A New Old World Favorite Felt Play Food Set

I am in love with these new vegetables! I had a great customer request some Old World vegetables that her daughter could play with in a Renaissance festival, and I think these will be a hit! I especially liked the turnip - as I have NEVER had one, and had fun searching Google for turnip pics to work from. I have heard that you either love 'em or hate 'em. I will have to try them someday. Hope you enjoy them too!

Strawberry Crepes Felt Play Food Set

Another ORIGINAL new tasty treat from Bug Bites Play food - Strawberry Crepes with Whipped Cream and a Jelly spread inside. Aubrey (my 2 year old product tester) and I had fun rolling these up and topping them with the cream and strawberries together.

I designed these to be similar to the Burrito set as I love how the velcro closure tab wraps all of the fillings up in a snug little roll. I am working on a Banana Chocolate version as well, so stay tuned!

Autumn Felt Play Food Pumpkin Pie

 I have been re-designing the old, tired version of my felt play food pumpkin pie into this sleek new version. I love how they sit nicely next to each other and are all handstitched for a nice, flat look. Enjoy!

New Felt Play Food Empanada Treats

I have some new felt play food goodies to unveil in my Etsy shop today, and am really excited about this one - as it is an original item never before seen on Etsy - Empanadas!

My husband has a special love for empanadas, as he lived in Chile for 2 years, and would seriously eat these daily. So, hopefully this felt food version will ease his cravings a bit - though please don't eat these ones, Austin. They are for the kids.

Make your own Play Kitchen!

We have a lot of play food around here. A. lot. And, crime of crimes - no play kitchen. (gasp!) I have been wanting to make/buy a play kitchen for E and little A ever since she was born - especially now that her play food collection (my first designs are always hers) has grown to overflowing her little tote. She needs a kitchen. 

I absolutely detest the plastic crap that is sold in toy stores, and have long wanted a beautiful, handmade play kitchen made from natural wood. I have scoured Etsy.com and other beautiful models from other online sellers, but sadly cannot justify the $300-$500 pricetags on the ones that I would put in my home. 

My husband is really skilled with wood working, but sadly full-time school, work, church callings and family life in general haven't permitted him the time to make a play kitchen from scratch. SO, while reading some excellent blogs, I found some amazing DIY projects! This pink & white one is made from a simple Ikea shelf, instructions here on ikea hacker.




Here is a great one made from an old nightstand from oh write! This is her version, and I am SO excited to use some of her amazing ideas to make our own play kitchen for the kids for Christmas this year! 

Last Christmas we decided to make Maren a little kitchen of her own. I had seen a few ideas here and there (I'm sure you have, too!), so I can't take complete credit for what we came up with.

We found this little footed nightstand on Craigslist for $15. Here's the best before picture I have. We had already sanded the top, but you can see how the piece looked in it's original form.

And, the completed kitchen:
We used wood craft circles and a square dowel for the burners. We painted wood nobs found in the craft store for the black nobs. The sink is a square cake pan and the faucet came from a salvage yard. Brett cut shelves to fit where the drawers had been, and cut and routered the back splash from a piece of shelving we had on hand. Hinges and handle for the oven came from Lowe's.


The inside of the oven is spray-painted shiny silver, and we have since added chains to both sides of the oven door to make it more sturdy. I made the little curtain rod with leftover fabric from M's nursery, and it's hanging on a small tension rod.

We estimate having spent close to $60 total, but definitely could have done the project for cheaper. Since this was a gift for our only child, we did splurge on a few things. (Namely the faucet...it cost $20, but we loved the size and the 'realness' it brought to the project! We also splurged on the handle for the oven door, and again, just loved the size and look of the one we chose.)

I found some great pics of other DIY play kitchens, and am so excited to get going on E and A's!! 

Waffling Around

I. Love. Waffles. 

 Though I don't top my waffles with the traditional butter & syrup (applesauce, berries or banana slices is more my cup of tea), I could eat waffles every day.

My Etsy shop has desperately been needing these little play food beauties to brighten things up a bit.

Enjoy!

Felt Food Bakers Rejoice!

My childhood baking memories are bubbling up through my creativity, and manifesting themselves through felt. I have long needed a felt play food Baking Ingredients set to add to my shop. This set was inspired by my daughter, who loves to help me in the kitchen, and who insists on having her own "ingredients" to add to her felt food baking bowls.

This set was a real challenge as I waffled back and forth, trying to decide whether to allow the sacks to be opened or sewn shut. I wasn't sure how to create "flour" and "sugar" that would be functionable and something that wouldn't be scattered throughout the house, aggravating unsuspecting Mothers. In the end, my genius husband suggested 100% cotton balls - perfect!

The egg, which is my very favorite felt food item, is inspired by one of my favorite wool food artisans called Wool Food.  I make it my habit to never copy another designer's work, but as I struggled to design a sewn, "crack-able" egg that didn't have at least 4 tacky seams, I gave in, learned to "wet felt" and thankfully pushed on.

I hope this set inspires Grandmothers, Mothers and Daughters to spend time gathered around the counter (or play kitchen) sharing teaching moments together.

Kitchen Tools

Little chins resting on the counter, short legs tip-toeing on chairs, eyes curiously watching, and eager little hands helping is one of my favorite moments of the day as we sift, mix and measure random powders, flours and goopy syrups when making cookies.

I hope to share some of my favorite moments with my new set of kitchen utensils in my Etsy shop.

My favorite is the pancake turner, mostly because it is my daughter's favorite. She spent an afternoon flipping felt play food pancakes, eggs and pies at me as I worked. She also made great use of the measuring cup by filling it with spools of my thread and bobbins. Thread cookies anyone? Huge grins and giggles from each of us that day.

Ants on a Log

Celebrate Summer!! I picked my son up from his last day of Kindergarten today, so we came home and celebrated with his favorite snack - Ants on a Log! We make ours a little non-traditionally, dairy & peanut free. I used Almond Butter, Non-Dairy Cream Cheese (thank heavens for you, Tofutti!), organic raisins, and flax seeds for some additional little nutritional "buggies" on top. They were a hit!

In tribute to his graduation, I thought it would be fun to make a felt version of his treat! Quite a fun little project for the morning. Happy Summer!

Lime and Tangerine Spring

 

I remember standing on the beach, with only minutes left of my vacation, saturating myself in each brilliant blue and green shade of the ocean, the white gold of the beach, and the unbelievable azure sky, thinking to myself "absorb it all, Becca."

Our family just returned from a week in Akumal, Mexico, thanks to the unbelievable generosity of my hubby's parents. Spring here in Utah has been almost non-existent, weather going from rain, to sun to even snow two days ago.  So, I have been pining for the brilliance of that beach ever since. 

As an extremely visual person, the striking colors of the Yucatan make the dull grey spring here in Utah pale in comparison. I think these colors are trying to spill out of me this last week, as every new item I have been making is super bright, with green and orange felt scraps plastering my desk. 

So, hopefully Utah will catch up a bit and act like Spring/Summer this week and I will not have to express my color-longing in my felt play food as much.

Earth Day is Coming!

In celebration of Earth Day this Thursday, I am going to post a fun DIY tutorial of something you can make to help reduce garbage and green up our earth! I haven't made the final decision on which project to make, so keep your eyes peeled in the next day or two for some crafty green fun!

New Designs

I am grinding my teeth today as I am working (wrestling, more like!) with a new design for a felt food item that has been sitting in a corner of my brain, poking me to let it out. I need to tell this little "brain design" that ideas and logistics don't always play well together. Oh well. I plug on and hope that I can nail this design down tonight, so it can have its big debut tomorrow. This one is a never-before-seen felt food item - at least I haven't found any like it in several searches, so it should be fun!!

Spring Dreaming and Summer BBQs

Oh and I have got it BAD! Utah spring weather has the nasty habit of teasing you with 60 degrees and sunshine one day, and snow the next. So, to combat my month of March up-downs, I am at my desk dreaming of summer grilling parties and swimsuits as I sew.

One triumph born from these daydreams is a new Kabob felt play food skewer. This one is a new favorite of my kids too - especially little A, who loves to take the pieces off and on, over and over in different flavor combinations - even pretending it was ice cream at one point. Who can argue with a 2 year old's logic? 

Tea, Toast and Toe Socks

We have been having a little rough patch the last month with lots of sniffles and sneezes around here. It seems like when your kid is in school, he brings home every little communal bug and lovingly (or not so much) shares it with the family. We have had at least one of us sick for the last month. Right now, it is a double whammy with E & I. As such, I haven't touched my sewing in a week. Not only do I not have the energy, but I like to be selfish with my germs. Though I love my customers, I don't want to send them this little treat of a cold with their order.

So, as we camp out on our living room couch, watching endless episodes of the "Pink Panther" - (yes, the vintage 1960s classic) we are snuggled up in our warmest blankies, jammies and of course my zany toe-socks (which were lovingly given to me by Dad for my birthday, thanks Dad!), sipping our mint tea and toast and wishing this misery would end so we can get back to life.

A Snow Cone in January

Maybe I am just pining for sunshine and beach days during this cold gray winter, but I a little color is just what I need lately.

These little treats came about through a special request from a customer, and I got a little crazy with colors and letting my nostalgic tastebud fantasies go a bit wild. I started out with solid colors, but then remembered my summers as a kid - when no less than 3 syrups were lavishly dripped over my snow cones. So, with those memories in mind, I recalled my favorite color and flavor combinations from those days.

Of course I was treated to several "licks" of the first felt versions by my 2 year old daughter, who insists she sit on my lap as we share the new treat together. She always gets my first prototypes for her felt food collection, and if they pass her inspection - meaning, if they survive her, the next in the batch go in my shop. She is a great product tester! I love her little imagination, because after I had my 20 minutes of taste-sharing, her snow cone was then lovingly jammed down the throat of her all-too-willing squeaky tub-toy shark. I am sure he liked it too.

Associated Press Interview

A few months ago, I was contacted by a reporter from the Associated Press, who had found my shop via Etsy and Twitter,  and was interested in interviewing me about my felt play food. By chance, I found that the article came out today!

I am so excited to share it with you as well! I found it on a few media websites, like sun-sentinel.com abcnews.go.com, and newstimes.com. I love that they mentioned several other Moms like me who are tired of worrying about the quality of items their children are playing with. It is wonderful to see the creativity of caring mothers, and the beautiful felt food they are making. 

I can't wait to hear what you think!

Balance...

I am having flashbacks of crazy college end-of-semester days - where deadlines loomed, art projects and final papers scrambled together, and last minute studying done in attempt to get every last bit of information stuffed into every spare memory brain cell? Then... the blissful moment when the last exam is done, all art projects turned in, and the feeling of numbing bliss washes over, and then utter relief. I am reliving those feverish days.

The prospect of a full day with no sewing before me is so unfamiliar. I see my empty, clean desk - no towering, toppling cutout felt stacks, spools of unraveling thread, random bits of scrap and fluff littering my space making my OCD brain crazy. For the last 4 months, I have been a whirlwind of planning, sewing, processing orders, trips to the post office, reams of paper, boxes and boxes of printer ink, and so many yards of felt - I don't even know the count. Now, finally, the quiet... My desk is clear - who knew it was white underneath? My sewing machine sits idly in the corner, cooling down for the first time in way too long. I still giggle at the weekly cleaning of my trusty machine - pulling out enough fluffy felt fibers to stuff an apple.

So, with the utter relief of all Christmas orders shipped out and no customer cue cards papering my computer monitor, I have days of freedom before me. I really do not know when my shop will reopen for business, but I promise myself that it will not be until I have had a great long rest, am restocked (I will NEVER sell items I don't have in stock again - playing catch-up sucks!) and am excited to sit down and sew again. I greatly look forward to my days of knitting, baking, making homemade marshmallows and being a lazy bum playing games and blocks on the floor with my two kids. I have been the Elephant balancing on the ball, and am ready for a more steady foundation.

The long absence...

The holiday season has begun with a KABOOM (instead of a bang) this year. Please forgive my long absence from blogging - I have been flooded with sales and special requests for the Christmas season, and my once-ample stock of felt play food has been almost completely depleted. 

So, with my head barely "above water" and my "to do" list is down to only 7 orders behind (a vast improvement from the 15 or so), I feel I can almost breathe! I am so excited for the Christmas holiday to spend with my family baking gingerbread, sledding, making our snowman, and going to see the beautiful Christmas lights in downtown Salt Lake City. I just hope I can get a leg up on these orders and get them out the door in time for Christmas.

Stay tuned - I have LOTS of great new designs coming out in January, or as soon as sales slow down enough for me to make & list them in my shop! I have several new ORIGINALS that can not be found on Etsy, or anywhere else, and I am so excited to "unveil" them!

Special Order Surprises

I love getting custom orders!  It can be easy to get stuck in a bit of a play food rut when making multiples of one item over and over again. The creative juice just dries up. Then along comes a lovely custom request that shakes things up, gets my problem-solving left-brain clunking into gear, thinking of new ways to approach a play food item and its design logistics.

I have some really fun items "cooking" lately and wanted to share a few. The Burrito Chips and Salsa set makes me drool for my favorite local Lone Star Taqueria, if only the felt version could taste as good!  I also love the yogurt cups that were a custom design requested from a large wholesale order. My kids love taking the lids off, grabbing their spoons and playing snack time with them. Now I just have to hide a few for my customers!

What I'm Working on Today

After a delightful soiree to Pumpkin Land with my little Man's Kindergarten class this morning, I am back at my desk, feverishly trying to crank out Ham Sandwich Sets, Chips & Grape bunches before school lets out for the day - the time when I switch gears into full Mommy mode. Sometimes I dream of "self-stitching" grapes that will just magically assemble themselves together, because 10 grape sets can get tedious when you hit that 100th grape ball. Though, that negates the whole purpose of "handmade" so I'll just keep plugging along.

I am planning several new items for my shop in the next few weeks. Especially with the plethora of pumpkins today (we picked out 2 GIANT pumpkins for the front porch) it is making me think that I need a little pumpkin & squash set in my shop.