Love, The Hebdons: For the cook and the plumber

Yup, my creative juices went to work again!

Here's the story if you're interested (otherwise skip to the cute pictures): For a long time I've resisted the urge to buy a plastic or wooden kitchen. It seems that everyone else has them, and I just didn't want to spend the money on one. Don't get me wrong, I love them and I know Todd and Claire would love one. I grew up playing with one in our junk room (that's what we called it and I love the name, especially now that I'm a parent!) Recently Skyler bought something that came in a big, cardboard box, and it just wanted me to make it into something! That's when I knew my opportunity to make a cardboard kitchen had arrived! Zero dollars, in one day, and I am so proud! High five from the husband and the kids are bumping into each other playing with it. Of course, after the pictures, Todd pulled off the faucet handles, took out the sink and pushed all of the toilet paper knobs into the box, but hey, it still works. He also turned plumber on us, which gave us a laugh (see pictures below). I guess that's why they usually don't make play kitchens so spacious! We're going to have a lot of fun with this kitchen.

Another story: I just read an article about how to manage your time and it advised to not check ones email when relaxing. Sometimes that's the first thing I do when the kids go down for a nap and I have some time to do business because I can think! But, today I wanted to try what they said. So, instead of checking my email, I started the process of brainstorming and planning this kitchen, and this is what happened!

This is Claire's excited face!

A lot of brainstorming, planning, measuring, eye balling, trouble shooting, taping, gluing, drawing, cutting and making do with what I had, including limited time.