a drawer under his bed is the new oven. He takes orders by phone and drives them to delivery spots all over town. (We also pretend to drive around town for Tyler's Woodworking Business. That Black and Decker workbench gets a lot of use now that people want their pool chairs fixed in time for Summer!)

I realized that we needed some food props for our cooking play time. Not wanting to invest in a bunch of store bought play foods, I thought of Sunday school felt play stories and thought "Hey, I have felt from crafting, and I can make that into lots of things." I've had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes. There are 12" tan pizza crusts, 11" red pizza sauce circles, and assorted toppings. Even calamari.

The play cash register he got for his birthday makes running his pizza shop (and other business ventures) even more fun and educational, although it will be a while til we reach the making change level of math!

Tyler's kitchen supplies include empty juice and milk containers, ketchup and mustard bottles, assorted utensils, some stainless steel bowls, tupperware and oven mitts. He got a wooden food set for his birthday: a clearance set I scored on at JCP! You don't have to spend a lot to have a kid's kitchen up and running!

The top of the toy box now serves as a cooking stove. The floor is the pizza prep area. An inexpensive pencil case holds the felt food items when we're not using them. I think other food items are not far off in our future.

We have made and colored several menus and he has a small notebook to take your order. I think yarn for spaghetti will be next. We can get a little practice with his scissors while making that.

Until next time!